Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Uncorrected Student Writing: Responses to the Youtheatre Production "Beauty"










Shadow Puppet Show "Beauty"

By Laurie-Ann

December 9, 2010

The play is about a brown haired girl who lives at the dump and she survives with the garbage that she finds. One day she wakes up brushes her teeth with her finger (she doesn’t have a toothbrush) when she realized that there was dirt on her finger. She tried to wash it off with water but that’s she realized that she did not have any left. She started to panic and look for water everywhere but she could not find any. Just then a blond haired girl with a grey hat and dirty close showed up holding her baby doll and she also looked like she was panicking. Then, the brunette hid behind her metal desk. She looked scared. The blond haired girl was looking for water but she could not find some. All she found was some garbage bags and empty plastic bottles. All that thinking of water made her thirsty but at the point that she fainted. The brunette came out suddenly with a curious look on her face. The blond haired quickly woke up and saw that there beside her was standing a girl. They both backed up but then they realized that there was nothing to be afraid of. In no time at all, the girls were friends and they set off on a journey to find water. After days of traveling in danger they came back to the dump but they were not empty handed. They had found a big red barrel. They opened it and a big light shined out of it. It wasn’t just a big red barrel; it was a magic big red barrel. A few seconds later it started raining. The barrel really was magic. Out of it started growing huge plants. It beautiful!!!

To tell the story the girls used “Shadow Puppet Theater”. They didn’t talk in the play so they had to exaggerate their actions and they had to show their emotions clearly. We also had to figure out the story but I liked it anyway. In the play they used stuff that they found at the dump like the big red barrel. All they had to do was to clean them out.

I personally find that the beauty of the story is the friendship of the two girls. I think that the moral of the story is that friendship is important no mater how different you are. It’s also that some people do live in dumps; some people do run out of water so maybe we could change it by each doing our part and recycling, reusing and reducing.

I personally find that the play was wonderful because it is a combination of three of my favorite things. Drama, art and friendship. I loved the way they presented it. It showed in there work that they worked long and hard on it. They put a lot of emotions and energy in the play.



Beauty Ashley

Shadow Puppet Show December 7, 2010

The play was about the dump, the garbage, friendship and what it was like living in a dump. The play was a lot about garbage we could see all the garbage on the ground and it looked like a dump but not as bad as a real dump. Before they would act they would do a drawing on their table that would describe what they were going to do after. They tried to find a way to have water because they were thirsty and they was all kinds of things in her water that wasn’t good to drink. When they found the treasure everything changed for them they were beautiful plants and beautiful materials. They chowed us that the world could change a lot in a dump.


For the play they told us that they tooked some of the materials at the dump in Montreal. The materials that they had were plants, garbage bags, music, a table, a chair, bottles, old umbrella and dirt. They also used a projector and a light to show their drawings and other materials that were in the box but we didn’t know what they were called. I noticed that the play was a sad play. I notice that the beat of the music went with the actions they were making. I notice to that they didn’t talk in the play so that should of been hard and the last thing I notice is that they were doing Drama and they stayed in character easily. There was some things unusual when she did the sculpture with the bottles, they would get of the umbrella.

The play connects with things I know because we talked about it in class. We talked about how it could effect the planet with all the garbage and pollution we were making. I noticed that it could happened that there could be no more water because of all of the people that are on the earth and it could happened that we would have no food too. I noticed too that if we continue to do pollution there would be garbage everywhere. I noticed that there was no electricity and they did not have what they needed to live. The people that were acting were trying to send us the message to do less garbage and were trying to show us what it was like living in the dump and how it would look like if we were living in the dump.

My opinion of the story is I didn’t love the play because there wasn’t much acting they were almost all of the time drawing pictures of the dump on there table but I liked the fact that they talk to us about it because maybe people will think before putting garbage on the floor or always using plastic bags or things it takes all long time to decompose and other things that pollutes the earth instead of using topper wars and things that could help the earth to not pollute as much as we do now. The story connects to my life because there is a dump behind my ants house and I could see the fire when they would dig the whole in the ground and put the garbage in the whole when to her house. I could also hear the trucks when they would go and dump the garbage. I wouldn’t like to live in the dump because there is so much garbage and it smells very bad. I wouldn’t like it to have a house on top of a dump because it could happened that it catches on fire and for me I would feel insecure to live there.









