I. General Information
School Name: Richardson
School District: SD#37 Delta
Inquiry Team Members: C. McGuire
Inquiry Team Contact Email: cmcguire@deltaschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics / Numeracy
Focus Addressed: Numeracy
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To improve the bridge between conceptual understanding and long-term retention.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We saw declining math scores, low retention, low basic fact fluency and low confidence.
Focus: We selected numeracy because of the lack of instructional alignment across our dual-track and combined-grade classrooms, focusing on the significant learning gaps for our students. By adopting a unified approach, we hoped to eliminate these systemic barriers and create a seamless, equitable learning progression across all grades and language streams. Ultimately, we aimed to boost student confidence and equip all learners with a consistent, robust foundation in math strategies.
Hunch: “What is consistently challenging for our learners across all grades?” As a dual-track school offering both French and English programs, we noticed significant variance in our instructional approaches; teachers were utilizing different textbooks and resources to deliver the same curriculum. Consequently, students transitioning from the French Immersion program to the English stream frequently struggled due to these instructional inconsistencies. Furthermore, students in combined-grade classrooms experienced gaps in conceptual understanding and strategies depending on whether they were in the younger or older cohort of their classes. These observations led to our hunch: a single, streamlined math program implemented across all grades and both language tracks could bridge these gaps. This theory ultimately drove our school-wide adoption of the Math Minds program.
New Professional Learning: Continuing our work with the Math Minds model, our professional learning focused on mastering its structured slide decks, using student workbooks efficiently for extra practice, and aligning our instruction with unit pacing guides to ensure instructional consistency. To support colleagues, we centered our collaborative learning on evaluating what was working and identifying where adjustments were needed to best implement high-engagement, low-stakes formative assessment strategies. This included editing lesson slide decks, utilizing rapid math-fact repetition slides, and using erasable surfaces (like mini-whiteboards and plastic sleeves) to encourage greater student participation. For our combined classrooms, we shared strategies to streamline instruction, helping teachers anchor lessons in one grade level and either extending upward or scaffolding back to support the other cohort. Ultimately, our professional learning design was rooted in ongoing, collaborative reflection, allowing staff to evaluate student progress and dynamically adjust pacing and lesson focus to meet learner needs.
Taking Action: Core Instructional Tools & Resources.
- To create consistency across all classrooms, we established a foundational toolkit centred on high engagement and clear structure, supplemented by targeted practice tools:
- Structured Lesson Delivery: We utilized standardized Math Minds slide decks, strategically skipping redundant slides or excess information to maintain a brisk, engaging lesson pace.
- Low-Stakes Interactive Tools: Mini-whiteboards and plastic sleeves were used daily for immediate student response, allowing for rapid math-fact repetition and high participation.
- Independent Practice: Student workbooks and worksheets were used efficiently to provide targeted, extra practice.
- Supplemental Resources: To reinforce concepts and maintain interest, teachers integrated tactile and digital tools, including manipulatives, math drills, educational card games, and math-focused computer games.
Classroom Management & Engagement Strategies.
- Maintaining focus in a structured program requires agility. Teachers implemented several dynamic strategies to keep students on track:
- Proactive Engagement Tracking: Teachers frequently scanned the room to check for active student engagement, adjusting the length and pacing of lessons in real time based on student focus.
- Redirecting Off-Task Behaviour: When students lost focus, such as doodling on their whiteboards instead of participating, teachers introduced alternative forms of engagement, interactive tasks, or rapid-fire review questions to recapture attention.
- Repetition and Peer Review: Daily routines included intentional repetition, cumulative reviews, and structured opportunities for students to share their mathematical thinking and strategies with peers.
- Differentiation & Assessment in Combined/Diverse Classrooms. Meeting the needs of diverse learners and split-grade classrooms was a major focus, requiring a mix of formative and formal data collection:
- Real-Time Formative Assessment: Teachers relied heavily on live observations during lessons and active monitoring/checking for understanding while students worked independently.
- Formal Benchmarks: Regular quizzes were implemented as formal checkpoints to accurately track individual student growth and concept mastery.
- Navigating Multi-Level Challenges: Recognizing that finding questions to fit every level in a combined classroom can be difficult, teachers actively collaborated to curate, modify, and source tiered problems that scaffolded down for younger/struggling students and extended up for advanced learners.
Checking: Yes, we are making a meaningful, noticeable difference by implementing instructional alignment and continuity across our school. By transitioning from the multitude of different textbooks and resources to a unified program, Math Minds, we are reducing the learning gaps that previously hindered students. While navigating the multi-level dynamics of combined-grade classrooms remains an ongoing instructional puzzle, our school-wide framework provided teachers with a shared language and program to better manage these complexities.
We relied on a balanced mix of quantitative and qualitative evidence to measure our impact:
Regular quizzes provided objective data on student concept mastery, while structured workbook practice and math drills tracked the growth of basic math-fact fluency for formative and formal assessments.
Daily monitoring during lessons, specifically watching student responses on erasable surfaces, gave us immediate evidence of increased student engagement and participation.
Observations and shared feedback from staff during collaboration blocks and professional development days showed a greater ability to successfully implement the “focus and extend/scaffold back” model.
We are very satisfied with our foundational progress, especially the shift toward instructional alignment and the increase in the number of highly engaged students. However, this is an ongoing journey. Moving forward, we will continue to refine our pacing, keep up with student engagement, support struggling students and collaborate with staff in similar grade groupings.
Reflections/Advice: Our biggest takeaway is that meaningful change takes time; a single year is not enough to fully measure the impact of a new program or for staff to become entirely comfortable with its structure. We learned that while a school-wide program provides structural alignment and a shared language, it still requires ongoing navigation. Student engagement, pacing, and multi-level differentiation will always present challenges, and individual teachers will need to adjust to their classroom’s unique composition year after year.
While implementing and refining the Math Minds model remains an ongoing journey for our staff, it will no longer be our inquiry focus next year. As a staff, we are moving on to a literacy-focused inquiry. However, the collaborative structures we built this year will remain intact; teachers will be able to continue to meet and collaborate as needed to share math resources, troubleshoot pacing, and build out our differentiation toolkits.