Response to Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako - CoL 2023

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2024 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

The Achievement Challenge I have identified as an area of focus is to lift achievement in maths through the building and development of math vocabulary. For my MIT23 project, MathVentures, I focused on how to help support students unpack maths problems with unfamiliar vocabulary, and while this tool was engaging, and effective I believe I need to develop something more robust in my own practice to help them build the literacy vocabulary needed to accelerate, and perform to their full capabilities in maths. I fundamentally believe that being literate is the key to success in academia; not just in reading prescribed texts, but also in being able to tackle unfamiliar texts, across a range of subjects, and having the confidence in their skills to make sense of increasingly complex, and more subject-specific texts as they continue their learning journeys into intermediate and secondary.

What learnings from the 2017 - 2023 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking?
Looking over a variety of the different inquiries from CoL teachers I have found a number of them that are focused on accelerating our student's maths progress (Hannah, Clarelle, Elena), and a number that focus on vocabulary building (Robyn, Dianne) but none that I could see which focused on inquiring into our student's subject-specific vocabulary in maths. I feel like there is a great opportunity, which will also align itself with the new developments in NCEA with subjects now having a literacy co-requisite, to build our student's confidence in decoding and comprehending written math problems. I hope, as a result of this inquiry, that my students will feel confident in tackling a wider range of word problems in maths.

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?
By making my inquiry visible, and accessible to all through both my blog and our Team 4 Class Site I can support teachers through my visible planning, reflections, and my own decision-making processes. Following the Manaiakalani model of "learn create share" I will ensure that not only does the work that my students are doing follow these principles but that my own learning journey through this inquiry mirrors them too.

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?
The data in EdPotential provided by the Manaiakalani Research team, and Woolfe Fisher, as well as a closer examination of my classes' PAT results, indicated to me that there is a need to make an accelerated shift in our progress in maths. Anecdotally I found that a lot of my students had conceptual knowledge of different number strategies, and place value, however, when faced with a word problem that required comprehension, as well as the application of a strategy, they fell short. I would like to undertake an inquiry that focuses on a larger, and more overarching area of maths instruction (vocabulary building) that I feel doesn't get the attention that it needs through deliberate planning and implementation.
How would you like to be supported in 2024 as you undertake this inquiry?
I have applied to be a participant in the Maths Program Intensive as a way of developing my professional understanding of how to construct and plan for maths effectively, as well as any other PLD opportunities that are available. I will also take on all opportunities to discuss my inquiry process with my colleagues and to gather feedback on what they feel they need to best accelerate learners across different levels. I hope to be supported in finding academic research, and PLD that will help me to guide my inquiry.

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with their inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?
As with everything that I do, my findings will be ubiquitous and visible throughout my journey; I am also willing and able to share this process through opportunities like Bursts and Bubbles, the CoL meetings, classroom observations, and the Manaiakalani online toolkits. I will not have all the answers, but through this process, I hope I can engage other teachers, and demonstrate my own learning process in the hopes that it can offer them something by which they can accelerate their learners' progress too.

Reading Practice Intensive - Session Nine (Final Day)

Session Nine: Sharing Reading

Sharing about Reading

Students sharing their work allows them the opportunity to create connections and to establish authentic audiences in their digital spaces that can build their understanding, and raise their achievement. 

Allowing students the time and the space to work on their blogs, to visit, and leave thoughtful, positive, and helpful comments on the work of their peers is something that I need to implement more deliberately in the timetable, as well as ensuring that they are sharing and reflecting on the work that they are doing on their own blogs.

Participating in Reading Communities

What does participation in a reading community mean? In the new curriculum we have an emphasis on participation in a reading community, but what does it mean? It means allowing students an opportunity to for students to share their ideas, and opinions on the texts they have been reading, and make recommendations to others about the texts they have found interesting or enjoyed. By doing this we give students the opportunity, not only to reflect on their own reading and learning, but also to take on board what other like-minded students have read, and what they might like to read next. Sharing is also an important part of formative assessment as it gives us opportunities to check out how children are learning as they progress through the year. 