Beauty

Emile

December 7th, 2010

The story is happening in a dump two girls were living there they were trying to get a way of drinking water. When the so on her machine she does a plan and than she plays in the sand. They are going to go get some water while they were walking a truck came to get them. But one of them escaped. The one who did not escape eventually escaped. The one who escaped founded a red barrel and it was full of compost when she arrived she opened it. I think she was surprised she started to do a drawing. Her drawing was beautiful she started to take flowers she pulled them out and out it was wonderful.


In the play they did not speak. But there were music and they were using expression with their hands. They were using cardboard they were also using things that were in the dump like bird cages and bottles. They were using soil in the drawings.

The story connects with the garbage because the class and I are doing a project about the amount of garbage. It’s also connecting with the dump because we are reading a book that is talking about the dump and its pretty interesting to know how much people care about the amount of garbage there are.


My opinion about the play is like so-so because first I did not see many play like this and it wasn’t what I was thinking it would be like. I thought it would have been animals that were behind a blanket but when I saw that it was people I was a bit surprised. At the same time the back ground was very interesting all the things they toke from the dump that could have been reused but they were throw it in the garbage can


Classroom Fundraiser

Oh No! Not another one!
Hello Families,

Thank you for not recycling this paper immediately!

I was offered an opportunity for a quick fundraiser that I believe to be a good value for families. It offers 50% profit for the class and will require a limited outlay of money and time for everyone. As classroom material is costly and needs to be refreshed often, it is an unfortunate reality that teachers and families need to raise money to supply the classroom with learning materials.

I am asking families to sell only two gift cards each for La Cage aux Sport. The cards cost 10$ and are a 10$ value when used in the restaurant for one of three meals. The cards are good until November of 2013. In essence, each family will have twenty dollars of gift certificate for the restaurant, and the class will have made ten dollars profit per family.

Money will be used for classroom material for your child’s class.

Thank you for your support and understanding,

Kathy Napier

Please send back the form as soon as you can, especially if you are not buying cards, so that I can sell them elsewhere.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Offical learning and the teachable moment... Space exploration

I used to teach science. Before the decision was made to have science taught in French, I taught science to my core group, and I enjoyed it a great deal.



This morning, the students and I went off on a tangent related to a math question. We had a very interesting discussion about space exploration and the possibilities of permanent colonies on the moon or Mars.

I was a student in the 1980s, when shuttles went up all the time and we sometimes watched news bulletins in class.(from a small tv that used rabbit ears for reception). I was home sick the day the Challenger shuttle exploded just after take-off, and I remember watching in disbelief as we all were reminded just how dangerous space travel could be.

What surprised me most this morning was that many of the students believed that humans have been to other planets. No doubt a product of the movies and television they have seen, many students have some fairly serious misconceptions about space travel and exploration.




The following links will bring your child to information on plans for a lunar outpost, the NASA and BBC websites and give them a chance to learn more about this fascinating topic.

Enjoy the pedagogical days,
Kathy Napier

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Memory Lane & Multiplication



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX9J7WcYtxI&feature=channel

I ran across this "vintage" video tonight with my kids and the multiplication in it really jumped out at me. Ask your fifth grader how multiplication strategies are shown in this 59 second preschooler video.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

And the Firefighters Came Back!


Grade Five had a pretty special week.

Each year, the Drummondville Fire Department run a number of city-wide contests in conjunction with Fire Safety Week. One, the Firefighter for a Day contest, was won by Lloyd, an he had an amazing day.

Another contest is a fire drill contest. The firefighters are present for one unannounced fire drill at the beginning of each school year. Our school, once again (I must brag) was the fastest school in the city to evacuate and account for everyone (under two minutes).

As a result two classes in the school won a random draw for a pizza lunch sponsored by Mike's. Yay!







