The Debrief - SWST Habit of Mind
Communication in Math @ Terry Fox P.S
Deepening the Understanding of the Student Learning Experience
Collaborating Teacher Ms. Penumarthy Grade 4
Growth Mindset Collaboration of Ideas
- Looked at student work from a growth mindset or what they were able to do
- Students' strengths helped facilitate next steps in instruction
- Limited deficit thinking attitude and focused on moving students forward
- Open to learning new ways of teaching and learning as reflective practitioners
- Students view teachers as learners and engage in reciprocal math learning opportunities
Questions About Student Learning
- How might students use and learn multiple strategies to arrive at a solution?
- How might students be facilitators in groups to drive mathematical discussion?
- How might teachers improve questioning of mathematical concepts to drive large group discussion?
Theory of Action
If we engage students in mathematical discussion by asking effective questions to provoke student thinking and deepen their conceptual understanding through teacher talk moves, then all students will understand how to recompose and decompose numbers using a variety of strategies to solve mathematical tasks and demonstrate their thinking in different ways.
DOCUMENTING STUDENT VOICE
Pre & Post Assessment
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DEBRIEF
Resources
Key Learnings
- Student engagement high as students persisted with tasks when working with groups
- Students made attempts to understand different strategies spoken by other students
- Students felt safe and included in the conversation
- Multiple entry points for low performing students
- Scores improved on same assessment given
- Listening to students provided assessment information and reflective planned next steps in instruction
Ms. Penumarthy
"I am hooked on the 3 part lesson. I am going to use this method all the time concentrating on facilitating the debrief at the end. I do have to work on those scaffolding questions as well. I would like to improve on my content knowledge to be able to facilitate a Bansho as part of my debrief because that would give me an idea on how to connect the simplest strategy to a more complex strategy thereby improving students' flexibility with numbers. Now that I have implemented the 3 part lesson at least 3 times a week I feel more confident in preparing lessons and constructing students knowledge in math."
"I think the SWS Initiative is a great learning opportunity by collaborating together and fostering a reflective teacher practice. I liked how there are an extra pair of eyes in the classroom to observe and study student thinking and learning. By co-teaching the debrief we were able to reach more students and listen to student voice with an inquiry stance."
--Terry Fox Public School, May 2015
Sheila Sastri - Peel Student Work Study Initiative
Email: sheila.sastri@peelsb.com
Twitter: @SastriSheila