Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Sidewalk Math: An Innovative Approach For Engaging All Children In Mathematical Learning, Martha Barry Mckenna, Siobhan Dennis, Maureen Loony, Merideth Ekwall

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

In kindergarten classrooms in six schools across Massachusetts young children are developing numbersense by walking, hopping, jumping, and skipping through colorful mathematical designs on carpets and sidewalks. The patterns and accompanying counting activities provide teachers with tools to engage young children in learning mathematics through movement and observation activities on colorful floor designs.

Lesley University’s Creativity Commons partnered with 20 kindergarten teachers and their 6 principals to form the Early Childhood Math Collaborative Inquiry Project in Fall 2017 to study the impact of the use of Sidewalk Math carpet patterns on children’s development of numbersense. Teachers from 3 urban schools …

Examining Opportunities For Dialogic Talk In A Kindergarten English Language Development Classroom, Margaret Burns

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

Purpose and Background

Dialogic talk, in which students are engaged in authentic, extended discourse where meaning is co-constructed and conceptual understanding is incrementally built, is an important aspect of English Language Development instruction (Gersten et al., 2007; Harper & de Jong, 2004; O’Connor & Michaels, 2007; Saunders & Goldenberg, 2010; Snow & Katz, 2010; Gibbons, 2015; Mercer, Dawes, & Staarman, 2009). Supported by Russell and Faculty Development Grants, this study examines how teacher language use in an inquiry-based science unit both facilitated and constrained dialogic talk in a Kindergarten ELD classroom in a Two-Way Dual Language context.

Specifically, I ask: …