FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
All students will access quality differentiated learning that will result in measurable progress.
Part of my role as Assistant Principal is to be in class as an Instructional Leader in Mathematics. This week I have been working in 1/2R with Lacey Rees and the magnificent learners in that class. We have been exploring three dimensional objects. For quality differentiation to occur teachers must have deep curriculum content knowledge. Take the following question as an example-
Which of these is a cone? How do you know that? Can you prove it?
A teacher’s understanding of the mathematical attributes of a cone enable them to know where a student is at and then differentiate by questioning. With any response the teacher would ask, why is it a cone? Can you prove it? Depending on their response, they would then determine the student’s understanding and next steps. For example if a student responds by pointing out the ice cream cone, a teacher would know that the student needs further understanding on the properties, not only of a cone, but of a three dimensional object. This is because a three dimensional object is closed and the ice cream cone is certainly not closed. The teacher may ask, can you find three dimensional objects that are closed and tell me what the difference is between this ice cream cone and what you found. If a student explains that the orange object is the cone because it has a top, the teacher would concentrate on the attribute of the vertex by asking can you find me some other cones whose top is different and see if you can group them?
Students in 1/2R have made their first attempt at a cone and today are making their second attempt. With the two attempts the students can then use the mathematical language they have learnt and describe the differences between the two, demonstrating learning.
Caz Perryman