Reggio-Inspired Mathematics

BCRIM Book Club: Cultivating Mathematical Hearts

We launched our 2024-25 book club on October 3 afterschool via Zoom. This year we are reading Cultivating Mathematical Hearts: Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching in Elementary Classrooms by Maria del Rosario Zavala and Julia Maria Aguirre. We had educators from across BC and a guest from Ontario join the conversation. The book was introduced with the author's key purposes, definitions, and principles shared.

 

 

The following statement about the pedagogical work enacted in the book aligns with the Reggio-inspired principles and practices that we focus on.

As we read the authors' definition of Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching (CRMT), participants were asked what word or phrase resonated with them. The following word cloud is the results of their comments in the chat.

The slides from this year's book club launch are available here:

Download BCRIM_BookClub_Oct3_2024_slides

Our next cross-district book club session will be some time in January - the Zoom link and passcode will be emailed to subscribers (top right hand corner of this website).

We are looking forward to reading and discussing this book with educators from across the province as we think about our local contexts, students, families, and communities.

~Janice

 

back to school online mini-conference

We hosted an online mini-conference to think together about what we consider when planning and designing for learning in mathematics. We had 200 educators from across the world register to  listen to educators share how Reggio-inspired principles and practices have impacted their teaching of mathematics.

Some considerations about planning and designing for learning mathematics are shared my project teachers here:

Download BCRIM designing and planning ideas 2024

A link and passcode to a recording of the presentations will be available for 30 days here:

https://sd38.zoom.us/rec/share/ovLQZZIqL30G7jDIxLHau8WM8HLH_BSJk2vj9c-sm9A2w3pj_9mlwD-_l_orCpoL.uLHjt1ad13GrjS8n?startTime=1724810504000

Passcode: f$SqTx2%

Some resources shared during the mini-conference are shared here:

Download BCRIM Resource List August 2024

With thanks and appreciation to our presenters who shared stories of practice. 

~Janice

BCRIM Book Club: Mathematizing Children's Literature

This year we read the book Mathematizing Children's Literature: Sparking Connections, Joy, and Wonder through Read-Alouds and Discussion by Allison Hintz and Antony T. Smith. Both authors are professors at the University of Washington in Bothell with Allison's focus on mathematics education and Tony's focus on literacy education.

We held three cross-district Zoom sessions and district and school groups met in-between these sessions to collaborate and share books and ideas.

For our first Zoom session, we were fortunate to have authors Allison and Tony join us and share some of their favourite children's books and mathematical connections.

One framework we also considered when thinking about the stories we chose to read with our students is Indigenous Storywork. You can find out more about Dr. Jo-ann Archibald and her work on the Indigenous Storywork website HERE. We discussed the importance of using authentic resources when sharing Indigenous stories, learning about the author/s and illustrator/s and the region from where the story is from as well as considering different types of story structures and the Storywork principles. The Storywork principles are respect, responsibility, reverence, reciprocity, holism, inter-relatedness, and synergy.

In-person sessions focused on sharing new books we had found, sharing what we had tried, and collaborating to think of ways to engage with the instructional structures and frames provided in the book.

 

Thoughout the year, teachers in the project added to our book club padlet which you can find HERE.

 

Here are the book experiences some of the educators in our group wrote up to share:

Download BCRIM Mathemtizing Childrens Literature Write-Ups June 2024

 

And I will close with a quote from the book and a connection to the words of Loris Malaguzzi of Reggio Emilia.

~Janice

an urban math walk in Vancouver, April 20 2024

On April 20, 2024, a group of educators from across the lower mainland met at the plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery to begin an urban math walk, guided by Lauren MacLean and myself. We introduced ourselves and each participant was provided with a little bag and a postcard with questions to provoke our thinking as we walked.

In each participants little bag, there was a collection of tools from Math Anywhere,  a pencil, and a #BCreggio math button. An example of the tools for finding math included these shape finding frames:

  

This was the general route we took, needing to make a few detours.

We began our walk down the street from the art gallery, with a public art installation.

