Garden City's Inquiry Question:
How can we expand our students’ schema of math,provide them vocabulary and help them notice thesecompetencies within themselves?
Why ask this question:
It’simportant to students to expand their metacognitionof what mathematician do and develop awareness ofthe
competencies involved in process of learning, so thatwearenurturing and valuing competencies over speed andgetting it right.
What was being noticed about learners?
We are noticing that ourstudents love to engage innumeracy problems andtasks. They enjoy learningabout math and “gettinggood” at it. Despite manyrich mathematical tasks,when asked “What isMath?” students answerwere simple and resorted tothe typical schema of math.
What Actions were taken?
- Our focus was to encourage students to work together to solve problems. We attempted this by usingnumeracy tasks that built on applying students' knowledge and new learned concepts. We used a varietyof collaborative tasks that could be found on Open Middle or Peter Liljedahl'sbook.By doing so, they willlearn to communicate their ideas effectively, listen to others, and work collaboratively to find solutions.This will help students develop important teamwork and problem-solving skills that are valuable skills.Atthe end of each session, we reflected on the competencies that we used as mathematicians.
- Collaboration can be challenging at times, but it is immensely helpful. Working on vertical surfaces orhands-on materials allows learning to be visible and tangible
- In our classrooms, we have both witnessed the high level of engagement among students when using theverticalsurfaces. As a result, we have adapted our classrooms by transitioning from standard whiteboardsto vertical whiteboards, such asWipeBooks.
