Lesson plans for Innovative Maths teaching

Teachers face an increasing number of challenges in their daily work in the classroom and they often struggle to receive the training or support to address these. The Teacher Academy by the School Education Gateway supports educators to access relevant training opportunities by providing teachers (from Pre-Primary to Upper Secondary) with a platform to search for, participate and evaluate training courses available onsite and online across Europe. 

In 2016 and 2017  Moving to Maths 2.0 course was organized to help   Maths teachers to  foster a sense of curiosity and confidence and also to help students understand the relevance of this competence outside the Maths classroom.  

As part of the course, participants produced lesson plans (also known as learning designs) incorporating many of the ideas, tools, and activities covered on the course. These lesson plans have been curated by a participant editorial board, which has reviewed and selected the lesson plans for publication here in the Teaching Materials section. The members of the participant editorial board were appointed to the board due to their exemplary work and commitment as part of the course and include:

·         Adriana Colda

·         Adriana Laze

·         Anita Šimac

·         Ariana-Stanca Vacaretu

·         Diego Tich

·         Igor Bogdanoski

·         Lorenzo Castilla Mora

·         Mariapia Borghesan

·         Michailidou Christina

·         Virginia Alberti

The lesson plans can be accessed here and are available exclusively in English.

From this virtual space, my heartfelt thanks  to the authors of these lesson plans:

·         Mariapaola Biondi

·         Michela Beoletto

·         Chiara Invernizzi

·         Igor Bogdanoski

·         Ariana-Stanca Vacaretu

·         Virginia Alberti

·         Christina Michailidou

·         Anita Simac

·         Snezana Tosovic

·         Kerli Viidebaum

·         Anastasios Xanthopoulos

·         Lena Kristin Eckhardt

·         Chiara Ghilardi.

·         Giuseppe Vullo

·         Zulmira Magalhaes

·         Alessandra Cadamuro

·         Xenia Xistouri

·         Maria Petrescu

·         Arminda Pereira

·         Lorenzo Castilla Mora

·         Kolipetri Zoi

·         Francesca Romana Beneo

·         Enrica Maragliano

Some lesson plans are aimed at Primary level but most of them are for 12-18-year-old students. Review comments by Maths teachers are also provided. 

The course has concluded but you can still access the modules by registering here.  You will not have the support of the instructors but you will be able to enroll the course and get all contents by clicking on the modules tab above. 

PISA 2018: an opportunity to develop life skills in our classrooms

Global competence is defined in PISA as ‘the capacity to examine global and intercultural issues, to take multiple perspectives, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development’.”

It is obvious that   global competence is not only developed at school. However,  schools play a crucial role in helping young people to develop global competence and contribute to more inclusive societies. I must say that our multicultural  schools are already paying close attention to intercultural sensitivity and respect but  much more needs to be done to share internationally successful models of education that build bridges across cultural differences. 

For the first time, PISA 2018 includes both assessment and background questionnaires on the Global competence.

The assessment will be based on scenario-based tasks. The tasks simulate activities that teachers can facilitate in the classroom or life situations that 15-year-olds can experience, they draw on different areas of global education (e.g. education for sustainable development, human rights education, intercultural education), have different levels of complexity, and require the activation of one or more cognitive processes.

The background questionnaires completed by students, teachers and school principals gather information about the conditions that may enable or hinder the development of students’ global competence. Students will be asked to report how familiar they are with global issues; how developed their linguistic and communication skills are; and how much they differ in attitudes such as adaptability and respect for people from different cultures. 

You can access the  file " Preparing our youth for an inclusive and sustainable world" here  and  very practical resources and case studies  are supplied by  the platform   Global Dimension.

Apart from welcoming the inclusion of the Global competence in PISA 2018, I would  like to provide teachers with some resources on all competences included in PISA 2018. Click on the links below to access the pdf files with the sample test items:

-  Science competence:  PISA 2015  Released field trial cognitive items 

-  Mathematics  competence:  PISA 2012 Released Mathematics items

-  Reading competence:  PISA Reading Literacy Items

-  Financial Competence:  PISA Financial LIteracy questions and answers

Related to this last competence, Young money platform is a very useful source of free downloadable  resources for those educators who teach topics related to Financial Education. 

