1. BEST Cluster Project: Principles of Learning and Teaching in Action http://www.bestcluster.openlab.net.au NamePOLTSchoolEmail address Robyn Carbery4.5E HillsCarbery.robyn.d@edumail.vi c.gov.au

2. 1. What was the teaching and learning challenge to which you responded? Which PoLT did you address? POLT 4.5 Students are challenged & supported to develop deep(er) levels of thinking and learning by using strategies to develop investigating and problem solving skills

3. 2. What was the focus of the unit of work? i.e. Key Concepts; Understandings; Essential Questions? The focus of this work is to get the students to think about and articulate (in required written format) the strategies that they use to solve problems. They then use these strategies to solve firstly similar problems, then to select the appropriate strategy to solve a given problem.

4. 3. What could the students already do alone? What did the students already know? Students can answer questions/solve problems but are unable to set them out in the required format, and usually they cannot explain how they solved the problem.

5. 4. How were the students assisted? eg. scaffolding, modelling, questioning, mind maps etc. Show or list resources used and length of learning sequence. Students are assisted by modelling, asking questions, and to help reinforce the format required, assessed according to the format. ie I write an example on the board, ask the students to restate the problem in their own words (1 mark), underline the important information (1 mark), state the strategy to be used (1 mark), solve the problem, showing the working out (1 mark), check that the answer makes sense and finally write the answer in a sentence (1 mark). The students are then given at least 1 similar problem to do by themselves. I have a graded series of problems to select from, and this process should take 1 semester. The next semester the students are given a mixture of problems and have to select the appropriate strategy from those we’ve used.

6. 5. Review. How successful was the learning sequence? What will the students do next? At this stage (almost ½ way through semester 1) we have not completed the whole program (this is a class with a very low ability) but we are making progress. Some students find the work interesting and are prepared to work but many of them can ’ t see the need to formalize their thinking processes. They can either do it or they can ’ t do it, and why should they write it down? This process will continue throughout this year and their time in Maths while at E.H.

7. 6. Evidence: Attach relevant classroom materials, worksheets, rubrics, surveys, photographs and student work. Students are given a printed copy of these questions which they paste into their book. We then go through the process detailed in part 4 above. Week 1 Guess and Check Problem 3 Cara Mell has 56 biscuits in her cupboard. She has eighteen more chocolate biscuits than ginger snaps. If there are only 2 types of biscuits, how many of each kind are there? Problem 4 April Day, Peter Rabbit and Marsha Mellow all joined the Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the local park. When it was over, the 3 friends sat down and counted their eggs. April and Peter had a combined total of 25 eggs, Peter and Marsha had a combined total of 23 eggs, while April and Marsh had a combined total of 24 eggs. How many eggs did each child have? Week 2 Make a Table Problem 3 Artie Choke and Tom A. Toe both shop at the same fruit and vegetable shop between five and six in the evening. The last time they saw each other was Tuesday. Artie shops every five days and Tom shops every four days. What day of the week will they see each other at the shop, assuming the shop is open seven days a week? Problem 4 Ginger Snap is baking biscuits. She has 100 biscuits and will be putting three different kinds of decorations on them. She lines up the biscuits and puts icing on every 5th biscuit. Then she puts hundreds and thousands on every 8th biscuit. Finally she gets out the cherries and puts one on every ninth biscuit. How many of her biscuits have all the decorations?