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

Archive for the ‘provocations’ Category

elementary math focus afternoon 2017

Posted on: January 17th, 2017 by jnovakowski

We hosted this year’s Elementary Math Focus Afternoon on January 16 at Byng Elementary. Over 250 educators attended, from 14 schools.

There were a range of sessions to choose from and a huge thank you goes out to all the teacher facilitators who shared with their colleagues. A special thank you to our colleagues from Surrey and Delta who shared with us.

Elementary Math Focus Afternoon Jan 16 2017 program FINAL updated Jan 13

Rebeca Rubio shared some of the many math resources and kits from the District Resource Centre.

Tracy, from the Canadian Federation for Economic Education, shared resources to support the financial literacy component of the math curriculum, particularly around the Talk With Our Kids About Money initiative.

The schools attending each contributed a display of materials, documentation or resources sharing an area of professional inquiry amongst their staffs.

QR code Math Tags were available with links to IGNITE videos, websites and blogs.

Math Tags 2017

General Handouts:

BC K-5 Mathematics Big Ideas (one pager per grade)

BC 6&7 Mathematics Big Ideas

K-5 Math Connections between Core and Curricular Competencies

6-9 Math Connections between Core and Curricular Competencies

The Sum What Dice Game Jan2013

Product GameBoard

BCFinancialLiteracyResourcesShared

Session Handouts:

Fred Harwood Grid Algebra 1

Fred Harwood Grid Algebra 2

Barker & Schwartz Picture Books Math & Literacy

Bebluk & Blaschuk Formative Assessment

High-Yield Routines September 2015

Linear Measurement final from Marie Thom’s K-2 Measurement session

Primary Math Routines (Carrusca, Wozney, Ververgaert)

DST Formative Assessment for All

Jacob Martens Numeracy Competencies Presentation

Sentence Frames for Math ELL

ELL Tier 2 words poster

Carrie Bourne Mental Math Poster – Faire 10

Carrie Bourne mental math poster – valeur de position

(contact Carrie for more Mental Math Strategy posters en francais)

MIchelle Hikida Grades 1-4 Mathematical Inquiry

Michelle Hikida Symmetry

Sandra Ball’s Power of Ten Frames presentation and handout

A big thank you to the Byng staff for hosting and to all the facilitators for sharing their experiences and inspiring their colleagues in their sessions.

~Janice

uncovering thinking about addition and subtraction in grades 1&2 at McNeely

Posted on: November 3rd, 2016 by jnovakowski

I am doing a series of visits to the early primary classrooms at McNeely Elementary to work with the teachers around inclusive practices that support students’ mathematical thinking and understanding. Meeting the first class of grades 1 & 2, I began with a number talk to see what strategies the students were able to use and to see how the students engaged in mathematical discourse. We named strategies and introduced terms like justify and reason into the students’s math talk.

To follow this, I had designed several provocations for students to engage with around the concepts of addition and subtraction. I connected some of the provocations to the K-2 big ideas about computational fluency – relationships between addition and subtraction and building on an understanding of five and ten. After the number talk, I adjusted some of the provocations I had planned, being responsive to what the students had demonstrated during the number talk.

I provided a brief overview of each provocation set out on a table, reading the question and showing the materials. I explained to the students that they would choose what ideas they wanted to investigate or questions they wanted to engage with and they could stay with one provocation the whole time or move to different tables. This was the first time the students has worked in this way during their mathematics time but for the most part, the students made good choices and stayed engaged with the ideas we were thinking about.

The SumBlox blocks were presented on a table for students to explore. This was the first time these students had seen these blocks so I wanted to give them to time to explore and investigate the blocks without a specific question to guide their play.

While students were engaged with the materials and ideas, the classroom teacher, the learning resource teacher and I were able to spend time alongside students, listening and noticing. There were opportunities to prompt and provoke and to invite students to explain what they were thinking about or practicing.

We brought the students to a meeting at the end of our time together, after they had put away all the materials we had been using. The students are beginning to learn how to talk about their mathematical thinking and shared what they did, what they liked and some students were able to share what they learned. With time, the intention is that students will share their findings and questions and make connections with each other during this closing discourse or “congress” time.

