Technology supports multi-aged maths classes in high school

‘I have so much content to get through. How can I explictly teach concepts across two years levels of curriculum and ensure my students are learning?’  

Grade level standards and testing requirements can lead teachers to believe curriculum centered education works unless leaders challenge educators through evidence based practices.

I have never met a teacher who does not want to provide the best learning opportunities for their students and that’s what makes challenging grade level standards so exciting.  You only have to deliver one lesson didactically and overloaded with information and you get the picture.  ‘What do I have to do Miss?’ ‘What is that called again?’ Assessment results are dismal and students complain.

Multi-aged classrooms peaked in the 1990’s and then varying research, or lack thereof supported teachers in returning to curriculum centred learning regardless of their schools philosophy .  To be successful in designing multi-age classrooms school leaders and teachers ‘need to consider evidence in a way that is reflective of research and best practice.’

I taught within a cluster of schools that was made up of a multi-aged primary and single year level secondary classes in Canberra Australia and recently moved to a multi-aged P-10 school.  The P-10 philosophy rang true with me, however, I stood in front of my first multi-aged high school maths class and froze.  ‘How do I teach year 7 and 8 maths at the same time?’ I bailed! I would have been doing them a disservice.

After restless nights with a head full of questions it was time to set up an action research project with the maths team.

We decided to split the year groups and took one year level each for the time being.  At least this way the students would be learning whilst we collaboratively challenged our beliefs about how learning happened and more specifically how to design learning for multi-aged math classes in secondary school.  After some productive and many not so productive planning sessions we scoped our term 3’s maths topic, algebra, across years 5-9.  ‘If we can do this for algebra we can do it for anything,’ was our theory.  After scoping and unpacking our understandings of algebra, as presented in the Australian Curriculum’s content descriptors and achievements standards, we decided to conduct evaluations of digital math platforms and learning management systems (LMS) to support us.  One thing was certain, we would not be successful without a highly intelligent digital tool.

One of the teachers recommended HOTmaths and they offered a free terms trial for the whole cohort, approximately 100 students.

Step 1: We designed the learning sequence using HOTmaths and also trialed Schoology as the LMS.

Step 2: We designed and set our own regular pre and post testing as a formative assessment tool to monitor if HOTmaths was supporting the students skill development.

Step 3: We sourced activities to meet the deep conceptual understandings around algebra and decided to timeline workshops and provided explicit instructions through the LMS.

Step 4: We met weekly to ensure the whole program was available and online from the start of the unit.

Step 5: Celebration!!!! We had done it, year 7 and 8 could sit in the same classroom with one teacher, (who no longer felt like freezing) and have access to learning that was at their level.

Step 6: We continued to meet weekly and triangulate data from HOTmaths, the LMS and other sources. We communicated through discussion forums in Schoology unpacking individual students results, pre and post testing and general engagement in the classroom.

A common complaint from a small but vocal group of students was, ‘I’m not learning anything, I don’t understand, I like it better when you stand up the front and teach me, I need you to teach me.’  Knowing that works for 10% of the class we began sourcing video clips from Khan Academy to support those feeling disengaged.  Ideally we would have made our own.  Time is of the essence and more work was needed in guiding the students ability to navigate their learning through the different digital platforms.  Put that thought on the agenda. We had stopped being teachers and had begun to facilitate learning.  An important part of our teaching became  explicit instruction about the language of mathematics.  We had to teach these students how to comprehend the text on the screen.  We had to teach them how to use questioning and explain their thinking through writing blogs.  Oh the introduction of blogs caused another small but vocal group of students to state, ‘this is stupid, I don’t want to write a story about mathematics.  This is maths not English.’  Teachers felt the same.  Again the maths teacher in me was challenged however, I knew that if a student in this century was completely dependent on me then I am teaching them learned helplessness and more likely fueling their lack of confidence in mathematics.

The action research was successful. All students at our school in years 7 and 8 are learning mathematics in a multi-aged classroom.  They have access to maths learning 24/7 from the three (curriculum) years that surround.  They navigate back if they have demonstrated a misconception and move forward if they ‘get it.’