But, as if that were not enough, firefighters came and ate with the students, brought three fire trucks to school and allowed the students a guided tour inside the cab of one of the trucks. Students were given firehats and goodie-bags, and were filmed by COGECO for a human interest story.




And... they brought a mascot!




It was a wonderful day, and the students are very grateful for the time and attention shown to them.


Thank you, Drummondville Fire Department!




Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A Big Day in Grade Five!


Many thanks to Mr Hamel for the photo.
What a great day it was today!
Congratualtions to the students who ran in the ETSB XCountry Race (2km of the hilliest course these students have seen yet). Who knows, perhaps a lifelong love of running was born as these young athletes tore up the course. You should all be very proud of yourselves!

And also...

A hearty congratulations also goes to Lloyd, who won the city-wide "Firefighter for a Day" contest. Not only did he get to drop the puck during the face-off of the Voltigeurs' game last weekend, but he will also spend an ENTIRE day with the firefighters this Friday (yes, he will miss school - with our blessing). He wrote an excellent essay and deserves this wonderful honour. Enjoy!

On another note, I have lost my voice, and will not be at school for at least the nest two days. Let me take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Make the most of the long weekend!

Kathy Napier

Saturday, October 2, 2010

It's Been A While...

Hello again,
Glad to be back posting. I had been waiting for some consent to photograph slips to be able to post the photos below of our wonderful trip to the Canadian Railway Museum ~ Exporail in St-Constant, Qc.

It was a wonderful visit and I would like to thank our fabulous guide, Caroline, who worked to so hard to balance the mechanical and historical information and make sure the students learned as much as they could about how the railway changed Canada.




















Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Commonsense Approach to Homework

Homework is an important part of your child’s education. It allows them the opportunity to review concepts and strategies learned in class, and helps them learn to plan their time outside the classroom. For the parent, it is an opportunity to see what the child is learning at school, to review and clarify ideas with the student, and to gage how well their child has understood.

In cycle three, your child will have approximately forty-five minutes of homework and studying each week-night. This will include the math pages, revising math concepts (such as multiplication), working on English homework, studying French verbs and vocabulary, and revising texts.

Most assignments and lessons are given over many days so that families can have multiple nights to complete the work. Given that many students have extra-curricular activities, parents should review the homework on Monday and plan how it will be completed during the week. Some nights the student may have to choose what to focus on: if a text is due the next day, that may take priority, and math pages need to be completed before we move on to more challenging concepts. Never is a large amount of work given and expected to return completed for the next day.

While it may seem like an obvious statement, homework is to be done at home. The same way parents supervise the completion of other chores, parents need to make sure their child completes their homework. Given that homework is not done in my presence, I rely on parents to ensure that it is completed. I do not give punishments at school for something that was or was not done when I was not present. Teachers would not be expected to give a detention to a child who did not make her bed, because that is a home responsibility. The same can be said for homework. I do not control how the student uses their time after 2:45. That is the role of the parent.

It is my experience that parents generally value schoolwork and want to help their child succeed. Therefore, to make sure homework gets done, we use the agenda and the homework blog to make sure families know what has to be done. Then if work is not completed I take the following steps:

1) the first time work is not done, I write a note in the agenda informing you the work is not done. At this point most parents make sure the work gets competed and investigate why the assignment is incomplete.

2) the second time the work it not done, the student and I call home to inform parents there is a problem and to enlist their help getting the work done.

3) the third time homework is incomplete, parents need to come to school to meet with me to discuss the situation. We discuss why the work is not done and find solutions such as modifying expectations or planning schedules. If the problem is one of the child refusing to do the work, we may seek the outside help of a psycho-educator or social worker to help families solve the problem.

If for some reason your child is unable to complete the work on a given night (unexpected company, family emergency, unforeseen circumstances) please write me a note stating that you know the homework is not done, and letting me know when it will be completed. In this way I know that the student has informed the parent they had work that needed to be done.

I thank you for your help with homework, and for taking the time to support your child in his or her learning.

Kathy Napier

Monday, September 6, 2010

Welcome to a New School Year!