Whether your school is participating in PISA 2018 or not, I believe that the resources above are a must if we wish to teach life skills and I am sure they will be very useful for CLIL teachers.

One! Two! Three! CLIL-to-go!

Next Tuesday I will have the pleasure of meeting a new group of Secondary teachers  and develop the first seminar session of eight that willl take place during the year course 2016-2017. It is always an inspiring challenge for me because I will have to cater for what they need for their classroom practice and they belong to different schools, teach a variety of subjects through English and different levels too. Therefore,  the beginning of a new CLIL seminar is a type of cooperative game that allows all of us to develop our problem solving skills  as a team and is awarded with the best prize for a teacher: increase learner's motivation.

As I have  just introduced the concept of games, In this first entry I would like to encourage CLIL teachers to make their students take part in healthy competitions - those that  will  help them develop important skills they'll use well into adulthood, like taking turns, developing empathy and tenacity.

Let me provide you with three of them for different subjects: 

- "We are different, not indifferent" is a contest to fight against bullying and it is organized by the ONCE. All students from Spanish public, private and government-subsidised schools can participate. The contest is open to all groups of non-university  students: Special Education, Primary (years 3 to 6), Secondary, Basic Vocational Training, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training (intermediate and higher levels).

- The European journal for Science teachers Science in Schools organizes a  writing competition on the strangest species on Earth. (If you are a Science teacher and you do  not know about this magazine, please have a look at it because it is really worthwhile: the contents include teaching materials and projects in Science education, up-to-date information on cutting-edge Science, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and many other useful resources for Science teachers. Online articles are published in many European languages and you can download them for free)

- For Math teachers, Math counts  Foundation  organizes a series of competitions but this time you have to pay if you want your students to take part in them. However, the resources section of the website provides you with a huge variety of problems and the video library offers a collection of videos that pose very interesting topics for Maths. 

We will develop the topic of healthy competition in length in our seminar session, among other essential  topics  for our CLIL contexts: classroom language, planning a CLIL lesson, developing the 4 Cs, task types in CLIL, etc. 

Therefore, One! Two! Three! CLIL-to-go!

The language of Mathematics in Science

The Association for Science Education (ASE) is the largest subject association in the UK. As the professional body for all those involved in Science education from pre-school to higher education, the ASE provides a national network supported by a dedicated staff team. Members include teachers, technicians and advisers. The Association plays a significant role in promoting excellence in teaching and learning of science in schools and colleges. Working closely with the science professional bodies, industry and business, the ASE provides a UK-wide network bringing together individuals and organisations to share ideas and tackle challenges in science teaching. The ASE is an independent and open forum for debating science education, with unique benefits for members. It provides a unique range of services to promote high quality Science education by developing resources and fostering high quality Continuing Professional Development.

From these lines, I am very pleased to inform you that The Language of Mathematics in Science: A Guide for Teachers of 11-16 Science is now available to download from the ASE website http://www.ase.org.uk/resources/maths-in-science/ . The aim of this guide is to enable teachers, publishers, awarding bodies and others to achieve a common understanding of important terms and techniques related to the use of Mathematics in the Science curriculum for pupils aged 11-16.

This publication provides an overview of relevant ideas in Secondary school Mathematics and where they are used in Science. It aims to clarify terminology, and indicate where there may be problems in student understanding. The publication includes explanations of key ideas and terminology in Mathematics, guidance about good practice in applying mathematical ideas in Science, along with a glossary of terms.

