As you will know, if you have been following my journey (or have read my last post) this year I faced a real challenge. The children walking in the door lacked number sense, had a very limited understanding of the role of numbers. They could write numerals, but had no idea of their meaning. Numerosity was a real issue.
I do wonder if my work in structured literacy has helped me to see better when children have struggles.
On top of this, developmentally across the board children were not quite ready for the world of Number Agents. So for the first year in what seems forever, I could not teach maths how I would have always done.
My journey into structured literacy had shown me the value of a scope and sequence, so I took it upon myself to research and find one that would work for these children specifically for maths.
I busily read the NCETM early years math curriculum (which were the basis for many of the big ideas and the teacher speak indicators) The old BSM documents, The current NZ Maths information and Jo Boaler's junior curriculum books. One of my main inspirations was Woodin maths, the concept of the woodin patterns really appealed to me and the founder Chris Woodin and his boundless knowledge of working with children who are challenged with dyscalculia tapped into what I wanted for a structured approach to maths. There is a gaping hole in math curriculums when it comes to really providing for children in this way, just as there as been for children with dyslexia.
What I wanted to do most importantly was to create a resource that used a variety of materials, because let's face it, not all resources work for everyone. I was taught in a time of Cuisenaire rods, hundreds blocks and thousands blocks, they did nothing to help me and math continued to be an area that I struggled in throughout my school life (and still do.). However I do have to say, my work into patterns and deeply understanding number has helped my own mathematics greatly.
I think we all need to understand that there is no one stop approach to anything we teach. When it comes to mathematics the best approach allows children to see math in a variety of ways so that they establish strong foundations to go on from. I also wanted to weave all of the visual strategies that I know work and encourage math talk as I also know that is an absolute key. Woven through the sequence are these visual activities and each session is also tied to a number block episode because these guys are amazing!
As children move through the scope and sequence problem solving is introduced, but the very cool thing is that once this is introduced, children have the patterns to hang their hat on as a strategy.
The scope and sequence is written with this in mind...the woodin patterns form the basis of the first sessions, but after that numicon and other resources can be used to supplement and add to these.
Anyway, back to the point of the post...why am I loving this scope and sequence so far?
I guess the main reason would be that it is working. When we started out, we had children I had real concerns about, when asked to get three, they would grab a handful, they had no idea what the whole would look like. It took weeks and weeks, but now those children are really showing an understanding of what a whole looks like up to ten, they make a better estimation when gathering an amount and have a good knowledge of the Woodin patterns to fall back on. They have a concrete way of showing us an amount that they know works. From here they have been able to look at parts and understand that a whole can be broken into parts. When using dot talks, they are starting to use this understanding of parts to establish how many in the whole.
Children are showing flexibility and confidence with number. Those that struggled are starting to see friends to ten, starting to really understanding teen. I am noticing a greater ability to compensate, understanding that 8 and 6 is the same as 7 and 7. They are also becoming very adept problem solvers for their age and stage and when drawing problems visually, are starting to understand that when representing a group, drawing say eight dots in a line is hard to count, but drawing four and four makes it easy for the brain to see.
Those children I had concerns about? Well they are flourishing under this approach. The patterns have given them to confidence with number that they needed. They have a sense of number that they did not have before and they LOVE maths. Now when children have a parts of a whole activity, they approach it with real confidence. As an example, the whole in our last session was 12. They could see 4, but the rest were hidden under two boxes. This would have been hard before, but this time they approached it with great gusto...collecting 12, working out the missing part and then finding ways this part could be split between the two shapes. Everyone did this and the pride on their faces was amazing to see.
Math language has increased, they are able to express themselves more clearly and with understanding. The scope and sequence goes at a lovely slow pace, it revisits concepts in a range of ways and this has allowed confidence to grow. Using the modelling book to summarise key points within our sessions also allows us to revisit and discuss.
The sessions are easily broken up into manageable part and sometimes a session takes us a couple of weeks and that is ok. In fact, the more deliberately we approach this, the better it is.
I was lucky to pick up where I left off with my class from last year. We were already a quarter of the way into the scope and sequence at the end of the year. Remarkably, none of that learning was lost and the children displayed confidence with the patterns right from the beginning.
This year the new entrant class has started with the scope and sequence, they are already noticing the confidence growing and the success children are having. For them it is also easy, the thinking is done, so the teaching and learning is at the fore. Energy can be put into quality teaching, learning and reflecting.
For my class, we are just finishing session 44 of 60. Coming into the business end of the scope and sequence. However I don't think we will have time to create a full blown agency as I had wanted to, In fact I think we will only be finishing this all in Term 3....what I had not accounted for is that this scope and sequence if taught well, possibly takes a year. So to ensure I can bring the drama into my problem solving, we will start a mini agency, with a multi-purpose villain. I look forward to that!
I love Number Agency, but I think that this scope and sequence has to be the thing I am most proud of! At the end of this year, I will go through and edit/add to it based on my findings from teaching the full thing.
If you want to know more, you can join my Number Agent facebook group, linked from my page. In this group I share snapshots of our learning each week.
My store is located here on teachers pay teachers, you can find the scope and sequence here.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Number-Agents
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