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Improving Math Literacy In Our Classrooms

Heather Noddin and Nancy Howard

Heather Noddin Nancy Howard

Heather Noddin

Nancy Howard

Biographies

Nancy Howard is a grade 2/3 Teacher at Lansdowne Costain School in the Grand Erie District School Board. Heather Noddin is a grade 5/6 Teacher at Lansdowne Costain School.

This is our second Action Research Project together. Our first focus was writing in the content area of language and our interest this year was math journal writing.

Classroom Background

The Grade 2/3 class consisted of 24 students -- nine students were at the Grade 2 level and fifteen students were at the Grade 3 level. The majority of the Grade 2 students were working at a higher math level in contrast to the majority of the Grade 3 students working at a lower math level. Two of the students were on an informal IEP (Individual Education Plan), three students needed to be scribed for, and one student was from an ESL (English as a Second Language) background.

Working with us, we had one parent volunteer, one Co-op student and two student teachers.

The Grade 5/6 class consisted of 26 students -- 22 students at the Grade 5 level and four students at the Grade 6 level. Three students were formally identified in Math and Language and seven were on an informal IEP.

The dynamics of our school population is constantly changing. We have a high number of single parent, low income families and at the other extreme, we have some high income, two parent families.

What was our concern?

Our school EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) test scores have not been consistent in the math area. Our students seemed to have difficulty understanding and explaining their thinking. Written expression was often incomplete. After several years of testing it was becoming apparent that our scores were not improving significantly. When studying EQAO Student Questionnaire results, we noticed that many students indicated that they did not enjoy doing written math activities.

We needed to promote a more positive attitude toward math, in particular, written math responses. The students needed to develop a more positive self-image when attempting math activities and develop the skills needed to complete these tasks.

What was our question?

Originally our focus question was "How can we improve scores on EQAO testing?" As our process developed we modified our focus somewhat and our new Action Research Question became

Will working with journal writing independently and with Math Buddies improve problem solving and written math skills to promote better daily communication and EQAO scores?

Focus areas ...

Throughout the year, we were hoping to see an overall improvement in problem solving skills, divergent thinking skills, peer mentoring skills and improved writing skills.

What were our math improvement strategies?

Our classes were already paired off as reading buddies and we developed a new program called 'Math Buddies'. Students were allowed to choose a math buddy and we worked with these groups for three sessions before realizing some changes needed to be made. Some personalities didn't work well together and weaker students had a tendency to seek out other weaker students. We decided that task committed students needed to be paired with students that had more difficulty staying focused.

To promote interest and enjoyment we needed to teach journal writing skills using pictures, numbers and words. We needed interesting ideas that would be challenging enough for the Grade 5/6 class yet easy enough for the Grade 2/3 class.

We attended a number of math journaling workshops provided by our Board and attended the Ontario Educational Research Council Conference in Toronto in December, 2002.

We received a grant from our Superintendent, Greg Anderson, to purchase materials with Math Journal and Math Activity ideas. We received support from our Grand Erie Curriculum Consultants with journaling ideas and resources. Our principal, Ruth Mills, supported our program by purchasing math manipulatives. We attended BARN (Brant Action Research Network) meetings gaining support from our colleagues and critical friends. This helped us fine tune our buddy program and our research strategies.

We worked into our schedule some joint planning sessions to select activities in all five math strands. For example, we completed a 'shape collage' activity in Geometry; 'shopping for games' activity for Number Sense; 'tangrams' for Patterning; 'constructing a container for a jellybean measurement' activity and a 'graphing' activity for Data Management and Probability. These were just some of the math activities we worked on together to develop math interest and journal writing. We needed to locate proper resources for fifty students to be actively involved. We prepared a hand out for each session. Each hand out stated the procedure for the activity and expectations (questions to help promote thinking and journal writing). We created math word walls in our classrooms for each math strand and a Think Pad (vocabulary list for each specific activity) so that students could be independent writers. Each journal writing task included a self-evaluation questionnaire and a rubric.

Included in the process were parent letters explaining our action research project and our goals for the year. In May, we developed an Attitude Survey and distributed it to each student. We asked for their response to the Math Buddy program. Their responses included: enjoyment of program and activities, improvement in math and journal writing skills and their feelings on the overall success of the Math Buddy program. A permission form was sent home granting permission for the use of names, pictures and/or quotes from each student.

