Students were introduced to the families our class will be supporting this season. You can sign up for the purchasing of gifts here:
signup.com/client/invitation/6775657374/1724962/false#!1724962/false/false Gift wrapping will occur on the morning of Friday December 9th, 2016. Please bring gifts before this date. Thank you so much for supporting this very worthwhile event. Openness and flexibility with number allows students to develop mathematical fluency. For several weeks we have been spending time on number talks in which students try to solve math equations in their minds and then visually represent how they solved it. The guiding question as they share their vastly different approaches is "Does the visual match the thinking?" Inspired by the work of Jo Boaler, a Standford University Mathematics Professor and author of Mathematical Mindsets, students have coined the term "Stanford strategies" and they flex their brains trying to make sense of each approach.
If you are really intrigued by the notion of visual math, check out Jo Boaler's paper here.
Reflecting on our learning was a major focus this past week. Students worked to finish tasks in progress including the Population task and the Diesel Spill Response. We also embarked on a new writing project in which students shared their family interviews and are in the process of creating a post card story limited to 250 words. A highlight from our week was being introduced to the Underground Railroad, reading Henry's Freedom Box and listening to an incredible guest speaker talk about John Ware and his life in Alberta as a minority.
Listening to students speak about their learning and their goals this past Thursday and Friday was truly remarkable. Thank you for taking the time to share in our learning journey.
Uncovering stories continues to be a major focus for our work together in grade 5/6. This week we uncovered a story that brought together science, social studies and English language arts. Students were presented with a Globe and Mail article about a recent sunken tug boat off the West Coast resulting in a diesel spill of over 110 000 liters of diesel. Students were introduced to the Heiltsuk Nation from Bella Bella island who has been dramatically effected by this spill. Students have started to draw connections between this real world problem with their work studying mixtures and multiple perspectives.
This article was a challenging read and students were introduced to new vocabulary including: inadequate, submerged, abundant, ensuing, capacity, breached, salvaged, distressed and hampered. Understanding these words/concepts has started to unlock the meaning of the article. Please try to incorporate these words in conversations this week. A follow up to the article we read can be found here: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nathan-e-stewart-tug-recovery-bella-bella-1.3850271 The attached summary does not include the work we did surrounding Remembrance day. Students discussed what it means to wear a poppy; uncovered the stories of veterans and learned of Mike Mountain Horse a Canadian soldier who served in World War I www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/War-Heroes-Remembrance-Day/. Through discussion and thoughtful contemplation this past week was a time for remembering.
Students were presented with several mystery mixtures. Their challenge was to identify the type of mixture each test tube contained. Using their research and background knowledge students observed, predicted and discussed their theories. Is it a suspension mixture? a solution? a colloid? How do you you know? Students were scientists looking for clues and using their observations to come to a conclusion.
Following our historic walk and introducing the students to the recent discovery of the Terror found through Inuit Oral Stories (only to be believed when a photo was taken as proof) the problem that emerged is there are voices that are not heard. There are stories that are not told. We as a society are not always listening to what we need to listen to. There are many truths, but there are some people's truths that deny the truth of others. Feeling like we have stumbled upon a problem/exploration that is worthy of our attention we created a task in which students will create a podcast that shares an uncovered story they want to tell. In order to uncover these stories we need to conduct provoking interviews. We are currently working on discovering what “good” questions are. Mr. Burima's impressive journalism skills has resulted in our students being presented with examples and practicing their own line of questioning. The students have had several opportunities to interview each other. Most recently they had the opportunity to grill Ms.McNeil and Mr. Burima during a media scrum about a falsified newspaper article (written by Mr.Burima) regarding a friendly football toss a couple of weeks ago. Following the media scrum Mr. Burima asked the students "how would you feel if your story was always told wrong or never told?" Their answers were profound, leaving Mr.Burima and Ms.McNeil speechless.
Students have worked tirelessly to discover the number of pennies in the pyramid video posted last week. We have approached this work as a Think-Pair-Share, which asks students to spend time independently solving the problem. As students feel ready they seek out a peer to compare and discuss their strategies and solutions with. This is the space that mathematizing happens, students debate, conjecture, make changes and ultimately come to a collective understanding of the problem. Finally students are ready to share their learning. They then use the guiding questions: What did you do? Why did you do what you did? What happened? to explain/show their thinking. This stage is when students learn from their peers, discovering different approaches and strategies that they might apply to a new problem. Becoming true mathematicians working in the field the grade 5/6 students have entered a creative and playful mathematical world.
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