Rangiora Borough Learning Walks

Numeracy Contract

Giving students choice in which activities they complete (and adding an element of competition) can make maths fun! #mathsisfun

Why: Students were really engaged with the Numeracy Contracts at Rangiora Borough School. It allowed students to self-differentiate as they selected tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty. It also gave students good agency as they could choose which activities they wanted to complete when.

What: Numeracy contracts were being completed by year 5-6 students at Rangiora Borough School. Students have to complete activities for points and then colour them in once they’ve got a task completed and checked by a teacher. Different activities are worth different numbers of points and students can select based on their interest or the amount of challenge they want. Some activities are just laminated worksheets that they go and collect, some involve online games, higher points activities tended to involve some sort of creative element (designing and carrying out a survey, creating a maths pick-a-path etc). These usually last 3-4 weeks at RBS.

How: This could be easily implemented at most year levels (provided students have basic literacy skills). Requires a lot of upfront planning to set up all of the activities (and make sure there is enough substance there in terms of the maths) but then it’s all set up for a number of weeks and allows for student-led lessons with little need for teacher-talk at the front, allows the teacher to roam a lot more.

Visual Pepeha

All about me (celebrating cultural diversity)

Why: To celebrate diversity and belonging amongst students.

What: Visual presentation of mihi showing whakapapa, connections, and links to important places (awa, maunga, waka).

How: Students create a visual display of their backgrounds and values, which is attached over a photograph and can be folded to create a kakahu, appropriately decorated on the reverse.