Maths Learning

In the Senior Syndicate, we teach maths across seven cross-grouped classes from 9.00am - 10.00am each day.  We decided at the start of the year not to make any changes to our Maths programme in 2015 because we knew there would be lots of new learning involved in working in collaborative spaces for the first time.

As the year has progressed, some of the teachers have started to make changes to their maths programmes to reflect the learning and teaching approaches they are using in the areas of literacy and integration.

Andrea, Katie and Kristen give the children priorities they are required to complete throughout the week. These include: Basic facts practice, rich task problem solving, word problems, Mathletics, and strand related tasks. The children can complete the tasks in any order, on any day.

The teachers run different workshops throughout the week. Workshops may be focussed on number knowledge, number strategies, or strand based. The children worked alongside their teacher to develop an understanding of their individual strengths and next steps. This information has been tracked on personal goal cards for each child. The children use these goal cards to help identify which workshops they need to attend.

Andrea, Katie and Kristen have had to develop planning and tracking templates and systems to ensure that the children's learning needs are being met and challenged. They have adapted and developed these systems as the year has progressed.

Some comments from the children...

“I like it because we get to learn the strategies we don’t know very well instead of just learning a new one each week. Sometimes we needed more practise but the whole group had to move onto a new strategy.”

“If you forget how to do something you can go back to another workshop. If you go and then you realise you don’t need to stay because you know it, you can leave. It is wasting time if we already know it. We learn about things we don’t know.”

"Miss Gordon has workshops and we go to them if we need to and if we don’t go but Miss Gordon knows we need to go she comes and shoulder taps us."

Andrea shared the changes she has made to her maths programme with the Senior Syndicate teachers. Her presentation is below.

Integration in Action

The big idea for our integrated unit this term is 'Enterprise'. Our aim was for children to understand that businesses go through a process to become successful and apply that knowledge and their skills by forming a business. The learning throughout the term involved exploring different types of markets by visiting the Saleyards and the Farmers' Market in Feilding, learning how to write a CV and application letter, designing a syndicate currency, developing business plans, producing products, advertising and selling products. To support this learning, Simon Barnett from OBO shared his journey and gave the children valuable advice about being a successful entrepreneur. We have also had several parents join us to share their expertise throughout the term.

All children are now 'working' in a business venture. The children from GRi11 are selling products for real money to fundraise for a trip to Mind Lab in Wellington. Pot of Gold, Fab Five and VALT are earning our Senior Syndicate currency ‘Smackers’. The children applied for a job, developed business plans, conducted market research, completed budgets, designed and produced a wide range of products. The products will all be sold at our Market Day on Wednesday.  

School Visits

During Term Three, Senior Syndicate teachers used their CRT time to visit:

• Whakarongo School
• Amesbury School
• Island Bay School
• Parkland School
• Ashhurst School

These visits were an opportunity to further develop our understanding of innovative learning pedagogy and see other modern learning environments in action.

Thank you to each of the schools who shared their exciting journey with us. We loved listening and talking to passionate educators and children who love learning!

Providing Evidence of Learning

This year the children in GRi11 have a digital version of our integration matrix in their Google Drive. The children record their evidence and provide links to learning examples that support the indicators on our integration matrix.  As a result, the children have a clear understanding of their next learning steps.

Day to Day Learning and Teaching

In the Senior Syndicate, we teach maths across seven cross-grouped classes from 9.00am - 10.00am each day.  We decided at the start of the year not to make any changes to our Maths programme in 2015 because we knew there would be lots of new learning involved in working in collaborative spaces for the first time.

From 10.00am to 3.00pm, the children are taking responsibility for managing their learning by selecting which literacy or integration learning task to complete, when, where and with who. They are responsible for prioritising their time on a daily basis so they can complete learning tasks before required deadlines. For some children this process is significantly guided by the teacher, for most children, they are now independently taking responsibility for managing their learning.

At times throughout the day children are involved in:

• Small group learning with a teacher e.g. Guided reading group sessions, guided writing group sessions, maths problem-solving group sessions, spelling group sessions.
• Optional workshops with a teacher e.g. Learning how to organise ideas into paragraphs, learning how to write an argument, multiplication strategy workshop.
• Individual conferences with a teacher e.g. Touching base in relation to a research task, providing feedback on a piece of writing, getting started with a maths problem-solving challenge.
• Learning co-operatively in peers or small groups e.g. Completing a group research task and communicating learning, attending book club meetings.
• Learning independently e.g. Crafting writing, silent reading, reading follow-up tasks, completing assessments, practising spelling words, practising basic facts. 
• Whole class learning e.g. Writing motivation and modelling, maths rich task introduction.
• Syndicate learning/activities e.g. Sports Rotations, Syndicate Singing, Go For Gold Programme (Term Two only.) 
• School events e.g. School assemblies, cross country.

Student Voice Survey

We wanted to gather some student voice about the changes that we were making so we asked the children to complete a survey using Google Forms. The questions were aligned to our vision for learning and teaching. Some of the questions we asked were:

• How do you feel about coming to school? Why? 
• How are decisions made in GRi11/Pot of Gold? 
• What decisions do you make about your learning? 
• What decisions would you like to be able to make? 
• What does striving for excellence mean to you? How do you strive for excellence at school? 
• In what ways do you learn with others? How does this impact on your learning? 
• What are your learning strengths? What areas do you need to improve in? How do you know? 
• What new digital skills have you learnt this year? 

It was exciting reading the children's comments. Below is a selection of comments:

• "I feel happy because I have learnt new things and we worked together to build this learning space. I really love coming to GRi11." 
• "I feel excited to come to school because I like learning/working in GRi11 because it is fun and you can do what work you want." 
• "We make our own decisions. We build on others ideas and usually find the right choice in the end." 
• "I think it's great because we always get a say in whatever we do and it's not just the teachers making all the decisions. We all get to vote and majority wins." 
• "I learn with others all the time because every time I'm stuck or need help I know that someone will be able to help me." 
• "In Pot of Gold I get to choose how I make my learning better." 
• "I think that working together makes my work better because there are more ideas coming in." 
• "In GRi11 we are always learning interdependently and it impacts on our learning because humans only have one brain and two brains can come up with more ideas." 
• "The matrix helps me with my learning because I know what stage I am on for my learning." 
• "I feel like it (the matrix) pushes me to go to the next step." 
• "I really like learning in GRi11 because we have freedom in what we do and when we do it and I like that." 
• "In Pot of Gold the kids and teachers make decisions together."
• "I like coming to school because we do fun and amazing things every day."

Writing Strengths and Next Steps

One of our goals is to develop self-aware learners who drive their own learning. To achieve this we need to support our children to develop an understanding of themselves as a learner. Katie and Clive have experimented with this in the area of writing this term. Katie created a 'child speak' version of our writing matrix. Katie and Clive then worked with small groups of children to explore an exemplar and assess it using the matrix she had created. This allowed the children to develop an understanding of the indicators. The children then assessed themselves on the matrix by using their writing as evidence for their assessment. Conferences with each individual child, revealed that in general the children were very accurate, and if anything too hard on themselves. The matrix was highlighted pink for the areas the children are achieving and then together with the teacher two next steps were identified and highlighted green. The children were able to use this matrix to share their strengths in writing and their next learning steps with their parents as part of their Three-Way Conference.