Teaching and Learning News
Our Prep, One and Two students and teachers are part of the Monash University Research Project (EMC3).
They have been exploring how to develop and extend mathematical thinking in the early years of primary school.
Rather than the common approach to teaching Mathematics when students are shown what to do, which they subsequently practice (if they can remember what they were shown), this research assumes that students learn better when they engage with appropriately challenging tasks prior to teacher instruction.
Sarah, Caomhe, Evelina, Nell, Seamus and Lauren incorporate the following elements in their maths lessons. They:
- pose tasks without instructing students on how to solve them
- allow students time to engage with tasks initially by themselves, perhaps later in small groups
- differentiate tasks for students who might require additional support and those who finish quickly and
- orchestrate classroom dialogue between students, emphasising students’ explorations and mathematical thinking.
Our aim at SMDP is to develop and grow mathematicians who develop equally the following four proficiencies:
- reasoning capacity for logical thought and actions, such as analysing, proving, evaluating, explaining, inferring, justifying and generalising’ (Acara 2017).
- problem solving "solving problems when they use mathematics to represent unfamiliar or meaningful situations" (Acara 2017).
- understanding "building a robust knowledge of adaptable and transferable mathematical concepts and structures" (Acara 2017).
- fluency "choosing appropriate procedures, carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently and appropriately, and recalling factual knowledge and concepts readily." (Acara 2017).
At SMDP we ensure we have a balance of all four proficiencies in our Maths lessons.
Below is an overview of what Maths learning is happening at SMDP in Years Prep- Six over the next two weeks
Prep/1 The Prep/ 1 students are learning about place value. They are learning to make, represent and identify the value of a number using a range of materials or manipulatives.
They will also be comparing numbers to determine which one is smaller/ greater.
At homeyou could provide a number - say 14 and ask what is 1 more and 1 less, 10 more and 10 less, 100 more and 100 less, and for a real challenge, 1000 more and 1000 less. | Year 2 The year two students are learning about the concept of fractions.
They are learning to recognise and interpret common uses of halves, quarters and eighths of shapes and collections.
At homeyou could use cooking measuring cups to explore the biggest to smallest (½ cup, ¼ cup, ⅓ cup, 1 whole cup and how many of each make a whole cup. |
Year 3/4 The year three/four students are learning about mass(weight).
They will be measuring, ordering and comparing objects using familiar metric units of mass.
They will be recognising the units, grams, kilograms and tonnes. At homeyou could explore items in the pantry and group them according to weight.
Choose 5 different packets and order from lightest to heaviest. | Year 5/6 The five/six students are learning about the concept of location and transformation.
They will investigate the effect of combinations of transformations on shapes, tessellations, with and without the use of digital technologies and they will be using a grid reference system to describe their locations.
At homeyou could explore a map of the local area and provide grid references to describe the location of your house, school, train station, park, favourite restaurant etc. |
Elise Coghlan
Literacy & Numeracy Leader