Hello Families,

It is a pleasure to be working with you and your child this year. I have every confidence that we will have an enjoyable and productive year and that by working together we can help your child continue to experience academic success.


In the month of September, please sign your child's agenda nightly. This will help them get into the habit of showing you the work they have to do and will acquaint you with your child's homework, workbooks and assignments. Using the link to the right you can access a list of the current homework, helpful if students forget agendas or miss school.

For the first term, we will be working on the following units:

Math: Number Sense (read, writing, comparing, adding and subtracting large numbers)

English Language Arts: self-expressive and descriptive writing; punctuation and paragraphing; beginning of the leveled reading program

Social Science: Geography of central Canada; review of French Society circa 1745 and the fall of the French regime; study of Canada circa 1820 and the changes that came about after the Loyalist influx

Over the next few weeks, as your child adjusts to a new teacher, a new class and a different workload, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Warm regards,
Kathy Napier

Monday, May 31, 2010

June is Here!

Hello Families,

Has the countdown begun in your house?

At school, things are gearing up for the end of the year. Today we finish our Language Arts exam, the Math exam is finished by Thursday and the Inuit and Micmac projects are due (test next Monday). As well, the preparations for graduation are getting under way. It promises to be a very busy time in the grade six class!

In case you had not noticed, I have added a page for the calendar to the blog. Important dates are listed above and you can access the page by clicking the link under the blog title.

Have a wonderful week!
Kathy Napier

Friday, May 21, 2010

Field Games Day: Permission Slip

Hello Families,
Just a quick note to ask that you remind your child to bring back the permission form for the Field Games Day trip this coming Thursday.

We will be leaving right away, will need to bring a lunch, water bottle, snacks, good shoes, sunscreen and a coat if it is cool.

Students, please remind each other to bring back the form!

Have a lovely and safe Victoria Day long weekend,
Kathy Napier

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The end of another week (also known as one week closer to grad) and Special Visitors

Hello families,

Well, it was another big week here, and I hope you're giving your kids the Flintstones vitamins because from here on out there are only big weeks with many projects, exams and trips. It promises to be hectic and fun, but very hard work, and in my experience keeping 12-year-olds busy (very, very busy) is half the battle.

What battle, do you ask?

Oh, the ongoing battle against hormones and backtalk, arguments and obstinacy (which is a word, but I had to check), sloppy work, bad manners and lack of motivation. But I know I don't have to tell you this. From what I hear, this battle is being fought on all fronts.

Keeping myself ready for this is also what sometimes keeps me from acknowledging, daily, how your children are really great people. Really great people who care deeply about others and their world, who are critical thinkers and who have come a long, long way in the year and eight months we have been together.

I'm tearing up and losing my focus here. Ahem.

We had two special visitors this week. The first was the lovely Kat Usher, Naturalist from the EarthValues Institute in Montreal who came to give her annual presentation to the students. This year's theme was "Colour My World." She is a wonderful speaker and I was sorry to have been out sick that day and miss her talk.

I was also sorry since every time I am sick h-e-double-hockey-sticks seems to break out with the kids' behaviour and I come back to problems. If you heard from me Thursday you know what I mean (if you didn't, your child wasn't involved :).


Our second visitor arrived Thursday morning and was a surprise for the kids. Just in case your own loving 12yr old was less than communicative and forthcoming this week, you should know that I asked an agent of the Surete du Quebec to come and speak to them about drugs. If they didn't give it to you, you should go riffling through their bookbags for the information document for parents about kids and drugs (after hearing what he had to say, perhaps you should riffle through their things regularly). The students had excellent questions and Agent Jutras was a very experienced speaker who handled the information with just enough detail to (hopefully) scare them away from drugs and pushers. It is a good time to reopen a dialogue with your child about the whole subject.

Thank you for your help and support this week, and as we move into the Math and English Exams next week please continue to keep your child as well-rested as possible.

