Maths With Attitude

Maths With Attitude is designed to help teachers of Years 3-10 create: happy, healthy, cheerful, productive, inspiring classrooms in which students learn to work like a mathematician. The kits support the objectives of any official curriculum document which has a focus on reasoning, justification and communication. When used in sequence with Working Mathematically with Infants, they offer a real alternative to text-based mathematics learning through all compulsory school years.   MWA in Brief   Features of MWA Kits   Kit Details   Teacher Evaluations   Prices & Ordering   Enhancing Maths With Attitude

...       16 kits from Years 3 - 10 2nd Edition released July 1st 2012 Working Mathematically with Infants All children at all levels can learn to work like a mathematician. Working Mathematically with Infants supports teachers of Years K-2 to begin this process. WMI integrates with MWA. Creating a Working Mathematically Curriculum This one page PDF file will help you conceptualise a process for creating a core curriculum in which students at all levels are learning to work like a mathematician in best practice classrooms. Upgrading to Maths With Attitude If you already have tasks in your school you may be able to upgrade to Maths With Attitude kits. Victorian Schools The Mathematical Association of Victoria provides its members with complete curriculum documents, including detailed links to all the requirements of VELS from Years 3 - 10. These documents are titled Working Mathematically in VELS: a Maths With Attitude approach.

MWA in Brief Learning to work like a mathematician involves: modelling what it means to work like a mathematician inviting students to apply the process independently practising the skills of a mathematician in context Maths With Attitude draws from each major strand of mathematics to support teachers in juggling the time spent on modelling, invitation and practice. Reasoning, justification and communication are the core of Maths With Attitude because these processes are the core of a mathematician's work. Content is chosen to illustrate, develop, improve and assess student ability to work like a mathematician. Each Maths With Attitude kit contains: 20 tasks from Mathematics Task Centre a manual which includes week by week, lesson by lesson scope and sequence planning The number of weeks planned in each manual varies, but together the four kits at a level provide 25 weeks of Core Curriculum across all strands and all year levels from Year 3 to Year 10. Maths300 membership is assumed and the manuals draw together and integrate: Task Cameos Maths300 lesson plans Maths300 software All of which are accessed directly from the web. Tasks offer students an invitation to work like mathematicians for themselves. Maths300 lessons and software support modelling the Working Mathematically process through whole class investigations. Features of MWA Kits Convenient and compact. Flexible, coherent and sequenced. Detailed support for a Working Mathematically core curriculum. Clear links to year level and curriculum strand. Week by week planning to integrate tasks and lessons into a Core Curriculum. Best practice teaching craft throughout. All manuals are laid out the same way. Become familiar with one and you will automatically be familiar with others. Trial schools have shown that a Working Mathematically curriculum can lead to substantial success for students. Self-directed professional development is supported by the manual, Maths300 lesson plans and Maths300 ETuTE. Improves the value you get from your tasks and your Maths300 membership.

Your Questions Answered Why a 2nd Edition? The first MWA kit was published in March 2002 and the series was completed in March 2005. Since then: our web sites have expanded extensively WiFi broadband internet is almost universal the way teachers access information has changed So, our manuals have been redesigned to include stronger, clearer web links. So content is the same? Yes and it will be consistent with the requirements of any systemic document. We began the 2nd Edition process with the question: If we were starting Maths With Attitude from scratch now, how would we do it? Clearly there was no need to include the previous CD-ROMs of Maths300 material. Going direct to the web made more sense. Equally there was no need to change what has been incredibly successful, judging by the hundreds of schools across the world in which these kits have been placed. How do I use the Planners? Any way you like ... but they are sequenced week to week and year to year. Maximum value will come from mapping planner weeks into your year planner as a core curriculum and building from there. Then publish the whole as your school course document and link to your systemic documents as appropriate. Do I have to belong to Maths300 before I purchase MWA kits? No. You can build a strong Working Mathematically curriculum using the tasks, manual information and Task Cameos. But the Planners do assume Maths300 membership so you will build a much stronger curriculum if you also purchase Maths300 membership. How do I purchase Maths300 membership? The Maths300 web site gives you the details. Follow our Maths300 link in the Prices & Ordering section below. Over the years we have misplaced some of our MWA manuals. What should I do? The 2nd Edition manuals are a fine replacement. They can be purchased separately.

... we have programmed a range of Tasks/Maths300 lessons across Years 7-10. The level of enthusiasm amongst staff and students is encouraging and we are appreciative of all of the work you have put into the Maths With Attitude kits - they are fantastic!! Thanks once again for all of your hard work - it is making maths relevant and meaningful to lots of students!!
...Michael Swanborough, Flinders Christian College

Sample Tasks Number & Computation Years 5 & 6

MWA offers a core curriculum around which you scaffold your overall year's work. Planning begins by showing the proportion of the year assigned to each curriculum strand. Planners then state which tasks and lessons to use in each week and suggest ways of using them. Like the slices of a pie the pieces may be shuffled to create your own balance within the whole. For example, the eight weeks in Number & Computation shown here doesn't imply eight continuous weeks of number.

Planning Pie Charts Years 5 & 6

One teacher remarked:

This is brilliant. I have been trying to use a combination of tasks and whole class investigations, but I have always felt it was a bit piecemeal. Now I can organise a much better problem solving curriculum.

Kit Details

• Each kit contains 20 tasks and a manual.
• Click a manual cover to reveal the tasks, lessons and other details for that kit.
• Planning pages of each manual develop a core curriculum in learning to work like a mathematician.
• Each kit provides extensive support for self-directed professional development.
• Many schools extend this learning further with the assistance of a consultant.

Primary Secondary

Prices & Ordering Per kit ... $399 GST included. Postage added. Maths300 membership is assumed, but not necessary for purchase. Details about Maths300 Membership. To order, use your school purchase order, or our Order Form. Notes Please specify which of the 16 different kits and how many of each. If you already have tasks in your school you may not need to purchase complete kits. You might only need to: Talk with Ina Koetsier, Distribution Manager, before ordering. Audit your tasks against the lists in the kits opposite. Purchase any missing tasks plus manuals. Contact Ina on (03) 9726 8316 or inak@blackdouglas.com.au Teacher Evaluations Changing Places, Tasmania (Years 3 & 4) Comments from teachers in 18 schools which trialed Number & Computation (1st Edition). Wade High School, Griffith, NSW (Years 7 & 8) This school used the Space & Logic kit as a four week unit to begin Year 7. Magic was the description offered by their HoD. Take a look at the photos of student displays and ponder the additional benefits of students being able to 'show their stuff' like this at the beginning of their high school career.

The photo shows a Maths With Attitude professional development day at Investigator College, South Australia. Teachers are mapping the use of their MWA kits into curriculum plans across their Goolwa and Victor Harbour campuses.