How we multiplied math success

Below is a contribution from Lindel Hart, grade four coordinator, and grades one to four teachers at Half-Way Tree Primary School.  Half-Way Tree (HWT) was the highest-ranked Greater Kingston primary school (among cohorts of more than 20 students) in the 2011 Grade Four Numeracy Test, notching 83 per cent mastery. HWT was second among public schools nationally. Here are its strategies.

Mathematics is defined as 'the branch of science concerned with numbers, quantities and space'. With this reality, we endeavour to teach our lessons in a pragmatic way, in order for our children to be cognisant of the usefulness and practicality of mathematics in their daily lives.

You will agree that many of us would have held, at a specific point in our lives, certain viewpoints and misconceptions about mathematics which would have formed the basis of our own philosophy of the subject.

Amid these fears and misconceptions, we must perform the task at hand - which is to teach and to teach well.

Practical and fun-filled

Mathematics must make sense, and it is imperative that as classroom teachers or facilitators, we help our students to associate mathematics with things that are done on a daily basis.

Mathematics must be fun-filled, and at no given time should be presented as a bag of abstract ideas. Teachers must be able to show a link between concepts and what children can associate with.

At Half-Way Tree Primary, we ensure that math lessons are highly interactive and are delivered in a timely and methodical manner. This is a school of thought that was strongly held by our former principal and resource mathematics teacher for Region 1, Catherine Malcolm, who was instrumental in introducing our 100th-day celebration in school, in order to develop number-sense concepts.

Timely sessions were always planned and were aimed at sensitising the staff to the available resource materials that would make learning more interactive and dynamic.

Her vision also embodied the need for students to develop a conceptual understanding of the subject matter, instead of rote learning and algorithm.

Hence, the need for employing multiple strategies, which have undoubtedly yielded the desired learning outcomes.

Benefits of Embarkingon Multiple Strategies

Having employed these strategies, it eliminated students' preconceived ideas about mathematics.

It fostered self-discovery of innate abilities to solve mathematical problems.

It increased the level of parental involvement, as this was evidenced at another initiative, termed 'Family Math Night'.

Students' interest levels were piqued through another initiative, termed 'Math Festival'. At the festival, concepts were reinforced through quizzes, challenges and games.

Recommendations

We recommend that school personnel conduct ongoing training so that teachers' competencies and knowledge base are developed to achieve effectiveness in teaching.

Engage in ongoing teacher evaluation. As reflective practitioners, we must evaluate our strategies, the philosophy that drives our practice, the appropriateness of instructive materials, the suitability of methodologies and the varying needs of the learners.

We need to foster and maintain a positive social climate and a classroom synergy in which children can feel happy, work together and achieve positive learning outcomes.

Teachers need to record anecdotal notes of students, so as to be able to determine the point at which intervention or remedial attention is given.

Establish a teacher-observation checklist by which they can record students' responsiveness to seat work, group work, games, math journals, and general participation.

Increase the instruction time by engaging the learner in additional teaching and learning opportunities in which they will be exposed to more hands-on activities.

Implement a system of greater accountability and parental involvement in which parents will feel accepted and will know that they are an integral part of the teaching and learning experience.

Employ more team teaching so teachers can feel confident to teach concepts they may fear.

Implement students' checklist so they can evaluate themselves and the teaching context, with reference to the modes of lesson delivery, strategies, their attitudes towards learning and their level of preparedness for mathematics classes.

School personnel can also seek sponsorships from private enterprises in purchasing instructive materials, as it is a reality in most of our schools that there are inadequate resource materials to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

We believe that if these recommendations are considered and reinforced on an ongoing basis, schools will be able to achieve national targets.

Strategies

We implement multiple strategies and differentiated assessment techniques each year in order to maintain a high level of competency in the subject. These include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Students being encouraged to create/invent their own strategies by discussing and explaining their thoughts in words, pictures and symbols.
• We take advantage of everyday, as well as other activities, such as: completing a lunch-order form, identifying temperatures, reading and understanding the calendar. In using multiple strategies, teachers are able to provide support to other teachers, as they collaborate and reflect on weaknesses or gaps.
• We intensify professional development, in order for teachers to gain new knowledge and insight and develop their competencies, so they can become comfortable in teaching. With this, their confidence level will be increased.
• Students are given the opportunity to explore mathematics in real life, as this allows for the multi-sensory approach, which forms the basis for long-term memory storage.