It’s a work in progress and by no means perfect, YET! Since this project started in term 2, 2013 we have continued to evolve and as I write this blog in 2014 from a 2013 view I am inspired by the progressiveness of our work and the dedication of the teachers I work with.

What were the key elements in to moving from single level to multi-aged math classes in high school?

1. Caring enough about today’s learners.

2. Finding a reason to have WEEKLY PLANNING sessions that focus on LEARNING in the busy life of a school!

3. Feeling safe enough in our team to put our TEACHER BELIEFS on the table at every opportunity!

4. Keeping up with relevant PROFESSIONAL readings that supported the movement!

5. Listening to student voice and RESPONDING rather than REACTING!

Sneak peek at what’s to come!

We no longer use HOTmaths??? We found a program that better suits our needs and provides formative feedback and supports our students with being self-directed learners.   Mathspace! Check it out!  It solved so many of the challenges faced throughout the implementation process of our algebra unit!

Blogging and maths with students gets much more spicy!

I now facilitate learning in a blended, flexible learning space.  I have enhanced my understanding of how to best work with today’s learners.  My beliefs about what it means to be a teacher have been challenged and will continue to be challenged and I welcome those challenges. I also welcome your comments!

 

 

We know when we get it right!

Designing a learning element through learning by design has engaged me in thinking more about how students learn rather than how to teach them.  Having a deeper understanding about the knowledge processes and what blocks them has assisted me with understanding what transformative learning looks like.

The key elements in designing transformative learning experiences include;

• collaboration with experts
• open-minded approach to student and teacher lifeworlds
• understanding of knowledge processes that go deeper than descriptors.  Physiological features of how brain is wired to learn.
• time and support

I had the pleasure of working with a team of beginning year seven teachers in designing a learning element about algebra.  It involved targeted professional development with an expert and time to design learning experiences.  After designing a complete program and starting to implement it into the classroom it soon became evident that we needed further input from an expert in the field.  Re-designing the learning activities to include further depth of understanding of the content has resulted in transformative learning for teachers and students.  Go to http://cglearner.com/and scroll to Algebra 1 to view the end product of the above mentioned learning element.

Open-minded approach to lifeworlds addresses the notion of diversity in the classroom.  Diversity from a deeper perspective than culture, colour and demographics.  Diversity that comes from life experiences.  If our passion is to provide learning opportunities then our goal is to create a safe environment for learning.  An environment that is designed for formal learning and understands the informal learning that has occurred and how it translates into a classroom.   Shifting learner agency around what it means to be a learner. 

The learning element I created about the adolescent brain addresses how adolescents learn and I have had the pleasure of experiencing first hand a shift in agency in accepting responsibility for learning for the students in my class.  If everybody understands what it means to be a learner at every stage of their lives, say  K – PhD then that shift would hand the control of knowledge creation to the learner and prepare them to not only become lifelong learners but understand how they become lifelong learners.

The final element in the success for learners is time and support which means leaders in political education need to understand, respect and support teachers in their profession.  Invest in learning, value learning and allow teachers time and support to be creators of learning.  Release the pressures of administration, provide social support networks for students and their families with the key focus to learning, utilise the power of the media to respect and support a profession that silently continues to make a difference.   

Learning by design formalises learning.

Adolescents – wired to learn!

Upload a proxy into every adolescents brain and watch them get wired to learn!

Could it really be that easy? 

Adolescents who are tuned to how their brains are wired, understand why they react/respond like they do will be more able to make choices about LEARNING. 

Go to http://cglearner.com/ and scroll to ‘Use it or lose it!, a learning element developed as part of my current online studies within a Masters of Educational Policy at the University of Illinois.  It provides adolescents with learning opportunities designed to support them in understanding the adolescent brain and how it is wired.  

