I. General Information
School Name: Fairview
School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Inquiry Team Members: Maggie Davidsion maggie.davidson@sd68.bc.ca
Charlotte.bayliss!sd68.ca
Angela.scott@sd68.bc.ca
aimee.blow@sd68.bc.ca
cindy.haack@sd68.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: aimee.blow@sd68.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics / Numeracy
Focus Addressed: Numeracy
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? The connection between mathematics and learning from the land.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We noticed that the students trust their classroom teachers and admin. When asked about what they are learning, we noticed very general topics.
Focus: We need to be more direct and intentional with out learning outcomes and review outcomes: use learning target statements for the math curriculum over a long period of time.
Hunch: This is a big school with lots of staff and many approaches to teaching numeracy. The school is made up of two physical wings which divide us at times. Mathematics is still an ‘inside’ subject rather than taken outdoors. How do we create spaces or view spaces that support learning outdoors?
New Professional Learning:
What can we do in our playground space that will be new?
– Learning spaces for intentional learning, not free play.
What is most important?
– Inviting and collaborative, as well as access to the garden space for learning over the year.
– Using more cross-grade buddy activities.
– We can look at our school goals for how we can collaborate with buddies and learning.
Taking Action: We had two professional learning groups for math, primary and intermediate, as well as support from the district numeracy team spending Thursdays with us. We had a staff member who was a numeracy lead that would share back about new numeracy continuum. We borrowed resources from the district loan centre: binoculars, magnetic tiles, 3D printer, and Makerspace. We posted a problem of the week for the whole school. K-2 made efforts to explore play-based learning. We also borrowed kits for adding, subtracting and division.
Checking: We found we needed more time and experience to bring these math topics to Hawthorne, Buttertubs, and Bowen parks. We wanted to know more about how to assess in a way that reflects learning through making observations and can communicate to families that this is learning. We are excited to learn more.
Reflections/Advice: How do we share learning with families and colleagues? How do we share observational assessment with colleagues? How can we explore documenting learning that is done by the group? How do we build community in mathematics on the land. Making real and experiential learning is valuable, worth our time and supports our learners. We can further explore parents/guardians responses and understanding to what math ‘looks’ like and ‘is’ when it’s not in a worksheet.