Reciprocal Maths Update

Background:

Previously GO for teaching and The Wong Teacher posted about their Reciprocal Maths idea. After a number of weeks gradually introducing the context, then the skills, the process has turned out well on at least a surface level.

Issue:

With any new technology or development, the first pass is always improved on. The Reciprocal Maths idea is no different. Several areas for improvement were found.

While the reciprocal reading concept of continual cycles for each section works for texts, it doesn't work for maths problems which tend to be only one or two sentences that need to be comprehended then acted upon. Reworking the roles with a single cycle in mind resulted in many consequent changes including altering the roles, the flow, and the example questions.

Fix:

Two of the most critical changes relate to clarifying when events happen in the cycle. Those changes were adding a "solve" step into the cycle and grouping the Questioner with the Comprehender and Clarifier is meant to clarify when they are needed.

Sentence prompts were another part adjusted.

   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

UPDATE Blog post structure

Over the past couple of months we have noticed that student's blog structures have improved. More capable students are drafting blog posts that clearly use the correct structure for the text type. Less capable students are drafting blog posts that demonstrate at least a rudimentary understanding that there is a certain order for each kind of text.

The aspect we haven't observed yet is an increase in the use of appropriate language features. That is our next step for teaching blog post writing...or rather writing the text types recount, information report, and explanation.

To aid this process, I have updated the Blog Guide poster to include the language features and examples of those features.

Blog post structure

Recounts, information reports, explanations. How do we write them? In spite of having taught these text types in detail consistently for several years, we are still giving feedback on the same aspects of these text types. To scaffold students into self managing their usage of these text types, I (Greg) have developed a diagram/ flow chart showing the structure, and an example of recounts, information reports, and explanations in one place.

Students will be referred to this diagram for feedback on these text types for their blog posts.

Boosting literacy through oral language

In an effort to boost not only reading comprehension, but also the confidence to present an answer, we are increasing the amount of oral work students are doing.

We are attempting this in multiple ways including performing plays and regular oral presentations for IRL (in real life), and screen casting and FlipGrids for the online component.

Using FlipGrid and screen casting allows students to actively consolidate their thoughts and understanding through preparation to provide a well scripted exposition.

Off the cuff oral presentations and performing in front of their peers improves the confidence to communicate ideas. At the very least, presenting and performing will help desensitise students to being in front of a crowd, which in itself can be a crushing fear.

Basic Facts gaps

And here we are talking about one of the other major gaps in our students' knowledge; basic facts. How does one address a gap in knowledge caused by lack of exposure and practise at a time when homework is considered "ineffective", there is less time for parents to be involved in their children's learning, and there are much more compelling activities than in the past?

One way of addressing the gap in basic facts knowledge is to increase exposure to everyday. This is done through use of simple flash cards and randomly going through about ten or so at a time. The series of flash cards was simple enough to produce using Google Slides.

Another way I have implemented with the higher ability learners is to do a Basic Facts quiz before every lesson. Students are automatically given immediate feedback on the correct answers, so the quiz also becomes a feedback based learning tool. After everyone has finished the quiz, I also briefly go over the questions that seemed to cause problems for many of the learners.

The quiz method had rapid increase in recall ability, initially starting with many students scoring in the low teens out of twenty and now most scoring above 25 out of 30.

Populating labels

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