Math & AT project: Using OneNote to support student communication of ideas - spotlight Scarborough Village A.S.

Students in Miriam Taylor's Home School Program at Scarborough Village Alternative School had a wide variety of opportunities to use technology to explore the concept of equivalent fractions during a recent co-teaching session. As part of the "I have Assistive Technology in the classroom, how do I use it for Math?" project. Ms Taylor and itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu created a lesson which incorporated different software to support the students' learning styles and ability to communicate their understanding and thinking.

Minds On: Promethean Interactive Whiteboard flipchart

To start off the lesson, students revisited their understanding of identifying and naming fractions.

Ms Taylor during the Minds On portion of the lesson students used simple IWB tools to share their knowledge.

In one example students use the pen tool to complete the whole and name the fractional parts or divide a whole into fractional parts.

Action: OneNote
Scarborough Village is part of the AT team`s C.A.R.T. project this year (Curriculum and Resource Technology) so it`s a natural fit to get the laptops into the students` hands during the action portion of the lesson. Students picked up separate Microsoft OneNote page files from the school`s student shared folder and worked on the problems using OneNote tools as well as hands-on manipulatives.

Scarborough Village students represent fractions using various draw tools in OneNote.

Students in the triad use fraction circle manipulatives and computer to explore a problem about equivalent fractions (left). Without prompting one student quickly creates a vocabulary word list using Read and Write Gold to confirm his understanding of the word equivalent (right).

Consolidation: IWB and OneNote

As part of explaining their thinking, groups could choose to use the record video portion to orally explain and show why the two fractions represented were equivalent. Once all groups are finished Ms. Taylor will show each group's solution and play their embedded video from OneNote on the IWB. Students will have a chance to reflect and discuss answers for clarity and accuracy.

A OneNote solutions page. This group of students have responded to why the two fractions are equivalent by including an embedded video where they orally explain their answer.

Math & AT project underway - in-class sessions: West Glen J.P.S. spotlight

The AT team's Math and Assistive Technology project, "I have Assistive Technology in my classroom, how do I use it in Math?" is well underway. With one Learning Community session completed, each of the special education project teachers have been match up with members of the itinerant teacher team for the job embedded professional learning opportunities of co-planning and co-teaching. Some of these in-class sessions have taken place.

At West Glen Junior Public School, special education teacher Nicole Barnes and itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu co-planned a lesson to support Barnes' students consolidate concepts about money amounts.
To start, the group reviewed and revisited concepts about money that they know on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)- the Minds On part of the lesson. Students worked on identifying images of coins and their amounts as well as creating money amount using different combinations of coins.

Students were assigned specific interactive whiteboard files based on their grade level and money concepts they are learning. Students used the netbook and file to complete a math problem and further explore money concepts. (Tools used at the start of the lesson were the same ones students were required to use on their own using individualized files.)
It was the first time Ms. Barnes' class used the IWB tools to solve the problem on an individual file and computer. Ms Barnes' incorporated many sound files for students to use to as auditory prompts to support comprehension of instructions as well as reinforce coin names and amounts.

Students worked individually or in pairs.

An example of one student's solution to the "Buying lunch" problem.

Ms. Barnes' shares a money video with students following the consolidation and summarizing of the lesson.

 

One of the main goals of the Math & AT project is for classroom teachers to try a lesson while embedding AT in order to deepen their support of students in Mathematics. Through the project, teachers will learn various strategies and features of assistive software tools in software programs and/or the use interactive whiteboard peripherals to support special education students. The project also aims to create networking opportunities for special education teachers through our Learning Communities model.