Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Math Buddies Initiative
Similar to Math Buddies Initiative (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Math Buddies Initiative
- 1. Math Buddies Promoting Collaboration and Social Responsibility to Enhance Math Learning Through Partnerships By Chris Sparkman
- 3. School Focus -Continue to have student achievement as an underlying theme in all school initiatives -Emphasize and improve student achievement -Promote a community of learners -A large mix of learners from different backgrounds -One of the largest populations of Aboriginal students in the district -Variety of socioeconomic backgrounds Make-Up
- 4. Background Declining basic math skills for incoming grade 8 students Lack of engagement in the classroom FSA results are low and in decline in some feeder schools.
- 5. Big Question “How can we help support incoming students in developing their math skills as they transition from elementary school in grade 7 to high school in grade 8?”
- 6. Programs already in place Many programs already in place to ease transition, but don’t address numeracy or math skills: Transitions Grade 7 Parent Night Grade 8 Return to Elementary schools
- 7. Math Buddies Initiative Expand on student tutoring within the school Send tutors to feeder schools once a week to tutor math Ease Transition from elementary to secondary Build relationships and model importance of learning Create a greater sense of community
- 8. Goals for the Initiative Improve basic mathematic skills Build relationships and model importance of learning Give students the individual attention they may need Promote collaboration and communication amongst teachers from all schools within the community
- 9. Plan for Implementation Recruiting and Training Peer tutor candidates Identify elementary students to participate in the program Coordination meetings Reflections/Monitoring success
- 10. Monitoring the Success Feedback from elementary teachers about improving math skills Reflections from peer tutors around their effectiveness and the structure of the tutoring sessions Monitor incoming students comfort and outlook toward math before and after having participated in the initiative
Editor's Notes
- The culture at the school is centered around a strong sense of community. Events that are held inside and outside the school all reinforce the sense that each student is a contributing member of a community where they can have a sense of belonging. We bring together students from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, heritages and allow them to bring their views and values together to make the school a better place. The students then have a desire to give back to the community to keep that legacy going.
- Building on the strong school culture, there is a school focus to emphasize student achievement and have it an underlying theme in all school initiatives. This can help promote a community of learners. The school is made up of a variety of learners from different backgrounds as well as hosting a large department of ELL learners. We have one of the largest populations of Aboriginal students in the district and a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds to the students. All of these come together to create the diverse learning environment and positive school culture that emphasizes respect for individuals and others, respect for learning, and respect for the environment.
- In our math department, we have seen a decline in basic math skills as students enter high school. This comes from classroom observations and records of grade comparison over the past few years. We have started a new linear program for our incoming grade 8’s, but the decline we see started before this program was initiated. This was seen by both math teachers and teachers who help ease the transition to high school through Transitions programs in the summer between grade 7 and grade 8. Elementary teachers have the difficult task of teaching fundamental skills in math that are required as they enter high school. FSA results, although often controversial, have shown that students are declining in their skills or have stagnated. When compared with other schools in the district, the feeder school show a trend of lower performance. Solely looking at results and not underlying differences from year to year, the trend shows a decline in numeracy at both the grade 4 and grade 7 level.
- In an attempt to address the concerns and support the students, a question was developed to encompass the information available and provide a path to follow to support students:
- Students entering the school have options in place to help ease the transition and prepare them for high school life, but these programs don’t necessary help assess or improve academic skills that may be lacking. Transitions help prepare them for what a day is like in the high school schedule. Parent night gives information about course options to their students. Grade 8’s are asked to return to their elementary school to tell stories about their experience. These programs are great to ease the stress of the transition, but are not adequate for emphasize skills necessary to be successful in academic classrooms.
- This initiative is meant to not only build math skills, but reinforce the sense of community between all peoples in the catchment area and emphasize the importance of having a solid math foundation. We already have in place a successful peer tutoring program for math where senior students who have a passion for math learning help students who need tutoring 3 days a week. Using the structures already in place and working successfully, we want to build upon the math peer tutoring program we currently have. Bringing successful math students who have a passion for sharing their knowledge and helping their peers, we can train these select students to go to our elementary feeder schools to help work with students and build their math skills focusing on areas that we find are lacking in grade 8. The incoming students will hopefully feel more open and responsive to working with someone who can share experiences with them and give more individualized support to increase their math skills around arithmetic, problem solving, and number sense. Not only will this help build skills, but incoming elementary students will see the value that these older students place on learning and their desire to help others. They will receive the individual attention and support they may need in order to help them become successful. We will create a stronger community where students can see the value in giving back and helping others.
- The Math Buddies initiative has two goals, first it will improve the skills of incoming students and help them be successful in grade 8 math. Skill building and interacting with peers who can share experiences on the transition to high school will help alleviate any anxiety or poor outlooks on math that the students may possess coming into the program. Along with this goal, the peer tutors will gain valuable skills for team building and mentoring along with intrapersonal skills working with a variety of people. These skills will carry over and be applicable throughout their schooling and future endeavors. The Programs has the added goal of boosting communication between the math department of the high school and the feeder schools to help share expectations of what teachers hope students will know and skills they will possess when entering grade 8.
- In order to make this initiative successful, there would need to be guidelines in place around the selection of the peer tutors. An application form would need to go out looking at potential candidates overall academic ability and references who can testify to the ability of the student to help others. Communicating with the feeder schools, we would need to organize a schedule of when these peer tutors could go to the elementary schools to support those students in need. Once candidates were chosen, they would go through an orientation to go over what is expected of them and methods and ideas for what to work on with the grade 7 students. Our group of math teachers would need to come together to create some activities designed to build skills that we find lacking. Supervisors would be set up at each school to monitor the students and help add extra support. During the first 6 weeks of school, the elementary teachers will be responsible for identifying students who would benefit from the program and sending information forms home to parents. This will also be the time to coordinate rooms and supervision schedules. This information will come from previous year’s observations of math ability as well as current trends and predictions of students who would benefit from assistance.
- In order to monitor the success of the Math Buddies initiative, collecting vital information on areas of success and areas where development are further required is needed to keep the initiative growing. Through the use of different elements, we will look at how we can mold this initiative into successful practice. -Feedback from elementary teachers about improving math skills -Reflections from peer tutors around their effectiveness and the structure of the tutoring sessions -Monitor success and overall grade 8 math ability over a number of courses to see patterns of improvement -Monitor incoming students comfort and outlook toward math before and after having participated in the initiative