It is still evolving as I continue to read and engage in action research in my classroom into the diverse range of learning styles of adolescents.  We already know adolescents lose motivation during their high school years and yet the knowledge society places extreme importance of achieving during this stage of development as a key element in the adolescents future successes.  Educational institutions are expected to cram content into their brains to provide them with the best possible outcomes for their future.   The same style of adolescent has continued to succeed year in year out.  The odd drop out has succeeded in future endeavours spite the learning choices they made during their adolescent years. 

It is their choice.  My argument is, they only have a choice if they understand how their brain is wired.  They only have a choice if their teacher knows how a brain is wired to learn.  We need a swing in our profession that leads to the emphasis on learning rather than teaching.  

Designing a learning element through LbD is a starting place for teaches to focus on the learning.  If they understand the knowledge processes and have deep understanding of the content they need to cover then they could successfully design learning opportunities for students.  My question is, do teachers know enough about how people learn to design appropriate learning opportunities?  Are teachers up to date on latest studies of the brain and learning?

The above learning element is a designed learning opportunity that has been presented to two groups of year eight students.  It has been successful in addressing diversity and providing engaging learning opportunities throughout the entire program.  You know when you have got it right when it comes to teaching a program.  The whole class is totally engaged, using metalanguage to discuss, sharing understandings, accepting and analysising new ideas and the written work they produce has purpose, depth and includes experiences from their life worlds.  The students WANT to know how to present something so they can get their message across, their message about their new learning.  When they have become an advocate for their new understandings then they have experienced transformative learning.

 

 

Proxy learning

One Step Ahead of New Media! 

As educators isn’t that where we need to be? 

Policy makers, be the hackers, hack into it!

Imaginbe One Global Educational Office!

Providing relevant research today to teachers! 

Providing global links to students!

Providing explicit instruction with the end designed!

Providing support to lower the consequence of failure! 

It doesn’t matter which social group you belong to. 

It matters that you want to learn!

Connecting James Gee to the classroom

I had the pleasure of listening to James Gee discuss learning principles of video games at an ALEA conference on the Gold Coast in 2004 and have since read his book, What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.  This blog is how I have applied some of these principles in my classroom. I will be constantly updating this post and linking explicit descriptions of designed learning activities that link to the concepts and ideas.

Lower the consequence of failure. 

Video games do this so well.   How can we lower the consequence of failure for students in the classroom?

The connection between this principle and my classroom is developing programs that enable students to work at their own pace. 

Quite a challenge within the constraints of a politically driven educational institution!  I adapted this principle from three perspectives.  Students self efficacy; their perception of and their learning styles and their academic ability. 

• Creating and maintaining a collegial classroom through opportunities for students to work in a variety of learning communities in each lesson has enabled them to build positive, respectful relationships that allow them to feel valued and safe about contributing to all classroom activities. 
• Connecting students to their learning styles so they confidently use their strengths to develop their weaknesses. 
• Creating networks of support with the classroom and providing opportunities for them to develop these networks through knowledge creation. 

Performance before competence 

When I play computer games I have endless opportunities to practice.  Problem solving to reach the next level. 

The connection between this principle and my classroom is ensuring the programs are designed with competence levels clearly visible to the students through progressive assessment tasks. 

Linking Criteria Quality rubrics (CQ) to learning opportunities provides students with a clear understanding of the expectations of the level of knowledge creation is required to meet the outcome.  I will add another blog entry that explains how to create and utilise a CQ rubric.   

Ranks players high on agency tree

When I recently joined Runescape and attempted to complete the quests I quickly realised my strengths with the virtual world.  I was safe moving around completing tasks that highlighted my competence.

The connection between this principle and my classroom is creating expert networks. 

Creatively identifying students for their expertise early in the year and utilising their skills with learning opportunities.

Problems well-ordered

How well do computer games do this?  If you have ever played Spore you will gain a sense of a well-ordered computer game.

The connection between this principle and my classroom is having visual documentation of designed learning that is transparent in its purpose, translucent in how it can be adapted and prescribed in its content.

