Rather than basing my evaluation of student and teacher success on this one section I dug a little deeper and looked for the micro-shifts in the other four sections. Refer to graphs below. This painted a picture that aligned more closely to what I see happening in the classroom.
I can see from the data where stronger connections to the learning are being made. In this case fractions and basic facts. A possible reason for this is that fractions has been our most recent focus, and basic facts because of the number knowledge games we play to make sure these are being used and recalled at speed. Each lesson also includes 15 minutes on the self pacing e-Ako maths programme, 10 minutes of times table challenges and 10 minutes of levelled basic facts challenges. These three activities were introduced to help develop confidence and number knowledge when working with the basic facts and multiplication tables that are needed to be recalled and used when working with larger numbers.
The place value questions in banks 1 and 2 of the IKAN test ask how many tens are in a given number and how many groups of 10 make a number. All these students were able to do this with confidence when the numbers they were working with 2 digit numbers, however when the numbers increased to 3 digit numbers they were not able to apply the same knowledge to find the answer. I wanted to understand why this was so I had a 1:1 follow up chat with each of my focus group. When I asked them the place value questions again, I noticed that 8/8 students quickly answered the questions involving the 2 digit numbers. However when I asked the same type of questions using the larger numbers, no one was able to make the connection between 'groups of' and the times tables. I know that I am constantly modelling and recording on the board the fact that 'times' is the same as saying 'groups of' but I think I need to make this more visible by creating a permanent scaffold for the wall. Looking at my own practice I see that I need to increase the pace I move at with regards to using larger number denominations in the classroom. This should help my learners approach these questions with increased confidence.
The number word sequence questions were all answered correctly when the numbers they were being asked to find remained under 1000. Once these moved to 6 digit numbers only the question that asked for the number 'after' was answered correctly. Again this is an area that I need to increase the pace in. I can see it is not ok to play safe by only using numbers my learners gain success from.
This snapshot of achievement shows me where our hotspots and knowledge gaps are in these four areas. My challenges are now are to find fun ways of helping my learners make the connections they need to be able to work successfully with larger numbers, and remind myself to stop using only 'safe' numbers to help my learners find success.
The place value questions in banks 1 and 2 of the IKAN test ask how many tens are in a given number and how many groups of 10 make a number. All these students were able to do this with confidence when the numbers they were working with 2 digit numbers, however when the numbers increased to 3 digit numbers they were not able to apply the same knowledge to find the answer. I wanted to understand why this was so I had a 1:1 follow up chat with each of my focus group. When I asked them the place value questions again, I noticed that 8/8 students quickly answered the questions involving the 2 digit numbers. However when I asked the same type of questions using the larger numbers, no one was able to make the connection between 'groups of' and the times tables. I know that I am constantly modelling and recording on the board the fact that 'times' is the same as saying 'groups of' but I think I need to make this more visible by creating a permanent scaffold for the wall. Looking at my own practice I see that I need to increase the pace I move at with regards to using larger number denominations in the classroom. This should help my learners approach these questions with increased confidence.
The number word sequence questions were all answered correctly when the numbers they were being asked to find remained under 1000. Once these moved to 6 digit numbers only the question that asked for the number 'after' was answered correctly. Again this is an area that I need to increase the pace in. I can see it is not ok to play safe by only using numbers my learners gain success from.
This snapshot of achievement shows me where our hotspots and knowledge gaps are in these four areas. My challenges are now are to find fun ways of helping my learners make the connections they need to be able to work successfully with larger numbers, and remind myself to stop using only 'safe' numbers to help my learners find success.
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