BTS Korean boy band helping us in maths

A new crowd sensation at the recent Billboard Music Awards in America was the
7 member Korean Boy Band who goes by the name of BTS, supposedly to mean
“Burn The Stage”.

They won the Top Social Artist Award, previously set by One Direction and set a new
Guinness World record for Twitter engagements.

I have since used the acronym BTS  (Bottom. Title, Side)
to assist learners in creating a meaningful context with their
NCEA L1 Multivariate Statistics standard worth 4 credits.

Using BTS for the Rugby graph above, we look at the

B (bottom) - weight

T (title) - Rugby

S( side) - forward / back

Our context becomes: The weight of the rugby forwards and the weight of the rugby backs

Using BTS for the Diamonds graph above, we look at the

B (bottom) - price

T (title) - Diamonds

S( side) - average clarity / above average clarity

Our context becomes: The price of diamonds with average clarity and
the price of diamonds with above average clarity.

In addition to this acronym, we have been using a template to guide our thinking
to ensure that learners are providing relevant evidence for this 4 credit Literacy/Numeracy standard.

To date, the data shows that my learners are getting a higher quality grade for this standard
compared to learners in other classes at my school and compared to national data. I have

0% at not achieved

0% at achieved

100% at merit

Pre Test confidence - Multivariate Statistics

Prior to learners sitting their Multivariate Statistics assessment worth 4 credits, they had to complete a programme showing evidence of their learning /understanding as well as a  Google Form. Their responses are shown below:

With our L1 Multivariate assessment a few days away, how much effort have you put into your learning?

None - 0%
Not achieved - 0%
Achieved - 25%
Merit - 63%
Excellence - 12%

What can your teacher do differently, to assist you in becoming successful?

Explain to me about how to get a excellent.

nothing, everything is good the way it is

She is already doing a great job at helping me become successful in my learning.

leave more comments

Keep supporting me.

Explain what we have to do properly

Nothing

She is already good

What can your whanau do differently, to assist you in becoming successful?

Make sure I come to school everyday.

nothing, everything is good the way it is

Always asking or reminding me if I have revised or finished off my maths tasks.

have wifi at home

Keep supporting me.

Spend some time with me so they can help me if i need it.

Nothing

Help when i'm stuck

What can your friends do differently, to assist you in becoming successful?

Also be successful.

let me focus more, and less talking

Trying not to distract each other, but help each other when we are both stuck.

stop talking so much

Stop me from going off task.

They can be more quiet so i can do my work.

Nothing

Focus

What support or encouragement has your teacher given you for this standard?

She would always help me get a merit.

good support always making me confident to complete this standard and to try my best

She has given kind and amazing encouragement that boosts up my eagerness to finish all the tasks.

she has shown me how to do things more easily with little confrences

My teacher has supported me and had faith in me that I could accomplish my work successfully.

she's explained the activities really well and she also gave me some advise to stay off my phone in class so i can finish my work and be sucessful.

good encouragement

100% best teacher

What can you do differently, to maximise your learning?

Come to class every day and be on time.

stay focused and ask for help when I don't understand something

Staying focused on the work, trying to get as much work done for the periods.

learn the next level. merit

Aim higher than my initial goals and potentiality.

I can ask my teacher for more time in class and during class i can move away from my distractions (Friends, Phones) so i can hand in my work, get the credits i need so i can be sucessful.

stay focused

Come to school and focus more

Clear message vs Mixed message

I have struggled immensely for the past week to write something positive about teaching and learning in my NCEA L1 maths class, so instead of highlighting all the poor choices that our learners have been making which is preventing them from achieving to their potential, I decided to pause......................

I noticed two weeks into a five-week standard, that there was an unusual tiredness and lethargy amongst some learners, so I decided to make a call to skip a few activities which were part of the gathering evidence part of the programme and go straight into revision test-type activities.

We revisited a template to help learners channel their evidence and completed one activity collaboratively. We then broke up the standard into key parts and I had a stopwatch timing their efforts for each part. At times we deleted evidence and rewrote it keeping in mind the keywords that needed to be used for success in the standard.

That created a buzz of excitement and a renewed zest for learning which was evident in the quality and quantity of evidence being shown and I now have learners making remarkable progress. A few have indicated to me that by week 3 they will be confident enough to sit their assessment and one student gave me permission to keep his cell phone for the double period so that he could focus on his learning with minimal distraction.

I hope that I have sent a clear message that success comes from hard work and not a mixed message that we can skip learning activities when learners show a lack of interest.

Student voice - emulating behaviours of more successful peers

Just thought I'd share some e-mail responses received over the last 2 days after a huge emphasis on observing behaviours and listening to conversations of successful learners.

"i´m just going through some family stuff"

"i will also stay off my phone during class time"

"I now know how important getting credits are"

"from now on i will keep my fingers on the keyboard so i can be successful "

Comments from learners still sitting on zero credits at the start of term 2.

Success breeds success

After my students observed what successful learners do and say in a mathematics classroom, I observed a marked level of commitment and focus from almost all learners.
Successful learners knew that they were being observed, so they stepped up their commitment and focus which encouraged others to emulate. The bar had now been raised.

At the end of the school day, I sent thank you e-mails to a few individuals who had made a concerted effort to minimise their sometimes disruptive/disengaged behaviour for more successful ones.

Wish us well in our quest for success in maths.

Final analysis

The final analysis in the last week of term 1, comparing achievement data of Maori and non-Maori learners has shown a significant shift for the latter group.

SHIFT final week of term 1 from Mon to Fri
Non Maori	Monday	Friday	SHIFT
0 credits	15	10	33%
3 credits	7	8	14%
6 credits	7	11	57%
Total	29	29
Maori	Monday	Friday	SHIFT
0 credits	10	10	0%
3 credits	0	0	0%
6 credits	3	3	0%
Total	13	13

Our focus from day 1 of term 2 is knowing what success looks and sounds like. Learners have been encouraged to sit near peers who they deem to be successful so that they can observe successful behaviour and hear successful conversations. 

I noticed more learners being on task for longer periods of time. A few requests to leave the room were met with this statement "Does your request to leave the maths room right now sound like something successful learners would do?" That resulted in learners getting back on task working on their programme.