Utilising www.cglearner.com to design learning programs for students enables a virtual connection between the students, parents, the school community.  Inviting comments from relevant parties and enabling access to explicitly described learning opportunities that can take place and the users pace.  Linking these learning designs to virtual support for problem solving would enhance this program modeling the principles of video games.

Cycles challenge, consolidation

In my repertoire of video games Sims would be the game that is gauged highly within this principle.

Connecting students to each other through grouping strategies that gives them control of deciding which learning community they should choose to be successful in achieving their goal.

Give verbal information just in time

Computer games provide feedback at every virtual opportunity.

Feedback, feedback, feedback!  On demand, on time and when needed.  Quality written feedback through CQ rubrics, verbal feedback throughout every lesson.  Providing opportunities for feedback from peers and the school community.  Setting up activities that result in feedback through successes or failures.

Classroom learning communities

Seating plans that enhance learning and shift the agency of being a responsible learner onto the students.

 I have always had a seating plan and in the past I have controlled the seating within my classroom.  Sometimes creatively, sometimes out of frustration, most of the time to minimise behaviour issues.  I have setup cooperative, ability, random and friendly seating plans.  I have set them up on a weekly, five week and term basis.   I have changed them when I felt that students were disengaged with learning.  I have preached to other teachers who experience behaviour issues to set up seating plans.  It will solve all of their problems!

Two weeks ago after reading New Learning – chapter five – learning personalities – create space for learner agency – page 135 – I decided to create a new style of organising seating plans and I have called it ‘creating learning communities’.  I set up four posters around the classroom, each with a marker and each with the desk configuration in the current classroom, (groups of four).  We discussed the seating plans that I have setup in the past and I shared my reasoning behind each of the plans.  I then introduced our new ‘classroom learning communities’. 

Today you are going to have an opportunity to create your own learning communities.  Communities that may change on a daily basis depending of the activity we will be participating in.  You will need to cut out four small pieces of paper, each with your name on it and each with piece of blu tac on the back.  After we have discussed each of the four learning communities you will have some flexibility as to where you sit within those communities.

I held up each poster and discussed the following points with the class. 

No Friends Learning Community – This learning community is self explanatory, when you place your name on this poster you need to ensure that you have no friends sitting at the table with you.  I understand that you may consider every student to be your friend, so let’s define a friend in this instance to be someone who you do not hang out with on the playground or outside of school.  Someone you may not sit with unless the teacher asks you to.  The only other thing you need to consider is that each table must have a gender balance.  So two girls and two boys.  The only time this will not be the case is if the class has an uneven gender balance.

The second learning community is the ‘cooperative learning community’ – when you are choosing your seat in this learning community you need to choose a friend in the classroom and then join with another pair who are opposite gender.  This will be a flexible learning community.  There will be opportunities for these table groups to be swapped through gender pairs, face partners or diagonal partners.

The third learning community will be – ‘Friendly Learning Community’ – this learning community has no gender or partner.  Create a table of four people who you enjoy working with.  People you relate to because you have something in common with them.

The fourth learning community will be – ‘Learners Learning Community’ – who remembers their reading or spelling groups in primary school?  What do you understand about that style of grouping? It is important that students have a discussion about the reading groups they were in and think about how the readers were leveled.  This will be an interesting group to create because it needs to be with students, who you believe, think and learn the same way you do.  They may be a friend, they may not, they may be the same gender, they may not.  The most important thing is that they think at the same level as you.  You have listened to each other during many lessons over the past and I am sure you can set up this learning community successfully.

The other important things you need to consider whilst participating in this activity are:

1. You are the only person who can place your name card on the posters.
2. You are the only person who can move your name card on the posters.
3. If another student is in a place you feel is more suited to you, a negotiation conference will need to take place.  You will need to find the other student and discuss your proposal outlining your reasoning.  If you cannot agree, you need to remove both of your names from the plan and place them at the bottom of the poster.  When we come together in a learning circle at the end of the activity we will discuss the issue as a class.  If you would like assistance you may ask me.  The whole class will need to discuss any issues at the end of the activity.
4. If you do not know where to put your name on any or one of the plans  place your name at the bottom and we will discuss it during our learning circle at the end of the activity.

