Become familiar with and make use of The Learning Carpet. The Learning Carpet is an excellent resource, tool and manipulative to make use of for Primary and Junior grades to assist in understanding numbers and number relationships. Some teachers have asked about the use of this and I would like to become more knowledgeable in this resource in order to support the implementation of this tool. I believe student understanding can benefit from The Learning Carpet. There is currently one in the school but teachers are unsure how to make use of it for an effective math program.
TIME LINES
- 1 week - attend seminar at math conference on The Learning Carpet
- 1 week - search book and other resources for lessons utilizing The Learning Carpet
- 1 week - begin to set dates for times to introduce / use The Learning Carpet in two different classes
- 2 weeks - go into classes and use The Learning Carpet
RESOURCES
- The Learning Carpet "Back to Square One" manual
- collaboration with other Math Facilitators / teachers that have made use of The Learning Carpet
- online search of lessons for The Learning Carpet
- use of online lessons for use with The Learning Carpet as well as those that make use of a hundreds chart
TASKS TO COMPLETE
- attend seminar at upcoming math conference
- search and review lessons for introducing The Learning Carpet
- meet with teachers to share lessons to getting students comfortable with The Learning Carpet
- set times to go into classes and work with teachers and students using The Learning Carpet
- Lack of Resources - though I will be attending a seminar specific to this tool and have received a copy of the manual, a preliminary search for lessons has come up short. I will use what resources I do have and know that there are some that will work for introductory and slightly deeper purposes. Further than that, I will continue to look for lessons and ask other Math Facilitators that have made use of this and for more resources.
- Teachers may not have time between now and end of school year - there are a few teachers that have asked about this resource (there is one at the school already) so I am confident that there will be a time to start making use of this. If not, I will make the time to at least meet with teachers in order to share and discuss lesson ideas that they can use when they hope to implement this next year.
- Students may struggle to understand - we will start in the most basic lessons for both grade levels in order to ensure student understanding. By using probing questions to guide the students, they can usually provide an answer to some degree. As well, I have done some work with both classes and am confident that they are capable of introductory lessons.
Checklist - using the time lines and tasks listed above, I will go through these steps in order to begin implementing the use of The Learning Carpet in preparation for enhanced and further use next year.
