I Am Not a Number written by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer tells about the experiences of a young girl at a residential school. This book tells of some of the horrible experiences children faced in residential school. It speaks of children getting their hair cut, eating food that made them sick and the physical and emotional punishment children were subjected to for speaking their traditional language. The actions of the adults in this book, while accurate as to what happened in residential school, can be upsetting to younger students. Know your students when deciding to read this book.
Where to next? Ask your students why they think the nuns wouldn’t let the kids speak their own languages.
Reflect on your own beliefs and what you were taught as a young person about residential school. Many Canadians were taught little, to nothing about residential school and the history of Canada’s relationship with the Indigenous people of this land.
Deepen your own understanding as to why the Canadian government made it law for all Indigenous children to be taken from their families to attend residential school.
Stolen Words by Melanie Florence is a book that addresses the loss of language and culture students faced in residential school. A grandfather tells his grand daughter about when he was forced to learn English and was not allowed to speak Cree.
Children in residential schools were told that their culture and their language was wrong. Indigenous children were made to feel ashamed of their culture and language. Children were severely punished for speaking their traditional language and as a result entire generations of Indigenous people did not speak the languages their ancestors spoke before colonization.
Many Indigenous people are working hard to learn their language. Many schools on First Nations and in public school boards are taking steps to revitalize and strengthen the knowledge of their traditional languages.
What’s next?
Find out what Nation calls where your school is situated their traditional territory. See if you can learn to say “hello” and “thank you” in their language.
Invite someone from a neighbouring First Nation to come and teach your class some words in their traditional language.
Make a video of your kids teaching others to say a few words in an Indigenous language, share it and use the hashtags #engagelk #indigedLK.
Shin-Chi’s Canoe by Nicola I. Campbell is the sequel to Shi-Shi-Etko. This story actually takes place In Residential school and shares some of the horrible hardships the children experience.
This book is a good way to keep the conversation about residential school going with your students.
Where to next?
Ask your students why they think we need to hear stories about residential schools. Have them record their ideas and create a video to share with other classes.
Invite your students to share with others why we honour residential school survivors on Orange Shirt Day and why we need to remember them and talk about their experiences throughout the whole year.
What does the mom mean when she says, “We would never, ever let you go, but it’s the laws that force us to send you away to residential school.”?
What do you think happened when parents tried to keep their children home? Do some research to find out.
After your research, discuss if laws have always been fair for everyone.
Share what your students come up with by using the hashtag #engageLK and #indigedLK
In the student work video, the student created a model to represent a balanced equation. When she composed each side of the balanced equation she counted each part individually and then recounted all cubes, starting at one, to find the total. This is called counting three times.
She modelled both numbers in the equation using cubes. She counted out 3 black cubes to represent the 3, and 6 yellow cubes to represent 6.
Where To Next: Consider the Continuum from 'What to Look For' by Alex Lawson
Where to Next? Counting On
Looking at the continuum on page 4 of the What To Look For text by Alex Lawson, we can see that a possible next step should be counting on. This would be a more efficient strategy for the student as she would not have to count one "part" of the equation. A student using this strategy select one of the numbers and would count up from it. For example; start at 3 and count on 6.
When developing questions to support your students using the strategy of counting on keep one of the numbers small, to encourage success. A great activity to get started with reinforcing counting on is Dots and Numbers Dice, found on page 163 of the What To Look For text. Other activities include Real Counting On, Hide the Counters, Missing Part Cards, Piggy Bank Wars, Riddles with Tiles, Salute and Snakes and Ladders
Math Strategy: Instead of counting all when combining two values the student begins counting at one of the given numbers and continues to count on until they have counted as many as the second number. Math Strand: Number Sense and Numeration
Overview:
Counting On is a mental math strategy to use for addition. Students could be encouraged to start using this strategy once they are joining two numbers and Counting Three Times (add link). Counting On is being able to "hold" a quantity in their head and then add on to it. Students start with one of the addends and count on by ones until the second addend is reached. Once the student has grasped counting on then the next step would be to focus on efficiency with this strategy which leads into counting on from the larger amount and identifying that Counting On is only effective if your adding 1, 2, 3, 4 to a number (no higher amount).
