The intended purpose of this website
Problem of Practice
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Edugains (2018), a website designed by the Ontario Ministry of Education, recently released a spiraled mathematics program (TIPS4Math) for Grades 1-8 that includes a timeline and complete lesson plans. However, having this information does not equate to understanding why or how to plan and deliver a spiraled mathematics program. How do we affect teacher capacity in this area? How do we enhance knowledge and encourage successful implementation?
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Personal Rationale
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While pursuing, my Masters of Professional Education, I have become more convinced of the importance to stop teaching mathematics concepts in isolation. I was introduced to the term, 'spiraling', which led me to find a number of resources that support the concepts and teachings I hoped to develop. I also came to realize the importance of professional development and curriculum supports for successful curriculum implementation. This has led me to consider what could be done to help make this concept shift from theory to practice in the best intended way? It is my belief that the answer is in properly educating educators on why a spiraled curriculum is the way to go, in addition to providing them with the tools to get started. Too often, we jump to the how. It is imperative to the successful implementation that we first address the why.
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Audience
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The target audience of this Capstone is elementary school teachers. While spiraling the curriculum is something that has extended into secondary school classrooms as well, I would like to keep my audience limited to elementary teachers. It should also be of note that I am focusing solely on the Ontario Mathematics curriculum. The ‘Why’ portion of the website would be applicable to any elementary school teacher, but the relevance of the ‘How’ portion would be subject to similarities in curriculum expectations.
This website is intended to provide elementary school teachers with the rationale and resources to successfully implement a spiraled math program, because without understanding WHY, we cannot understand the goals. If we are unaware of the goals, then we have no real sense of direction. Let us be intentional in our teaching and informed in our curriculum delivery. Let us spiral our classrooms towards success!
Format
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I am choosing to complete my Capstone in the form of a website. There are three main reasons for this decision:
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Accessibility - By publishing my Capstone as a website, I am able to easily share my work and have it shared by others.
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Longevity - A website provides ongoing access to the information, and I can easily update it in the future to include further ideas or links.
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Content - My Capstone will include a detailed explanation of the research and reasoning as to why, links to resources and supports available (mainly online), and suggestions for how to use these resources and supports to develop a program tailored to your school/classroom needs. This seems best organized as a website with different tabs. It also makes sense to provide links to other sites from a website.
What is a spiraled curriculum?
Why teach using a spiraled math curriculum?
Learn More
How do I start spiraling my math curriculum?
INTENDED CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELD WITH THIS WEBSITE
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Provides justification and rationale for curriculum change
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Exposes teachers to appropriate resources and reduces the workload of searching for and evaluating supports as an individual teacher
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Explains how to use these resources to support curriculum programming, while acknowledging that individual school boards, schools, or even specific classroom needs must also be considered (Darling-Hammond, Banks, Zumwalt, et al., 2005)
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Aims to ensure that the integrity of the curriculum change remains in tact as teachers attempt to implement the new curriculum design.
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