Lots to think about from today's session, and in terms of my maths teaching practice. One new concept that I heard about for the very first time ever today is "low floor,/threshold, high ceiling' tasks - never ever heard of that before! The definition I found from NZ Maths is " to describe tasks that accommodate a wide range of learners. A LTHC task has relatively easy entry points so that all students can begin it, but has scope for exploration and challenge for students are all levels. " This fits in really well with the article I read about providing cognitively challenging tasks for all students, so this is definitely something I would like to explore in more depth.
Other areas of practice to reflect on:
- the emphasis on memorisation. I definitely place a lot of importance on memorising facts, mainly because I feel like that is the main thing stopping students from participating in activities, and progressing in maths in general. But if I really think about it, it could be a number of factors such as lack of confidence to speak up rather than not knowing.
- teaching strategies that align with the Poutama Tau/Numeracy Project way of doing things and not giving students the sense that their own strategies are still valuable.
- if I was to ask my students the question "Does your teacher think you are good at maths?" I dread the answer. I think a few would say no and that is actually quite devastating, and I am keen to find ways to address that.
Kia ora Lynda,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reflection, I really appreciate how you are interrogating your practice and making great links with what you'd like to tweak or update to better serve your akonga.
The low floor/high ceiling concept is one we will come back to in coming weeks, as it's such a good one in terms of designing learning that is inclusive, and just makes sense from a teacher perspective as it works out as less planning overall, if done well.
I will also be interested to see how your maths survey goes, as our akonga are really honest and always tell it like it is! Discussing why they answered the way they did with them will also be really valuable, to get to the heart of what they think and believe about maths. I hope it goes really well for you.
See you soon,
Georgie