Enjoy the weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Kathy
PS - to let me know you have been here, please click on on the the boxes and/or leave me a comment. it lets me know I am talking to more than just my one-and-only blog-follower

EDITED TO ADD-Hey! I have readers! Thank you for clicking below (and I fixed the typos)! It is great to know I am not writing to myself here, people!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Websites for Studying

Hello all,

These are a few sites which can provide guided practice of some of the math skills we are reviewing in class. Students should use them to study as they are self-correcting and can give rapid feedback on skills and understanding.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/BillyBug/bugcoord.html
Coordinate geometry

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/amy/geometry/6-8/activities/quad_quest/quad_quest.html
Quadrilaterals

http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/maths/activities/year6/angles/game.asp
angles

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=triangles
triangles

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/div5.shtml
long division

http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_mixed.html
mixed numbers

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/order.shtml
order of operations

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/decMulti6.shtml
decimal multiplication

Friday, April 23, 2010

Tomorrow IS another day...

Hello again,

Thank you to all the families who spoke with their child last night. The attitudes were in check this morning and we have had a very agreeable and productive day.

During homeroom these days I am playing the game highlights from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. We have had some very interesting discussions about the interviews players give after the game and the ways in which they do or do not support their team-mates while demonstrating sportsmanlike values. It has been very interesting.

This morning I also had this quote from the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson:


We all need a chance to start again and do better. The kids did that today.

Enjoy the weekend, and for anyone motivated to start studying math this site is helpful: http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/index.html

Warmly,
Kathy Napier

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Following Instructions, Applying Strategies

Hello Families,

As our unit on geometry draws to a close, I am not pleased with much of the work being produced in class and for homework. As the students can tell you, and I am very convinced of the necessity for instilling habits that will help them succeed in high school and later studies (as well as in the workplace). Geometry uses a number of formulas and strategies that are immutable and need to be memorized, and work needs to be clear and labeled. This morning, not one of the students had applied the labeling strategy taught for transformations. Not one. Why? Because they were convinced they didn't need to. More than half the class had significant mistakes that could have been avoided.

Now, I am all about creative thinking and discussion. But this is not a situation in which people can deviate from strategies they have barely learned to apply. They can expect to have to apply multiple concepts to complete situational problems, and to do that, they have to be organized and methodological. All the students are able, many do this spontaneously. No one did it with yesterday's work.

Some students seem to think that instructions are suggestions, not requirements. Just now I took them to the bake sale and told them NOT to eat before physical education class. All students heard me. Three chose to ignore the instruction. It may seem unimportant, scarfing down a little brownie before doing gymnastics. However, the greater point is that they aren't interested in doing what they are told, they do what they want.

I am in the midst of finalizing the end of year trip, and overnight trip. If I can't rely on people following instructions, how can I take them?

Please speak with your child. There are a scant nine weeks of school left. We can finish the year strongly, or we can struggle.

I know which I prefer.

Friday, April 16, 2010

New Units!




Hello Families,

Since the Easter break we have been working on learning new concepts and revising ideas we have already studied. As you will have noticed, the students are again working on texts responses, and at the top of this page you will now find a tab that leads you to a page describing what a response should include at cycle three. As well, we are working to improve creative texts in a number of ways - ask you child what techniques we have been reading and experimenting with!

As well, we are working on transformational geometry (a short evaluation will be following soon). We will soon be investigating solid geometry, capacity, and volume. For those of you would would like to continue to improve your child's calculation skills, the self-correcting games listed in the sidebar of this blog can be a great help.

In social sciences we will be investigating the similarities and differences between modern Micmac and Inuit communities and the territories on which they live. it should be a very interesting module.

As the weather improves, please consider sending a water bottle for your child. They play very hard at recess and are often thirsty during class.

As ever, if you have any comments on questions, I am available by phone or email.

Warm regards,
Kathy Napier

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Puberty Lectures





Hello Families,
The CLSC nurse has now completed her two-part discussion on puberty with the students. I had a questions and answer session with them just now to answer lingering questions. The students were shy, but many had questions and most had heard things (on buses, in locker rooms, on television) that they had questions or concerns about.


