Reasoning- the Welsh are doing it well!

Reasoning provides children with an opportunity for deeper understanding through communication. Individually or in groups, children learn to explain and defend their ideas and analyze the reasoning of others. Historically we have done this very well in English thorough "talk for writing" and thankfully we are now getting much better at providing "talk for maths" opportunities into our own lessons. Teachers are able to assess the children's knowledge through asking “good questions,” and deliver lessons to ensure each child understands how to use math skills through thinking, talking, and doing combined with elements of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. 
Having spent the last year or so such searching for the best reasoning resources to support my practice the Welsh have often offered the best. One of the most useful resources I have come across is their 'Reasoning in the Classroom' resource. Click the relevant year group and then support materials.



The Welsh Government has also written a document called 'Audit of existing resources to support the development of mathematical reasoning in the GCSE classroom' which although aimed at GCSE children has lots of resources to support primary school children and HA Y5/ 6. There is obvious NRICH and Kangaroo Maths but there are also lots of other useful links e.g tarcia support, I particularly like this 'Convince Me' tarcia. 


Although this resource is not Welsh I can't possibly write a reasoning blog without mentioning the Mastery Overview documents created by Maths Hub which are invaluable. I can't recommend this resource highly enough if you haven't already used it. 

Reasoning in EYFS

The following EYFS resources are well worth a look through.

NRICH

Early Years Maths
An old document but still has a lot of relevant advice

NCTM - EYFS magazine
Evidencing reasoning in books

If you are in a school where evidence in books is highly valued you have two options for capturing evidence of reasoning, the most obvious being taking a photo of the activity and annotating the picture with details of the task. Another nice way though is to add a QR code linking to a video of the reasoning activity. 
The easiest QR code creator I have come across is QRme.

On this site you can create a QR code linking to any web based document or a written note. I use Google Drive to save videos and then use the 'share' facility to capture the URL of the evidence. I can then simply copy it into the QR code creator website to create my unique QR code linking to the video. Once created I can copy the image and stick into Maths books for evidence. Anyone with a QR code reader can then watch the videos.



Michel Tidd explains how he believes Primary Progress will be calculated from 2016


Micheal Tidd (@MichaelT1979has produced some interesting videos recently which can be found on his YouTube channel.


https://michaelt1979.wordpress.com/

Developing reasoning skills in class

I recently attended an amazing course led by @carpenter_rob, an Executive Headteacher of a number of South East London schools, who has a history of turning schools around, very quickly! The course was about mastery across the curriculum but as with all great courses I came away with a whole lot more. 

One of the most important messages I took away was about 'teaching' reasoning. Within class I have been working really hard on the  'reasoning' agenda, particularly in maths, expecting the children to 'explain the maths'. What I have been focusing on though is the maths when this actually the children have not had much instruction on how to structure their reasons.

@carpenter_rob schools have produced these postcards for pupils, parents and teachers to help support the development of reasoning skills and next step questions. They are printed out on double sided postcards. The children use the speaking frames when answering questions, next steps and completing reasoning tasks in books.

Parent reasoning cards
Learning reflection cards
KS2 reflection/ reasoning cards
Maths reasoning cards

I have since found this great resource on Twinkl. To make them part of all maths lessons, I put all of the cards onto one sheet of A4 and have stuck them into the front cover of our maths books to support next step answers and reasoning tasks.

Other resources I love are:

Speaking and listening frames - source unknown
More - source unknown

Rob's blog http://www.robcarpenter.org.uk/ is well worth reading, there are many useful documents in the 'documents' section.

Sometimes the oldest are the best - Diamond 9

Over the last term have have been using the diamond nine concept more and more in all areas of school life. 

"A Diamond Nine Diagram helps to prioritise and categorise key factors. The most important factors are placed towards the top of the "diamond 9 ". The least important factors are placed towards the bottom. Factors of equal importance are placed in the same row. Each factor can be colour coded for further sophistication." 


Class tools provide an interactive version of the template, allowing you to change the colour of the boxes and move each around as much as you like. There are also many templates available on-line. 



Potential uses

  • Whole school priorities - at my school we have been using the diamond 9 to communicate our school priorities with all of our staff. We prioritised our RAP priorities and have displayed them around the school for all to see in a simple and usable format. 
  • Literacy - persuasive arguments. I have recently been discussing deforestation with my children and looking at the reasons for and against. As part of their planning for a persuasive letter they have been using a diamond 9 format to prioritise their arguments which will then be used to inform the structure of paragraphs. 
  • Maths - Equivalents

Diamond 9 fractions and decimals sort

  •  Justifying reasons

  • Prioritising individual targets, class gap filling objectives

Mindfulness in schools

I have recently brought my newfound love of mindfulness into the classroom. I have quite an 'active' Y4 class and they have benefited greatly from completing short meditations after break times. Initially they were quite sceptical and some even resistant but they now ask for meditation time and can talk about how it helps them to focus, clear their mind and get ready for learning. I use videos on YouTube to lead meditations and particularly like the following (most are aimed at adults but the children enjoy them all the same).
Kate Beddow is a great person to follow and she has produced some great lessons based on the Pixar film Inside Out.

There are also some other lovely ideas on this Pinterest page linking the film with mindfulness

At my school we use an amazing resource called 'Focused for Learning', written by Kelly Green in the Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning team. It is well worth investigating if you would like to introduce mindfulness into your class.

Facebook is another create source of inspiration and here are a couple of pages I follow providing some useful information.



Nicky Morgan's message on Primary Assessments


In need of a 3D printer? This site allows you to find local printers for you to use.

I came across this website at the BETT show recently, I was looking for a 3D printer last year to use and I wish I had known about this site. It allows you to put in your location and it will provide you with the location of your nearest printer. Make sure you click "distance" when the search results come up as it defaults to "best match".

Developing a growth mindset culture in your classroom

How many times a day do you hear "I can't do it" "I'm not very good at this"? I believe that when I manage to change the mindsets of even the greatest self doubters the enjoyment of learning and the progress of my class will speak for itself. Over the last term this has been one of my biggest focuses and I have seen a change of attitude from a large number of class but there is still away to go. As normal I have drawn upon the tools that already exist and thought I would share them with you......


Twinkl has a great selection of resources

There are some great examples of displays on the search engines - this is one of my favourites (source unknown)


Class Dojo is an amazing behaviour management tool but also as a means to encouraging a growth mindset culture. Within the site you have the option to edit the positive points to reflect growth mindset characteristics such as persistence and self belief. More recently they have also added some amazing growth mindset videos.




This is a great display to illustrate that making mistakes is not only part of learning it is an essential part of the learning process, problem solving and mastering skills.
Sarah Hagan (@mathequalslove)

Story settings

There are many great blogs about using different forms of visual stimuli to engage children with story settings and generally writing. Some of most impressive blogs are the Literacy ShedTim Rylands and Mr P, all of which promote the use of video games, apps, art, and 360 panorama's to inspire writing. One of my favourite sites to use is actually a visual tour of a wedding venue near me. The combination of audio and interactiveness makes it very effective to use in class. 



Mr P recently shared this site with an amazing range of 360 click and drag videos.

World Book Day - 3rd March 2016


Do any of your children display any signs of anxiety? This is a great website full of tips and advice.

http://www.gozen.com/

New assessment deadline announced