How this supports student learning: Being able to start counting at any number is important because it shows how well a student understands numerical order. For example, when a student adds 7+5, some students have to rote count to 7 and then begin counting on. Also, the Counting On strategy reinforces the commutative property of addition where a pair of numbers can be switched around without changing the result, for example, 5+7=7+5. This strategy puts them on the road to more efficient strategies.
Where to next? You can reinforce the Counting On strategy by using a variety of manipulatives such as dominoes, linking cubes, ten frames, and number lines. Counting On activities can be found in the texts, "Number Talks" by Sherry Parish and "What to Look For" by Alex Lawson, specifically on page 162. (Copies of this book will be available in all schools shortly.)
Share your classroom experiences with Counting On with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK!
Math Strategy: when a child is asked to add two sets of numbers, they count the first set, count the second set. Finally, they put the two sets together and count again from one.
Math strand: Number Sense and Numeration
English video:
French version:
Overview:
Counting 3 (compter 3 fois)times is a strategy students use who do not have conservation of number (do not understand that a set of objects equals a certain quantity without recounting them again). They do not trust their count.
Where To Next: Counting three times is early on in the continuum of numeracy and development for addition and subtraction.
Children generally make a natural shift from this strategy to a more efficient one. If you are seeing a student who is ‘counting 3 times’, their next step is to ‘count on’ from one of the quantities (compter à partir d’un nombre).
Activities that promote ‘counting on’ can be found in the texts, “What to Look For” by Alex Lawson, page 162 and “Number Talks” by Sherry Parrish (pages 98-106). Also check out la Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques, de la maternelle à la 3e année – Numération et sens du nombre page 95 (http://www.atelier.on.ca/edu/resources/guides/GEE_math_M_3_NSN.pdf)
The games from “What to Look For” by Alex Lawson are also available in French through the eText!
Share your classroom experiences with Counting 3 Times with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK!
Overview:
Go Fish can often take a long time so students are encouraged to use the phrase “Does anyone have ___” so that the game is quick and students get lots of chances to ask their questions and match cards.
Bang is played with a deck of letters or word cards with several cards that read BANG! Students select a card, read the word/letter, possibly make up a sentence/word that starts with that letter (your choice) and then keep the card. If students are unable to read the card it can be replaced at the bottom of the deck or a player can help the student decode the word. If a student gets a BANG! card then all their cards go to the bottom of the deck. (The game never ends - so a time frame must be decided on prior to the start.)
How Bang! and Go Fish! support students:
Both Go Fish! and Bang! provide students with the opportunity to practice recognizing letters, letter sounds, sight words or new vocabulary. Go Fish! Is used to match upper case to lower case letters or to work on letter sounds or even words that begin with the letter. Many languages do not share the English alphabet and few alphabets have upper and lower case letters.
Bang! is a great way to consolidate understanding of new vocabulary and provide opportunities for students to understand meaning of words and to use them in context.
All our students need repeated exposure to new vocabulary in a variety of contexts to help them consolidate new word knowledge. This is a fun quick way that students can practice what they have learned.
Classroom Friendly Land Acknowledgement Video (English):
French:
Why The Land Acknowledgement is Important:
Remember, we are all treaty people, and saying the Land Acknowledgement at school everyday during the announcements is a small step that we can all take toward reconciliation. What steps will you take?
Have you had a conversation with your class about what they think the land acknowledgement means? It’s okay to not initially understand, but then it is time to do the work and talk about it and learn more. Do research to learn more about treaties and the relationships between settlers and the Indigenous Peoples of these lands. Learn alongside your students if you are unsure. We are all lifelong learners and it is a great opportunity to show your students that you are still learning.
Learn about the history of colonization in Canada. Learn about the Nations that call the land where you live or where your school is found their traditional territory.
