STL Numeracy

November 2015

Supporting Numeracy

I was asked to support a group in a numeracy session, where the Learning Intention was 'To share objects equally'.  The activity was to share objects into equal groups and then count how many in each group.  I supported by reminding the pupils how to share equally: to give one object to each group and carry on until there are no objects left, making sure that they counted an equal number of objects into each group.  Some pupils found it tricky to only count one object into each group at a time, and to make sure they had given to each group.  I used strategies to help them, e.g. 'lets share the cubes out, one for you, one for me.....'.  The last step was to count the number of cubes left in each group and to check the amounts were the same.  again, some children needed assistance to count accurately and not to count too fast.  I found that encouraging the pupils who struggled with this to actually point to each object with their finger as they said it, helped greatly.  By the end of the session it was clear who had achieved the learning objective, and I was able to feed back verbally to the class teacher on the ones who needed more practice, and I noted on their work whether the pupils had worked Independently ( I ) or with Support ( G ).