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Anita Chin Mathematics Consultancy

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24.01.2022 Wondering how you can PLUG GAPS in your students knowledge whilst having to explicitly teach NEW CONTENT to the wide range of learners in your K-8 classroom? Wanting a teaching strategy that can be used across ALL SUBSTRANDS of the maths curriculum K-8? Hoping the teaching and learning strategy caters to the NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS in your class?... Needing the idea to involve no preparation of a powerpoint slide or the use of OneNote or different worksheets? Wishing the strategy could be used for whole-class instruction at the START OF EVERY LESSON to 'hook' students into talking and laughing about maths whilst just looking at an image? Then here it is! This is how I love starting every lesson, in every grade K-8 when teaching number concepts. I show a VISUAL REPRESENTATION of a concept at the start of every lesson and ask the class "WHAT DO YOU SEE?" I then annotate their responses on the IWB, directly over the image. Easy! MY GOAL: To practise prior learning by asking an open-ended question where all students K-8 can give a response (low floor) and can engage in the conversation and become confident to have a go! Eg. "I see 3 boxes (rectangles) Eg. "I counted 12 dots". Eg. "Each group of 4 dots goes from the left to the right". MY SECRET: By using one visual model/image, I can connect pieces of the Maths K-8 jigsaw puzzle through the use of mathematical LANGUAGE and number sentences Eg. $12 3 = $4 because 3 people each get 4 dollars. Eg. "I see thirds because there are three equal groups". Eg. "I see the first three multiples of 4: 4, 8, 12". THE BONUS: Our high-potential learners are also highly engaged as they are excited to describe an image in so many different ways using their knowledge different substrands of the curriculum (high ceiling) Eg. "I see 3 horizontal quadrilaterals that are rectangles, each with 4 shaded circles inside. So the ratio of circles inside the red rectangles to the blue rectangles is 8:4 or 2:1" Eg. "I see two-thirds of 12 is 8 and one-third of 12 is 4 as there are 8 dots inside the red rectangles and 4 dots inside the blue rectangle. HOW DO I DO THIS? I teach directly from the online NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum. Free access to the world at https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au//mathematics/content NOTE: Students can further practise drawing equal groups and describing them by using whiteboard insert sheets - low fuss, no prep, easy! DOWNLOAD my Dot Array insert sheet from the Resources page of my website at https://anitachinmaths.com.au/resources/?_sf_s=Dot%20Array PS. Thank you to all 4 schools from Warren, Narromine, Nyngan, and Trangie who attended this fantastic SDD hosted by St Mary's Primary School, Warren in regional NSW last week.

21.01.2022 Do you using DOUBLE-NINE DOT DOMINOES but sometimes wanting a low preparation, high impact whiteboard INSERT SHEET for students to quickly practise PART-PART-WHOLE thinking to support the use of MENTAL STRATEGIES for addition and subtraction? Needing the insert sheets to be age-appropriate for use across a RANGE OF GRADES from Y1 to Y7? Then my scaffolded Student Whiteboard Insert Sheet BLMs for Addition and Subtraction using images of double-nine dot dominoes could be the ...answer! MY SECRET: I implement them differently during my 5-part Lesson Structure depending on my purpose. For example: Y1-2 to explicitly teach the use of symbols for addition, subtraction and equals (ACMNA015, ACMNA029, MA1-5NA). WHEN: during the fourth part of the lesson, the 'Practise' WHY: so that students deeply understand the concepts of addition and subtraction by using combinations of single-digit numbers and DESCRIBING what they see in the WRITTEN FORM using pictures and symbols. HOW: all students are back at their desks doing a task individually or in pairs (student centred) to practise what we have learnt together as a whole class on the floor (teacher centred) Y3 to plug gaps in prior learning from previous grades (Y2 AS: ACMNA030, MA1-5NA) WHEN: during the first part of the lesson Ie. Daily Number Sense/Warm Up. WHY: To support an understanding of partitioning the number ten in different ways to assist with using the bridge-to-ten strategy, then using that knowledge to flexibly add and subtract two- and three-digit numbers by partitioning them and using the bridge-to-ten strategy. Y4-7 during any part of the lesson for intervention! As most students in Y4-8 are rarely reluctant to have a go at drawing/counting dots on a page and writing on student whiteboards (because what they write is not permanently saved in their books for everyone to see!), this task gets instant engagement and has always worked a treat for me - even with the most disengaged and the most mathematically challenged students that I have taught in my career. DOWNLOAD my PDF 'Whiteboard Inserts: Addition and Subtraction Using Double-Nine Dot Dominoes' from the Resources page of my website https://anitachinmaths.com.au/resources/?_sf_s=Inserts%20add

