Through TLLP funding, our original team dug deeply into the first several chapters of Douglas Clements’ math learning trajectories. We learned an incredible amount about how to help move kids through the stages in their math learning – it was an amazing experience! We created a website which brought the first few trajectories (chapters) to life by adding videos of students in action at EACH stage, in EACH of the trajectories. We also created links within the website to games and activities teachers could use at each stage to help move students. We had the opportunity to share this website with many teachers and have received some wonderful feedback on how helpful it was for teachers to move their students through the stages on the trajectories because they could “see” what their students needed in order to move to the next stage.
Although we spent lots of time learning about the trajectories and developing this website, we are not finished! Through this TLC experience, our team dug deeply into Chapter 7, “Spatial Thinking.” We ended up breaking the chapter up into three different concepts to help make it even more clear in order for teachers to use this valuable information more easily in their classroom. We have added our learning to our website which can be accessed at https://sites.google.com/a/rscloud.ca/rdsb-tllp-project/
Team Members
Christine Nicholson
Rainbow District School Board
Lisa Scharf
Rainbow District School Board
Veronica Neilson
Rainbow District School Board
Megan Bischoff
Rainbow District School Board
Professional Learning Goals
Through funding from a previous project, a group of teachers developed a website to bring life to Douglas Clements’ math trajectories. The goal of this site was to develop a more thorough, online and easy-to-use resource to help teachers easily move their students through the trajectories.
Goal #1 Accomplished
Had more teachers involved in the development of this website in order to spread the learning and ownership of this thinking.
Goal #2 Accomplished
Brought Chapter 7, “Spatial Thinking” from Clements’ book, Learning and Teaching Early Math to life on the website.
- Broke down the trajectories from the spatial thinking chapter into even more clear stages.
- Developed interview questions to determine students’ current learning and, more importantly, their next steps.
- Created a list of appropriate games and activities students could play at each stage in order to move them along in the trajectory.
Activities and Resources
Our team met on several occasions to discuss Chapter 7, “Spatial Thinking” from Douglas Clements’ book, Learning and Teaching Early Math and added this thinking to the website.
Unexpected Challenges
This chapter was a difficult chapter to really break down and understand. Our original goal was to work through several chapters, but we spent our whole time discussing only this chapter. We did not get time to collect videos because, by the time we were finished, we had just developed what we felt to be a clear understanding of what the trajectories were and how we could work with students to determine how to help them.
Enhancing Student Learning and Development
Having the opportunity to determine where a student is in their understanding of a concept is wonderful, but knowing what the next stage that they are approaching is priceless. Having games, lessons and activities to support students in moving through these trajectories has really helped me to help move students more efficiently and effectively.
Sharing
Our original team has already shared the website with many people. We have presented it at OAME and our board also has access and has shared it with other admin and teachers with our board. We are hoping with this access, these teachers will also notice our new chapter addition.
We will be in contact with our board to let them know that we have added a new chapter and will each be sharing it with our schools. Our long-term goal is do another chapter and then hope to present at OAME again to share our new learning.
Project Evaluation
I feel our project was a great success. Although we were disappointed that we did not get the opportunity to work through more chapters, we feel like we now really understand what the key messages are from this chapter on spatial thinking. We know we experienced success because we were/are able to know what we need to focus on to help our students move through the trajectories in this chapter.
Resources Used
Douglas Clements, Learning and Teaching Early Math book.
https://www.amazon.ca/Learning-Teaching-Early-Math-Trajectories/dp/0415828503
This is the link to our website which we have been creating to support Clements’ fabulous resource on trajectories.
Resources Created
These resources will open in your browser in a new tab, or be downloaded to your computer.