The main part of the guide consists of ten chapters, organised around the "kinds of things we do in Science":

1. Collecting data
2. Doing calculations and representing values
3. Choosing how to represent data
4. Drawing charts and graphs
5. Working with proportionality and ratio
6. Dealing with variability
7. Looking for relationships: line graphs
8. Looking for relationships: batches and scatter graphs
9. Scientific models and mathematical equations
10. Mathematics in the real world

You can download the publication directly from here.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your active participation  in the CLIL seminar in Getxo and to remind you that I will let you know about  the new seminar sessions for 2016-2017 next September. Meanwhile, we will go on meeting through the diverse virtual learning spaces we share. 

Last but not least, let me wish you a very well-deserved summer break and remember that  “ rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” (John Lubbock, The Use Of Life)

The best eTwinning project in English 2016

 

Today I would like to write about an eTwinning project that has been awarded a "special category prize": the best project in  the area of teaching a curriculum subject through the medium of English. This prize  has been awarded to the project entitled " AIMS Alternatives for Innovative Math Study"

AIMS is an eTwinning project involving 7 Secondary schools from Romania, France, Holland, Italy, Poland, Greece and Spain. 

I have chosen to write about this project because those of you who attend my CLIL seminar know I am a firm believer in the theory of Multiple Intelligences and  the participant teachers in this project use the MI theory to discover and develop each student's particular skills, needs and interests, differentiate and adapt the teaching methods to them. 

Besides, AIMS uses cooperative learning methods, which is not so common in Maths classes, fosters autonomous learning and promotes mutual respect, tolerance and understanding for students with different abilities.

Last but not least,  students who have taken part in this project   create their own learning materials for each type of MI  by using motivating ICT tools or modelling real-life situations so that mathematical contents become relevant for them.

Below you can find  an example of the use of mind maps, developed by the Greek team:

 

It is, indeed, an ideal project for our CLIL classes. It focuses on Maths and it aims  mainly at making 11-16-year-old students see the connection between Maths and real life but it covers many other subjects:  Design and Technology, European Studies, Foreign Languages, History, / ICT, Mathematics / Geometry, Natural Sciences, Physics. 

You can access the teaching guide below:

      


You can download the publication above in pdf format from here.

My heartfelt congratulations to the participants and my deepest gratitude for having shared their activites and outcomes  on the Twinspace and on their blog. 

TEACHING MATHS THROUGH ENGLISH

Our last seminar session this year 2013-2014 took place last May 27th and I was very happy to check that all teachers attending  it are eager to continue developing their multilingual projects at schools.  Therefore, we will go on with our seminar sessions in October and keep on paving the way for  multilingualism at Secondary level in our schools. 

Throughout this year I have received several e-mails from teachers who are ready to start implementing Maths so that is why I have decided to write my first post on this area.  

Obviously, basic goals would be to engage students in understanding Mathematics while improving their English competence. In my view, three main  instructional strategies should be developed: 

- Make Maths comprehensible

- Provide opportunities to talk

- Support talk

It goes beyond the scope of this post to develop each of the strategies above in depth but  I would like to encourage teachers who will be facing this challenge by suggesting some of the strategies that are proved to be very helpful to support learners: 

- Identify a Math and a language goal for each lesson

- Build language scaffolding (sentence frames)

- Create vocabulary banks

- Use manipulative materials

- Present problems in familiar contexts - we will be more successful in        motivating  our students if we make them     face  meaningful everyday    problem      situations as much as possible.

- Prepare visual support that facilitates the acquisition of new content.

- Enhance partner talk as well as choral responses.

- Design different questions and prompts for different learners' levels

- Provide students with good models, demonstrate what you need from them

- Make abundant use of yes/no questions with beginners and allow for non-verbal responses too.

- Be aware of the purpose for language: to describe, to hypothesize, to compare, to differentiate...

Undoubtedly, a challenging task ahead. We will talk about how to develop the strategies above in due course but now  let me share with you a basic list of web  resources  that can help you with the planning of your Maths lessons.

As Humphrey Bogart would say,  I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship - between Maths and English in our case. Therefore, let us enjoy it together after our well-deserved rest. 

Looking forward to meeting all of you, Math and non-Math teachers, in October.