I Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade 7 Volume 2

[Bran Bast]

Welcometo Fifth Grade! Students in grade five participate in a variety of classroom experiences to expand their love of learning while developing their academic, social and physical skills while seeking DISCOVERY. The following descriptions present a brief overview of the comprehensive program for the fifth grade.

This year, our students will take the i-Ready diagnostic. This diagnostic is a short series of questions that will help teachers know how to group students to best address their needs and build on their strengths. The i-Ready diagnostic is administered on the computer. Once your student has finished the assessment the program creates a personalized series of games and learning activities. We ask that each student spend 10 - 15 minutes each day on reading and math i-Ready activities. To learn more about i-Ready, please go to www.aacps.org/iready.

AACPS embraces a balanced approach to literacy instruction at the elementary level; whole language and phonics instruction are both valued. A compilation of learning blocks work in tandem to address the variety of needs of developing readers and writers. These include:

AACPS Mathematics PreK-5 program implements the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards. These standards are a set of high-quality academic goals which provide rigor, focus, and coherence to prepare our students to be college and career ready by the time they graduate from high school. Instruction will include these mathematical domains:

AACPS values creating a positive math culture in the classroom by inspiring success for all students through growth mindset and risk taking. AACPS embraces opportunities to make math visible with the use of concrete manipulatives and representations to develop conceptual understanding. Math is a social experience as students engage in meaningful conversations with their peers.

AACPS strives to inspire students to see the beauty in math through games and real-world problem-solving. Students can practice mathematics at home including building sets and relating them to multiplication, measuring/estimating the distance from the house to the playground, estimating or determining elapsed time when they clean their room, cooking with a family member and using the world around them to name shapes and describe their attributes. It is important for students to continue their math learning at home using their Ready Common Core student instruction book, i-Ready My Path and First In Math

Through exploration of the Next Generation Science Standards curriculum, students engage in scientific inquiry. Throughout this process, students generate questions around real-world science phenomena and develop investigations to find the answers to these questions. They take measurements, collect data, and analyze information to find solutions to scientific problems. Students study patterns and relationships within science and learn to build evidence-based arguments in response to claims. The topics are:

The Drownproofing Program is a comprehensive aquatic safety program for AACPS fifth graders. Students learn personal water safety skills through teacher and Drownproofing staff led lessons. The instruction is aligned with the language arts and physical education curriculum. Water safety instruction is provided by certified aquatic safety instructors. Lessons focus on personal water safety, use of personal flotation devices, safe rescues, cold water survival techniques, hypothermia and ice safety.

Students experience a heightened level of art access through a unique medium of artistic expression that can amplify and integrate the four traditional art forms by incorporating the technological advances of the contemporary world with emerging skill sets available to students and teachers. In the Media Arts, students cultivate both artistic abilities and a technological aptitude. The media artist utilizes a fundamental understanding of the mediums of analog and digital media to integrate digital technologies with traditional forms of artistic expression. Artistic processes are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are realized. National Core Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating; Performing/ Producing/Presenting; Responding; and Connecting.

Students increase their creativity, communicate and collaborate with others and gather, evaluate and analyze information and data using computers. They solve problems and make decisions in a manner that demonstrates their understanding of the social, ethical, and human issues related to technology.

Students increase their awareness in the health skills of analyzing influences, nutrition, safe living environment, communication, disease prevention and control, decision making, conflict resolution, self-management and advocacy through identified literacy texts within the 5th grade curriculum.

The ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to educational-related literature. ERIC provides ready access to education literature to augment American education by increasing and facilitating the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research. ERIC provides coverage of journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs. From the Proquest web page on ERIC ( =10639).

Abstract: The Common Core State Standards articulate expectations for student participation in mathematical reasoning, sense making, and discussion. Yet little to no research explores the participation of students with autism in these practices. Drawing on neurodiversity and situated sociocultural theory, this article offers a case study of the mathematics engagement of Oscar, a fifth-grade student with autism, over the duration of 1 school year. Using field notes, videotapes of classroom interactions, student work, and teacher and student interviews, we examined the influence of the classroom activity system on this student's participation in mathematical reasoning and discourse before and after a classroom intervention targeted to improve student engagement by making participation norms more explicit. Prior to the classroom intervention, Oscar did not participate verbally in small-group or whole-group mathematical discussion. After the classroom intervention, along with additional scaffolds such as increased peer accountability and collaborative strategy shares, Oscar increased his verbal and nonverbal participation in both small- and whole-group discussion. Through our year-long study, Oscar shifted from a student who did not speak in math class to one who explained his mathematical thinking in multiple contexts. We call for additional qualitative research in mathematics that seeks to understand the unique participation of students with autism, seeking understanding of how to better include these students in the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Abstract: Scientific research on dyslexia has taken place for the past 50 years during which time arguments on brain deficiency have created tensions between education and cognitive neuroscience researchers. However, clinical research on dyslexia through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has finally revealed that a dyslexic's brain works differently. The findings have finally brought in a new synergy between research in education and cognitive neuroscience and empirically supported the neurodiversity movement. Recently, neurodiversity has been used as a framework for specific learning difficulties (SpLD) justice and to support dyslexia in inclusive education. This qualitative study was conducted to understand the Malaysian mainstream primary school teachers' beliefs about SpLD and the current framework for Malaysian literacy support programme. The data collection is through social media focus group discussion and individual instant messaging interviews with forty-one teachers. The findings reveal that the current programme is built on theories of remediation and that the teachers have exhibited good levels of understanding of remediation, but not yet understand neurodiversity. It makes recommendations with regard to teacher professional development.

Abstract: This paper describes two myths that circulate widely about the potential of students with Learning Disabilities to learn mathematics: (1) that students with Learning Disabilities cannot benefit from inquiry-based instruction in mathematics, and only from explicit instruction; and (2) that students with Learning Disabilities cannot construct their own mathematical strategies and do not benefit from engaging with multiple strategies. In this paper, I will describe how these myths have developed, and identify research that counters these myths. I argue that these myths are the unintended consequences of deficit constructions of students with Learning Disabilities in educational research. Using neurodiversity to frame disability as diversity rather than deficit, I assert that students with Learning Disabilities can learn mathematics to the highest levels, and that these limiting mythologies hold them back.

Abstract: 'Relaxed performances' allow theatre spectators to experience a non-judgmental environment, featuring adjustments to make them more accessible to a range of audiences. The Autism Arts Festival attempted to develop the idea of relaxed performances further to create an entirely autism-friendly festival in Canterbury. The organisers developed a suite of features to make the festival more accessible, and the suite as a whole was effective at increasing the accessibility of the festival. Moreover, discussions with performers indicate that the festival, as an 'autistic space,' was conducive of both a sense of community solidarity and engagement with the politics of neurodiversity.

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