Throughout the year we logged our observations in personal journals to gain feedback on each session. We discussed concerns when planning for the next journal writing session.

David and amber hard work and creative thinking best friends and math buddies

Indicators of Success

An individual rubric was marked for each Math Buddy session. The results at the end of the year indicated that level one students remained the same; there was a significant improvement from level two to level three; level three's remained at level three or jumped to level four depending on the activity and interest level. There were more level four students in the Grade 2/3 class, including six students that consistently maintained level four. Two Grade 5/6 students occasionally jumped into the level four range. The most significant improvement appeared in the level two range.

Through our attitude survey we discovered that twenty-six students found communicating ideas using pictures to be the easiest task. Ten students preferred to use numbers and fourteen preferred to use words. Seven students indicated that communicating using pictures was the most difficult task. Twenty-one students indicated that communicating using numbers was the most difficult and twenty-two found communicating using words to be the most difficult task.

Thirty-three students indicated that they liked writing in their math journals, seventeen did not enjoy this part of the activity.

When asked if they liked participating in the Math Buddy program forty-three students indicated that they enjoyed the program and seven indicated that they did not.

When asked if they would like to participate in a Math Buddy program next year, thirty-five indicated that they definitely would like to and fifteen indicated that they wouldn't like to do so.

When asked if they felt they got better at explaining math ideas using pictures, numbers and words, forty-one indicated that felt they had gotten better with nine indicating that they did not.

Another Perspective

As part of our assessment we asked students and volunteers for their comments on the Math Buddy program. Overall the comments were very positive.

"The Buddy program helped the Grade 5/6 students with their leadership skills and encouraged them to be role models for the younger students. The Grade 2/3 students looked forward to getting help with reading and math from someone new. It reinforced language and math skills when implementing an activity based task."
- Claire Riach (Co-op Student)

"I scribed for students who had difficulty putting their thoughts down on paper. This program encouraged students to discuss the problem and the order in which they would solve it. Working with a Math Buddy made students more confident expressing their thoughts and opinions. This is a good program for the students."
- Jackie Dawdy (Volunteer)

"This type of program allows students to interact in an educational setting with students of different age and grade levels. The older students aid and guide younger students and the younger students are able to master projects and gain knowledge in area that would otherwise be too difficult for them"
- Kim Wildey (Student Teacher)

"I like going to Math Buddies each time. Thank you for letting me do Math Buddies."
- Corrina Adams (Grade 2 Student)

"Things that I learned about math is that you have to know how to divide and multiply. That you have to understand the question and explain how you did the problem. You have to try different ways to come up with the answer. I like that my buddy and I worked together to get the answer and that we each got to do some of it."
- Jenna McEwan (Grade 5 Student)

Conclusions and Next Steps

We feel that the Math Buddy program was very successful in promoting math thinking and journal writing using pictures, numbers and words. The enjoyment level was considered high, as indicated by student involvement, volunteer comments and staff involved. We have continued support from our Principal. We have been encouraged to share our experience with other staff members. As a result, we hope that other staff members will team up and offer a similar program to their students.

Personally, we have developed, as a result of working together, into better math curriculum planners and action researchers. Our planning sessions were always successful and we grew from the experience and enjoyed working together. As a result of collaboration and developing rubrics for the activities, we feel that our assessment skills have strengthened and we are closer to the Ministry standards for assessing student work at levels 1-4.

We plan to continue the Math Buddy program next year. We will administer an attitude survey at the beginning and end of the year to students in order to compare thoughts and feeling about math activities and assess any increase in confidence level when writing in their math journals. We will send math journals home on a regular basis so parents can see and comment on their child's progress. We will invite parents to take part in our Math Buddy activities. As a result of our efforts this year, we are hoping to see some improvement in the fall 2003 EQAO test results.

References

The Write Math - Cathy Marks Krpan

Dale Seymour Publications

About Teaching Mathematics - Marilyn Burns

Math Solutions Publications

Gage Mathematics Assessment Activities

Gage Educational Publishing Company

Puddle Question Assessing Mathematical Thinking - Grade 2/3 and 5/6

Creative Publications

Sandra Salerno
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