Learn, Create, Share - Student Inquiry Focus

Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to focus on in this inquiry.

The challenge of student learning is they do not know their next steps and are not able to articulate these. The evidence below is taken from School Talk, which shows my Year 1/2 target learners are not tracking where they need to be. Green means they have achieved and yellow means they are working towards the progressions.

Target Learner 1:

Male, Year 1 Sri Lankan

                                                      Target Learner 2:

                           Female, Year 2                              NZ European

                        Target Learner 3:

                             Male, Year 1                                  Chinese

                       Target Learner 4:

                          Female, Year 1                            Sri Lankan

                        Target Learner 5:

                             Male, Year 2                                  Russian

    

                
                       Target Learner 6:

                             Male, Year 1                                  Polish

There are gaps especially in proofreading, editing and feedback, and surface areas (punctuation, spelling, and writing legibility). A wondering I have is by building their knowledge and skillset in these surface areas, will that help them to be successful in proofreading, editing and feedback?

 

Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning.
Although the Manaiakalani data shows that writing is an area that is progressing, the data from my school shows that there is low achievement in writing and learners are not making the expected shifts they should be in writing. One of the Manaiakalani/WFRC reflections was that teachers need to refine their practice and use tools to get the step change.

Powerful teaching conversations

1. Feedback?

2. Formative assessment?

3. Explicit instruction?

Summarise the discussion you had with your school leader(s) about your proposed inquiry focus and their reaction to this.

The discussion we had was around the CoL teachers aim which is to be a powerful force together to grow the capability throughout the school. We feel that our inquiry is bigger than just a target group and we can have a bigger impact across year groups. Our inquiries also fit with the Stonefields strategic goal of:

Growing OUR Culture - Our Place, Living our Values: 

Increase participation and belonging through nurturing a culture of inclusion for whānau and other community.

We all feel excited about our collaborative inquiry because it enables more opportunities for us to share our research and changes in practice with more people.

Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year. 

This area of learning feels to be the most important and catalytic because it is building learners' knowledge of feedback and involving whānau in the process. Regular sharing of feedback about the learners writing to whānau will strengthen the partnership between home and school, which, in turn, will promote shared language and tools for helping raise student achievement in writing.