Making Reading Visible

Using the blog is critical in making reading visible, and allows for easy connections with others around what our students have been reading, as well as an opportunity for feedback from whanau, teachers, and other students.

We can use the blogs to reflect on learning, and create a record of learning over time, independent reading, and the reading/writing connection, and probably the most important element which is giving the students the opportunity for self-expression, and higher-order thinking.

Our schools take part in something called the Summer Learning Journey, a blogging challenge that takes place over the summer holidays, and we found that the students who took part in it improved their writing, not just formatively, but summatively through their results in e-Asttle writing assessments.

We also want to encourage students to share on their blogs more spontaneously, and not make it a chore, and we can do this by encouraging them to share their ideas, and experiences that take place outside of the classroom. If we can create value in sharing their ideas on their blogs we can continue to make it exciting, and engaging by giving them the opportunity to have their own voice, and by engaging, and commenting on each other's blogs we give them a great sense of importance to what they are sharing.

Feedback

Blogs, Google Docs/Slides, etc. give us as teachers such a valuable opportunity to give students feedback, particularly rewindable feedback that they can go back to in order to guide their next steps. Giving feedback is such an important part of teaching, and effective feedback evidently has a great impact on learners' progress, so how do we make sure that we are giving good feedback?

Good feedback follows three basic forms; Evaluative (making a judgment, usually summative), Descriptive (giving specific information about where they are at, and describing gaps), and Generative (feedforward, and guidance for improvement)

Collaboration

Collaboration is such an underrated tool in our teaching kete; their lives outside of school will frequently rely on them being able to collaborate with other people, and gives them such valuable opportunity to learn from others, and to help each other to overcome difficult challenges by relying on others, and being reliable in helping others. 

In school it can look like; listening/reading/responding to each other, discussing and co-constructing responses, commenting on each other’s blogs, peer feedback, and sharing texts that they’ve enjoyed. 

Scaffolding this collaborative/feedback opportunity can be important so they learn to give constructive feedback to each other, learn to take on feedback, and to learn from others in a positive way. 

Whanau Engagement

One of the things I have encountered in my conversations with many students over the years is that many of the students with lower reading levels share something in common - reading is not commonplace in their households; they don’t have people who read in their households; they don’t see people reading, they don’t have books in the home, and they are not encouraged to read in their spare time. One of the things I want to push for is encouraging students to shift that paradigm, if they are not having reading modeled to them, that they can model reading at home for others, whether that be parents or their siblings. 

Final Day

Today marked the final day of the Reading Program Intensive, and what a privilege it has been to be a part of it - I went into the program with a great sense of false confidence around my reading teaching practices and boy - did I get a reality check. Humbled and feeling slightly overwhelmed at the beginning, the program, alongside my wonderful mentor Mrs Nua, have scaffolded and supported me to reevaluate a lot of my practices and to view reading through a new lens. I originally came to PES as a secondary trained teacher of English, and for me, reading was focused on the analysis of texts, the ability to identify, and explain language features, and to break down texts to their foundation in order to “better understand” them. Moving to primary it became apparent that these skills were simply not the focus, and although it took me a while to get there, I feel reinvigorated as a teacher of the English language to find engaging and interesting ways to teach my students, not only how to read, but to get them reading to learn. The change from assessment-focused learning to learning skills, and strategies has been refreshing, and while summative and formative assessments are still a critical part of my teaching practice it feels great to explore a wider range of avenues through which we can build our students' skills, strategies, and to foster their love for reading inside the classroom, and out.

A massive thank you to our facilitators, Naomi, Georgie, and Toni - thank you for sharing your wisdom, and guidance with us - this has been an invaluable opportunity, and I hope I can maintain, sustain and implement everything you’ve taught me, and do all of your hard work justice. Nga mihi nui!

 

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers - KPMG Hui One

 KPMG Hui - 27th March

We arrived into the city (not so) bright and early this morning for our Hui at the KPMG offices. We have been asked to present 

Present our prototypes 

Feedback 

- extending beyond primary; how can we take away some scaffolding in future to continue extending students, 

- building vocabulary in “Do Now”  type of tasks. Start w/ PAT maths vocabulary and move forward from there.

