How to Accelerate - The Key Components for effective acceleration

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=Learning%20in%20the%20fast%20lane
Taken from Suzy Pepper Rollings

The Six essential components of acceleration

Step 1 - Generate thinking, purpose, relevance and curiosity

• Thought provoking
• Hands on
• Involve the big idea
• Answer the question - "What does this have to do with me?"  (develops motivation)
• With Maths it is when you develop a concrete representation of the concept

How-

Read a picture book about - fractions

Sort angles by similarities and differences

Step 2 - Clearly articulate learning goal/expectations

Link it to what has just been done e.g "What we just explored was....

In 20 minutes you will be able to ........

Explicit learning goal in childs language -very important

Children need to see the logical progression of learning that leads to a goal

Goal walls e.g. like basic facts ladders is good but need to make the links - show connections how each step builds on the other, this will help students to see purpose and also improves long term memory and retrial

Step 3 - Scaffold & Practise of Essential Prerequisite Skills

• Pause the acceleration and teach just what the students need to know to master the concept
• Ask .."Students could master this if they just knew....?"
• Start teaching the essential knowledge
• Develop a scaffold e.g. if students need x tables develop a chart of just the ones they do not know and remove them as they learn them
• Scaffold to enable students to access the rigor of the concept (without becoming frustrated0
• AIM of scaffolding in context is to enable students to use the skills in a new context 

Step 4 - Introduce new Vocabulary and Revise Vocabulary

Develop Vocabulary charts with pictures and meaning of the word

Term        Information(meaning)    Picture

To see a chart

N.B. Multiple representations are necessary. Students need about 6 exposures to a word to develop understanding.

Use playful, multi sensory vocabulary building experiences is most effective 

Step 5 - Dip into the new concept

• Students go a bit deeper into the concept
• Hands on activity, could be working with  buddy and solving a problem on a white board,
• They get to do things that the class have not yet done (This is not repeated with whole class)
• Promotes self efficacy and confidence for when concept is introduced in class

Step 6: Conduct Formative Assessment Frequently

Acceleration lends itself beautifully to ongoing, transparent formative assessment that yields timely, detailed feedback from teachers and peers. Having students hold up their answers on individual whiteboards fits perfectly, as do strategies like sorts and problem solving on sticky notes.

Essentially, anything that will help teachers continually "see" what students know provides valuable information on where students are and where they need to go.

Instructional adjustments in acceleration are immediate and ongoing based on student data.

Students targeted for acceleration have an urgent need for real success right now. For that to occur, teachers must use primarily "soft" formative assessment to provide descriptive feedback.

INTERESTING -
The above are all featured in BESS and are an integral part of effective mathematics teaching within the New Zealand Curriculum.

What Now For My Maths Programme?

• Look at working on steps 2,3, and 4 with all of my maths teaching
• Look at how to make the progressions and the connections between concepts clear to students
• Think through my teaching sequence to ensure I am building on prior knowledge ?
• Cyclic nature - needs to be married up with pyramid of acceleration and logical connections