creative thinking Archive - Mathematics and Science in SD#38 (Richmond)

Archive for the ‘creative thinking’ Category

introducing WODBs to grades 4&5 at Westwind

Posted on: October 16th, 2016 by jnovakowski

I was invited into a grades 4&5 classroom at Westward to introduce the mathematical routine, Which One Doesn’t Belong? Teacher Carlos Victoria has emailed me to let me know the students had been learning about place value and different ways to represent numbers.

I began with a geometry WODB (found at wodb.ca ) and began the conversation about how these shapes are all the same, how they belong to a set or group. The students used the term shapes, then 2D shapes and with some guidance got to the term polygons. Then we looked at ways each shape was different than the others…unique. The students then turned and talked about if they had to choose just one shape, which one did they think didn’t belong? and WHY! We talked about how justification is a big part of being a mathematician.

We then moved on to the following WODB – one I often start with regardless of grade level because there are so many ways to analyze and compare the numbers. Same questions as before – how are they the same (numbers, numbers under 100, numbers between o-50, etc) and then how are they different. So many creative responses! As students described and defended their choices, I highlighted the mathematical language students were using such as “digits” and modelled new language for them such as the term “square numbers”.

After our two introductory WODBs, I shared our learning intentions for our time together:

And then we moved on to two WODBs that focused on the mathematical content the class was learning about. The students were given a quiet minute to examine the WODB on their own and then were asked to turn and talk to their table group about which one doesn’t belong? Some students focused on form (a visual entry point) while other focused on the numbers.

The students were then invited to work together to create their own WODBs. This is not as easy as it seems! I provided some guiding questions for the students to go back to as they were working through the process. As students completed their WODBs, the moved to a part of the classroom together to discuss and try and solve each others’.

And as I said goodbye to the students, I know their teacher will continue the WODB routine with his class, as he just received our district’s WODB kit from the DRC – full of WODBs from the website as well as Christopher Danielson’s new WODB books (picture book and teacher guide).

I am looking forward to hearing about more of their WODB experiences!

~Janice

investigating force and motion with grades 1&2 students at Wowk

Posted on: May 12th, 2016 by jnovakowski

As a follow-up to an after school science session she had attended, Claire Thomas from Wowk Elementary emailed me and asked if I would be able to come to her class to work with her and her grades 1&2 students around developing an inquiry project about force and motion that they could share at their school’s science fair.

The students had been learning about force and motion and had been provided with Keva blocks and marbles to enrich their investigations. When I visited, I asked the students to share what they knew about force and motion and then what they were still curious about…what they were wondering about. These questions were recorded by their teacher and the students were asked to choose a question that they could investigate.

The students worked together in groups of two or three to investigate their question using the Keva blocks and balls and marbles and after about an hour of planning, designing, testing, making adjustments, testing, etc., the students were asked to document their findings using pictures, numbers and words.

Here is a link to a short video compilation of the students’ investigations:

Wowk Grades 1&2 Investigating Force and Motion

This week, Wowk held a K-7 science fair, with each class having displays celebrating their science learning. I was able to pop by and visit the grade 1 & 2 students and see their displays. They were so proud to share their updated projects!

A few students called me over to see specifically how they had made their designs better. One group said, “we finally got it to work!” – love the persistence shown, such an important disposition for scientists!

~Janice

creative thinking core competency project 2016

Posted on: May 8th, 2016 by jnovakowski

For the third year, our district has invited grade 6-9 teachers to participate in a Core Competencies project. This year, Rosalind Poon and myself hosted the project, focusing on the Creative Thinking core competency in the BC curriculum. A blog post about our first session together can be found here.

Our second session was held in January and teachers shared what they had been trying in their classrooms, nurturing students’ creative thinking focusing on the three facets of novelty & value, generating ideas and developing ideas. Leah, a grades 5&6 teacher shared a force and motion invention fair she co-coordinated at her school with students applying creative thinking to their invention design and purpose. Irene shared the creatures her grade 8 Home Ec students created, considering the facets of creative thinking.

During the session we looked at the book, Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti, that we have been using in this series and in our school teams, used one of the ideas from the book to think about a concept we were studying with our students. Teachers were asked to use materials to create a soundscape to represent an idea or concept. Challenging! One teacher commented on how a student really has to understand the idea/concept and synthesize thinking in order to do this task.