Public art is common in urban spaces and often is changed out over time. Many cities have websites with more information about their public art installations such as the City of Vancouver's website HERE, Vancouver Biennale HERE and the Vancouver Mural Fest HERE. 

Public art is a great way to connect mathematics to the world and explore mathematical concepts such as shape, design, symmetry, size, scale, pattern, ratio, etc. Some other public art installations we visited were from Biennale projects and from the Vancouver Mural Festival. 

As we walked we discussed all sorts of mathematical connections and possibilities for investigations such as collecting data on modes of transportation, estimating heights of buildings, a timeline of the city's development, impact of humans on living and non-living things in the spaces we walked through, and how numbers are used to organize and label a city. In Vancouver we also bumped up against the use of water by humans for transportation, recreation and industry. What questions might our students have? How might mathematics help us understand these urban places and spaces?


What an amazing morning we had together, re-connecting in person under clear blue skies, exploring the city and nudging each others' thinking. Many educators attending shared how they were inspired to take ideas from our walk together back to their schools and communities and to see the places and spaces around them through a new lens.

Where might you find mathematics in urban places and spaces?

~Janice

 

BCRIM book club 2023-2024: Mathematizing Children's Literature

For the next school year, our BC Reggio-Inspired Mathematics project has selected to engage with the book Mathematizing Children's Literature: Sparking Connections, Joy, and Wonder through Read-Alouds and Discussion  by Allison Hintz and Antony T. Smith. Allison and Tony are professors at the University of Washington (Bothell). More information can be found on the publishers website HERE.

Canadians can order the book through Pembroke Publishers HERE.

We will be hosting an online launch of the book club in September or October, followed by district teams meeting to discuss the book and put the ideas the book into practice throughout the school year.

~Janice

a math walk at Maplewood Flats

Lauren and I hosted a math walk at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver on Saturday, June 10th. The walk provided a bit of a pause on report card writing and an always busy June for teachers. We gathered together at the entrance and engaged in a land acknowledgement which involve sharing the story of the land and waters that are now part of a nature conservancy area. We also visited the Coast Salish Plant Nursery and checked in on bird sightings in the area.

   

How could you collect this kind of data at your school or centre? What story does this data tell? How will the data change from season to season?

We modelled different ways to take students on a math walk, including a focus lens, using nature routines, Lauren prepared some bingo cards/scavenger hunt cards and Janice prepared some postcards with questions to inspire mathematical inquiry connected to place.

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For the first part of the walk, we focused on looking for different types of symmetry:

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At the beach, we looked at field guides and discussed how math is used to help identify different species. We also used found materials on the beach to create a character for a story, inspired by place.

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As we headed back to the beginning of the loop that we walked, Lauren shared with us the ways we can use technology to map the pattern of birdsong.

Thanks to all the teachers who joined us on our math walk!

More information about Maplewood Flats can be found HERE.

~Janice

cross-district meeting: June 1 2023

Teams of educators from several districts joined a year-end Zoom meeting to share what projects they hav been focusing on this school year. Along with our CGI book club, districts have chosen from our three areas of focus: story, place and data.

The SD37 team shared a data project they began in the fall, collecting leaves from their school park and identifying the trees that they belong to and then collecting data about the numbers of trees. The plan was to do this as a cross-district project and compare the story of data about the trees at Delta schools but that didn't unfold as planned. Maybe next year! The SD37 team was also inspired by Vanessa's calendar/weather data project from last year and did a colours of the sky data project using beads.

Vanessa and Jen from SD35 shared how they engaged in a data project with their students about their community, including using tally charts to rec old the different types of vehicles they saw in their neighbourhood. Vanessa also shared how she used her weather data from the student calendars again this year to create a data visualization. The students "noticed and wondered" about the differences between the two calendars.

       

Laura from SD45 shared how she also was inspired by the calendar/weather data project and did this in her class as well. She also shared how her students investigated where they saw spirals in the outdoors.

 

The SD36 team focused on stories of place and collaborated with an Metis artist who created felt mats, plants and animals of the Semiahmoo and Sto:lo regions. Connected to their study of the maps, some classes visited places in their region and collected data, such as species found in the intertidal zone at the beach.

