What did Year 1look like in our school?

The ApproachThe approach that we used involved using one teacher to take the intervention out of class group. This group was a year 4 group of students that were slightly below the standard. The students were chosen from two classes and the choice of the students was based on their ability to work together well and their attitudes toward the group. As teachers we had to build the group up so that it appealed to the students. The out of class group were taken 5 times a week for 50 minutes sessions focusing first on number knowledge then strategy work. The on-class group was taken 5 times a week for up to 15 minutes. These students were at the standard but still needed support and acceleration. This group was taken before the class’s normal mathematics session and were also seen during the normal session. This programme provided a good amount of acceleration without deterring from other curriculum areas.

Whanau/classroom connections

At the start of the programme the students parents were notified that their son/daughter had been chosen to be a part of this unique opportunity. Throughout the programme their was various opportunities for whanau support such as discussions between the parents and ALIM teacher, The taking home of workbooks and sighing of work by the parents, the students being able to explain and show their work to their parents and also a fortnightly note and celebration in the school’s newsletter.

Classroom connections were in the form of students going back after an ALIM session and being able to fully explain the strategy they had just learnt. In one case a student who was the most confident ability learnt how to use repeated addition. He was so proud of his worked he asked if he could take his workbook back to his class and tell his peers what he had done. He surprised me when he was able to get up in front of everyone and word for word explain that strategy to them.

Fairlie Primary School

Accelerated Learning in

Mathematics

What does the group say about

Maths now?

Did acceleration happen?What was the impact of the intervention on student achievement?

The targeted students in the withdrawal group all moved considerably in their math’s knowledge and strategy work. For the in-class group the impact was not as great with students only moving slightly if not any.

To what degree was this accelerative progress?

The withdrawal group were able to move up at least one whole level making the majority of them working at their standard and even starting to move into slightly above. The in-class group stayed at their same level.

What was the impact on student motivation, engagement and student agency? How did you gain this information?

- Student motivation was high at the start with all students showing a special interest in being part of the “special” maths group as they called it. They realised they were their to boost their knowledge and were all keen on doing so.

- For the most part of the term the students were in ALIM learning room before I had arrived so I knew from that observation they would always come engaged and motivated to learn.

- I also frequently asked students about how they thought their maths learning was going and whether they enjoyed the time they spent out of class, they always had positive things to say which were recorded into my notes.

Their teachers would also come to me during break times and comment on how one of their students was proud of the strategy they had learnt that day and how they were able to explain exactly how to use the strategy to the class. This

What worked?- To create a programme that is adaptable to all

students.- The time you can the attention of a child in a

specialised group is completely different to inside a busy classroom.

- You can not have a plan that stretches the whole term.

- Every student learns at different paces and uses different styles.

- Different students require more or less of a teacher’s attention.

- You need to have lots of different types of resources to explain one way of working.

- Using lollies and chocolate as a material might seem like a great idea but infact students lose their ability to follow instructions once they see them.

What were the barriers?- Finding a reliever that would be able

to be in the home class while I took the intervention group.

- Creating a programme that would work and fit in with other class resposibilities.

- Managing the students learning.- Fitting a programme that would let

me teach all the students in an acclerated way.

- The interruption of out of class events.

From being in the Maths group I….

“Have got a lot better at using my times tables and divided byes”

“Can now use repeated addition to work out any times table question”

“I really like maths now because I feel I can do it easier”

“I know what fractions are”

“ I can find a fraction of a big number”