Decimal Diagnostic!

Kristen teaches a combined Grade 5/6 class.  They are half way through their first expectation in Number Sense and Numeration.  They have worked through whole numbers and are just about to head into decimals.  Kristen has a wide variety of learners in her classroom and before she started the unit, she wanted to find out what the students already knew about decimals and what were the misconceptions they had about decimals.

Using the newly release Gap Closing materials from the Ministry, (available at www.edugains.ca - Under "gap closing") she turned to the chapter on decimals.  She then used the diagnostic with her whole class to see if there were any struggles or misconceptions.  She recorded how they did on each question and then used the facilitators guide to help determine where to go next.  (You can see how some students have items highlighted - this was what question(s) they struggled with) She went down the list in the facilitators guide that informed her of what to give the students to work on to help clear up their misconceptions.

 She then listed the students that were struggling under the topic they appeared to be struggling with.  For her class she started with the first misconception "tenths" and then went on from there.

As the names were written out, she made sure that the struggles matched the grade group.  For example, both Grade 5 and 6 have been taught tenths, but only the Grade 6s have been taught hundredths (that is the Grade 5 expectation).  Therefore, no Grade 5 students would be expected to work on hundredths.

The next day, Kristen had a computer period with her students.  During this time she had some students work in a small group with her or me on the topic that they were struggling with.  The other students were engaged in playing games involving decimals on the computer.  In the period we were each able to help a group of students clear up the misconceptions that they had.  They rolled their eyes at us when we mentioned that we could see their hamsters working overtime! :)

For the group that we were not able to get to, we made the decision to give them their sheet for homework after explaining what to do. The nice thing with the Gap Closing material is that they have a "Think sheet" which helps to explain the concept that is being taught in simple terms for the student to understand.  This is nice for situations like this when the student has to do work on their own.

Sample Activities From The Gap Closing Materials

What is helpful now is that Kristen can fully start her unit on decimals as she now is aware of not only some of the students who had misconceptions, but also where the strengths of her students are.  This allows her to focus her teaching on the concepts and ideas that they are really struggling with, and hopefully preventing them from getting any more gaps.

Where's the PLC Stuff?

If you are looking for our Wiki where all of our information from our PLC's is being kept you just need to visit:  http://southeastone-derful.wikispaces.com.  There you can see the pictures we took, the templates we used, or some Learning Goals already created by teachers in the FOS.

Enjoy!
Lesley :)

Highlights at the end of a Bansho

Jenine's Grade 3 class is getting really good at using different strategies and models to show their thinking.  This was confirmed when doing a highlights sheet after doing a Bansho.  They were given a pattern and were asked to represent it in another way.  Here are some examples of the student work (the yellow slips are the pattern that they had to represent):

Here is the highlights sheet:

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. 

Grade 3 Success Criteria

Here is a picture of the Success Criteria that Arpine created with her Grade 3 class after they solved a problem on their own.

Notice how she used a sign at the bottom of the chart to help the students reflect not only on what to put in an answer, but also on what they can do to improve their answer as well.

Using The Walls To Improve Students Strategies

Arpine's Grade 3 class was about a week into their unit on Patterning and Algebra.  She was finding that the students were always using pictures as a way to communicate their thinking.  They had been exposed to different strategies (like using a number line) but were always going back to drawing a picture.  Not only is the strategy not varied, it also was taking them a lot of time to complete their work!

As she headed to her class one day she noticed the work of Brian's Grade 6 class posted on the wall.  She stopped and had a look at what they were doing.  They too were doing Patterning but had shown different strategies in their answers.  So she decided to take her class down the hall to look at the wall before she gave them their next problem.  This is what they saw:

The "Wall" of student work.

A brief explanation of what they achieved in the lesson.

One sample of how the students found the pattern.

A second example.

When the students went back to their class something happened.  They wanted to do what the Grade 6 students did.  They now had seen different ways to find patterns, and wanted to demonstrate their thinking in a different way.  Here is a sample of the work Arpine was getting before looking at the "wall"

Here are samples of some of the different strategies that she go after the walk:

These students decided to try a number line.

This student attempted to use tally marks to help show their thinking.

To consolidate this lesson, they then created an anchor chart with the strategies that they could now use to help them when they solve a problem.  Even though they choose not to use some of these strategies, they remembered seeing them done by the Grade 6's and wanted to include them for future use.



Why Minds on Matters

Part of Sarika's Annual Learning Plan this year is to become more familiar with, and use more regularly, the three part lesson in her math class; and to become more comfortable with (and consistent with) teaching through problem solving.  Her Grade 5's are currently learning how to make a table of values and how to recognize patterns.

She has modified problems from her text to use as the "action" part of her lessons for a week.  She was able to break down the problem into multiple parts so that the problem is not only extended, but the students can use information they already know from a previous problem and apply it to the problem they are working on.

In this lesson her minds on activity was having the students identify the pattern and extend it on a table of values.  The first table was a simple growing pattern that increased by 5 each time.  The class talked about what the pattern rule would look like in words and recorded that beside the table.

For the second table of values the students were only given two terms then they were asked to talk to their partner about what thought the next term value would be.

When the students were done they gave us a "thumbs up" sign, and when the majority of the class was showing "thumbs up" the students shared what they thought the next term value would be.  One student said it would be "93" and another justified that by saying that "the pattern rule would be start at 31 and add 31 each time".  This was recorded on the board.  (We used initials and a chart to record their answers and thinking). The students were asked if this could be the only possible number.  They were then shown 124 and asked to discuss if they thought it was possible or not to be used as the next term number.

At first there were a few puzzled looks.  The majority of the class could not see that multiplication was also a way to extend patterns.  A few then began to think of "doubling" and then one student put up his hand and said that it could be the next term because if we "multiplied 31 x 2 we would get 62...62X2 we would get 124..We could then do 124x2 and get 248 for the next term."  The light bulbs went on.

Why this Minds on was important for Sarika is that it gave her a lot of information about her class.  She knows that they are able to identify and express in words what a pattern rule is, they can extend a numeric pattern, and are working on making predictions about growing patterns.  She knows that for her next few lessons, she will have to include problems and activities that involve using multiplication and addition in the patterns, and encourage the students to use these tools to help them solve problems.