End of Year Reflection for 2018

As the end of 2018 draws to an end, I am pleased with the progress I have made in the following areas:
Success with Year 7 student flagged as student with high behavioural needs (on Autism spectrum). I have worked hard to build a strong positive relationship with him. This effort has paid off as he has been willing to talk through incidents as they happen and take on board advice on how to improve his decision making should a similar situation arise in the future. As a result he is much more reflective and better able to take more ownership of his part in ‘incidents’ and can recognise with minimal prompting how he could have handled a given situation better.

Developing self-confidence as classroom teacher - Due to maternity leave by two colleagues in Term 1 and Term 2, I found myself to be the 2nd longest serving member in Team 5. I have enjoyed supporting the interim Team Leader and new colleagues in the Team 5 space.

Embracing new DMIC maths pedagogy - I have really enjoyed taking part in the PD, having the observations/mentoring sessions and analysing/deconstructing my maths teaching practice. It has given me a greater appreciation for the vast content knowledge that is needed in order to do a decent job in guiding students in their maths learning.

Now looking forward to 2019, a few things that excite me having:

A fresh opportunity work on routines and transitions to improve behaviour management - my intention is start from Day 1/Week 1 with a strong focus on establishing group norms for my home class, literacy and maths classes.

Being able to get more time in class to tweak my teaching practice especially in Writing. Figuring out creative ways to engage students in writing. I would like to move away from formulaic checklists and somehow get students to respond more instinctively to writing prompt

Improve how I gather/analyse formative assessment as well as being more reflective of my planning and including differentiation.

Inquiry - Term 2 Update

My inquiry this year has been to investigate how the use of TALK MOVES can support my priority students to improve their understanding and make use of higher level Maths concepts.

A REALISATION

I have been working hard to get the students in my Maths class to use at least one of the 5 key talk moves but particularly the Repeat and Add on options. In wondering why the students were struggling to use prepared talking frames (see poster above), I had an epiphany!

The Talk Moves are for ME to use to support the students discussion not the other way around!

AN ALTERNATIVE
I have adopted a model which explicitly sets out two roles for students in their small groups. They are either Knowledge seekers (asking questions) or Knowledge holders (sharing what they know). These roles are fluid from session to session but this simple step has given my students a more clearer sense of what they are to do when in their groups so their time together is noticeably more purposeful. They are proud to announce that they are a Knowledge seeker and need help or are a Knowledge holder and can help others.


WHAT NEXT?
Developing my use of Talk Moves to facilitate all parts of the DMiC learning process - Group Norms, Launch, Small Group discussions, the Half-class reporting back and Connect.

Term 2 - Inquiry

A student survey of 26 students from my maths class revealed that almost half of the class have some level of confidence when it comes to speaking up in front of their classmates during the small group sessions. However, there was a noticeable drop in confidence as the size of the group increased to half and then whole class.

Most of the students had tried to use talk moves 1-2 times in recent lessons. Almost two-thirds (61.5%) of those surveyed had asked others to REPEAT their Maths thinking; while almost half (46.2%) had requested others to REASON, while just over one-third (34.6%) had asked others to ADD ON.

NEXT STEPS

Based on the feedback from students, I will move my inquiry forward by taking the following steps:

- Use talking frames for the TALK MOVES to scaffold students as to what to say to others when discussing their maths thinking
- Keep group sizes to a maximum of 4 people - this number of people is less intimidating for those students struggling to share their maths thinking in front of others in safe half or whole class settings

- Make time for small group sessions to give more targeted support to students

Inquiry - Term 1 Update

TALK MOVES - A POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

The DMIC teaching approach uses maths problems rooted in the real world problems in contexts that are culturally relevant and engaging for students and linked to 'big' maths ideas.

For my inquiry then, as an initial starting point, I wanted to investigate how the use of TALK MOVES could support my priority students to improve their understanding and make use of higher level Maths concepts.

I need to working on building up the usage of the five key Talk Moves with my students and continue to encourage and prompt them to use key questions to engage each other in discussions around a mathematical problem.

Using Materials to Improve Understanding

As a first year Beginning Teacher, I am new to the process of Teaching as Inquiry. I am looking forward to reflecting on my teaching practice in a systematic way and am keen to find out what is (or is not!) working to cause learning amongst my students and make changes where needed.

In deciding the focus for my Maths teaching inquiry this year, I am aware that some students have struggled to make sense of basic algebra problems. I am wondering whether the introduction of materials would be effective in helping students improve their understanding of the concepts of algebraic patterns. The nature of the materials used could include 'traditional' physical objects as well as tasks that include items that can be manipulated using a mouse or keyboard.

My first instinct is to focus on the most ‘at risk’students i.e. those sitting at ‘Well Below’. However, it has been suggested that it will be more beneficial to work with students who are ‘Below’ because there is less of a gap to progress them towards the ‘At’ benchmark. With all this in mind, the inquiry question I will have come up with is:  To what extent will the use of materials with my priority learners, improve their understanding of concepts/patterns in Algebra?