SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 35 (LANGLEY)
Action Plan for Learning
Noel Booth Elementary
Working together to empower children to
achieve their full potential in a safe, caring
environment.
DDRA
School Context:
Noel Booth is a dual track late French Immersion K-7 school serving 299 students. The
school is nestled in a beautiful park setting with two interior courtyards. Students have
many different opportunities to take “body breaks” and to explore nature. There are 15
teachers and 7 support staff this fall. The population is quite balanced with nearly equal
numbers of boys and girls. There are 30 students with aboriginal heritage. 34 students
have special learning designations and staff strives to differentiate instruction to meet their
needs. Noel Booth is known to be a welcoming community for both students and adults to
work collaboratively.
We have chosen our goal because we believe that confidence and fluency in mathematics
and an ability to apply math concepts and to solve problems in more than one way, is
essential to student success in all areas.
Inquiry Question(s):
How can we improve the mastery of basic math facts and students’ ability to apply
those skills in math problems?
While this is the umbrella question, the inquiry has been narrowed to be more specific at
each level.
Early Primary
How can we support the understanding and development of subitizing, partitioning and
patterning, which are foundational skills for early addition and subtraction?
Grade 2-3
Which strategies and activities will help students understand the concepts of addition and
subtraction which will lead to fluency and robust recall?
Intermediate
Which strategies and activities will help students understand the concepts of multiplication
and division that will lead to fluency and robust recall?
All Students
How will greater development of robust recall affect students’ ability to problem solve?
How can we encourage confident assimilation of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division into students’ thinking in all curricular areas?
This will be our first year of this new goal and we are therefore in the assessment and
planning stages.
Actions:
What will we do?
Examples for us to consider:
Focus on concrete instruction to build conceptual understanding through the use of
manipulatives on a regular basis.
Manipulatives will be available to all students all the time. Every class has bins of base ten
blocks, multi-link cubes and pattern blocks.
Teach specific strategies to help students build fluency with basic math facts.
Teach games for math practice.
Integrate technology into math through online games and programs (Gizmos, Manga high
etc.)
Send home games for family use on a regular basis.
Build an environment of numeracy, highlight how math is everywhere.
Develop common math vocabulary. (word walls)
Use real life situations and problems to teach the uses of all math concepts skills.
Collaboration Days
Our Sept. 25 Collaboration Day was spent working out the details of our school plan.
We will use a portion of the Oct. 26 Collaboration Day learning two news math games that
can be used to develop robust recall. Teachers will meet to develop their inquiry questions
for this school year. At the time of writing this plan, a group of teachers is considering
pursuing an inquiry about math games and/or robust math problems.
What resources do we have?
We have Do the Math kits from the SBO.
We have a wide variety of math manipulatives in the Math Room for sharing between
classes. In addition, every classroom has a bin of base ten blocks, pattern blocks and multilink cubes as these are considered the most versatile.
We have Math Focus texts in Gr. 3-7 classrooms.
We have a few Mastering the Facts teacher resources.
We have Math to the Max.
We have dice, cards and counters.
What resources do we need?
Additional wipe-off sheet covers
Additonal Mastering the Facts resources.
How are we increasing our staff capacity and collaboration?
Deanna Lightbody will join us for a staff meeting and possibly for a Collaboration Day. Staff
will be encouraged to attend any of the math workshops offered by district staff.
Jennifer Anderson is working with struggling students in grades 4-7 and with all grade 1-3
students and their teachers to increase capacity in using math games to practice skills and
deepen understanding.
Jennifer will be attending the Box Cars and One-eyed Jacks workshop in Vancouver in
November. She will bring present some of the games she learns at a staff meeting.
Our math goal will be reviewed and updated with time for teachers to highlight new
learning and to ask questions.
How have parents become partners in our efforts?
Simple, fun family game ideas are being sent home in the school newsletter.
A Family Game Night has been suggested for January. It would feature games that use cards
and dice as well as fun probability Carnival-type games that students will have created
themselves. This event is dependent upon staff volunteers so it uncertain at this time.
Jennifer Anderson has provided take-home games to the students in the classes she
supports.
Evidence:
The staff have collected data from:
Baseline Math Assessment – Sept. 2015
District Numeracy Assessment – Spring 2015
Foundation Skills Assessment – February 2015
Reflections:





What did staff learn?
How did the year go?
What does the evidence tell us?
How did it make a difference?
What do we need to do differently and what are we willing to let go of?

Where do we go from here?
Baseline Data was collected by Jennifer Anderson, Math Resource Teacher, in the second
week of school. She assessed all grade 3-7 students using the assessment in Appendix 1.
Number of Students
Below 50%
Number of Students
Above 50%
Grade 3
2
24
Grade 4
10
12
Grade 5
6
28
Grade 6
23
25
Grade 7
19
30
Grade 6/7 students
(who were in math
resource last year) who
did a modified test and
below 50%
3
7
This table shows 14 % of grade 4 students are not yet meeting expectations in math.
This table shows 26.5% of grade 7 students are not yet meeting expectations in math.
Our data shows over time that there are more students struggling in grade seven than in
grade four. We hope to reverse this trend.
!2015!Grade!6!District!Numeracy!Assessment
16
Male+Students+=+24+
Noel!Booth!Elementary!
Female+Students+=+32+
All+Students+=+56+
25+
23+
20+
Number!of!Students!
16+
15+
13+
10+
10!
10+
9!
8+
7+
5+
5+
4+
2+
2!
2!
1!
0+
0+
UND+
NYM+
MME+
FME+
Performance!Level!
Male+Students+
Female+Students+
All+Students+
EE+
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
!2015!Grade!3!District!Numeracy!Assessment
19
16+
Noel!Booth!Elementary!
Male+Students+=+20+
Female+Students+=+13+
All+Students+=+34+
15+
15+
14+
12+
Number!of!Students!
10!
10+
8!
8+
7+
6+
5+
4+
2+
2+
2+
1!
0!
0+
0+
1!
1+
0+
0+
UND+
NYM+
MME+
FME+
EE+
Performance!Level!
Male+Students+
Female+Students+
All+Students+
Appendix 1
Deanna Lightbody helped Jennifer Anderson to adapt the math assessments attached to
suit our needs.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30