The Orange 8ways learning map

Rachel
Year 4 Teacher
Orange Public School
Orange Cluster

Finding 3.10: Backward map
Backward map the learning sequence. Begin with the outcomes and final product that will go home to parents/family/community and then backward map the process and progression of knowledge.

The adoption of Make It Count has seen significant improvement in levels of engagement in Maths, in both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and has begun to flow on to improved assessment results.

Rachel’s is a case study which illustrates this. She has evidenced a sustained increase in engagement with Maths/confidence in Maths and is beginning to show improvement in assessment results.

The use of learning maps (see diagram below), where for a new topic our goals and pathways to them are laid out ahead of time, has been particularly beneficial. Story telling has also increased the relevance of our work, placing it in a social context. The pre-teaching that comes with deconstruct/reconstruct has ensured a greater level of success for all students.

As Rachel says, ”We need to talk about it before we do it, because otherwise it sometimes doesn’t turn out correct(ly) and sometimes it doesn’t turn out as good as we think it is going to turn out”.

This illustrates the importance of thorough background knowledge as she sees it. She has also appreciated the difference that our non-linear approach has made to identifying central concepts and the increasing use of a non-verbal “hands on” approach. Again, she says “It’s better to feel it because you can feel how many sides it has but on the sheet of number you can only see it. It could be hard to see if it’s 2D or 3D so when you hand it (the work) in it’s wrong. That’s why it’s better to feel it in your hands and see it than (just) seeing it on a piece of paper.

It is significant to note that it is in the strands of Space and Geometry and Measurement that Rachel is beginning to achieve higher assessment results/some Bs rather than all Cs.

Some questions to prompt discussions with your colleagues:

1. What do you think are the benefits in students knowing the learning goals and the possible pathways to them ahead of time?
2. What might be the significance of the last sentence in this story?
3. What other Cluster Findings can be found in this significant episode?

The 8ways learning cycle or map designed from the 8ways of Aboriginal learning pedagogy framework.