21.01.2022 PROFESSIONAL READING | What works best: Evidence-based practices to help improve NSW student performance | CESE, 2014. Are you a keen reader of the latest developments in primary mathematics education? Do you know about the range of publications from The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) to support your professional learning? ... Well, this is one of my favourites! The paper brings together seven themes from the growing bank of evidence for what works best to IMPROVE STUDENT OUTCOMES. The seven themes identified as likely to make the biggest difference to our students are: 1. High expectations 2. Explicit teaching 3. Effective feedback 4. Use of data to inform practice 5. Classroom management 6. Wellbeing 7. Collaboration The paper is not an exhaustive list of effective PRACTICES, but it is a useful FRAMEWORK for teachers and SCHOOL LEADERS to consider when deciding HOW to challenge the status quo and tackle student improvement. To entice you into the paper, here are my highlights: It is a daunting task for a teacher or principal or school leadership team to decide to challenge the status quo and tackle student improvement anew. The question of ‘where to begin?’ is not readily answered (CESE, 2014, p2) Efforts to make sustainable improvements in student outcomes the holy grail of education may have been hampered by a lack of clear, reliable and accessible evidence about what really works in schools and classrooms. (CESE, 2014, p2) The seven themes are not confined to what happens in CLASSROOMS. While they offer sound strategies for individual teachers to consider as part of their repertoires, evidence suggests that their effectiveness is stronger when they are implemented as WHOLE-SCHOOL APPROACHES. (CESE, 2014, p3) Ready to read the paper? Download it from https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au//What-works-best_FA-2015_AA.pdf Note: CESE are the central point of education evidence within the NSW Department of Education, and Australia's first dedicated hub of education data and evaluation. All publications are freely available online for anyone in the world to download. P.S. My 2020 PL offerings of the ChinLEAD Modules (PL for school maths leadership teams) are designed to support a whole-school approach to implementing effective T&L practices across your whole school, K-6. There is STILL TIME TO REGISTER (rego closes this Friday 13 March) at https://anitachinmaths.com.au/pl/chinlead-events/

06.01.2022 Wanting a great PROBLEM SOLVING TASK to get students in Years 6-8 thinking hard about maths... but not doing hard maths? Wanting the task to NOT be a worded problem? Hoping the question will help students build the skill of 'PERSISTENCE to a task'?... Needing it to be a no prep activity for you that you can use on the fly? Wishing it could be used as a task for the whole week because students are so CURIOUS about numbers that they just can't put it down until they have found ALL POSSIBLE solutions? Then do I have a WORKSHEET for you! It's an oldie but a goodie called 'Total 100' THE TASK: Using the digits 1 to 9 in ascending order, each once only, and any of the symbols + , - , x , , write as many number sentences as you can that equal 100. Example 1. 100 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 x 9 Example 2. 100 = 123 - 45 - 67 + 89 A TIP: use digit discs placed on a whiteboard and a marker pen to rearrange digits and record calculations. DOWNLOAD the worksheet from the Resources page of my website at https://anitachinmaths.com.au/resources/?_sf_s=total%20100

02.01.2022 "What do you see?" Here's a sneak peak into how we kick started our Staff Development Day on Saturday which was focussed on teaching MULTIPLICATION and DIVISION with a WHOLE-SCHOOL approach. I placed 10 red and yellow 'dots' in the middle of a large whiteboard arranged in 5 'horizontal' lines of 2: I placed each 'GROUP' of 2 dots 'below' one other to make 2 'vertical columns' of 5. ... I used the 'same' colour of dots within a 'row'. I changed the colour of the dots each time I started a new 'HORIZONTAL ROW' to make a 'pattern' (red, yellow, red, yellow, red). I then drew a shape around each group of two: My shape was a QUADRILATERAL as it had '4 straight sides'. My 'quadrilateral' was a 'rectangle' in 'landscape' orientation. I then checked I still had 10 'circles' (ie. a shape that isn't a 'polygon') on the board: I counted them by ones, starting at the 'NORTH-WEST' (ie the 'top left') 'circle' and counting from the 'left' side to the 'right' side When I got to the end of the 'first' group, I wrote the number I was up to in my counting [2] next to the 'rectangle'. I kept counting from 'left' to 'right' and every time I got to the end of a 'row' I wrote the number I was up to next to the 'rectangle'. I wrote five numbers on the board and they were: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. I then asked the whole-staff my favourite OPEN-ENDED QUESTION "What do you see?" As staff gave their responses I recorded them on the board (I had rubbed some off before I remembered to take a photo, sorry everyone!) Why did I do this you may wonder? Because this is how I START A MATHS LESSON when teaching in classrooms K-8. Why do I start my maths lessons this way? To make the maths VISIBLE To give students an opportunity to USE what they already know BEFORE I start the explicit teaching of new content To subtly send a message to students that I VALUE using rich mathematical language contained in the 'Word Lists' of the NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum So that I can CONNECT CONCEPTS for all students (ie connect the dots!) and see some lightbulb moments happening! It's a brilliant ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING opportunity for me as the teacher It's a fantastic ASSESSMENT as LEARNING opportunity for students. You can download my 'Teacher Word Wall' for Multiplication and Division K-6 from the Resources page of my website at https://anitachinmaths.com.au/resources/