Numeracy
At Richmond West Primary school our Numeracy program is taught daily across all classrooms and includes our Chinese bilingual program. There is a close collaboration between all staff to ensure that all aspects of numeracy in the Victorian curriculum are covered throughout the year. Numeracy is taught every day with two days devoted to measurement and three days to number.
The school’s instructional model is implemented consistently across all classrooms. Numeracy lessons begin with a warm up activity, followed by explicit instruction that models the learning intention and independent practice with support from the teacher. During independent practice, students work on a task designed by their teacher to meet their learning needs. At the conclusion of the lesson students regroup to share their learning, address any existing misconceptions and revisit the learning intention. Students work at a level that both challenges them and at which they can be successful. The collection of assessment and data allows for teachers to better understand and cater for the wide range of needs of their students, allowing for personalised learning.
Open ended tasks engage students in problem solving with explicit links to real world applications. Open ended tasks include: an enabling prompt, a question and an extension prompt which support all students on their mathematical journey.
Lesson Structure
Warm Up: the purpose of this time is to tune the children in to mathematical thinking and promote positive attitudes towards mathematics.
Mini Lesson: The teacher outlines the activities for independent practice. In so doing, the teacher models and explicitly teaches the skills/knowledge that the students are expected to apply in their learning.
Independent Practice: The children participate in activities designed to support academic growth and the achievement of their individual learning goals.
Guided Practice: While the majority of the grade work independently, the teacher runs guided teaching groups with a small number of students. The teacher provides demonstrations and explanations relating to the concepts being learnt, while the students listen, interact, question and respond by applying these to their learning
Individual Student Conferences: At the conclusion of the guided practice group, the teacher will conference with a number of students who have been working independently, evaluating their progress and providing feedback to inform their future learning. The teacher will also establish learning goals for the child to work towards, putting homework and Independent practice into a context
Share time: Is used to reinforce the learning focus and provide examples of student work that show progress towards learning goals.
Mathletics
Mathletics is a online tool that is used in the classroom and is also available for students to access at home. Every student is provided with a username and password so they can complete set tasks, play live mathletics competing against children throughout Australia and revise all areas of the curriculum at each child’s level. Classroom teachers use mathletics to reinforce maths concepts, for assessment, to engage and enhance the students learning.
You can access Mathletics via this link:
Classroom Numeracy Resources
Each classroom is equipped with a variety of materials for the children to easily access during numeracy. These resources include manipulatives such as:
- counters
- dice
- hundreds charts
- number lines
- play money
- unfifx/blocks
- cards
- picture story books about numeracy
Supporting your child’s learning
Click here to download the Richmond West Primary School Numeracy scope and sequence document. This provides information about when units of study are taught throughout the year.