Three Part Lesson as Bansho

In Melissa's combined Grade 3/4 class her students are pretty comfortable in being mathematicians.  They are very aware of what the learning goals of their lessons are, how to use success criteria to improve their answers, and how to reflect on what their strengths and weakness are (mathematically speaking).

She attended a Grade 3 PD session with the program department the other day and loved the idea of seeing her three-part lesson as a Bansho.  So she grabbed some long kraft paper and got to work taking her three-part lesson from paper to wall and got the students thinking.

Her "Minds on" was having the students (in partners) decide what the data could represent.  After they had done this, she recorded some of their thoughts along each side of the specific graphs.  The students then came up with a prediction:  They thought all the data in the pictures was of the same thing, but represented in different ways. 

As her "Action" she asked the students to think of something that might be true of most of the students in the class, then conduct a survey to see if they were correct or not. 

For her "consolidation" she choose to do a congress where two different students shared their work with the class.  She photocopied this work and then put it up on the kraft paper where Melissa recorded the "Stars" (things that the group felt they did well on) and "Wishes" (things that the group felt they needed to improve upon).    They also created a highlights sheet to highlight what they learned (as a class) from the lesson.

Seeing their lesson as a Bansho allows the students to not only see the progression of their learning, but also refer to it when they are participating in the consolidation of the lesson.  Plus, in doing it on the kraft paper it allows you a chance to leave it up for a bit, then roll it up when you are done.  Only to bring it out again to help consolidate previous learning into new learning.

Graphing In Kindergarten - YOU BET!

Casey teaches in a full day kindergarten class.  She had been at her daughter's school and saw a great idea for a bulletin board and decided to give it a try with her kindergarten class.  (I like to call that "educational shoplifting" :)

She asked her students the question of "How Many People Are in Your Family?"  Instead of having them complete the graph on chart paper, she gave each student a small paper plate.  On the plate they drew the people in their family.  By using the paper plate it allowed her the opportunity to keep the drawings all the same size.  This really made it easy for the students to compare the different sizes of their families as they were able to count the plates to help determine how many people are in each type of family.  (e.g, More students have 5 people in their family.  9 friends have 4 people in their family)  With 29 students it makes for a full bulletin board!

Asking Questions About Graphs

Haroula's Grade 1 math class is near the end of their unit on graphing.  She wanted to give them a culminating task that would not only have them create a graph, but also create questions about the data in front of them.

Each student choose a question to ask their peers.  They then went around and surveyed each student in the class and recorded the answer in a tally.  She kept things pretty simple by suggesting that there be no more than four options (answers) to choose from.  The students then created a graph based on the data they collected.

Haroula then had the students exchange completed graphs.  The students then had to ask two questions based on the new graph in front of them. (On the yellow paper) The author of the graph then had to answer the question that was asked of them. (On the orange paper).  When the questions were asked and answered, she put the graphs and the questions on display for everyone to see.  She included a description of the activity (procedure) as well as the curriculum expectations that were covered in doing the activity.  It's great to see not only the completed graphs but also the questions that were asked about each graph.

The Finished Product

Close Up Of The Description Of The Activity.

 

Graphing and Estimation - Who Knew!

At the start of September Jay-Ellen had her class create a graph on what month their birthday was in.  Each student put their name and date on a mini-post it note and then lined it up above their birthday month.  They hung this graph up in the classroom for all to see.

A few weeks later she decided to use a jar that she had called "Estimation Station" and have her students estimate how many jelly beans they thought were in the jar.  Here is what the jar looked like:

They collected their estimations on mini post it notes.  When they were done doing their estimates, they then noticed they had a lot of post-it notes and needed a way to organize them.  They thought back to their graph and wondered if they could use a similar strategy to order their estimation from least to greatest.  What became tricky, and involved them using application skills, was when they had multiple estimates of the same number.   Jay-Ellen guided them to look at their graph and then see what they did when more than one person had a birthday in a month.  They knew that they could stack the numbers on top of each other.

A great way to not only compare and order whole numbers, but also to get some estimation and graphing in as well. 

Math Campp - Day 3 & 4 - Part Two

As with the reflections from the first two days of Math Campp, I've turned this blog post over to Gwen to get her responses on what was happening in her session during the breakout sessions.

From Gwen @ Dorset Park

On day 3 at “The Fishing Shack,” we got hooked on algebraic thinking. Inspired by the exciting Plenary Sessions lead by Ruth Beatty and Cathy Bruce, our breakout groups tackled problems about linear relations with renewed vigor. We used our own solutions and student work samples, to discuss what learning was evident and to practice giving descriptive feedback. One thing that came to light is that many of us are now feeling that we would like to pursue more professional development with a focus on specific math content. We are taking the bait!

On day 4, we spread the “net,” as in network. We developed learning goals for the Patterning and Algebra strand for our grades and shared ideas for planning for combined grades. We also talked about our understanding of what multiple representations are and what they are not. Before, I would have thought that a demonstration with three different manipulatives would do the trick, but from now on I will be introducing my students to concrete, visual, graphical, and symbolic representations, and encouraging them to make connections between the representations to deepen their thinking. Our new coolest tool in the tackle box is active graphing.

Finally, we shared resources – some tried and true, some brand . We were introduced to the Math GAINS website and were amazed by its sheer breadth and depth. This resource is sure to provide plenty of food for any who swim in its waters. It’s true that good things grow in Ontario!

Thanks Gwen!

For those of you not familiar with the GAINS website, I highly suggest you take a look at it.  It's free, and is great for learning all about ways to teach math in the province.  You can find it at:  www.edugains.ca and click on math gains.  There are also valuable links to assessment, literacy, DI and ELL learners.