Here is my inquiry summary. This year, my inquiry has revolved around finding common teaching and learning approaches which are important for a number of students in year 5.
- Thinking multiplicatively (learning and understanding times tables).
- Giving students lots of opportunities to reason mathematically.
- Mathematical vocabulary - gifting this to students and exploring it as a new language (just like we do with coding).
- Reflecting on their learning - getting students to realise when they didn't get something right and encouraging them to ask the 'why' and make changes.
Noting these common approaches has resulted in a strengthened understanding of the pedagogy, deeper thinking around how to teach students in effective ways, and exploring different tasks and approaches to engage students and strengthen connections between prior knowledge and new understandings.
I look forward to beginning the 2018 school year with this new knowledge to effectively support students in their mathematical development.