You can go to this link http://sexualityandu.ca/teachers/tools-9-3.aspx to see the slide shows the nurse presented to the students.

As well, I would encourage you to have a look at this Government of Canada website http://sexualityandu.ca/home_e.aspx
for more information to will help you discuss these issues with your child if needed. I reviewed much of the material, and while they do not need much of this material right now, it is better as parents to be prepared and to know what kind of issues they may be hearing about when they aren't with us. As well, it give us an idea of what kinds of behaviors teenagers are engaging in and what kinds of misinformation they may be exposed to.

I hope that you find this information helpful.

Enjoy the Easter long weekend!

Kathy Napier

Monday, March 29, 2010

Second Portfolio Afternoon

Hello Families,

As there were several families not able to attend Portfolio Evening last week, I am making myself available Tuesday, March 30th from 3 to 5:45. If you are able to come to school with your child, they would enjoy showing you examples of their hard work!

Hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Kathy Napier

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Chores for Haiti



“We, the grade six class, were shocked of (sic) all these terrible earthquakes in Haiti. We knew we could help, but we just didn’t know how, just yet. We had a really interesting discussion going on in the class.” –W.R.

“ The Chores for Haiti Project was to raise money for the Haitians because of their enormous earthquake. So we decided to send a letter home to tell children to do chores to help their parents and the parents could pay them.”-A.B.

“This project was about helping a nation in need.” --J.C.

“Our project consisted for (sic) the students of the school would do extra chores they do not already do at home and get paid by their parents. They would then donate the money they earned to us to give to the Red Cross.” – J. C.

“We undertook this project because we are grade six, and a lot of the students were keen on this idea of helping Haiti. Even if we had lots of things to do at that time, we undertook it anyway.” -S.B.

“We undertook the project because we saw some horrible pictures of what was happening in that country.” –G. St-O.

“We undertook this project because this issue mattered to us and we believed we could help. We should be proud.” –C.G.

More to follow, families. There is a lot to be proud of here....
Kathy Napeir

Friday, March 12, 2010

School Nurse Visit on Monday


Dear Families,

Just a quick note to let you know that the CSSS nurse will be here Monday afternoon to discuss puberty with the Grade Six class. This will be the first of two sessions, each lasting about one hour.

I will be present in the classroom for the talk, which will take place in French. My experience with this in the past is that the students have an opportunity to ask questions and to have factual information presented to them. They are given information about reproduction as well, but the nurse informed me that her discussion would focus more on biology than behaviour.


If you have any questions about what she will discuss, she can be reached at the following number:

Celine Martel
CSSS (819) 474-2572 ext 441

Warm regards,
Kathy Napier

Tuesday, March 9, 2010



Hello Families,

Over the past few weeks while we have been working to finished up projects, I have neglected this blog. My apologies.

There has been much to blog about, and I will let the students tell it on their own, here and at home, but I did want to say one thing.

I am proud of them.

Yes, the pre-teen angst (X26) can be overwhelming at times, but your kids are really good people. Their work with the Chores for Haiti project, and with other classes and teachers around the school, has shown their more mature and responsible side.

I am proud of their work, and their compassion.

If they haven't told you all about it, ask them about the Haiti project, and I hope to have a longer post on this later in the week.

Best,
Kathy Napier

Monday, February 8, 2010

Olympic Athlete Comes to Grade 6!




Today grade six was lucky to have a surprise visit from Benoit Gaudet, Olympic athlete and world class boxer.

I would love to say that I had gone to get him to come and discuss his Olympic experience, but he came with Drummondville Radio station "Rock Detente" to give the teachers a surprise present - a week's subscription to his new gym! The PPO entered the school in a city-wide Teacher Appreciation week contest and won this for the staff. All our thanks!

I took the opportunity to ask Mr Gaudet to come and speak to us about his Olympic experience. Graciously agreed and spoke to the class in English about his travels, his competitions, when he started his career and what his training routine is like. The students had a number of interesting questions.

