28.09.11 Oliver's third lesson ....Part II

Following the Counting board work recorded in Part I, we moved to working with pattern.

PATTERN BOARD WORK

Moving this along form our previous lesson I reviewed Oliver's ability to recognise all 6 number patterns, before introducing him to sequencing. You will see the boards are placed on our 'HomeBoard' resource. Once the teaching task is complete, Oliver then repeats this himself and when necessary has the (sc) aspect to enable him to figure out the correct order of the boards. So to recap, Oliver can recognise the patterns for all 6 boards, he can also build his own patterns from copying a selected board, now he can order the 6 patterns. Notice we have not yet used number names, this is a normal aspect of the programme. However, with older pupils I am keen to introduce the 'naming stage' quite quickly.

I introduce the 7 pattern in a specific way, to further progress a child's developing relational

understanding. On my display card I build the 6-pattern, which the pupil recognises. Holding the 7-pattern board I explain that this next pattern is the same as the previous one (pointing to and circling all 6 cubes) with one more cube! I then place a different coloured cube underneath. Looking at the photos, you can see that Oliver was able to still see the 6-pattern jumping out as well as the overall 7-pattern (which he recognises from our previous work with pattern) being the same as the 7- board. Pattern Boards 8, 9 and 10 are also introduced in a specific order so as to emphasise the relationships with each other. As you would expect, sequencing practice with all 10 patterns follow. Also some building of patterns 7 to 10, both for recognition and for self construction, is also necessary in order to internalise the whole series of patterns.

NOTE:

In just two lessons, Ollie was already spontaneously 'seeing' the number names of some of the boards. Younger children would need more practice to get there. I observed some very good examples of internalisation of Oliver's developing sense of pattern, which is a building block to understanding number, as well as naming and ordering the boards to 10.

NUMBER BONDS USING THE 10-BOX

'Turn taking' is an important aspect of the STERN pedagogy, because the practitioner models the task so that the pupil will know what is expected and can grow to be confident and competent. Many chidlren with additional needs who are struggling with maths get to the point where they know they are failing.... even if they can't articulate this feeling. This can often bring about behavioural issues. I have experienced this with my student, so much so that I make a point of letting him know that a task is new, that he has not yet been taught it, so how could he know it! I tell him that after we work through the tasks together he WILL know how to do it.... This explanation seems to make sense to him and so he is more willing to participate, although I still dip into my arsenal of Boffs and High Fives on occasion, long my they reign.....

We continued from the previous lesson where I place a block into the Box so that Ollie finds the partner. He still uses the self-correcting feature, which is an errorless way to learn. Once a pair of blocks is found it is important for the student to say the full number sentence such as "1 and 9 make 10." In order to embed a fact in long-term memory it requires both addends and the answer as a contained phrase. It is also the same when finding the missing addend - 4 and what make 10? Often children simply say (6) which is not attached to anything and as such will quickly fade. Therefore after a combination has been found or the missing addend has been given, RECAP together - pointing to each block you both name the blocks in this number sentence "So 4 and 6 make 10." Oliver was not too willing to verbalise this and thus I had to resort to ..... you guessed it ..... "Okay Boff let's do this one together!"

HAND WRITING

As mentioned earlier, as a direct result of noticing that Oliver's L/R directionality was poor and seeing examples of his handwriting of numbers to 10, I felt we could help improve this writing formation of numbers. I have a series of physical movements that involve large sweeping arm actions which Oliver did not want to do. He was too embarrassed to do these with me. Therefore we opted for practicing forming right and left curves, vertical and horizontal lines using a mini white board so that we had a edge. This task was also practised during his numeracy lesson on a Monday at school, as well as at home. Our focus was mainly on 2's that toppled, 5's with long necks, and two cirle 8's.

TIP:

These pre-writing activities are worth doing because it encourages fine-motor ability and strengthens muscles for better dexterity. We constantly get told by parents that their child has better dexerity since using the Stern equipment - all that manipulation on a daily basis. The writing exercises also reinforce this. A parent told me that her 14 year old daughter (DS) who had fine-motor delay, after working with the equipment for a term, not only began to make progress in her maths ability but she suddenly was able to do up her own buttons on her blouse...... such a small step you may think, but a huge achievement for her and for more independence........ Well done you!!!

THE CHARLOTTE CLOCK

Our 'time telling' strand is continuous and Oliver is reading moments of time independently now he has grasped the three step method: Todays readings were: 7:40 4:50* 2:40* 10:55 and 7:40. the two STARS were for brilliant working out. Oliver simply read out the time in one step! "It's 4:50." "It's 2:40." Fantastic! He, as with others using this method, needs to practice reading time from his Charlotte Clock at home to support what is done in the lesson because the opportunities can be limitless......

Vikki Horner