Scoil Mhuire Lourdes, Tullow, Co. Carlow POSTER Tullow.pdf · convent school of 250 pupils set in...
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We are an all-girls former convent school of 250 pupils set in the small town of Tullow, County Carlow. We have a high number of pupils who do not speak English as their first language (c. 30%). We have nine class teachers and two support teachers on the staff. We have no S.N.A.s. Tullow is sometimes regarded as an economic blackspot, yet our school has no DEIS status, as of yet. Our pupils are generally enthusiastic, motivated and well behaved yet we have observed that many struggle with having the confidence, resilience and communication skills necessary to engage with problem-solving in maths. School: Scoil Mhuire Lourdes, Tullow, Co. Carlow Team: Ms. Ita Finnerty (Deputy Principal/ 3rd Class Teacher), Ms. Juliana Garahy (1st Class Teacher), Ms. Ann Murphy (4th Class Teacher), Ms. Marion O’ Toole (SET), Ms. Eimear O’Connell (SET) and Orla Byrne (PDST Primary Numeracy Advisor) Our School Context “To develop a whole school culture for problem-solving that promotes and encourages confidence, resilience and independence for all learners while allowing them to develop their communication skills.” Our Goal “How can we design a lesson so that pupils will work independently/in a group to solve a problem by working backwards while communicating their strategies and reasoning?” Research Question To begin with we considered our current approach and resources used for problem-solving – textbooks, maths cards etc. and how effective these are for developing the strategy of working backwards with pupils (we felt this was a strategy that was under-developed across the classes). We decided we would need to locate a further resource which would help us to design a lesson to embed this key strategy. As a result, we searched the nrich website and following much investigation we chose What’s in the box? (nrich.maths.org/5576) as the genesis for our lesson because we felt this would suit the strategy and give pupils lots of opportunities to communicate their reasoning. We then developed our lesson plan for 3rd/4th class and completed the task as a group. We chose numbers and the operations they might involve to ensure a progression in learning while also building pupils’ resilience in a gradual way. The final task was included to give the girls even more options for devising an ‘action’ or operation with the use of a totally open-ended problem. For the conclusion of the lesson we included a learning log entry for pupils to complete as we felt this would encourage them to reflect even further on their learning in written form following discussion. Our observation schedule was designed to assess the girls across four areas – their Planning Process Key learning • pupils really do learn from each other and can borrow more sophisticated strategies (in this case one girl highlighted working backwards) when they have the chance to work together and communicate in maths. • pupils need continuous practice in communicating their strategies to build their confidence and encourage them to share their learning even more. Implications of Lesson Study for whole school teaching of mathematics • our staff know what the key features of good maths teaching and learning are but we need to manage our time and planning to embed these even more in practice. • we need to refocus pupils on the importance of developing strategies rather than only looking for the answer all the time (through valuing the use of materials and rough work for example). • we need to develop pupils’ competence and confidence when explaining their strategies (they can use their materials and rough work to support this). • we plan to extend the learning activity and its concept to other classes across the school. Opportunities • lesson study gave us the time to collaborate, share resources, reassess what we are looking for in our lessons and reflect upon how our pupils perceive problem-solving in our school. • we got the chance to tap into other people’s strengths within the staff while reaffirming how our ideals for good practice coincide with those found in current theory and writing. • it gave us the chance to begin to create a whole school movement towards improvement by using this model of CPD. Challenges • we found some pupils need more practice in developing their communication and co-operative skills. • we found the deliberate and systematic planning of the lesson difficult as we had not done this type of sequenced preparation for such a long time. • we found planning for the time the lesson would take challenging at times. Possible solutions • pupils need to have the opportunity to communicate and share their strategies in every maths lesson so they see the sharing of learning and discussion around the process of doing maths as being important, rather than always focusing on the answers. • pupils would benefit from more time to engage and develop further strategies by breaking the task into more lessons. Teachers’ Reflection on the project use of materials, level of participation/communication, the strategies they used and the maths language they demonstrated across the tasks. These four areas were directly linked to our goal and research question. Having completed the lesson plan we wanted to see if the theory for current best practice in maths would concur with our work. One teacher was very familiar with the work of Marilyn Burns and so we consulted her article Ten Big Maths Ideas which coincided with the key features we wanted to foster in our maths teaching also – this was very reassuring as it reinforced the good ideas that already exist across our staff.
Transcript of Scoil Mhuire Lourdes, Tullow, Co. Carlow POSTER Tullow.pdf · convent school of 250 pupils set in...
