This year, Pt England School's overall focus is
Acquisition Of Language.
I chose to focus my inquiry on the Manaiakalani Achievement Challenge #6 - Lift achievement in maths for all students year 1 -13.
DMiC Maths
This year, teachers at Pt England School are learning how to teach DMiC maths from Bobby Hunter. As this is going to be a huge change in the way that I have taught maths in the past, and therefore a challenge, I decided it would make sense to focus my inquiry around this! I am currently a little nervous about this new approach at teaching maths, as I know that I will need to step back and allow my students to do the talking! I am also slightly hesitant about mixed ability grouping, however I began doing this in my class at the end of last year and saw it's benefits. I'm really looking forward to this new learning journey and seeing how it not only helps our students, but also improves my teaching.
I've noticed that students find it difficult to verbalise themselves when explaining how they worked out a problem. There are several reasons for this - students could be nervous when speaking in front of their peers, they might still be comprehending the problem, they may not be interested or, they're not confident with their maths language. I often hear children say 'I plussed the numbers' and 'I got the answer, but I don't know how'. Students need to practice explaining their strategies out loud so that they can learn the mathematical language that will help them to become confident when problem solving. This is what DMiC Maths is all about, therefore, my big question for the year is:
Will the use of the DMiC process in maths increase mathematical vocabulary in my students?
No comments:
Post a Comment