Our third and final session of the year was held at the end of April. Teachers shared ho they were weaving opportunities for creative thinking throughout their classroom programs. We asked teachers to write-up a lesson idea that was successful for them and their students and we will be compiling these ideas to share with teachers in our district.

During the session, we introduced teachers to the electronic components littleBits which were piloted in the district two years ago for the purposes of nurturing creative thinking through STEAM experiences. Different ways teachers and students have been using littleBits in the district were shared and then the teachers in the project were asked to create something that does something – being mindful of the three facets of the creative thinking core competency: novelty & value, generating ideas and developing ideas.

As teachers engaged with the materials, they could see the possibilities for using the littleBits beyond the electricity component of the science curriculum in grades 7 and 9. More information about littleBits can be found on the website here.

We also asked teachers to record a short professional narrative about their involvement in this project. The following is one teacher’s response:

I strongly believe that the focus on the creative thinking competency in my classroom this year had the most impact on my teaching and the students’ learning. They are called the “core competencies” for a reason! Personal responsibility, communication, and critical thinking developed side by side with creative thinking. The willingness to take risks and persevere with difficult or ambiguous learning tasks has increased tremendously. I am also constantly amazed by the depth of thinking the students show in many circumstances. We had 2 students reflect on how learning happens in our classroom. See their thoughts below.

“Creative Thinking is the process of having original ideas of value. The Creative Thinking Challenges we do each Wednesday encourages us to think creatively when faced with a problem. Itís very important to have unique and innovative ideas, and to have different ways of overcoming challenges, especially with our rapidly changing society. We also do something called Monday Morning Provocations. Every Monday, we use a variety of materials to reflect on a question. We have more ways to show what we know, and explain our thinking visually. Not just with pencil and paper.We do a lot of activities helping us learn in different ways, not just reading a textbook, copying facts, and memorizing it. We do discussion circles where everyone shares an opinion and we discuss it. We use iPads and take pictures of our work to communicate and show our learning to parents and teachers. We use an app called FreshGrade. After every activity, we have a self-assessment/feedback frame to let us reflect on our work. Instead of the teacher giving us marks, we actually think about what we did well on, what we need to improve on etc. Overall, we think the new BC curriculum develops a creative and positive mind, which will help us in the near future.” ~ L&L

How valuable to have students reflect and comment on their learning experiences!

Roz and I look forward to continuing our work with the core competencies project next year!

~Janice

Science Jam 2016

Posted on: March 2nd, 2016 by jnovakowski

The Richmond School District is celebrating its thirteenth year of Science Jam, a featured event of Education Week.

Science Jam is BC’s largest non-competitive science fair, bringing together students in grades 4-7 from across our district to share their science inquiry projects. This year students from 11 schools participated choosing to do projects under three broad themes – environmental sustainability, going local and looking at the redesigned curriculum.

Two French Immersion students from William Bridge Elementary conducted the opening ceremonies with welcoming words from our mayor and superintendent, introduced our board of school trustees and honoured the event’s sponsors.

Science World started off Science Jam with a *bang* with a science surprises show.

And then it was time for our district’s young scientists to share their projects with “celebrity scientists”, parents, community members and each other.

A video with highlights of the event can be viewed HERE.

~Janice

intermediate storytelling at Blair

Posted on: February 22nd, 2016 by jnovakowski

Karen Choo, grades 4&5 teacher at Blair Elementary is part of our district’s Creating Spaces for Playful Inquiry series. In January, she shared her journey with a group of 50 educators – how she has been using morning provocations to uncover big ideas and big thinking in her classroom. She has a collection of loose parts in her classroom and along with art materials, provides opportunities for all her students to build and create ideas together.

Karen and her students have been learning about Chinese Immigration to Canada, reading novels, information books and having rich discussions, many students making connections to their own families’ immigration stories. Although Karen’s students were familiar with using materials to represent and idea, they had not used them to create stories. We presented a table of materials along with the loose parts already available in the classroom.

Karen noticed the high engagement with her students and also commented on the richness of the language and the role-playing that emerged in the stories. Karen commented that the concepts came alive for the students through the storytelling. It was interesting to note how the students wove in metaphors and symbols in their stories – such as the Chinese and Canadian flags and “gold mountain”.

part of this story included how the head tax kept increasing

Many of the stories involved travels across the ocean and the students created settings or symbols of the two worlds – China and Canada, separated by a journey.

