The current status quo

Develop a rich profile of relevant aspects of your current teaching.

At yesterday's PLG Anita, Emma and I had a really good chat with Fiona. She asked us to talk about relevant aspects of our current teaching. This will help me design an intervention and give me baseline information that I can use at the end of the year to evidence shifts in my teaching. 

Currently learners are hooked into writing through real life experiences. For example, we had some whānau come into the hub and we made sushi. From this I was able to extend learners' vocabulary by teaching them ‘powerful verbs’ (inspired by Murray Gadd). Here is the language that came out of this provocation: 

“Chomping on the crunchy seaweed”

“The delicious sushi vanished in my mouth”

“Soft, slimy and slippery avocado sliding into my mouth.” 

Another aspect that is increasing student engagement is creating an element of choice in their learning. After making sushi they could choose to write a description or a thank you letter to the parent helpers. The learners opted-in to the workshop they preferred and in doing so, felt more ownership of their learning.

The current challenge of student learning is they do not know their next steps and are not able to articulate these. 

Learners can identify surface features but do not have enough knowledge of how to apply these correctly when refining their writing. 

Learners are using visuals to check they meet the success criteria. 

On reflection, I am jumping ahead and trying to design the intervention already! 

I am going to fold back and ask the learners for their voice about what they think good writers include in their writing. I am going to co-construct the success criteria! 

If learners have a better understanding and clarity of surface features in writing, they will make connections for what they need to include in their writing.

If I empower learners to co-construct success criteria about what good writers include in their writing, they will include these features in their writing.

 

Manaiakalani CREATE!

Emma and I co-hosted a workshop this week for the Manaiakalani: Creativity Empowers Learners meeting, with an amazing group of our learners. They were so determined in teaching a group of adults how to design their very own pencil case! 

Check out the presentation and photos below:

Research #2 = Murray Gadd

 I was fortunate enough to go to Murray Gadd’s “What makes a great writing lesson/programme?” presentation in May.

My takeaways from the presentation are:

Data shows that 36.4% of all Year 1-8 boys are under-achieving in writing, and 39% of all Year 1-8 Maori and Pasifika students are under-achieving in writing.

He highlighted that learners finding success in writing is important. Not only because writing is used to demonstrate understanding and learning in school but, beyond education, it is part of their daily lives with texting, blogging, and social networking. 

Engaging kids to write through sensory experiences or ‘open’ topics where there is freedom and choice about what to write about and give them thinking/talking time. 

Effective teachers know how their students are progressing as developing writers and ensure the learning is differentiated. 

I have since incorporated writing groups into my practice. Who needs what teaching and when? I can monitor learners' progress of using surface features and plan my workshops based on the gaps. I will record this information on SchoolTalk. 

Effective teachers know what writers do as they write. 

In collaboration with other teachers that also attended the presentation, we have designed some visual success criteria that help the learners move between the different phases of writing. 

Effective teachers ensure there is a positive and enthusiastic mood and learners are prepared to take risks when they write.
Teachers must continually ask themselves: Are my students writing enough? I reflected on this question and I have now introduced free writing into my writing programme. This gives learners an opportunity to write on self-selected topics. This writing will not be assessed but is available to be shared and celebrated during sharing time. 

Effective teachers make constant links for students between reading and writing. 

Learners need to understand that there is a writer behind everything they read. On the flip side, making opportunities for their writing to be read by someone else, will make the experience relevant and purposeful. During feedback with me, we will talk through the visual success criteria and reflect on what changes we can make to our writing. I will ask learners some guiding questions. What must I do to help the reader? Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Have you used the best words? 

Murray was incredibly inspiring and I left with practical ideas and resources to strengthen the engagement and achievement of my students in writing.

Gadd, M. (2020). What makes a great writing lesson/programme? {PowerPoint slides}.

Research #1 = Reading

 Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped you form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning.

ERO: Keeping children engaged and achieving in writing: Teaching approaches and strategies that work.

This reading features strategies and approaches that were observed in 40 primary schools across New Zealand where achievement in writing had been accelerated. These are the aspects that stood out to me:

Students were active partners in designing their learning plans; they were supported to monitor their own progress; knew what they needed to learn next, and were able to provide feedback about the teaching actions that worked for them.

A balance of informal writing opportunities and more formal writing instruction. During play-based learning, children often independently chose to write lists, menus, books.
Pre-writing activity/ Prior knowledge -- writing down their keywords, learners ask questions, read a book, write down more keywords. They were then asked to think of a sentence that included some of the interesting words and tell their neighbour their sentence.

Parents and whānau were formally invited to be part of the process and were involved in workshops to develop home activities and frequent, regular three-way conferencing in which teachers emphasised progress and success.

Teachers involved most parents in setting goals and agreeing on the next learning steps with their child. Collaboratively analysed children’s writing samples. A shared understanding of the writing progressions helped children and teachers know about individuals’ writing achievement, progress, and next steps.

My takeaways from this reading are:

Creating opportunities for learners to be part of designing what they learn. This will increase their ownership and will support them in articulating what their strengths are and what their next steps are in writing. 

My learners are able to think, draw and talk about detailed ideas. This can further be developed by giving them ‘independent writing’ time. Growing their love for writing and allowing them to see themselves as writers is important. 

Reflection: I feel there is a missing piece in my hypotheses about involving whānau in their child's learning, specifically writing. I want to strengthen whānau engagement through involving them in their child's learning in writing. Having three-way conversations (learner, parent/s, and teacher) to talk about the students' writing and giving whānau tools to help their child’s writing at home.

If I involve whānau when giving and receiving feedback about their child’s writing, will writing achievement lift?

If I  provide whānau with strategies and resources of how they can help at home, will writing achievement lift?

Education Review Office. (2019). Keeping children engaged and achieving in writing: Teaching approaches and strategies that work. Wellington, New Zealand: Author

Hypothesise

 1. Share your findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding.

2. Explain how some of the data you have used to build a profile of the students’ learning will be used as baseline data at the end of the year.

My explanation of how I will use this baseline data is in a previous blog post.