Whole school rollout
Hi all - first post and hopefully something others are wondering about too. I am the numeracy leader for my school and considering this as a trial for a class or two. What can be expected in terms pacing variation between classes? Is the sequence designed to be followed at the same pace across a Year Level to an extent, or do we plan for divergence? Mr B
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Hi Mr B, thanks for starting the thread, and welcome.
The short answer is that you should plan for divergence in pace but not in order, because the order is what makes the sequence work and the pace is what makes it usable in a real classroom. Every unit assumes the prior knowledge built in the units before it. Two classes working through the same units in the same order will stay compatible with each other even when one of them is a week or so ahead, whereas a class that skips or reorders units ends up teaching content the students have not been primed for.
The planner is built with that divergence in mind to some extent. Each term carries an empty buffer week. A class that moves faster might choose to work on application and extension tasks, getting more depth in their learning. A class that has needed longer on a couple of lessons can use it to finish the unit properly. Most schools find one to two weeks of spread within a year level by about halfway through term one, and that is normal and manageable.
The most common cause of divergence is not the ability of the children but how long a class takes to move from doing the practised version of something to doing an unpractised version of it. If a class is behind, it is usually because that step is still incomplete, and the right response is to stay there rather than to push on. The trick here is to acknowledge as a teacher that a student may have demonstrated success in some part, but have they really had the consolidation required? Given the highly granular learning outcomes of each lesson, this level of understanding is not hard to achieve, especially if the sequence is followed.
For a trial of one or two classes I would suggest keeping a simple weekly record of which lesson each class finished to compare and talk about - great concrete discussion for teachers. Happy to look at your planner with you once you have a term of that data.