It is fantastic to have a Professional Blog where I can share my Inquiry about my target children, but also to have the opportunity to read what other teachers in the cluster are doing with their Inquiry journey. The opportunity to collaborate with others will definitely allow me to gain ideas and challenge me to view my own practise.
The PAT Maths assessment done this term has not only helped me to identify my target children, but has also given me lots of information about my whole class. What sub areas of Maths are they strong at and what areas do they need more support with. I have a composite year-3/4 class.the above graph only shows the data for my year 4's. It is clearly evident that the vast majority of the class are achieving below the expected band. I chose the following student as my target students:
These are my target children: Student D,K,l M and N
In term 3 I have made a greater effort to explicitly incorporate/teach some of the Talk Move strategies in my maths lessons.
I have also made a point of writing the maths words/language on the whiteboard that I want the children to learn and be confident to use when they share their thinking with their peers. These words remain visible for the whole week and I have noticed that the more I use those words in various examples and encourage the children to use them the more confident they feel and also get an understanding of what it means. REPETITION is key to children knowing how to use new and familiar maths language.
I have also use a sharing strategy in my reading programme to encourage talking or the use of language called SAY SOMETHING. This idea behind Say something is to make sure that children are active participants in the reading process and are ready to share their thinking with peers. With Say Something children can share the thinking in the following areas:
- Make a prediction
- Ask a question
- Clarify something
- Make a comment
- Make a connection
- Summarise
The pay off of using sharing strategies across curriculum areas makes children confident to talk and they also understand that most of the talking and thinking is their responsibility. The locus of control has shifted form the teacher on to them. By using Talk Move strategies in maths and Say Something in Reading are both proving beneficial in the use of language in both curriculum areas.