The students used the iPad camera to take photos of their stories and then use the 30Hands app to narrate their stories – often going outside to find a quiet place to record. As I listened to the students’ stories, I heard many connections to the students’ own personal experiences and their strong beliefs about social justice coming through.

Not only does storytelling create an opportunity for Social Studies and Science concepts to come alive for students, it also provides an opening for students to tell their stories, to share a bit of themselves.

~Janice

intermediate storytelling at Homma

Posted on: February 20th, 2016 by jnovakowski

I visited two classes at Homma Elementary in February to introduce oral storytelling using materials to inspire stories that consider the First Peoples Principles of Learning.

Carrie Bourne and her grades 4&5 French Immersion students have been using loose parts to represent ideas. We combined their collection of loose parts with a table full of natural materials and fabrics to create story settings, paying attention to the big ideas of self, place and the power of story. We first came together in a circle and the students shared some of their thinking about stories. We discussed big ideas around immigration (a focus of what they were studying in Social Studies) and made connections to books they have been reading about Indian Residential Schools, like Shi-shi-etko by Nicola Campbell (which is available en francais). Students shared their ideas about coming, going, leaving, arriving, connecting and dis-connecting with a focus on place. Students could choose to work by themselves or with a partner, as they created stories, inspired by the materials.

After about an hour of the class circle and creating their stories, we asked the students to share their stories with another classmate or partnership. As students orally “rehearse” their stories, they are playing with ideas and language, synthesizing the theme or message their story. The students then captured their story using iPad technology by taking still photographs and using the app 30Hands to orally narrate their stories.

Here are two video clips students practicing their stories:

Shi-shi-etko

Grades 4&5 story

And here are some of the students’ stories that the captured using 30Hands and then posted to their Fresh Grade portfolios:

Grade 4&5 EFI Homma – place

Grade 4&5 EFI Homma – transition

*****

In Peter Ritchie’s grades 6&7 classroom, we began by watching a short video of Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald telling the story of Lady Louse (can be found HERE). We asked the students to pay attention to her storytelling technique and the students shared their observations about how she used her hands, varied the use of her voice and how she repeated the theme or message of the story in different ways throughout the story. They also noted how the story didn’t have a typical resolution in stories like they are familiar with, but left you thinking.

Peter had collected various plants and mosses from his brother’s property in Squamish and the students used these along with various other materials to create settings for their stories. We discussed the importance of creating an authentic environment and if they were using animals in their stories, to consider the place of the animal within the ecosystem.

Many of the students were aware of animals portraying values or metaphors in stories from different cultures and we referred to the book Sharing Our World, for students to consider animals they might want to include in their stories. Possibly inspired by the materials presented them, many of the students’ stories involved environmental themes. I noticed the students at this age (and also very fluent with using iPad technology) were focused on creating detailed settings and used different camera angles and backgrounds to make sure there weren’t distracting items or people in their photos. As with Carrie’s class, they used the 30Hands app to load their photos and narrate their stories.

The following are some of the students stories:

The Story of the Fox

Appreciate What You Have

Listen to Elders – The Hike

On the February 19th professional development day, the staff led a morning of looking at teaching and learning through the First Peoples Principles of Learning, and storytelling with materials was something that the staff engaged in themselves.

I’m looking forward to hearing many more stories from Homma Elementary!

~Janice

more math days at Debeck

Posted on: February 9th, 2016 by jnovakowski

Debeck Elementary is in their second year of their math goal and they are using some of their innovation grant funding to bring in TTOCs to release teachers to observe lessons in each others’ classrooms. I come in and do a lesson with one class with other teachers observing and then we are able to debrief about what the teachers noticed and what they are wondering about at lunch time. I’ve been back twice in February.

During the first visit, three of the four classes began with a WODB (Which One Doesn’t Belong). This routine, similar to the Sesame Street favourite – one of these things is not like the other – presents the students with four objects, images or numbers and the students have to choose and then justify which one doesn’t belong. The twist is though that each object/image/number could be the one that doesn’t belong so students need to think carefully about the attributes and properties of each and be prepared to justify their choice. Justification and “proof” is a large part of mathematics and a routine like WODB strengthens students’ abilities in thinking in this way.

In the grades 2&3 class and the grades 4&5 class we began with the WODB above. The instant reaction is that 9 doesn’t belong because it is the only single-digit number but as students dig deeper and talk to each other, they uncover properties of all the numbers. The students were talking about prime and composite numbers, multiples, division, odd and even, patterns they noticed, square numbers and we even discussed digital sums.