After the students had finished we collected the posters and placed them in the middle of our learning circle.  We reflected on the process, describing different situations that arose. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the mature approach the class took to this activity.  They moved around the room having discussions about the best possible solution to setting up the learning communities.  We did have one student who was ostracized and his name was moved off the plan, in one case it was scrunched up.  When the student spoke to me during the activity I asked him if he minded if we addressed it during the learning circle.  He put on a brave face, knew that he was supported by me and obliged.  The outcome was positive and he solved the problem with the students involved later during the lesson.

When the class walk in they ask which seating plan and happily move into their learning communities.  I usually have the poster sitting on a desk, (cannot put it on the wall because this classroom is used by other classes and I can imagine how creative other students may be with a collection of blu tac names). 

Over the past two weeks I have changed plans mid lesson and this transition has been effortless and effective.  For example: during an introduction to developing an understanding of the formula for surface area I decided to use the ‘No Friends Learning Community’ for the introduction, then moved them into ‘Cooperative Learning Community’ for concept development.

 This grouping strategy was ‘new learning’ for myself and my class.  Reflection from the students has been positive the learning communities are currently working productively. 

Creating space for learner agency. 

Knowledge Relativism

Connecting knowledge relativism and learning highlights two perspectives for me.  If we want to engage our brains in higher order thinking we need engage in activities that question ideas, beliefs, values and facts.  We need to ask why, find answers and still look for more.  In this instance, at this stage I agree with the critics of knowledge relativism.  I agree that we would be experiencing a less satisfying form of engagement if we simply accepted the knowledge of expert others.  From a classroom perspective, the class that has not connected through a variety of get to know you activities would break down if they did not gain cultural knowledge about their peers.

When it comes to relationships, I am generalising the category of relationships, I think the knowledge relativism movement could be more enhancing.  For example: you are out for drinks with a close friend who is in the midst of ‘should I stay married, or should I move on’.  In this instance a live and let live approach would surely be more enhancing for your friendship and supportive of the complexity of this dilemma.  In the instance of a student who is describing a family issue that is sensitive and they are looking for acceptance, putting aside ethnocentrism would enable them to describe and analyse the situation to make sense of it.

Committed Knowledge – a personal perspective

When I think about the people I know who are committed to religious truths, from my perspective, I see people looking for direction, answers and perhaps excuses/reasons why things are the way they are.  Answers to how the earth came to be, why the earth came to be and their goal in life is to behave in a way that will lead them to heaven. 

The Eight of Us March 09

I am one of eight children and I attended the local Baptist Church from the age of five until I was seventeen.  My parents never came to Sunday school or church services and yet by the time I was fifteen I was attending three times a week.  Bible study on Monday nights, youth group on Friday nights and church service/Sunday school on Sunday mornings.  Motivation to attend included the social aspect of the games and fun we had every Friday night, an extremely cute guy that had to attend as his parents were highly engaged in the church community and the fact that I was allowed to go to any church function.  I have never been baptised, however, I did sit annual exams that tested my knowledge of the bible.  I recall dinner time discussions about my parents experiences at their local Baptist church in Adelaide where they were married in 1946.  My brothers attended the boys brigade and were also highly involved until they were around seventeen.  I remember praying to God to help my Dad after he was in a car accident and suffered spinal injuries of which he recovered after a couple of years.  I also recall when I decided that praying to God felt useless.  I needed to accept responsibility for myself, have faith in my own abilities and create a way to get to where I wanted to go. 