One of the reflections I have come away with after these discussions and feedback is trying to work out the appropriate levels for my prototype - both language, and maths curriculum levels. I would like this tool to have content accessible to students across all levels, but because there is a wide variety of ability levels (students with good literacy, but low maths ability; students with low level literacy, but high level maths) and how students can self-identify what level they want/need to be working at that is most beneficial for them

Discussing how we can get students to identify what they know already, what their next steps are to progress through this prototype is something that I would like to build on - a systemic levelling system which means that students can self-select what they would like to do, or to work on.

Prototype; MathVentures

I have built my prototype using Google Forms to present the story, and Google Slides for the clarifications. Google Forms offers a lot of different elements that I need in order to ensure that I am getting an accurate reflection of; student progress, student voice, and because it offers me the ability to create the level/stage element of the story that I want (based on the idea of a choose your own adventure type story that I had originally brainstormed to give it a challenge/game type of feel).

I am currently searching for other online tools that might help me to incorporate all of these elements into the tool, however none that I have been able to use  have the comprehensive coverage that Google Forms offers at the moment.

For my prototype I decided to keep it simple, and to keep the language, and the maths tasks at the same curriculum  level (Level 2) in order to get a wider range of students who would have a wider range of experiences with the text, for example there will be students who read at Level One, for whom the text would have been above their reading level - how do the clarifications and audio help them to understand the questions?; for students who read above and beyond Level 2 - was the text engaging, did the clarifications still help, was the story interesting or engaging enough, even for students who read above the level to find enjoyment in the text.

I rolled out the prototype to 3 Year 6 classes, at the end of Term 1; the data and reflections I have shared below.

Reading Practice Intensive - Session Two

 Kaupapa and Shared Pedagogy (Valued Reading Outcomes)

Learn Create Share originally grew out of a common literacy practice model in the form of a literacy cycle, and the incorporation of digital technology into their learning practices. Technology was able to hook students who were disengaged with reading in particular by offering a wide range of creative opportunities based on the texts they were reading. Students knew they got to DO something with their learning.

A big part of this is helping students to create “communities of learning” something that was in practice with teachers, but had not yet been considered with students. This took form for Manaiakalani as a podcast called “Korero Pt England” in which students could reflect, and review the texts they had read, and gained a lot of traction, making it into podcast charts (ESOL students listened to it because it was at a level that was appropriate for their level of literacy).

Collecting Assessment Data - Using formative and summative assessments to evaluate our learning practices 

- Tracking our data and goals

- Use the NZC

- Using assessment tools.

Teacher Workbook

We have been given a copy of a spreadsheet in which we can collect, examine, and analyse the data we gather on our children over the years. These assessments for us are the STAR tests, PAT Reading (Scale Scores and Stanines), and Running Records (PM + Probes)

We did a Deep Dive into PAT: Reading Data, and the different reports that this test can provide us.

By examining our class, and analysing the data to identify gaps in their knowledge we can approach the next steps task in order to fill those gaps.

This is a time consuming process, however it is crucial in order to understand the more specific elements of literacy that our students need acceleration in to achieve at or above the national norms.

This teacher workbook functions well as an “one stop shop” for all of our reading practices, from data, to reflection, to planning. I think it will allow a more streamlined approach to planning without having to manage umpteen different sheets, and docs, and to be able to see more clearly what our next steps are when preparing and planning learning.

Learning Intentions and Achievement Objectives

One of the clear outcomes to student success is setting clear learning intentions by which students understand what they are trying to achieve, and what they should be able to achieve by the end of the unit.

Ultimately we would like students to be able to co-construct these Learning Intentions with our students in order for them to be self-evaluative, and assess their own outcomes, and success.

This session has given us a long to think about, as it’s an amalgamation of any different pieces of information, particularly how we can best utilise data to make informed decisions about our practice. Moving forward, I am going to look more closely at the gaps in my students' learning, as opposed to broadly trying to cover as much of the curriculum as possible, instead focusing on deliberate achievement objectives until the success criteria I / we have identified has been accomplished.