In the grade 4&5 class, the students then created their own WODBs and had others solve them and in the grade 2&3 class, we moved on to a number talk.

In the grade 6&7 class, the students had begun learning about circle graphs so I put up the following WODB and very rich discussion ensued.

I then asked the students what the graphs could be about. They chose one of the graphs from the WODB and added a title/question, labels and a legend. Some students added an explanation or analysis.

A Canadian math educator curates submissions of WODBs here:

wodb.ca

One of the Debeck teachers commented on what a rich routine this was for getting students to think outside the box and to not just focus on getting an answer quickly, something that our students unfortunately often have a focus on in mathematics.

On my second visit, the four classes all focused on math journalling as communicating mathematical thinking is part of the school goal. We always begin with a number talk or a chance for students to turn and talk to each other for “oral rehearsal” as a way to sort out their thinking before they are asked to draw, diagram, write. When moving to a math journal, the phrase “use pictures, numbers and words to show your thinking” is part of the mathematical norms in the classroom.

In one of the grades 6&7 classes, we looked at the big idea of equivalence, as the students were studying algebra. I began with a prompt on the board and asked students to do a quiet write, responding to the questions. The majority of the students responded similarly in that they described the equals sign as what the answer to a math question goes after.

We played around with the order of different equations (with the = symbol in different locations within the equation) and then used the number balance to highlight the idea of equivalence. One student looked at me and said – “I get it, each side needs to stay balanced.” We then asked the students to add to their previous explanation or definition but using a different colour so we could see how their thinking had changed.

I returned to one of the grades 4&5 classes to look at a string of multiplication questions in a number talk and then have students choose from some related questions to record their strategies for in their math journals. Always popular, the students were invited to add to the “math graffiti” board for these questions.

With the grade 1 class we did some more Flash It games with the ten frame cards – this time adding Make 11 and Make 12, building on Make 10 that we had done before. We begin by doing a quick review of all cards with the students calling out the value of each ten frame and then for the next round instead of the value they call out the amount needed to Make 10. Today we moved to Make 11, bridging over 10 and we modelled this using the large magnetic ten frame first. The students did really well with Make 11! Make 12 proved to be a bit hard for them to visualize quickly for a Flash It type game and we need to continue to work on those strategies that help students decompose numbers into parts to make ten and then some.

We then moved onto the focus problem of the day – What different ways can you make 10? And we asked students to focus on using ten frames as one of their strategies. I was happy to see some students playing around with three and four parts of 10.

In one of the kindergarten classes, the students were stars with the ten frames and then I modelled stories about 10 using ten peg dolls I happened to have in my bag. We talked about different stories involving 10 people – watching a movie was a favourite example, going on a bus, train or airplane and other examples were shared by the students. The students then thought about a number story they could tell and chose “loose parts” to work with. This is a class that engages in story workshop with materials and the students quickly took to the idea of math stories. Some students chose to record their stories in their math journals.

“ten guys climbing all over each other – like at the circus”

Over the two mornings at Debeck, we tried to stay focused on lessons that developed and valued mathematical thinking, considering the curricular competencies of our redesigned curriculum here in BC – reasoning, analyzing, solving, communicating, representing and connecting. Students made “math to math connections” as they shared and compared their strategies or approaches to their classmates or to other mathematical topics. Students were given various opportunities to communicate – with materials, orally to a partner or small group or in whole class discussion or by using pictures, number and words in their math journals.

Until my next visit…

~Janice

creative thinking core competency project

Posted on: November 18th, 2015 by jnovakowski

For the third year in our district, Rosalind Poon and I are facilitating a Core Competencies Project. This series takes place over the school year, with release time provided to grades 6-9 teachers. This year, we have narrowed our focus to closely examine the Creative Thinking Competency and ways we can provide opportunities for students to develop this competency across disciplines.

For our first session together, we asked teachers to engage in a “chalk talk” about what creativity is- a strategy to record your thoughts about something and make connections between others’ ideas and yours.

We watched a short video with Sir Ken Robinson discussing what creativity is and how we can assess it. Watch the video HERE.

We unpacked what Core Competencies are and then specifically looked at the Creative Thinking Competency.