We are an all-girls formerconvent school of 250pupils set in the small townof Tullow, County Carlow.We have a high number ofpupils who do not speakEnglish as their firstlanguage (c. 30%). We havenine class teachers and twosupport teachers on the staff. We have no S.N.A.s. Tullow is sometimes regardedas an economic blackspot, yet our school has no DEIS status, as of yet. Our pupilsare generally enthusiastic, motivated and well behaved yet we have observedthat many struggle with having the confidence, resilience and communicationskills necessary to engage with problem-solving in maths.
School: Scoil Mhuire Lourdes, Tullow, Co. Carlow Team: Ms. Ita Finnerty (Deputy Principal/ 3rd Class Teacher),
Ms. Juliana Garahy (1st Class Teacher), Ms. Ann Murphy (4th Class Teacher), Ms. Marion O’ Toole (SET), Ms. Eimear O’Connell (SET) and Orla Byrne (PDST Primary Numeracy Advisor)
Our School Context
“To develop a whole school culture for problem-solving that promotes andencourages confidence, resilience and independence for all learners whileallowing them to develop their communication skills.”
Our Goal
“How can we design a lesson so that pupils will work independently/in a group tosolve a problem by working backwards while communicating their strategies andreasoning?”
Research Question
To begin with we considered our current approach and resources used forproblem-solving – textbooks, maths cards etc. and how effective these are fordeveloping the strategy of working backwards with pupils (we felt this was astrategy that was under-developed across the classes). We decided we wouldneed to locate a further resource which would help us to design a lesson toembed this key strategy. As a result, we searched the nrich website and followingmuch investigation we chose What’s in the box? (nrich.maths.org/5576) as thegenesis for our lesson because we felt this would suit the strategy and give pupilslots of opportunities to communicate their reasoning.We then developed our lesson plan for 3rd/4th class and completed the task as agroup. We chose numbers and the operations they might involve to ensure aprogression in learning while also building pupils’ resilience in a gradual way. Thefinal task was included to give the girls even more options for devising an ‘action’or operation with the use of a totally open-ended problem. For the conclusion ofthe lesson we included a learning log entry for pupils to complete as we felt thiswould encourage them to reflect even further on their learning in written formfollowing discussion.Our observation schedule was designed to assess the girls across four areas – their
Planning Process
Key learning• pupils really do learn from each other and can borrow more sophisticated
strategies (in this case one girl highlighted working backwards) when they havethe chance to work together and communicate in maths.
• pupils need continuous practice in communicating their strategies to build theirconfidence and encourage them to share their learning even more.
Implications of Lesson Study for whole school teaching of mathematics • our staff know what the key features of good maths teaching and learning are
but we need to manage our time and planning to embed these even more in practice.
• we need to refocus pupils on the importance of developing strategies rather than only looking for the answer all the time (through valuing the use of materials and rough work for example).
• we need to develop pupils’ competence and confidence when explaining theirstrategies (they can use their materials and rough work to support this).
• we plan to extend the learning activity and its concept to other classes across the school.
Opportunities• lesson study gave us the time to collaborate, share resources, reassess what we
are looking for in our lessons and reflect upon how our pupils perceive problem-solving in our school.
• we got the chance to tap into other people’s strengths within the staff while reaffirming how our ideals for good practice coincide with those found in current theory and writing.
• it gave us the chance to begin to create a whole school movement towards improvement by using this model of CPD.
Challenges• we found some pupils need more practice in developing their communication
and co-operative skills.• we found the deliberate and systematic planning of the lesson difficult as we
had not done this type of sequenced preparation for such a long time.• we found planning for the time the lesson would take challenging at times.
Possible solutions• pupils need to have the opportunity to communicate and share their strategies
in every maths lesson so they see the sharing of learning and discussion around the process of doing maths as being important, rather than always focusing on the answers.
• pupils would benefit from more time to engage and develop further strategiesby breaking the task into more lessons.
Teachers’ Reflection on the project
use of materials, level of participation/communication, the strategies they usedand the maths language they demonstrated across the tasks. These four areaswere directly linked to our goal and research question.Having completed the lesson plan we wanted to see if the theory for currentbest practice in maths would concur with our work. One teacher was veryfamiliar with the work of Marilyn Burns and so we consulted her article Ten BigMaths Ideas which coincided with the key features we wanted to foster in ourmaths teaching also – this was very reassuring as it reinforced the good ideasthat already exist across our staff.
