I. General Information
School Name: Cilaire Elementary School
School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Inquiry Team Members: Lauren Baetz
Alice Malthouse
Currin Windecker
Jordan Ross
Jarrett Hysuik
Erica Kinrade
Gillian Smith
Lisa Frey
Kitty Kanhoffen
Chuck Hocker
Jon Schaffer
Inquiry Team Contact Email: eorton@sd68.bc.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? Our ‘hunch’ was that many students ‘don’t like/feel good at math” and we wanted to identify those students across grades who identify as “not good at” or who “dislike” math.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: Intermediate students were given a survey to complete in regards to their mindset around math. In the end, we had 70 of 96 completed and found out that 82% felt confident in math. We found out that 53% love math or think it’s okay, and 80% see math as useful in everyday life. The majority responded that they prefer learning through games, hands-on learning, and partner/group work. We were actually surprised (happily) that so many had a positive take on math. We also found it interesting that the majority of students who responded that they didn’t like math were in our middle grades. The same area is where more students didn’t find it useful in everyday life. We also noted a discrepancy between students overall feeling confident in math and where they were according to grade level expectations. We found many of our upper intermediate students were below grade level.
Primary students were canvassed in small group and whole group discussions. Many of them shared that they love doing math and felt they were “really, really good at it”. Many struggled to make connections with using it in everyday life, but we found if they were given a concrete example they could brainstorm related examples. Early primary students were surprised that much of what they do is math related, as they saw it as a play time and that ‘real math’ was what they would do when they got older.
Overall, we found most students were good at identifying what they felt confident in, but many struggled with being specific about skills they needed to work on and almost none could see what was next in the numeracy continuum – not able to express how what they were learning would help with future learning.
Most students could identify at least two adults that they felt believed they would be successful. There wasn’t anyone that did not name at least one adult who believed in them. Almost all named their current teacher as one of the adults.
Focus: While many expressed at least liking math, we still found that when it came to doing math, many are reluctant to do so, worried about ‘wrong answers’, ‘stuff being too hard’, or it was ‘too boring’. There was little ownership of their learning and their role in it. It is something they have to do, not want to do. We are hoping to change this mindset to them feeling more ownership of learning and being better able to express how they are doing, why they are doing it and to make better connections with their learning. We are hoping to create a better connection between the grades, so as students move forward, they are seeing that what they’ve already done contributes to what they are currently doing and what they will be doing in the future.
Hunch: Our hunch is that we have been disconnected in our approaches and practices as a staff. It was expressed in a staff survey that we need to build a shared understanding of numeracy goals and pedagogy, and that we need to establish a strong foundation for long-term growth in student math success. Some staff indicated that they didn’t feel they had a good handle of the curriculum, how to support students at the level they were at, while trying to teach the grade level they were supposed to teach. Many expressed a struggle to fit it all in. There is so much to cover, and between everything, we are trying to fit it into the day; it can get hard to do. Many also shared the struggle they are having with understanding/using newer approaches and because of how they were taught math, struggle with understanding newer approaches. Staff also expressed feeling limited by our limited resources – trying to do a ‘hands-on’ activity without enough materials was challenging. Significant staff changes also made it difficult to cultivate continuity as people move in and out of positions.
New Professional Learning: As a staff, we participated in three numeracy-focused professional development days exploring our district’s numeracy framework. We were able to have the district’s numeracy coordinator come and facilitate these. We were able to do two sessions as a whole school and one that was split into a primary and an intermediate focus. Staff were encouraged to partner with ‘like-grade’ levels to explore these resources and look at ways to feel comfortable with teaching the content, recognizing their own challenges and to look at ways to integrate play into the upper grades. A big take-away is how many of us fall back on feeling the need to teach the way we were taught. Primary teachers explored math rotations (centres/stations) and mathematizing stories to increase understanding of number sense and place value.
Taking Action:
- Our Pro-D committee arranged for our numeracy coordinator to come and facilitate our workshops.
- We made available to all staff the Carole Fullerton resources, Leaps and Bounds, and through our numeracy coordinator, access to the draft numeracy continuum that we explored as a staff.
- Some staff participated in learning partnerships to explore, share and build numeracy centres and stations.
- We purchased math manipulatives that both primary and intermediate teachers had access to help make math more hands-on, exploratory and play based.
- We went through our school library and purchased some books, by Indigenous authors, that could be used as anchors for teaching, practicing and exploring math concepts.
Checking: From the beginning of the year to end of the year we saw growth in achievement – +5% of Ks-3s were proficient or extending, +16% more Grade 4-7 were proficient or extending. This felt like students were starting to match how they thought they were doing with how they demonstrated. We were happy to see growth in abilities, and hope to see further growth next year as we reflect on what went well, what we can improve and how do we best do that. We can still see a marked decline in student math proficiency at the grades 3-5 level and there is a hope to specifically target this in our next step. We were satisfied with this being our first step in building a shared understanding of numeracy goals and pedagogy, and feel that we established a strong foundation for long-term growth in student math success.
Reflections/Advice: Committing to the inquiry is easier than moving forward with the inquiry. It can be challenging to find time to meet as a group and to sustain commitment when it is sometimes easier to continue with what you are already doing. Think big and start small – we get overwhelmed with trying to fit our focus in with everything and realizing that a small change can have a big impact. Developing a strong math mindset, student voice and consistent instructional approaches take time. Ongoing focus ensures a lasting culture of numeracy success.
Staff Reflections: (in no particular order)
– consistent instructional approaches are helpful and take time to develop
– ability groupings boosted confidence and risk-taking
– students improved in sharing thinking and worrying less about mistakes
– fact fluency and math concept retention remains areas of needs
– back-to-basics instruction helped build confidence
– there was increased student engagement, math talks, and ‘ah-ha- moments
– staff reported growth in their own confidence and math instruction
– students still developing ability to clearly explain thinking
– improving access to resources remains a priority
We have several new staff starting in the new year and we want to ensure that they are part of our future collaboration and professional growth. We are mindful that this large change in staff might make things challenging as much of what we built this year in terms of our collaboration and momentum building is no longer part of our school.