Building relationships is a very important aspect of learning. Invite a visitor from a neighbouring First Nation into your school to share their knowledge and understandings. Go to a celebration on a First Nation near your home.
Support Indigenous Peoples when they are standing up for the rights of the land and water. Where we live and work and play is now shared space on Traditional territory. Take time to listen.
A great app to learn more about treaties and traditional territories is the “This Land is Our Land” app. Use it in your classroom when discussing the land acknowledgment. If you take a field trip to another city take the app with you and learn who calls that city their traditional territory. We are all treaty people and we all have the important responsibility of learning what this means.
Steal the Bundle is a card game that provides helps to strengthen students’ understanding of the anchor of ten (also known as the Making Ten strategy). Players look to pair one card from their hand with either a card from a shared pile or a card from another player's discard pile (referred to as “the bundle”). The value of the two cards combined must equal ten. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
How 'Steal the Bundle' activity supports student?
Steal the Bundle provides students with lots of opportunities to practice making ten, with a variety of numbers. Over time, this will help them quickly recall the combinations required to make ten, strengthening their understanding of known facts.
This game also helps students in developing their understanding of part whole relationships, as they begin to recognize that as the value of one card (or part) increases, the value of the other card (part) they need to make ten (the whole) decreases.
Where to Next?
The What To Look For text by Alex Lawson provides more activities like this, based on the Anchor of Ten strategy. Examples include; Go Fish to Ten, Make 10 Concentration and Make 10 and Add to the Ten. Be sure to provide your students with manipulatives (ten frames, snap cubes, rekenrek, etc.) as they play these games.
Share your classroom experiences with Anchors of Ten with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK!
Math Strategy: recognizing a quantity without counting each item
Math strand: Number Sense and Numeration
English video:
French version:
Overview:
Subitizing is being able to instantly recognize how many are in a set by looking at them and not counting each item. For most people we can only subitize small sets (less than 5) unless they are in some kind of familiar pattern. For larger sets of numbers, we tend to decompose the set into smaller sets that we can instantly recognize.
We start subitizing small sets of items such as 2 and 3 and recognize and quickly visualize an arrangement as a quantity. This strategy helps children to determine “how many”. When children are shown a variety of dot patterns, some will count each dot and some will be able to identify the number by subitizing. One example is counting the pips on the faces of a die: when you roll a six, the arrangement of pips on the die eventually gets memorized as a quantity of 6 and you don't need to count each pip. Until that arrangement is familiar, one might see this as three rows of two as being equal to six or two columns of three to equal six or other ideas.
Many activities exist to help students subitize. You may decide to show images quickly for a few seconds to imprint this image in the mind versus allowing too much time to count each item. You may put images of quantities on cards like flash cards and flash a card for a few seconds and then put the card down so the students cannot see it anymore. At first you may need to leave the card visible for longer to allow students to count. But remember, the goal is to get students to tell how many without counting (Subitize). How many do you see? How do you see them? are common questions you may ask. TIP: In our video there are two representations of 4. It is important that students understand that a quantity can be modelled in different ways and still be the same quantity. (conservation of number). Similarly, different representations should be subitized such as dots, dots in five-frames, dots in ten-frames, fingers, and tally marks.
How this supports student learning:
Subitizing is fundamental to the development of a strong sense of number. The ability to subitize small numbers helps to minimize the amount of information to be held mentally as well as the amount of work to be done. It is a more efficient way of determining 'how many'. It helps students develop skills, such as unitizing, counting on, and composing and decomposing numbers, all valuable components of number sense.
Where to next?
Provide multiple opportunities to practice and master subitizing of small numbers.
At a time of year when we are all getting back into the groove of thing, by the time we get home at night we are just as exhausted as the kids. If you’re anything like me, I am constantly on the lookout for fresh and new activities to use with my students in class. I love activities that I can adapt to a variety of different situations and that can be used to get students talking in a variety of ways. It’s also great when I can use the activity to help scaffold student learning of the target language.
