MATHS THOUGHTS UPDATES

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8/07/17 - MATHS THOUGHTS UPDATES


May 2017
This year my Teaching as Inquiry focus is around maths and how maths is taught at a primary level. I came into teaching when the Numeracy Project was fully up and running and all throughout university we were told as long as we followed the pink books our maths teaching would be successful. I have begun to question this as for many of my learners its just not working!
Jo Bolar talks about the damage labeling people a 'maths person' can do. In 2017 we are all very aware of the damage labels can do to children however I still hear over and over again from colleagues and parents "so and so is a maths whiz" or "I wasn't any good at maths either". How can we shift this thinking? I have done a lot of reading into mindset and Carol Dweck's work which many teachers are now integrating and using. However maths seems to still be surrounded by this mystery that either you get it or you don't!
I have been reflecting on my own practice and things I am going to try in maths are:
- more partner work/maths talk
- encouraging the sharing of ideas and strategies
- more visual maths
- using Jo Bolar's You Cubed resource
- asking questions like 'what are the different ways we could see 5x4?'
June 2017
After reflecting on my maths teaching I decided to dip my toes into the world of project-based-learning (PBL) in maths. I set up a rich maths investigation into running a bakery with my stage 3/4 learners. Every Monday we had 'Monday Maths' where the children were split into teams and worked to get their business up and running.
One of the challenges I faced with this type of learning was making sure the maths learning was explicit enough to be retained and transferred to other areas while still being integrated into the project at hand. To combat this I created a list of all the areas, strands and domains of maths my learners need to cover at stage 3/4. Then I tweaked the activities to make sure these concepts were being used and practiced. No concepts were taught in isolation however when my students became stuck we worked together and talked about possible strategies we could use. As we progressed through the project we added to a big class brainstorm of all the types of maths we used that day. At the end the children were blown away by how many different 'types' of maths they used!
The students really owned this project and worked incredibly well together to solve all the different components of running a business. We finished the project by baking and opening a 'real' bakery with play money for our whānau. I will definitely use this form of teaching maths again, I'm thinking a Block themed one next time!

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