Guided Math Chpt 8 & 9 by Laney Sammons

Chapter 8:

Why is assessment essential in a Guided Math classroom? What role does it play in teaching and learning?
Assessment is essential in Guided Maths as it informs us of what knowledge students have, their ways of thinking and gaps in their learning that they may have.
It allows us as teachers to find out what children know and where we need to take them. Assessment allows us to group children with the same needs and abilities. We use assessment to inform our planning and adjust our teaching based on the needs of our students. Assessments also allow us to keep track of students’ progress and whether their needs are being met.

What kinds of assessment do you use in your classroom? Is there a blend of assessments and evaluations?
In my class I currently use summative assessment which I do a pre-test that informs me what my students already know and what they need to learn. From this information I then group my students based on their individual needs.
I use formative assessment most days and this is mainly to inform me of whether students understand a taught concept or if they need more time on it.

At the moment assessment is a big thing for me finding the most effective way to assess and then use it for my planning/teaching.

Chapter 9:

How will you begin to implement the Guided Math framework in your class?

I have already begun to implement aspects of the Guided Maths in as we have read chapter by chapter. Most of what I have implemented has gone well. There are still several aspects that I am looking at starting for example the Maths conferencing but it is in the stages of planning and I hope to have it up and running next term. 

How can you create a professional learning community to support you as you modify your mathematics instruction? 

As I am a learner myself I think it is important that I am aware of where I can go to locate information and who I can call on for advice. By knowing who can help support me will be a big benefit in helping modify it.

Week 8, Term 3 2013

My week 8 goals were:

• Incorporate more hands on learning tasks
• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions

This week maths has gone really well. My level 2 group has been focusing on using grams to measure weight, my level 3 group has been focusing on using millilitres and litres to measure volume and my level 4 group has been focusing on finding the volume of a cuboid. The majority of my class are really getting in to measurement because it is so hands on and they are making the links back to home easily.  One of my goals this week was to ensure I know about the next steps for my learners and I did a bit of research around them before teaching each group. I did pretty well and was able to extend my top group when they understood the taught strategy. Next week we are continuing with measurement and the children will be completing a post unit assessment which I hope to see improvement in.

Reading this week has gone well, I have my top 3 groups reading chapter books suitable for their reading age and they have been required to summarise each chapter after reading. My top group did this well as they have already had a lot of teaching around what a summary is however there are large gaps for my other two groups and I will be spending time focusing on how to summarise.

My students are starting to take advantage of the Daily 5 programme and the fact that it is free choice so next term I will be spending some time refreshing their memory on how we do things in Room 4.

We have spent a bit of time on art this week and I am pretty pleased with how their pictures have turned out. My goal was to get them using different tools for painting and not being afraid to have a go – they are getting there. We used a variety of tools including paint brushes, paper towels, straws and sticks. I found the plan on that Artist Woman's website and just adapted it to suit my class.

          An example of Room 4's blossom trees.

Over the next 1-3 weeks I will be setting up conferencing times with my students starting next term and this will allow me the opportunity to find out what the kids know and where they have gaps. I will be setting this up for literacy and numeracy.

My week 9 goals are:

• Focus on the positives and give children more praise.
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question.
• Take notes during guided sessions.
• Ensure I know next steps before teaching lessons.
• Provide children with more feed forward.

Week 7, Term 3 2013

My week 6 goals were:

• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions

Week 6 has flown by, I had Monday in the class and Tuesday out for a release day where I was able to catch up on some running records and sort through my assessment data to make it more manageable.

Maths this week has been on measurement with my students learning how to measure in m and cm. Some have got the hang of it but other still need work. I am finding that my learners are really engaged when the tasks are hands on and practical. I had my TT come and do another guided session on Thursday with my low group and came away with heaps more ideas as to how I can implement and teach easy tasks that engage the learners. On Friday I also started using my Math Journal. I have done the first one for the children as a model so they can refer to it when reflecting on their learning

Reading seems to be lagging a bit with the students knowing what is expected of them but not achieving it. I am thinking next week with a new student it will be the perfect time for a quick refresher of how the Daily 5 programme is run and what behaviours we should be displaying. Some students have had to go back to being told what they can do until they can be trusted to choose for themselves.

This week in writing the class has been focusing on adding dialogue into their stories. Each day we have done a class story and included dialogue and then they have had the opportunity to write their own. Some have got it but not as many as I would like but we will continue to build on it over the next wee while.

This week I thought I would have a go at doing a science experiment. I decided to do magic milk. I set the desk groups up with a bowl of milk and told the children what I would be adding to it and asked them to make a prediction on what would happen. A large portion of them said that it would explode or blow up….how wrong they were. It was quite a good lesson as it was easy and we got a lot of quality discussion out of it and the children are all keen to do more.

Week 7 already…..where has the term gone?

Week 7 goals:

• Incorporate more hands on learning tasks
• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions

Week 5, Term 3 2013

My Week 5 goals were:
• Have children reflecting on their learning and posting to blog.
• Use open questions when asking the kids
• Ask children to explain their strategies before moving on (question card made up for maths and reading).
• Continue consistency in behaviour management
• Continue to use modelling book in all sessions (including note taking of where chn are at)
• Allow more time for student sharing and check in.

This week was really good, the kids were settled and much more ‘on-task’ than they have been in previous weeks.

I started my measurement unit this week. Monday I used an e-asTTle test to assess where my children’s needs are. I had a bit of trouble entering the results and analysing it but with the help of my TT we got it sorted. It will make life heaps easier being able to use it so I can plan and target certain children that need the content. I started teaching this unit on Tuesday and my learners are quite low so we are starting off with the basics for my lower group and just refreshing my higher ones. Next week I will be focusing on using tools for measuring length and converting between mm,  cm, m and km. I also have my TT come in and teach a modelled session each Thursday which I am learning heaps from and finding it very valuable seeing the way she teaches and the strategies she use to get children thinking deeper.

Reading this week has gone smoothly, my children are pretty good at the Daily 5 programme with me just having to keep an eye on the ones who like to push the boundaries. At the moment I am working on Predicting and Summarising and most of the children are able to do this effectively however we will be building on it so that I am getting quality/informed predictions and summaries that only include the main points.

Writing has been good, we have started narrative writing. This week we spent time focusing on describing a characters looks and personality. I have a lot of work to do with the majority of the class on ‘show not tell’ as they haven’t grasped the understanding of it quite yet.

I haven’t had a great deal of time for other areas however we did start looking at our personal heroes this week and the children began to think of the questions they want to find out about them.  Next week I am hoping to add some art in and do a trial lesson on some of the science I experienced in my PRT course.

I had a release day on Wednesday and I though it would be a good opportunity for me to become familiar with how to do a gloss and JAM maths assessment. So I had a go at this and found it quite easy at it is all explained in the guides.

Week 6 goals:

• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives 
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions