12.10.11 Oliver's Fifth Lesson ...

Oliver has made rapid progress with size, position, order and number names to 10. All is developing from using representations in the form of blocks and the work in the Counting Board. Oliver has a strength with pattern and thus the Pattern Board structure has enabled him to internalise most of the patterns (9 still requires more practice) and grasp the pattern order from the smallest pattern to the biggest as well as their number names to 10. Assigning number names is now 95% accurate. He is building his 'tool kit' which is enabling him to take an active part in the learning process.

The language strand is progressing nicely, Oliver's understanding of language concepts is

growing. In today's session he showed good understanding of 'most', 'least', 'how many more', 'how many less', 'whose in the lead?' The Snake game is great for this to take place....

Concrete teaching and learning from the array of equipment I use is extremely powerful... It gives clear images and 'clues' so that a pupil can make sense of what is being taught, to make connections, as well as link new learning to every day experience children have. For the practitioner, we can build and broaden from seeing a pupil's emerging understanding with each action taken. Because of the regular use of the equipment I know that all of the above tool gathering is being constantly reinforced.

Today I am introducing Oliver to numerals related to the Stern blocks and patterns because he now has a sufficient amount of number knowledge to 10. This will begin the process of transferring concrete understanding to abstract use. We see it as filling numerals with meaning. graphically, unzipping a numeral and filling it with what has thus far been learned. These small incremental steps encourage a pupil to make connections. Further games included matching pattern cards, in the same structured format, such as cubes of only one colour, cars, stars, lips, smiley faces.

Adding 1 to a number gives the next higher number

As Oliver knows the patterns we can draw on this to show how a single cube (different colour) at the bottom of each pattern brings instant recognition of the next number pattern! This is his first exposure to addition.

Bond work in the 10-Box

The pattern work and the Counting Board work is in advance of the bonds but it will catch up. Having said this Oliver has some understanding of some of the bonds already: 1 and 9, 4 and 6, 5 and 5, 7 and 3, 8 and 2, 9 and 1 and 10 and 0. The Hiding Game is a great way for the pupil to show you the combinations he/she knows because each player has to select a known pair and hide them. Next whilst showing one of the parts, a clue is given. "I have 10 altogether, in one hand I have 6, 6 and what make 10?" At a glance then one can see if the selected pair is correct or not. If not, it is not necessry to say "It is wrong..." There is a built-in means for a pupil to figure it out for h/herself. Have an empty 10-Box nearby, and ask the pupil to quickly check his blocks. Usually when the first block is placed in the box the pupil jumps to and self corrects because the box or empty 'gap' triggers the image of the correct block. The exchange is made and we are back in the game. There are so many games for bond practice. Okay here's another one. The pupil builds the stair 1 to 10 in the box. Then finds the partners for each step. Once complete take an empty 10-Box and place it over the box as a 'lid'. Ask "What does 1 need to make 10?" (9), then slide the lid so the pupil can check h/she is correct. They love this game! Continue until all ten combinations are named.

Handwriting Practice

This topic continues to be part of our sessions, although Oliver's written numerals are very much improved.

Teaching Time

We are still working with ONLY digital moments of time. You may remember that we began with the 3-step method, however Oliver quickly consolidated this. He simply looks at the clock face and states that moment in time. Guidance or self correcting is mostly to do with the bigger numbers from 45 to 60. This is coming along nicely.

I will try to post the next three lessons in my drive to catch up so that currrent sessons are quickly posted, especially as it only took a further three lessons for Oliver to have all the number bonds for 10 firmly in place!

Vikki Horner

Stop Press! Hayley Rydon Has Mastered Telling the Time...

Congratulations to Hayley in New Zealand who has been using the Charlotte Clock method to learn to tell the time. The working clock has been part of the 'kitchen' furniture for three years so that she has everything visible for her to reference. The practice clock enables her to have hands-on experiences. Looking good Hayley!!

I have just heard from mum Bronwyn that today is a special day in the Rydon household because the Charlotte Clock is being removed and replaced by a basic single digit clock. Why ? because 12 year old Hayley has mastered telling the time ... three cheers! hip hip hurray... she no longer requires the visual prompts provided by the Charlotte Clock special features.

Of course everyone is very proud of Hayley's achievement and Hayley, so are we, You've rocked it..... and you should be very proud of yourself too! the last word comes from mum who said

"We could not have done it without the Charlotte Clock method, so thanks Charlotte and thanks Vikki."

Bronwyn Rydon, New Zealand

The Charlotte Clock method was developed around the Down syndrome learning profile, and designed as a bridge to moving on to telling time with a basic clock face. It is a simplified method that takes away the complexities of abstract time concepts and is successfully teaching time skills to thousands of children with SEN in the UK and abroad, at home and at school.

For further information go to www.mathsextra.com or email enquiries@mathsextra.com

It's a small investment with HUGE rewards.......

05.10.11 Oliver's Forth Lesson - Continuous Progression with Five Teaching Strands....

I believe that we should be providing children with the 'tools' to enable them to move into the 'empowerment zone'. This means they would be able to actually participate in the learning process because they have some idea about what numbers are and what we can do with them as well as how to combine numbers and know their totals. Then we have to make sure this knowledge is embedded in the child's long-term memory so he/she can access it instantly, not by figuring it out every time, using up space in working memory, when this is required for other processes.

Although I am still building these 'tools' with Oliver, the teaching programme is flexible, yet logical, is visual and hands-on and IS moving him forward. This requires that I have many 'balls' in the air at any given time. AND, regardless of having NO understanding about numbers when we began our sessions, Oliver is more and more able to cope with it all.

There are opportunities for me to build and broaden any new understanding, as well as provide practice for previously learned topics. Whilst there was much reticence from Ollie with vocalising - an important part of the programme - he is doing more and more of this spontaneously. AND he is already showing me examples of being empowered by his new knowledge. The purpose of this blog is to diseminate information week by week of my student's progress, and although there are a few weeks of reporting still to post to demonstrate the journey - I am finding some really exciting moments that can only be described as magical.. Here's a preview of what happened during our 16th lesson or approximately one school term... You also need to factor in that this student has spent the past ten years in full time education where he made little or progress. So yes, magical and it shows that pupils with SEN can make sense of numbers.

Magic Moment... At the end of last weeks lesson, we had a wonderful experience whilst working with 2-digit numbers.. "I know!" (you will see in the following blog posts how this topic was brought into my teaching). Ollie announced that he was 15 and his sister was 23, I asked him to show me both numbers in the Dual Board. Then I asked him if he would like to find out how much older Anna was than him. Ollies eyes lit up, and eagerly said yes so we proceeded to do so. This led him to ask about his mum and dads age and wanted to figure out this difference too. However, the magic came from Oliver's ability to transfer his thinking when he asked "What if Mike was 85 how old would mum be? and a further "What if Mike was 100 how old would mum be?"

Back to the 4th lesson which began with work in the Counting Board - Oliver is now 95% accurate when naming the Blocks and the Pattern Boards by their number names, and 95% accurate when ordering the blocks. Early vocabulary is in place and today he showed accurate understandng of new words and phrases; 'most'. 'least', 'how many more'?', 'how many less/fewer?' 'whose in the lead?' Given this progress, I am keen to introduce numerals and link them to our current work as follows:

The Counting Board - This is great because it has a vertical guide board with written numerals 1 to 10 to draw on. Charlotte was free today and so after the teaching aspect to introduce numerals 1 to 10, we all played the 'snake game' which is brilliant for reinforcing quantities. Oh you want to know how to play the game? okay... select a numeral, name it, place it correctly in the board, name the block below, if all this is correct the pupil takes the block and begins to build a 'snake'. This can be played with two teams, or two or three players. After each go, I can ask who is in the lead? who has the most, how many more do you have than (whoever is playing). With each next go, there is always a diferent configuration and so the reinforcement continues..... Note: Oliver was able to tell me the correct number of units of difference, at a glance, even if the last block was 'partitioned' demonstrating that Oliver was seeing 'size' of units beyond the equal point of both 'snakes' regardless of colour.

Consolidation and transferance - We do this by making connections within individual teaching strands matching blocks and pattern boards, then blocks, pattern boards semi abstract cards, finally, blocks or pattern boards with numeral cards to 10, ultimately games with numerals alone.

Note: Oliver's ability to order the boards to 10 is almost there, although he is still self-correcting the 7 and 8, or 9 I am pleased with progress and so feel Oliver is now ready to be introduced to odd and even number concepts in the next session. Also, because the pattern boards were designed for this purpose, Oliver will continue to get further practice in ordering patterns to 10.

Combinations of 10 - Olivers development in other areas of number knowledge is in advance of his bonds to 10 learning. Therefore I am giving this more attention and it will be the task at home, and if possible, during the numeracy lesson at school. It should be the first task as the student will be fresh and keen. I want to give Oliver more modelling and more opportunity to articulate the bonds - 'seeing', 'saying' and 'doing'. Remember for facts to embed in long term memory the student needs to have both addends and the total, contained in a number sentence, DO NOT simply accept an answer, eg: you might say "What does 8 need to make 10? and your student says... 8... The number is not attached to anything and will quickly fade away. Taking the role of the 'teacher' means that your student has to begin the task and then ask you to do something..... We also incorporate the game where blocks 1 - 9 are placed on a surface nearby. The student selects a block from our group on the table then is asked to go and find the partner/number that makes 10. This encourages memory and you will see examples of developing receptive language when the task is completed correctly.

Telling the Time - We used clock face 2 as a means of building five minute blocks of time. We used cards to set the hour hand and then the spinner with template in 5s to set the minute hand. The 5-pattern cards where then used to physically build that moment in time (30). Using the red outer numerals we said the numerals together 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. This is to be our first introduction to counting in fives.

Handwriting practice - Include a worksheet. Whilst our focus here is mainly 5, 7, 8, Oliver wanted to write a row of all numbers to 11! I gave Oliver a sentence to say out loud as he wrote each numeral.

(5): Down and round, give it a hat!

(7): On the DOT, straight to the cupboard, STOP and DOWN!

(8): Big 'S' up and join.....

Oliver was writing the 7 in reverse. to encourage the correct strokes I find that by first making a dot, a pupil can place his pencil on the dot then move the pencil to the right horizontally, but he needs another prompt to know the direction to go in. Look at what is on the child's right side and use that. For us it is a large cupboard. Threfore I demonstrated the action - placing my pencil on the DOT I say "On the dot, straight to the cupboard, STOP and DOWN," without taking the pencil off the paper. He quickly got the hang of it, completing a full row or 7's. Next we tackled 8, by writing a large S, pausing then diagonally going up and close. These two parts work really well. We tried drawing the curves and diagonal stroke with our hands in the air, so the 'S' can be a big as possible... You can also try writing in the sand or on smooth sandpaper or any other rough surface. These physical experiences always help! Oliver's 8's were an instant success!! Then Oliver thought we should look at 2 which toppled!!!! "We had such fun trying to think up the phrases .... They became 'Mike's fat belly on a skate board'. !!!! don't knock it if it works!!! haha.

For writing homework Oliver was given some writing exercises in Pupil's Workbook 2.

Feedback on all lessons is always written up and sent to parents as well as the teaching assistant to follow my lead in school. It's a good partnership.

Vikki Horner