Grade 7 Geography - Natural Resource Project

Link to Yukon King's Video: here

Sources for articles about Natural Resources (for oral presentation project): Newsela

Newsela is just one option.  You are encouraged to look for other articles but must not spend too much time doing so.  You MUST sign up for your topic/article with Ms. Reyburn before beginning your graphic organizer.

Link for Perspective Articles

Grade 7 Geography, 2018-19, Hawthorne Public School:

To view story for "Station 1", Ownership, click here

For video on real vs fake Christmas trees (Station 6),  click here

Diversity in the math classroom

General Culturally relevant instruction stays focused on the big ideas of mathematics and helps students engage in and stay focused on the big ideas. 

Strategies to incorporate Cultural Diversity in the classroom - establish a classroom environment where everyone feels their ideas are worth consideration. The way that you assign groups, seat students, and call on students sends clear messages about who has power in the classroom. Distributing power among students leads to empowered students.
 

- Six mathematical behaviours have been found across time and culture: counting, measuring, locating, designing and building, playing games (e.g., "Mancala"), and explaining (e.g., telling stories) (Bishop, 2001). When your curriculum takes you to one of these topics, invite students and their families to share their experiences and use these experiences to engage in the content.

- focus on important mathematics, make content relevant, incorporate students' identities, and ensure shared power as part of what you naturally think about as you plan, teach, and assess, then you are likely going to lead a classroom where all students are challenged and supported.

 

FNMI students - Indigenous languages tend to originate from an oral tradition: This indicates ways of learning that emphasize hands-on experiences, apprenticeship perspectives, emphasis on mastery of skills, and visual-spatial learning.  Learning, then, is viewed as holistic, experiential, and rooted in relationships, nature, movement, tradition, language, and culture (Cappon, 2008). Listening, watching, and doing mathematics through relationship and real-life modelling are important ways of learning.

  English Language Learners - Rather than assume that mathematics is a universal language or limit the use of mathematical terms and symbols, teachers need to maximize the language used, but do so in multiple ways to support language development while keeping expectations for mathematics learning high. In the following example, the teacher uses several techniques that provide support for her ELL learners
- discuss as a class terms that may not be familiar and offer definitions in a way ELLs can make sense of
- model the mathematics before starting the problem
- pair ELL students with someone who can give language support
- use think/pair/share at the beginning of a lesson to give information as a class that can support ELLs
- use visuals and concrete models as support
- do not diminish the challenge
- allow students to use native language as needed "code-switching"
- state clear objectives at beginning of lesson
- simplify instructional language without simplifying the task
- create accessible problems
- explicitly teach vocabulary - word walls with visuals, graphic organizers, anchor charts, recording tables, play games focussed on vocabulary
- As you analyze a lesson, you must identify terms related to the mathematics and to the context that may need explicit attention. Consider the following task
 - 

A traditional math lesson

We had to read a description of a traditional math lesson and then talk about our connections to it as either a student or teacher.  The lesson described has the teacher asking the students to pull out their homework from the previous day.  The teacher walks down the rows checking to see who completed it.  The teacher then calls out the answers for each question while the students check their work.  Following that, the teacher does two new questions on the board outlining the steps to complete each question and then assigns new questions.

My connections to this lesson come straight out of my elementary school days.  While I really liked math and did well in it, it was based in rote learning.  The difference from the lesson above was that we were encouraged during the take-up of work to share our answers on the board.  This was also done during the lesson phase sometimes.  I don't remember many word-based problems and I don't recall doing any collaborative work.  There was almost always some homework that repeated the questions we did in class.

I can't connect to this as a teacher because I haven't taught math this way.  I have seen other teachers teach this way but it is often mixed with some collaborative learning and lots of teacher attention while students do their textbook work.

Questions about Process Expectations

We have been asked to read through the Mathematical Processes section of the Ontario Math Curriculum Guide (Pages 12-17) and post questions that educators may have about these processes.  I have come up with three questions.

1. Under Reflecting: What are some strategies that educators could use to get students to reflect more deeply and meaningfully on their thought processes and their and their peers' thinking?

2. Under Connecting: How can we better plan our math programs to encourage connecting between skills, processes and mathematical concepts?

3. Under Selecting Tools and Computational Strategies: How can we fill in the gaps in efficient computational strategies (that will lead to stronger mental math skills) without feeding students processes in ways that go against learning problem-solving skills?

Ethical Standards of Practice

I'm about to view a video of a lesson being taught to a group of students by a teacher.  Both the students and teacher are unknown to me.  We have been asked, before viewing the video, to review the Ontario College of Teachers' Professional Standards of Practice which are:

Respect
Care
Integrity
Trust

We have been asked to reflect on how we can uphold these ethical standards when observing and discussing student learning and educational practices.

First, when viewing another teacher in her or his practice, I will always speak about that person's work with integrity - focussing on the craft of teaching, not personal attributes.  I will also keep under consideration that I don't know anything about this person's personal issues, relationships with their students or administration or any other things off screen that could be affecting their practice.  I will also assume that each teacher is doing their utmost to also uphold the OCT Standards of Practice.

I will also be applying these principles to viewing the students on screen.  I will be caring in my comments and observations.  I will speak with integrity and honesty and I will also be worthy of the trust the public has assigned to me.  I will be respectful of all abilities, cultures and backgrounds.

Drill and Practice

The question we have been asked to consider is: Consider the role of drill and practice in your own experiences learning math. What did practice look like for you? How did it have an impact on your learning, disposition, and beliefs about math?

One of my strongest memories of elementary math was Math Champs.  In my public school, Math Champs was a weekly competition for Grades 4, 5 and 6 (I believe).  Each week, we would compete against our classmates to take home the addition, subtraction, multiplication or division trophy. I distinctly remember standing in a line between the desks with a long addition question on board.  We were timed on how long it took us to solve it.  The winner would then compete against the other winners and the top winner would get the trophy for that week.  I remember the anticipation, the pressure, the disappointment, and then the elation the week I took home the long division trophy.  I was so proud.   But I also often dreaded it.  I was strong in mental math but not as fast as others in my class.  

This was a time (the 1980s) when fast calculations meant you were strong in math, quickly solving problems, and getting the right answer was what mattered most.  

On a daily basis however, I remember the typical math practice.  Have a lecture style lesson from the teacher, open our text books or receive a worksheet, and practice the procedure that we had just been taught.  Often each question was similar to the last.  There were very few, if any, word problems.  Word problems weren't something I encountered until high school, and even then I don't think they were common.  It was drill, drill, drill through calculation after calculation.  

Now, as I teach students through problem solving (although I still frequently encounter drill and practice work in classrooms that I supply in), I get excited about solving the problem, finding ways to tackle it, and talking with students about their approaches.  This is exciting math.  No more math champs for me.