Dual language books

What?

For iExplore in Term 3, 2017 a group of learners worked with me on exploring their culture. As part of their learning they created a dual language book with information about their culture in English as well as their first language.

So what?

Dual language books have been designed to help children learn to speak, read and write English well, by building on the strengths of their strongest language to do this.

Children start school with different strengths in language:

Some children may speak their first language strongly, but their English language may not be quite so strong.

Some children may speak English well and be able to understand their heritage language but not speak it strongly.

Others may be able to speak some of their own language and some English, but not be strong in either. 

Now what?

When children create dual language books they are meant to take them home and read them to family members, in their strongest language. That could be their first language or English. 

My taking action individual plan

What?
My Taking Action - Individual Plan

So what?
Our HUNCH is: ….If we co-teach mixed ability groups in Problem Solving then we will be cultivating a Utopic Problem Solving culture for our learners in order to contextualise maths.

My taking action plan is to use the Five practices model for effectively using student
responses in whole-class discussions that can potentially make teaching with high-level tasks more manageable for me.


Now what?
Anticipating learner responses 
Anticipating learner responses is quite useful to me as it help me to think about strategies that learners could may use to solve the problems. It also gets me to think about some misconceptions that the learners could have when solving the problems.

My next step: Anticipating solutions requires that I have to do the problem as many ways as I can by considering how students might mathematically interpret the  problem.


Monitoring engagement
Monitoring student responses involves paying close attention to students’ mathematical thinking and solution strategies as they work. I found that the more able learners are generally more engaged and the less able learners in the group sometimes are not so engaged.

Next step: One way that I can monitor student engagement is by circulating around the classroom while students work either individually or in small groups. According to Lampert (2001, p. 140), paying close attention to what students do as they work makes it possible “to use my observations to decide what and who to make focal” during the discussion that follows.

Selecting learners to present
I find that sharing misconceptions can also be useful as this may help learners to learn from their mistakes. When selecting learners I try to select learners who use different strategies

Next step: I should find a way to keep track of which students present their work, so that all students have the opportunity to share their thinking publicly.

Sequencing learner responses
I sometimes start from the lowest strategy and go up to the highest strategy. Sometimes I start from the misconception or at other times I may end with the misconception.

Next step: I might want to have a student present the strategy used by the majority before one that only a few students used.

Connecting responses with key mathematical ideas
As the learners share their strategy I make encourage them to make connections with the different strategies.

Next step: I will  help students draw connections between their solutions and other students’ solutions as well as the key mathematical ideas in the lesson.

Reference
Lampert, Magdaline (2001). Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Universal design for learning

What? 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework that helps teachers plan learning to meet the diverse and variable needs of all students. It supports schools to realise the vision of The New Zealand Curriculum.

So what?

This guide introduces the UDL approach and illustrates the UDL Guidelines in an Aotearoa New Zealand context. As a staff, we explored how hidden barriers to learning can be identified and minimised. In our learning habitat teams, we identified how to ensure all our learners can access learning in ways that work for them.

Now what?

LH1 identified that the potential barriers for learning was that some learners are unable to decode the text

The strategies that we developed to reduce barriers using the UDL checkpoint was:

Checkpoint: Representation

In order to: Ensure learners of all abilities are able to engage in set task

The learning coach could: Use short video clips, Pictures - use visuals, Act it out, Make it - using play dough