In order to enhance and deepen pupils’ mathematical learning, teachers in St. Oliver Plunkett PS combine the wholly immersive shared learning experience of Izak9 with the latest video and tablet technology.
The children use a range of apps which allow them to capture each other’s learning strategies in a wide variety of ways, present these to their peers and even share them with their parents at home.
Check out how they use Chatterpix to have this wall of cubes speak for itself.
Izak9 provides a rich and active learning environment which is highly conducive to formative assessment. Many apps allow the teachers to capture and present evidence of pupil learning and achievement in a more positive way.
Here a group uses Comic Strip to present the work they completed together on prime numbers.
The St. Oliver Plunkett children make frequent use of a combination of two applications, Explain Everything and Book Creator, to demonstrate how they approach the particular task in hand and record their thinking.
In the clip below see how the children are enjoying their mathematical learning from the Izak9 fraction wall.
Use of video alone can be a powerful way of recording learning. In this clip, the pupil is working on solving linear equations. Izak9 adds visual and kinaesthetic options to the learning experience, meaning that finding the solution to the equation itself only forms part of the picture. The dynamic nature of the shared learning environment is highly stimulating for children. The child is showing how he can solve the equation, find the solution cube and place it in the corresponding place in the solution wall.
Through experience, teachers have learnt that Izak9 is best used in Guided Discovery mode, where teachers and pupils initially use the cubes with the support of the tasks and questions contained in the e-learning portfolio. As it will be continually updated, the portfolio will remain relevant. Moreover, teachers and pupils very quickly begin to build a personal and positive relationship with the cubes resulting in the adaptation of existing tasks as well as the creation of new tasks. Izak9 provides the ideal forum for fluency and reasoning, enabling children to delve more deeply into mathematics thus building their confidence and competence.
In this short clip the pupils have the teacher facilitate their own adaptation of the fraction wall activity.
Izak9 users all over the country are now beginning to incorporate video and software applications with the Izak9 cubes to offer children extra ‘layers of learning’. Not only are children benefiting from the dynamism of the Izak9 shared learning experience in mathematics, they are also now able to showcase their learning to peers and parents. This all leads to greater understanding in the subject area, as well as building pupils’ skills and confidence.
By offering unprecedented mathematical learning experiences and opportunities to their pupils, teachers in St. Oliver Plunkett PS are leading the way. They are genuine Izak9 Superusers of whom we are immensely proud.
Franz Schlindwein. Founder. Qubizm
blog.izak9.com 