During the past two Septembers, I surveyed our Core French teachers and asked them to share some of their ‘go-to’ activities they use with their students during transition times to facilitate life ‘a la carte’. The following info graphic is compilation of those activities. If you download the PDF version (on a computer or a tablet), it becomes an ‘interactive poster’! When you click on the activity you are interested in, it will bring you to a Google Docs that provide further detail about each activity and supporting resources.
You can even add the entire folder of resources to your own Google Drive by clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the poster (in the PDF version).
I hope that each and every one of you will find at least one activity that you will be inspired to try with your students. What do you do to ease transitions when you arrive at a class or a class comes to you? If you have activities to add, please share them below in the comments.
With Orange Shirt Day coming up quickly its a good time to start the conversation with your students about residential schools in Canada. There are many books available that will help our students better understand why we honour residential school survivors and the thousands of Indigenous children who didn’t make it home from residential schools.
Playing games, like Addition War, is a great way to discover what strategies our students are using and where they are on the continuum of learning. As students are engaged in the game with their partner, the educator circulates around the room, observing strategies and engaging in conversation with their students about what they are seeing and providing feedback.
How 'Addition Wars' supports student learning:
In the Addition Wars video clip, in the 'What to Look For' publication, we see Kate using the counting on from the larger number strategy to determine that 6 and 4 more is equal to 10. Referring to the Student Continuum of Numeracy Development: Addition and Subtraction, from the “What to Look For” resource by Alex Lawson, we can see that she is still working on counting more efficiently and tracking.
Where to Next?
This continuum also offers valuable information about “Where To Next” that can be an excellent support during conversations and when providing feedback! A clear next step for Kate would be to use near doubles, as she develops her ability to work with numbers. 6 + 4 could be treated as 6-1 = 5 and 4 + 1 = 5. Using compensation, she would adjust the numbers to be able to work with 5+5; finding the sum of 10 more efficiently.
Knowing where Kate is, and providing feedback about where to next will help her to become more proficient with her addition strategies. We also need to support Kate by providing learning opportunities that promote the near doubles strategy. Some examples specific to this strategy can be found in the “Number Talks” by Sherry Parrish and the above-mentioned “What to Look For” text.
Share your classroom experiences with Addition Wars with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK!
Wondering how to prepare students to be ready for the next 10 months of math? Try this activity to support spatial visualization skills, listening skills, expressive skills, math language, and prepare students to begin to give feedback (How am I doing at this, how are you doing at this, where do we go to next to improve our ability to do this?). This game will naturally promote the development of “Where to Next” thinking.
How 'Taking Shape' supports student learning:
This spatial thinking activity, from Taking Shape: Activities to Develop Geometric and Spatial Thinking is designed to improve students mental imagery abilities (visualization). It requires students to visualize before acting on a prompt. This strengthens their ability to move shapes in their mind. As noted by the authors of Taking Shape, it will allow students to form and manipulate shapes in their mind to develop their spatial visualization skills. The authors note, “children with strong visualization skills perform better in a number of academic domains, and specifically in science and math”. Visualization is a critical math skill that is useful in problem solving and in each math strand. Through the video, students are encouraged to visualize, verbalize, and verify. This process will support students efforts in problem solving.
As a bonus side to this activity, students will be able to realize the importance of clear, specific instructions. They can also be encouraged to use math language. As well, they will identify the need to listen clearly to find success.
Where to Next?
After re-creating this activity with a peer, students will be able to note a difference between peer directions and the model in the video. This is a perfect opportunity to naturally identify success criteria. Once students know what needs to happen they will be able to give feedback to their peers and themselves about communication in a math class (listening and expressing).
After the activity “Will your students be able to identify the need to listen with intent? Will they be able to tell a peer what they can do to give clearer instructions? Will they improve their visualization skills?”
Disclaimer - if you use the whole video students will want to spin the created shape. If you don’t want this to happen do not show the section where the final product is shown. You can build your own to use as a comparison
Share your classroom experiences with Taking Shape with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK or write a comment below!
Activities to generate conversation, engage students and encourage a positive mindset toward mathematics. Click the links on each slide to go to the resource.