At lunchtime, the teachers and I were able to meet and discuss what they had noticed, what questions they had and what assessment information was able to be collected during the practices of a number talk and provocations. A starting point for professional discussion was sharing some of the video I had captured of students explaining their thinking. Based on what we noticed, the classroom teacher and learning resource teacher set some goals as to what they were going to work on with the students before my next visit – developing strategies focused on making ten and developing the language of “decomposing by place value” when explaining their mental math strategies.

These big concepts of addition and subtraction will be explored and investigated in many different ways all year – they are foundational concepts at these grade levels.

~Janice

creating spaces for playful inquiry: October 6 2016

Posted on: October 16th, 2016 by jnovakowski

In the Richmond School District, we have a history of groups of educators visiting the Opal School in Portland, Oregon as it is a school that enacts many of the goals of BC’s redesigned curriculum and the teachers have been researching their practices together for years and share openly through their blog, twitter and visitation days and symposiums. In response to a visit there in January 2015, we have developed a professional learning series in our district to further nurture our thinking around playful inquiry in our school district. Educators who have visited Opal become our district’s “playful inquiry mentors” and open their classrooms to visitors and contribute to professional learning events. This year, our main series is a three part dinner series open to 60 Richmond educators. In September, our playful inquiry mentors met together to think about their role and what their own professional goals are. We thought of a powerful word that captured each of our goals and then wove these words together on a loom.

We thought about ways to enact and nurture playful inquiry in our classrooms, schools and within the district.

And finally, we planned our first session of the three-part series. For each session we focus on a big idea or “theme” and after much debate, we settled on the big idea of community for our first session. After hosting this series for two rounds, we have a bit of a structure that works – open with provocations, sharing by educators, a professional learning segment, dinner together, breaking out into interest-based mentor groups and then a closing.

And so on October 6th at 4:00pm, 60 K-7 Richmond educators descended on IDC and engaged with provocations about community created by the playful inquiry mentors.

An overview from our BC curriculum was provided as to ways the big idea of community is woven throughout curricular areas and competencies:

Erin Cammell (grades 4&5 EFI at Dixon) and Kevin Vines (grades 6&7 Quilchena) shared how they began their school years focusing on community, identity and using circle pedagogy. The importance of building relationships was a theme throughout their presentation.

Sarah Yick (grades 1&2 EFI Dixon) and Carrie Bourne (K-12 French Teacher Consultant) shared how they were both inspired by the responsive learning environments at Opal and are transforming their classrooms (a process…) to better meet their students’ needs and to create access to materials for students to use for thinking and representing their learning.

Brooke Douglas (VP at Anderson Elementary) led us through the focused professional learning segment of the evening – connecting provocations to the core competencies and using I can statements for self-assessment. Her slides are now available on our site on the portal.

After a lovely dinner together, educators chose an area of interest and met in small groups to share, ask questions, discuss and set goals. Each group was facilitated by playful inquiry mentors.

After a few closing words from Marie Thom, reminding us “that we are all researchers of life,” teachers left the event with a large black felt mat and a collection of beads, wire and wire cutters so they could use these materials with their students, mirroring one of the provocations teachers had engaged with earlier in the evening.

We have an open group on our Richmond School District portal so that we can continue our conversations and share between our sessions. And of course, there’s twitter 😉

~Janice

questions to inspire mathematical inquiry

Posted on: July 28th, 2016 by jnovakowski 6 Comments

I have had several emails/messages this summer from colleagues wondering and thinking about the teaching and learning of mathematics through inquiry. Our redesigned curriculum here in BC highlights big ideas at each grade level, in each curricular area. One pedagogical approach to develop students’ understanding (the U in the KDU framework) of the concepts embedded in a mathematical big idea is to provide questions to inspire student inquiry. These questions may be provided as a provocation to individual students, to small groups or to the whole class. Students may work on different questions over time, all connected to a big idea. There are many different ways these open-ended questions may be used in the classroom and are an inclusive practice as they provide entry points for all students to engage in mathematics. These questions invite students to engage with materials and mathematical ideas…some examples:

How many different ways can you decompose 10?

What is the relationship between multiplication and division?

What makes a fraction a fraction?

Through students’ investigations, mini-lessons, scaffolding and prompting from the teacher, students are guided to uncover mathematical content and knowledge (the K in KDU) through experiences that also focus on developing curricular competencies or the doing of mathematics (the D in KDU) such as reasoning, problem-solving, making connections and communicating thinking.