   

The educators from SD39 shared how they used Indigenous Storywork principles to think about how they might create mathematics learning experiences connected to Indigenous picture books they read with their students.

The idea of "What story does this data tell?" was a common focus for many districts and will be reflected in a collaborative resource that will be put together this summer.

At the end of our meeting, we looked ahead to next year and gathered some information about priorities.

 

We look forward to growing our project and community next year!

~Janice

BCRIM CGI Book Club 2022-2023

For the 2022-2023 school year, teachers in our project voted on having a book club experience and we selected the book Children's Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction by Thomas Carpenter Elizabeth Fennema et al (Second Edition).

Some of the reasons we chose to focus on this book is CGI's focus on honouring children's thinking and how they share their thinking and how math is contextualized creating opportunities for connecting mathematics to story, place and identity. When we looked at alignment with the principles and practices of The Reggio Emilia Approach and our BC K-12 Mathematics Curriculum, this book was a very good fit.

 

We met once a term as a cross-district network and then district teams also met in their district to share and analyze children's thinking about math problems.

During our cross-district network meetings, we spent time together learning about the specific problem types for addition and subtraction and then multiplication and division. We also discussed the strategies to listen and look for as students' share their thinking and solutions about different problem types presented to them. In our last session together, we looked at ways to extend CGI instruction, with a focus on mathematical modeling, problem-posing, having students build on each other's ideas.

An example of a district teams meeting is SD38 -Richmond. We met three times during the school year in The Studio at Grauer. For each session we focused on a few chapters of the book, shared, discussed and analyzed children's thinking about problems we had done with classes and set intentions for our next meeting. At our February meeting, we looked at the addition and subtraction problem structures through three example problems and spent time in partners anticipating how our students would engage with the problems, considering the three strategies of direct modelling, counting and derived fact.

   

More info about other district team meetings will be added as more info is received.

We have also been sharing our thinking together on a CGI Book Club padlet HERE.

Some information and resources about CGI mathematics can be found on Janice's district blog HERE.

~Janice

cross-district meeting: June 14 2022

On June 14, 2022, educators from across BC gathered on Zoom for a year-end cross district meeting full of reflection, sharing of district projects and thinking ahead to next year.

We looked at our year in review:

Shared some data resources as we continue to think together about how data tells a story:

And then district reps shared some of what they have been working on together within their districts.

From Vancouver, educators shared the learning about story, math and place and their connections to the work of Dr. Jo-ann Archibald.

     

 

Vanessa from Langley shared her data project. Her students collected weather data for every day of the school year and then they used colour chips to create a data visualization. They learned about a "legend" and about analyzing and interpreting data.

Kelli from Delta shared the photography and place project she did with her students and a colleague with the support of a grant from the Vancouver Reggio Association.

We shared two menti survey tools to ask for ideas for our collaborative work together next year. The following results will inform our project work:

 

We are hopeful that next year we will be able to gather in-person for some of our meetings and events but also include options for those who might want to join in from more distant locations. We are taking a break from our e-newsletter this summer and wish everyone a summer full of relaxation and adventures.

We re looking forward to a focus on building community next year and some professional refreshment!

Take care,

Janice

Connecting Math and Story Outdoors: Garry Point April 30 2022

A group of educators from across the Lower Mainland joined Lauren MacLean and I at Garry Point on the morning of April 30 2022. It was pouring rain at times but that didn't deter us westcoasters. As I shared some of the story of this particular place, we invited educators to think about the opportunities for findings stories and math.

 

We began at the first beach and focused on driftwood. Some natural clay was offered to enhance the experience.

 

 
 

Lauren shared some of her expertise around tracking and we looked for tracking stories in the sand. What types of animals visited this place? How can we tell by the size and shape of their tracks? Were they running, jumping or walking? How can we tell by the depth of the tracks or distance between them? What might the animal have been doing? What might the story be?

We also thought together about mapping, perspective, pathways and local seasonal plants. Two children created dinosaur stories amongst the horsetails.

It was so nice to be outside together, thinking, learning and sharing different ways to experience math and story!

~Janice