What I wanted to highlight of his impromptu discussion was that he credits his success to his effort, and not his aptitude. He told us that when he started boxing he did not set himself the goal of going to the Olympics: he wanted to be a hockey player. Success followed success, and he found that he had the ability and the drive to go further. More that once, he let the class know that discipline made the difference, and that his sport had offered him opportunities to go places and see things he wouldn't have been able otherwise.

A big thanks you on this Monday morning to Mr Gaudet, and to the PPO for bringing him to us!

Monday, February 1, 2010

World Maths Day is Coming!



We will be participating in the lead up again this year, but World Maths Day takes place during our Spring Break, making it impossible for us to participate as a class. Students can log in with the username and password I will give them, and it is a great opportunity to practice our calculation skills. The students are really looking forward to it!

Toronto Globe and Mail article on the math program we are using:Program could help kids get jump-start in math



Grade 6 students work on math exercises as John Mighton teaches their class at the Mabin school - a private school in Toronto. Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail

John Mighton isn't a teacher, but the mathematician's methods could help regular students become more fluent in math.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/program-could-help-kids-get-jump-start-in-math/article1433199/
by Anne McIlroy

From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 7:44PM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 3:29AM EST

John Mighton writes the 9-times table on the board and asks the Grade 6 students to look for patterns.

The children stare at the numbers 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81 and 90 and make a few quick observations: The digits in each number add up to nine. One plus eight is nine, two plus seven is nine and so on.

Within minutes, every kid in the class is using the sum of the digits to determine if a number is divisible by nine. If it isn't, they learn to predict what the remainder will be.

They practise on half a dozen three-digit numbers. Then Mr. Mighton scrawls 121,252 on the board – a much bigger figure than they have tackled so far.

“What is your prediction?” he asks.

“Easy peasy lemon squeezy,” one girl says as she copies the bonus question down in her notebook.

Mr. Mighton is not a certified teacher. He's a writer and mathematician who devotes most of his time to JUMP, a charity that helps youngsters learn to think mathematically.

Since he founded it as an extracurricular tutoring program in 1998, he has amassed compelling anecdotal evidence that it helps struggling students. The question now is whether it also works in regular classrooms, where kids have a wide range of mathematical abilities. It's under study, and the way Canadian students learn could ride on the answer.

“There is a perception that JUMP is only for weaker students and that it will hold faster kids back,” Mr. Mighton says. This Grade 6 class at the private Mabin school in Toronto shows how JUMP can work for all children, he says.

The teacher, Mary Jane Moreau, started using JUMP last year, when the children were in Grade 5. Beforehand, she gave the students a standardized math-computation test: Their marks ranged from the 37th to the 75th percentile. After a year of JUMP, she says, all but one were in the 91st-to-the-99th percentile.

“It is like they are a gifted class,” she says. “But they aren't a gifted class.”

One thing that's obvious to an observer is that these kids now love math. Even the shyest children volunteer answers. Some seem giddy.

One class, of course, isn't proof. Ms. Moreau is an exceptional teacher, keen to use what brain scientists have found about learning to help her teach more effectively, which is why she was drawn to JUMP. She also has the luxury of teaching just half her class – nine students – at a time.

But Tracy Solomon, a researcher at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, is doing a study that should show if Ms. Moreau's class is an anomaly.

She is comparing 300 children in an Ontario school board: Half are being taught using JUMP methods and half in the regular manner, which stresses problem solving. Like the Mabin-school children, they started JUMP in Grade 5 and now are in Grade 6.

Dr. Solomon's hypothesis is that kids taught with JUMP will have better math fluency than the control group. If that proves correct, she wants to dig deeper and learn what makes JUMP work so well.

“It's an opportunity to marry two things separated for far too long – research and education,” she says, “and draw on the substantial body of knowledge from psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience and infuse those findings into education.”

(It may seem strange that a hospital researcher is studying math teaching, but Sick Kids takes the view that education is intertwined with long-term mental health.) Recent results from a smaller group of students in Britain suggest that children who are already at grade level can progress at a rapid speed with JUMP. In the Lambeth school district, all of the 74 students in Grades 5 and 6 who were close to meeting expectations for their age were able to perform beyond their grade levels after one or two years with JUMP. By the age of 11, 57 per cent of those students were three grade levels ahead.