A group of us worked together to create questions that correspond to the new math curricular content and competencies. These questions were inspired by the elaborations for the science curriculum, that had been well received by teachers in BC. The questions are meant as starting points for mathematical inquiry and investigations and may be used to frame a series of varied but related learning experiences. They are written to potentially inspire cross-curicular inquiry as well as integrating the First Peoples Principles of Learning. These elaborations are currently being hosted on the BCAMT website until they are uploaded to the Ministry’s curriculum website. The K-9 document can be found HERE. The following is an example from Kindergarten:

It is essential that students’ background, interest, experiences and understanding inform the questions that are provided to them. Many teachers like to have questions to begin with, that they can then adjust and adapt for their students. There are many sources for these types of questions, as a starting point.

Resources I recommend:

Good Questions for Math Teaching: Why Ask Them and What to Ask

by Pater Sullivan and Pat Lilburn (elementary version)

Good Questions for Math Teaching: Why Ask Them and What to Ask

by Lainie Schuster and Nancy Anderson (middle school version)

Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction by Dr. Marian Small (Elementary)

More Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Secondary Mathematics Instruction by Dr. Marian Small (Secondary)

These four books are all available in many catalogues and online sources.

A new series of books from Canadian Dr. Marian Small – Open Questions for Rich Math Lessons, They can be ordered through Rubicon Publishing HERE.

For those of you who have been following along with our Reggio-Inspired Mathematics project, there is a blog post with various question frames that we use as we co-construct provocations for our students. It can be found HERE. We have developed provocation postcards for K-2 and are working on postcards for 3-5 and 6-9. They have a photograph and one question on the front and a collection of related questions on the back – all connected to one mathematical big idea.

The questions we pose as teachers are important – they need to be responsive and intentional. But, I also think there needs to be space for students to pose their own questions. Something that I have noticed as I work with teachers and students who have been using these types of questions over the last few years is that the students begin to ask these questions of themselves and each other. It is very empowering for the students to be the ones asking the questions that frame the learning experiences in the classroom. I believe its essential to find opportunities and openings for the students’ own questions in classrooms. But that is another blog post…or maybe a dissertation 😉

~Janice

reflections and highlights from 2015-2016

Posted on: June 30th, 2016 by jnovakowski

The end of June always brings lots of good-byes. We are losing about half of our curriculum department for Learning Services in Richmond – it has been an emotional month and change is always hard. We’ve been through a lot together as a team over the last three years and this year was particularly full with the addition of the two Curriculum Implementation days in our district. Through planning and hosting those two days, we have dug deep into understanding the aspects and layers of BC’s redesigned curriculum.

We have spent much of June “populating” the Curriculum page on Scholantis and planning for next year’s professional learning opportunities in Richmond.

Next year will be an exciting year for our district as we embrace and enact BC’s redesigned curriculum. My portfolio is shifting from a focus on both K-12 Mathematics and Science to mostly focusing on K-12 Mathematics. Although I will continue to work on interdisciplinary projects the responsibility of curriculum “implementation” in science will be shifted to another teacher consultant’s portfolio (position to be filled soon).

As I look back on this past year, some professional highlights for me include:

the Creating Spaces for Playful Inquiry dinner series – this large group of K-7 teachers came together to engage in provocations and think about playful inquiry across the curriculum; it was exciting to see this embraced beyond the early years and to see a large group of teachers in our district begin the ripple effect in their schools
sharing work from our district at the Northwest Math Conference in Whistler in October
the Provincial Numeracy Project – as a pilot project this year, three school teams took part in this project modelled after Changing Results for Young Readers
Science Jam was back for its thirteenth year at Aberdeen Centre – this year there was greater evidence of students’ personal inquiry questions being reflected in their projects
attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Conference in San Francisco in April (thanks to the RTA for Major Conference Funding)
attending the Opal School Summer Symposium with a team of 17 educators from our School District
helping to support Inclusive Learning Communities projects at Cook and Boyd and thinking more deeply about inclusive practices in mathematics
continuing to the develop a working relationship with the Musqueam community as we think about storytelling, plants and mathematics
the number of mathematics and curriculum evenings I helped facilitate for parents this year
being a part of the BCAMT Reggio-Inspired Mathematics collaborative professional inquiry project – this project has grown in unexpected ways and it is so inspiring to work alongside teachers interested in making mathematics engaging for their students

And both a personal and professional highlight this year was celebrating 25 years of service to the Richmond School District – such a special event celebrated with colleagues.

