Announcing March into Math!

‘March into Math’ is a new CDNIS Lower School initiative in support of our PYP mathematics programme. It will run throughout the month of March and become an annual event. Our normal inquiry based math learning and teaching programmes in Homerooms will continue as usual. However during ‘March into Math’ there will be several special dates to acknowledge and celebrate. These will enhance the Lower School math programme in a creative and challenging manner.

Dates to remember:
• March 6th – World Math Day
All students from Grade 1 > Grade 6 will engage in the online World Math Day competition. Ask your child to introduce you to the ‘World Math Day’ website. http://www.worldeducationgames.com/WEG2013#5

• March 14th – Pi Day
Different grade levels will acknowledge Pi Day in a variety of ways: e.g. identifying circular objects around the school, designing Pi
T-shirts, making conjectures about the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of a circle etc.

• 25th > 28th March – Math & Literature focus
During Homeroom reading time teachers will introduce and share children’s literature that has a math focus. There will be a display of math themed children’s literature in the Library. Mrs. Manson and other ‘guest readers’ will read and share math related children’s literature to students in the Library at lunchtimes every day during the week.

• Date(s) TBC – M3: Morning tea, Mingle and Math!
Informal parent information sessions will be offered, each with a specific math theme/focus. These presentations will be informal with coffee, muffins and lots of discussion.

So let’s all ‘March into Math’!

Mrs. Ellen Manson
Lower School Mathematics Specialist

Dear Parents of Grade 3-8 Students,

Re: International Schools’ Assessment Results

This past October, your child participated in the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) at school. The ISA is a set of Mathematical Literacy, Reading Literacy and Writing tests designed for students in international schools worldwide, many of which are IB schools. The results enable schools to evaluate instructional programmes against objective evidence of student performance, measure growth in learning from year to year, provide data and measure individual students’ achievement in order to address strengths and weaknesses.

We are pleased to learn our Grade 3-8 students, are achieving equivalent or higher mean scores than all other students at international schools around the world on each of the Mathematical Literacy, Reading and Writing tests. This reaffirms CDNIS offers a holistic, challenging programme focusing on developing students’ knowledge, skills and understanding across the disciplines.

That said, the results have indicated specific areas we can target for improvement.

Your child will be bringing home a copy of their ISA results.  It must be noted that ISA results are not used as part of the reporting framework; it is a completely independent report.  The ISA is only one indicator of a student’s standard.  These results should be viewed as a “snapshot” of how the student performed on these particular tests on those specific days. ISA results may not necessarily reflect how a student performs in the classroom on a day-to-day basis. However, it is important to consider the results of this assessment in context with other information about your child’s achievement provided by teachers at the school.

Understanding Your Child’s ISA Results

The ISA assesses students in the three learning areas of: Mathematical Literacy, Reading and Writing. Details about each of these tests were outlined in the initial letter sent home in late September.

The cover page of your child’s ISA results is issued by ACER, the administrator of the ISA tests. It explains how to read the additional pages of individual test results that are attached.

Your child’s achievement in this assessment is shown with a large circle on the column. The knowledge, understanding and skills typical of a student at this level of achievement are described in words in the text alongside and below the large circle.

The shaded band across each section of the report indicates the proficiency of the middle 60% of all students globally in this grade who participated in the October ISA test.

You can find more information about the ISA programme on the Internet at www.acer.edu.au/isa.  If you have any further questions about the test and/or results, please contact Linda Parnsalu, Lower School Vice Principal at 2525-7088 or lindaparnsalu@cdnis.edu.hk.

Sincerely,

Linda Parnsalu

Vice Principal, Lower School

Please click here for the answer to Problem of the Week – 3

CDNIS’ artist in residence, Steve Stiller, has been working on some percussion arrangements with grade 5 classes. Mr. Kennedy has posted some pictures here. Check them out.

For more information about Steve Stiller and the Artist in Residence Programme, please click here.