Miss Younger's Math Musings
I have summed up what have been my most important learnings over the past seven weeks into a power point presentation that could be presented to my colleagues. For me the last seven weeks have been transformative as a teacher, pushing me out of my box and showing me things that I didn’t know were…
Read alouds are a wonderful way to infuse language into our math programs. There are many great picture books that engage students creativity and curiosity in the math classroom. I often use my math read alouds to introduce or reinforce a concept. Making the connection between our language instruction and our math instruction helps students…
Student math toolboxes Each student has a toolbox in their desk to use any time 20 2-sided red and yellow counters 20 bingo chips 100 paper counters (each student has a different shape) Paper base ten blocks Units Rods Flats Cubes 6-sided dice 10-sided dice Ten frames Place value chart to 1000’s place Number word…
We all know that attitude is everything in life. Our mindset and outlook influence our path forward and success, there is a large body of research on mindset and math attitudes from influential educators including Jo Bolar ( https://www.youcubed.org/). Early in the school year I try to determine where my student’s attitudes towards math lie,…
I have chosen to adapt a task from Aboriginal Perspectives at the University of Regina this fabulous resource was shared with me by our Aboriginal Support Worker at my school. The resource has many samples of math problems that support authentic and culturally sensitive first people’s perspectives and the BC math curriculum. It was important to…
My district often runs book studies about various topics, and I participate in the ones that interest me. A few years ago I participated in one on the book “Big Ideas for Expanding Minds” by Jim Cummins and Margaret Early, the book focuses on teaching ELL students in all the curricular areas. At the time…
This is another place where rich math tasks and low threshold high ceiling activities give all students the opportunity to shine and explore. This activity could be extended and built upon for gifted students. The activity below could be extended using drawings, manipulatives or equations depending on what works best for the student. The activity…
I love the idea of Low Threshold High Ceiling (LTHC) tasks, something that all our students can begin and be successful at but allow students to go as far as they want with their understanding. I’ve noticed that many rich tasks fit this description, students can all find an entry point to the activity and…
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/mathdiffs.html https://onq.queensu.ca/content/enforced/536573-CONT930001S21/Module_4/Supporting%20Students%20With%20Learning%20Disabilities%20in%20Mathematics.pdf Reading through these strategies I can for sure say this document will be added to my teacher binder so that it’s at my fingertips at school. So many of the strategies in this document can be implemented as a whole class basis as part of the UDL and RTI frameworks. By using some…
Dyscalculia was news to me for sure. This is something I’m now wondering about with one of my students who struggles with math and not due to their attitude or effort, they are giving it everything they have but it’s just not connecting, they are on the list for a psychoeducational assessment before the end…