Thank you to my CNC colleagues for an amazing year together – best wishes as you move on to new adventures – Brooke, Sarah, Diane, Kevin, Gordon and Lorraine! And a special thank you and good-bye to our administrative assistant Lisa Buemann for all she has done to support me!

Have a wonderful summer!

~Janice

Opal Summer Symposium 2016

Posted on: June 26th, 2016 by jnovakowski

A team of 17 educators from the Richmond School District attended the Opal School’s Summer Symposium (at the Children’s Museum in Portland) from June 16-18. Our team consisted of four teacher consultants, one elementary school principal, two Strong Start teachers and ten K-7 teachers from both French Immersion and Neighbourhood programs. We joined educators from all around the world (and quite a large Canadian contingent) for three days of examining what it means to invest in a pedagogy of play. We heard inspiring speakers, visited the amazing classrooms at the Opal school and engaged in studio experiences. As we were inspired to think deeply about our practice, we made connections to our context in Richmond and to BC’s redesigned curriculum and how taking a stance of playful inquiry, of seeing inquiry as a state of being, can be transformative for education.

“Be curious, try it out and say I can do it.” – lots to be learned from children as we aim to continue to create, nurture and grow spaces for playful inquiry in the Richmond School District.

~Janice

thinking about measurement in kindergarten

Posted on: May 24th, 2016 by jnovakowski

I was invited into Denise Tong Vargas’ kindergarten class at Dixon Elementary to look at ways to present mathematical provocations to students at this age level as well as how to integrate technology use as a way to document learning.

For our first time together, I asked the students to share what they knew about measuring. I then did a little demonstration with matryoshka dolls which the students were fascinate with. We compared their height and ordered them from tallest to shortest. We talked about the importance of using specific mathematical language like long, tall, short instead of a general term like “big”. We talked about how when we are comparing two objects directly that we need to “line them up” or use a baseline for accurate comparison. The students were then challenged to find something in the classroom and compare and measure it in different ways.

As we came together at the end of their investigation time, as a way to share the students’ experiences and consolidate students’ thinking, we co-created two pic-collages using photographs I had taken using iPad technology, focusing on the concepts of baseline and units.

On my second visit to the class, Denise and the students settled in with their regular morning routine and then I talked to the students for a short time about the big idea that we were going to focus on – comparing and ordering objects and how we might use mathematical ideas and measuring tools to help us investigate this. I had set up three provocations on tables, adding to the one that Denise and her students had been investigating already.

And I added another onto the carpet area involving containers and cylinders to provoke students’ thinking about measuring curved surfaces and measuring capacity/volume.

There was high engagement amongst the students and many of the children stuck with one set of materials or provocations while others moved around. It was interesting listening to them play with the language – second tallest, “mediumest”, third shortest, etc., play with the materials and play with mathematical ideas.

I must say that there is something to be said for unique and “fresh” materials that engages students and helps bridge school and the world outside of the classroom. By using toys and materials (like ribbons and pinecones) that they might find outside or at home, the students can see that they can be measuring wherever they are – not only if they have a ruler or Unifix cubes!

Some new pic collages were created to help consolidate the students’ learning and to focus on the big ideas involved with measuring.

I am looking forward to checking in on Mrs. TV’s classroom blog to see what other measuring experiences the students have.

~Janice

creating spaces for playful inquiry: April 2016

Posted on: May 16th, 2016 by jnovakowski

For our second year, a team of Richmond educators who have visited the Opal school in Portland, Oregon, have facilitated a professional learning series called Creating Spaces for Playful Inquiry. Blog posts about our first two dinner sessions this year can be found here and here.

Our third and final dinner session of the year was held on April 21 at Diefenbaker Elementary. Educators were greeted in the library with several provocations prepared by our playful inquiry mentors that focused on connections to the natural world and the use of art materials and visual tools. The following question was displayed to provoke thinking and engagement with the materials:

During and after engagement with the materials, we asked educators to share what they noticed about the affordances of different materials and what connections they were making to our redesigned BC curriculum.

Some teachers had been invited to share what they have been working on with their students since our last session in January. Christy and Jo of Cook shared their students storytelling experience connected to the First Peoples Principles of Learning and their study of residential schools. Jaclyn Cruz shared how she has been using morning literacy provocations and how she extended students’ storying with materials to think about “cover stories” inspired by book covers. Melissa Vervegaert has visited the Opal School the week before so she shared some of her experiences, specifically noting how the teachers and students accessed and used and were inspired by art materials.

