1 Bessy Tsakmaki and Linda MekiouWe decided to report on the 1 st Elluminate session, “Using Higher Ordering Questions in the Classroom”, and we will share our experiences related to classroom activities in mathematics. We selected this topic as it was challenging for us to change key aspects of our teaching and rethink the questions we ask, in order to help children develop metacognition skills.We worked together as a team and we undertook this pilot at the kindergarten grade level (5 year-old students). Maths and Higher Ordering Questioning in the Kindergarten

2 Connections with Colleagues First of all, from the beginning of this year, we had agreed with the kindergarten staff team upon the learning goals that we wanted our kindergarten students to reach. Subsequently, we proposed the activity that we used during this pilot and we exchanged ideas with the kindergarten principal, the rest of the teachers, as well as with 1 st grade teachers, in order to improve the content of our activity and to ensure that it would serve our purpose. Moreover, we recorded on video some sessions, as we plan to continue our discussions with the staff team and we would like to get more feedback from them.

3Successes Children used prior knowledge related to mathematics. Children were able to take a step further and complete several steps of the task. (numbers represent quantity) Most children were able to build their knowledge and make connections on a more abstract level (comparison of numbers). We noticed that by using a step process and higher ordering questions children were able to make connections between math and real life.

4Challenges Some children had limited prior knowledge due to a number of factors, for example immaturity, behavioral problems, learning difficulties and/or absences. Children needed more specific instructions and examples. Using higher ordering questions required more time for the activities to be completed.

5 Next Steps We will aim towards guiding children to self-monitor their work. We will increase the level of difficulty in the activities. (Teach children to classify items into three categories and compare them). We will organize team activities and encourage children to ask more “why” questions among themselves. In our effort to build on our experiences with the institute, we will try to apply in our teaching as many innovative practices offered by this program as possible. We will work collaboratively on lesson plans and while looking at student work, we will use technology more and enhance mutual accountability.