Rising in the west

In Canada, JUMP has its strongest foothold in Vancouver, where Mr. Mighton has trained 400 teachers, and is also being used, although to a lesser extent, in Edmonton and Winnipeg. Teachers in Western Canada often have more autonomy to choose programs for their classes, he says.

The program has met with more resistance in Ontario, where it began. Many school board officials prefer the current approach, which helps students discover and understand mathematical concepts through problem solving. Still, JUMP is getting attention there: Mr. Mighton has trained more than 100 teachers in the public and Catholic boards since September.

The JUMP method breaks mathematical operations into small steps that kids practise and master before they move on. In learning subtraction, for example, children might do a whole page of identifying which questions require regrouping (what used to be known as borrowing).

This builds confidence to go on to the next step. Mr. Mighton says that's essential: “If kids feel inadequate, their brains aren't going to work well.”

This approach taps into what brain scientists have discovered about learning: Practice helps to consolidate memories, and mastering small steps or skills can lead to big jumps in performance. Experiments have also shown that confidence can affect ability, and we may learn more from getting answers right than from getting them wrong.

JUMP has evolved, over the years, from a tutoring program to a charity that trains teachers and produces free teaching guides. It also sells workbooks that cover the curriculum from Grade 1 to 8 – the profits go back into the charity.

But many in the education field remain unconvinced that JUMP offers a better way for children to learn math.

Diane Muckleston, curriculum co-ordinator at the York Region District School Board outside Toronto, says research shows that the best way to help kids understand a concept is to come up with a rich, conceptual problem that everyone in the class can help solve.

Last year, for example, she visited the class of a primary-school teacher who had noticed that all the kids were wearing odd socks. The teacher came up with the concept of a sock factory, and the kids all brought in socks. Each child was given a different number of socks and their task, as a group, was to find a strategy that would combine them.

“But it wasn't, ‘This is the way you would add the numbers,'” Ms. Muckleston says. “There is a fundamental pedagogical difference in [Mr. Mighton's] thinking on how a kid learns mathematics and what the worldwide research is about it.”

But Dr. Solomon disagrees. She says research does not support the idea that the “discovery” approach to teaching math is the most effective. “It is a mystery why we ever went down that route.”

There is whopping evidence that memories get laid down through meaningful practice, she says, and that has to come before putting that learning to novel and clever uses in problem solving.

It is like learning to speak a language or to play a musical instrument: “The creativity comes once you have mastered the basics.”

Mr. Mighton describes JUMP as guided discovery: “You need a balanced program that recognizes the strengths of the brain, that kids can make discoveries. But you also need to recognize the brains' weaknesses: We have poor short-term memories. We are easily overwhelmed by too much information. Neurologists are now saying we need practice to consolidate ideas. Sometimes we need rigorous guidance.”

The idea is to provide teachers with a spectrum of approaches to find the best ones for each student.

Teaching the teacher

Mr. Mighton starts the lesson at the Mabin school with a quick introduction: “If you don't get something today, it is my fault, so stop me.”

The children quickly grasp that if the sum of the digits in a number is nine, then it is divisible by nine. The number 217, however, can't be divided by nine, because two plus one plus seven is 10.

What about the remainder? At first, they learn a simple approach. In many cases, it will be the difference between sum of the digits and nine. So when 217 is divided by nine, the remainder will be 10 minus nine – one.

But what happens next shocks even Mr. Mighton: The class discovers a better way, one that works with all numbers. The sum of the digits of 217 is 10 – and if you add those digits, 1 plus 0, you arrive at the remainder.

“I was stunned. I didn't know that,” Mr. Mighton says.

After some further practice, it is on to the easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy bonus question.

Every hand in the class shoots up. The number 121,252 is not divisible by nine, one student tells him, and the remainder will be four.

“You are brilliant,” he tells them. “You are all brilliant.”

Anne McIlroy is The Globe and Mail's science reporter, specializing in learning and the brain.