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in-service program
Selected artifacts from the in-service program (B2)
List of concerns shared at the first follow-up meeting
What follows is the text of the newsprint that was compiled by the facilitator to record the concerns identified by the participants at the first project-wide "follow-up meeting" that took place in October, as they shared the highlights of their experience of teaching their first inquiry unit.
How do you set expectations, using processes (e.g. notebooks), etc. within units at the beginning of the year'?
What to do about prior experience of kids - those who have had the same unit or those who haven't had any experience with inquiry -
Need to get work expectations set within group work/inquiry unit
Planning how to plan for letting kids drive unit
How do you assign meaningful homework when class is student driven?
Time: how much time can I spend ­ how long will kids remain engaged?
School interruptions and missing students
Amount of time, particularly with sharing ­ does everyone need to share ­ how to decide
Need to communicate clearly with parents ­ even the goals
What if you aren't sure of the direction (goals) the final project is expected to go in?
Will pre­assessment questions block their learning'?
Exposing kids sense of concepts ­ how to be sure kids knew what area is all about (e.g. difference between distance and area in application)
How do you meet the goal of working with decimals and fractions when kids see rounding as a possibility for work (remodeling)?
How to prepare for Course 1B or Course I ­ need to set these expectations from beginning
What math topics/ideas are in remodeling that are needed in Course 1, or IA or IB?
Needed to do more direct instruction (prompting, suggesting,...) than originally planned.
Kids getting "journalled out" with other teachers using journals too
What other vehicles can we use to get kids to articulate their thinking?
Need to find time for the teacher to go over and use journal work in class
There are still a handful of kids who need additional work with skills (e.g. multiplication, division, fractions) ­ how to find more time for that
What do you do when the units are finished?
Additional units may not be as much fun ­ how to keep the excitement
Needed to create sense of REAL size by finding good examples (e.g. 6 ft x 3 ft rectangle).
Needed more and better tools: Discovering Geometry by Michael Serra ­ Key Curriculum Press
Need to vary approaches
Importance of the support of other educators
Kids who "knew" area at first became confused, frustrated
Transferring their own ''formulas'' (e.g. columns x rows) and their own language to standard formulas was difficult for the kids.
Concerned about results of written­assignments, variety of interpretations of "my" wording of directions
Writing and verbalization is a problem for certain LD students who's strength has often been math ­ do they see connections to "math"
How will enriched students and their parents see these units ­ how do they connect with their ideas of REAL math?
Need for "higher"'' kids as models to get some kids started
Need enough kids for group dynamics
In group work, particularly, how much direction do you give when students ask questions'?
Can you use the textbook?
Needed to use their math book to validate work
How do you tell someone else what to do - if you have to have a substitute
How do you work as a team with "non­initiated" special education, resource room, math teachers ­ someone who doesn't know goals?
Stayed too long with easy shapes ­ kids needed more challenge
Kids still do not do well on tests and I don't know why.
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