One of my brothers left the church and then returned in his mid twenties and gained his license to become a Baptist Minister.  He has six children and his wife has home schooled all of them.  He travelled to Mexico a couple of times to support other ministers in getting their license and returned for a long period of time to build a church and preach the word of God.  (He is a carpenter by trade).  His children now have children of their own and they are successful in their jobs and life.  I enjoy the sense of calmness and confidence they have in themselves.  When I tell this story to others the first question they ask is, what about their social skills?  From what I have seen there is no obvious difference between them and my other nephews.  Although they did not attend an educational institution they still tested the boundaries throughout their teenage years.  I recall sending my brother a bottle of dish washing liquid and a dish cloth for his birthday one year. The card attached had a photo of my husband doing the dishes and the caption read, ‘join us, you’ll be surprised’.  (He never did house work, his daughters had to always wear long skirts and he never changed a nappy).  He evened the score by phoning me back to say thank you for the gift with the vacum cleaner vibrating in the back ground and his comment was ‘just called to say thank you, can’t talk long, my wife needs to vacuum under the phone table.’  His commitment to religious truths, from what I saw and heard, helped a lot of people to find happiness and direction.  I guess our relationship will always remain strong because his religious truths are his and my truths are mine and I guess we are both open minded about what we believe.

The families we have created!

On the flip side, my sister is a physic.  She practices her spirituality through other channels and also appears to help alot of people and give them direction.  When I mention these facts about my family people always say, ‘your family parties must be spicy’.  I understand why people make that comment but now I understand why our family parties have never been ‘spicy’.  In our families case the idea of epistemological relativism where you are welcome to your views and I am welcome to mine are values that our parents have embedded in our innate behaviours seemingly through committed knowledge.  I guess the lack of engagement in discussion that the critics of cultural relativism argue are less satisfying are what keeps our family connected.

Social Cognitivism

Keep watching!

Brain Developmentalism

I am much happier with my wiki entry this week.  After losing my amazing Mum in March my cloudy brain is starting to clear and make connections again. 

This reading relates to the topic I have chosen for my LbD, adolescent brain development, ‘Use it or Lose it’.  Providing a learning opportunity for teenagers to explore the biology of the teenage brain will be a powerful tool in developing awareness and understanding in why they think and feel like they do.  With this knowledge, I believe teenages will be empowered to make informed decisions about their learning and behaviour.  Writing the wiki this week has helped me to consolidate what will be important to developing student agency in this topic.  The series of clips produced by Frontline have been a brilliant introduction for further developing my understanding of the brain from both a theoretical and practical perspective.  I am looking forward to working with Mecca in producing engaging resources that will be practically applied in the Year 8 classes at Lanyon this term.  I noticed that the clips were produced in 2002 and I will be interested to research further developments of the topics studied.  Stay tuned on that one! 

Throughout the clips I found it interesting that the researchers linked to the importance of understanding the stages of development within the brain.   Did you know that the brain is already 95% of adult size when we are six years old?  I think most adults would agree that we think differently to teenagers!  My mistake was, my knowledge of why we think differently was limited before this weeks reading.  In particular, how they perceive emotions of others based on facial expressions.  The researchers found that there is a difference in activation of the pre-frontal lobe of an adolescence and an adult.  Put simply, when they view the same facial expression as an adult they consistently perceive the emotion differently.  This explains why my teenage children read my frustrated and confused emotion as anger and react rather than respond! 

 

Could it really be as easy as ensuring your teenager gets nine and quarter hours of sleep to ensure their brains are optimised for learning? 

Some schools in Minneapolis decided to start school later to meet this need and have since argued that starting school late has inhibited their ability to participate in extra curricular activities and are missing out on family time which is also important.  I would like to see this responsibility stay with the parents.  Nature/Nuture balance…parents provide a natural healthy lifestyle for their children and teachers nurture children’s learning through intense learning experiences.  Parents may need to consider showing their teenages ‘hard love’ by inflicting a curfew for bedtime if they expect them learn new skills at school! In the next breath, what could we do for students who cannot sleep for social and cultural reasons to ensure they are ready for learning at school?  I recall having a reading corner that posed as a sleeping corner for some students when I was teaching eleven and twelve year olds! 

Finding out about learning by investigating the working of the brain is certainly an important knowledge bank for all teachers!