After a lovely dinner together, we came together in our different mentor groups – intermediate, primary, kindergarten, mathematics, outdoor learning, non-enrolling (teacher-librarians and learning resource teachers) and engaged in discussions and sharing facilitated by our playful inquiry mentors.

This has been such a powerful series for teachers in our district and we have grown a community of teachers committed to playful inquiry in our K-7 classrooms. The following are some of the reflections from educators in the series:

What did this series offer you as an educator?

A chance to listen to others and hear their ideas – knowing that we are on a path together.

We can all try strategies in our classes but we truly gain a deeper shared understanding through engaging conversations.

It was a great opportunity to hear about what other teachers are doing in their classrooms and how they are taking risks and opening the door for their students to explore.

An understanding of the power of using materials to scaffold thinking, build stories, develop relationships and self-awareness.

A way to connect with others in the district and the inspiration I left with each time – what an amazing experience!

What will you take from your experience in this series that will endure in your teaching practice?

From this experience, I will take with me a different approach to my teaching in all aspects – my outlook, my word choices, how I view my students, how I tackle “subjects” and so much more!

That I need to connect and talk with like-minded colleagues. Sharing circles, provocations, playing with a purpose.

Creating an environment that supports deep thinking, community building and communication.

Use of materials in many different ways. Arranging the classroom environment to better support student engagement.

Inquiry happens naturally – honour the curiousity.

Letting go.

Risk taking…the courage to let go and make small but significant changes.

Wow. Rich professional learning.

We have a team of 16 Richmond educators visiting the Opal School in Portland for a summer symposium in June. Our playful inquiry community continues to grow and we look forward to continuing this series next year!

~Janice

creating spaces for playful inquiry: January 2016

Posted on: January 24th, 2016 by jnovakowski

Almost 60 teachers came together at Diefenbaker on the evening of January 14th for the second session of our three-part dinner series: Creating Space for Playful Inquiry. This is the second year of this series, with most of the participants having attended this series last spring. This series was inspired by a visit to the Opal School in Portland in January of 2015 by myself, Braunwyn Thompson, Hieu Pham-Fraser and Michelle Hikida.

As teachers came into the Diefenbaker they were presented with invitations to provoke their thinking about light and darkness.

Three teachers from the series shared what they have been playing around with in their learning spaces – Amanda Chura, teacher-librarian at Diefenbaker, April Pikkarainen, primary teacher at Blair and Karen Choo, intermediate teacher at Blair. We were all so inspired by how they have been engaging in inquiry themselves and with their students.

Before and after dinner, teachers chose from six interest groups facilitated by our inquiry mentors. Teachers shared ideas, collaborated, posed questions and discussed their area of interest with like-minded colleagues. During the after dinner session time, teachers considered what their plan was going to be for this term and how they might engage their students in playful inquiry in a particular curriculum area – with materials, ideas or language.

The discussions were rich, vibrant and inspiring. Many teachers commented that they felt “filled up” and inspired to move forward in new ways with their students. Teachers sharing their learning with each other is so important but I also think the community we are building is equally important in providing a support system for teachers to try new things, take some risks, develop new pedagogical habits – we are truly better together.

An archive of blog posts about playful inquiry initiatives in our district can be found here:

Playful Inquiry in School District #38

~Janice

grade 1 science: light and sound

Posted on: December 13th, 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.

Our third session (which we held two of due to high demand) looked at the grade 1 physical science content – light and sound.

Teachers were presented with provocations to invite them to think and play with ideas about light and sound.

Teachers paired up to look at an informational picture book which they summarized for their colleagues.

Some classic sound investigations were shared (i.e. different sized elastic bands taped over a yogurt container – plucking them invites students to think about pitch, tone and volume) and then each teacher received a light jar (available from thinkined.com).

Teachers were invited to investigate the materials and think about how the materials might inspire inquiry, investigations and an uncovering of curricular content.

As with our other sessions, we compiled ideas from teachers attending the sessions.

The darkness of winter days and all the celebrations that happen this time of year make it a great time to investigate and think about the properties of light and sound!

Grade 1 Light and Sound – curriculum information

Grade 1 Light and Sound Resources – links and book list

sound and light provocations – question prompts

~Janice