MARCH 1ST, 2024
School News!
Arnold H McLeod School – Did you know that at Arnold H. McLeod School all grade 1-5 students participate in Math Flex Groups 4 days a week for an hour? Kindergarten students also math flex but among their own learning team. There are four flex groups: 1-2 Immersion, 1-2 English, 3-5 Immersion and 3-5 English. Students participate in a group in their zone of proximal development or learning level. Some groups are big, some are small . Students practice Independence( one of AHM’s Learning Habits in our Code of Conduct) as they move about the building to their math flex teacher. They get to work in different classrooms and have a different teacher ( not their primary homeroom teacher) in many cases. Not only do they work at their level, they also feel confident, have more success and teachers report there are less classroom behaviour incidents at this time. Also, for example, instead of a teacher trying to teach six different math levels or lessons in one room, they teach one lesson with minor differentiation. This is success for all. In three groups , a resource teacher is added to a math flex team to allow them to work with individualized students and make groups smaller for that grade level team. Here is a grade 5 stretch learning group. They were using a budget to organize and plan a 7-day vacation for their family for March Break. They were learning about fractions, percentages and decimals. Two I wonder questions surfaced . 1. Why are trips more expensive in March compared to May? 2. I wonder why our money is different than American money in colour and value? This led to conversations about commonwealth countries, the fight for US independence, the different coins countries use and how Canada had silver dollars way way back when before the loonie (the students are 10), and a discussion about carbon paper and Gestetner copiers. Above you willl see a silver dollar that had been sealed away for 42 years. The excitement was unbelievable. The students then signed a carbon copy paper (another history lesson in math) and resealed the coin knowing their joy and actions had given their teacher goosebumps. This is just one example of the power of Flexible Math groups. Students can flex up and down groups any time their learning profile changes.
ANGLOPHONE EAST SCHOOL DISTRICT
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