At St Francis of Assisi there is a big difference in students literacy and numeracy capabilities. Literacy levels were very high, whereas a lot of students were struggling with numeracy. In an attempt to improve the numeracy standards the school has started a Maths Intervention program. This program works with a small group of students with low maths skills. These students work with a specialist maths teacher two or three times a weeks. I would work with the students every Tuesday for a 45-minute lesson and twice a week during my blocks.
My object as part of my ACP was to develop and implement this new program into our classrooms with the help of the maths coordinator/specialist and our mentor teachers. Our mentor teachers chose 4 students within our class to begin assessing and working with.
I began by gaining a better understanding of where these students are in terms of their mathematic skills. We ran the ‘Success in Numeracy Education’ (SINE) written and verbal interview assessment. This will assist us by developing prior knowledge. This will also allow us to develop resources that will cater to the student’s mathematics skills in conjunction with their own learning styles as well. For this program to be successful, we will need to work with these students during every mathematics lesson. I assessed the students often following the FOR, AS, and OF assessment method to see where improvements have been made and what areas still need work. At the end of our block placement I will once again use the SINE tests to assess and compare any improvements that students have made and whether the overall program is successful.
Throughout the year I would plan and implement lesson that focus on the maths areas student were struggling with. I would spend as much time a possible on each topic and I followed the guided, modelled and shared approach. This allowed me to assess students after each lesson and work with students individually, which is key for them to improve their maths skills.
Upon completing our block placement I administered the SINE assessment to see any areas the students improve. I was happy to see that all 4 students in the program that I had worked with throughout the year improved. One of the student improved out of sight and the results reflected in this class work and positive attitude.
The SINE assessment record sheet. I recored all the students responses.
The scores from each students were recored onto this sheet and would be compared with the result of their next examination.