The Creative Thinking Competency has three facets – novelty & value, generating ideas and developing ideas. Each teacher or school team of teachers was asked to choose one facet to play around with in their classrooms between our first and second sessions. Roz Poon documented our first session using Pages:

We are using the Spirals of Inquiry cycle to engage in professional learning together. Teachers each received a copy of a teacher resource book that is full of ideas for the “taking action” part of the cycle.

In order for teachers to connect to the Creative Thinking profiles and illustrations, we facilitated a series of mini-challenges from Destination Imagination and had teachers consider the facets of the Creative Thinking competency – novelty & value, generating ideas and developing ideas – and consider how they might describe their own competencies in these areas.

Information about BC’s Core Competencies can be found in this short video HERE.

The information about the Creative Thinking Competency can be found HERE.

We are meeting together in January and I look forward to seeing how the creative thinking competency is coming alive in Richmond classrooms!

~Janice

grade 7 science: electromagnetism

Posted on: October 16th, 2015 by jnovakowski

Based on feedback from teachers last spring, we have planned a series of after school sessions supporting new content in the K-7 science curriculum. Each session will look at the learning standards around a specific grade and content area and teachers will experience both the curricular content and competencies through an inquiry-based approach. Connections to the core competencies and First Peoples Principles of Learning will be also be woven throughout the sessions. Resources are provided to teachers to take away and use in their classrooms. These sessions have proven to be in high demand and registration quickly filled up for them at the beginning of September. We have been able to add second sessions for those that had long waiting lists and hope to provide an alternate form of this series in the spring.

The first session of the series was focused on Grade 7 and the physical science topic of electromagnetism. This is “new” content in that previously the grade 6 electricity content focused on simple circuits and renewable and non-renewable methods of producing electrical energy and the grade 9 content focused on static electrical charges, resistance, voltage, currents in circuits and related electrical energy to power consumption. The big idea now in grade seven is “The electromagnetic force produces both electricity and magnetism.”

We began by looking at the big idea and thinking about what students needed to understand first before exploring electromagnetism. Properties of magnets and magnetic force were investigated and basic electron flow and circuits were investigated using Squishy Circuits kits.

We then looked at the bigger concept of electromagnetism and the teachers were provided with a variety of materials to create their own electromagnet. Different types of wires were provided so that teachers could compare their results, ask questions and investigate. The teachers also wondered about changing the battery type and we talked about designing experiments, controlling variables and other curricular competencies for science.

In particular we talked about how the curricular competency of Applying and Innovating had some possibilities for both creative and critical thinking. Comparing and judging different ways of generating electricity and their environmental impact is an opportunity for critical thinking. Thinking about ways to use electricity, magnetism or electromagnetism to make the world a better place or to improve on an existing design or invention is an opportunity for creative thinking and for students to pursue personal areas of interest that are meaningful to them.

I am looking forward to working alongside teachers with their students as they investigate electromagnetism and maybe we’ll see some related projects at Science Jam this year!

Grade 7 Electricity – curriculum information for Grade 7 Electromagnetism

Electricity Resources – Links to online resources

~Janice

the new Numbers game for Osmo

Posted on: October 15th, 2015 by jnovakowski

I am a huge advocate for the Osmo system for iPads. I first introduced Osmo on this blog post here.

The company just recently release a new game that I was very excited about – Numbers. I received it in the mail and opened my box and automatically thought it was so clever. It comes with digit and dot tiles but the dots only come in 1s, 2s and 5s creating great opportunities for thinking about numbers in parts.

Two Fridays ago I visited the grade 1 class at Kidd Elementary and all the students got to give Numbers a try. Suffice it to say, it was a huge hit! The students were asking where they could get the game and I emailed our DRC right away for the classroom teacher to get the Osmo kits into her classroom!

The grade one students had some great comments on the game:

“We use our brains to make the numbers.” – A

“I like that there are numbers to choose from.” – W

“I like that you get to make the numbers and that you get the fishes.” – K

“There’s not enough 1s to make 11 so you have to think of a different way.” -W

“You can think really hard.” – K

One drawback I noticed on Friday for classroom use is that you have to acquire “points” to open up new levels. This is great when a child is using it at home but for classroom use, it would be preferable to allow for different entry points for different students. I might be missing this accessibility somehow so am going to look into this further.

At this point, until I gain access to the higher levels, I can’t really comment on the other tasks available but it looks like there’s great possibilities for thinking about decomposition and composition of numbers, counting and addition.

~Janice