Stage One: The Journey Begins
Our Goal for 2015
Improving differentiated
instruction to increase
student engagement and
understanding within the
context of Numeracy
Stage Two: A Focus on Personalised Learning
When differentiating in Mathematics there
must be some aspect of choice for the student,
in terms of the details of the learning task, the
ways the task can be carried out and how the
task is assessed.
(Dacey and Lynch, 2007)
“there was a buzz around the room
as students discussed their
choices.”
Theme parks
It’s all about the bike!
A. The Mountain Bike – How fast are you going now?
Luscious Lunches
What we found
Data was collected from 6 Yr 8 classes (approx 128 students)
How does this compare to your usual
understanding of Maths topics?
How would you rate your understanding of
this topic?
60
%
%
50
60
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
0
Developing
Sound
Thorough
Extensive
Same
Better
80
Did you enjoy having choices to
demonstrate your learning?
70
%
60
50
40
Would you like more tasks like
this?
30
20
10
0
Yes
No
No opinion
Worse
Stage Three: Differentiated Teaching and Learning
The focus of instruction must be on the
key mathematics concepts (big ideas)
being taught. (Davey and Lynch, 2007)
Teacher Specific Goals
1. Explore ways to increase Numeracy skills for lower achieving students
while still teaching the curriculum.
2. Provide teaching and learning experiences which are both engaging
and increase the retention of concepts.
3.
Provide learning structures that will allow students to gain a higher
sense of achievement and increase overall confidence in Numeracy.
What we did
•
Development of a Fortnightly planner which incorporated a learning matrix (breakdown of
learning tasks into foundation, core and extension)
•
Providing students with a choice of worksheets – from ‘starting from scratch’ to extension
•
Team teaching to combined classes
•
The implementation of Kagan cooperative learning structures and student centred activities to
increase engagement of students
•
Delivering regular concept review lessons that summarised learning regularly and revisited
concepts
•
The running of extension and consolidation lessons that allowed students learning to be
differentiated
What we found
How does this term compare to your
past experiences of teaching and
learning in mathematics?
80
70
%
60
50
How does this compare to your usual
understanding of Maths topics?
40
30
20
Would you like this type of teaching
and learning to continue?
10
0
Same
%
Better
Worse
Yes 87.4%
No 12.6%
50.0
45.0
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
What we saw
Differentiation was being discussed
among other team members
1 Poor
2
3
4
5 Excellent
How do you rate this last term of teaching and
learning?
How would you rate your engagement to lessons this term?
Other teachers started to implement
some strategies
“I really enjoyed the team teaching and
wished we could do more of it.”
“There has been a significant growth in the confidence of
students, especially those who find concepts challenging.
There are no E grades and an increase in A grades is
evident.”
“The quality of the work and depth of
classroom discussions were enhanced
because of their engagement with the
work.”
What worked
Post data showed a growth in teacher use of
differentiation strategies, student engagement and
student results.
Where to now
• Continue differentiated
activities/ lessons
• Refine the Personalised
Learning Task (PLT)
• Document differentiation
strategies into our planning
documents
• Start to coach a teacher from
another department and raise
the awareness of Numeracy
within the school.
The Unexpected Journey
Resources
Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative Learning.
San Clemente, California: Kagan
Publishing.
Dacey, L., & Lynch, J. B. (2007). Math for all:
Differentiating instruction, Grades 3–5.
Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions Publications.
Tomlinson, C.A.(1999). The differentiated classroom:
Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.
Knight, J. (2015). Deepening the coaching process, delivered in
partnership with Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ)
This presentation reports on the findings from “The AISACT Literacy and
Numeracy Coaching Academy (2015)”, delivered in partnership with
Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) and funded by the Students First
Support Fund.