Turbocharge Effective Practice

 A key consideration for the Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako is our pedagogy Learn Create Share, including how we are capitalising on the affordances of the technology to turbo charge effective practice. 

At our most recent PLG we were asked:

Have you identified this as a current strength or an area of development in your practice?

I reflected on this and feel it is an area I want to develop =

• Transform the way we learn

• Offer new experiences

• Offer new opportunities

→ Google Screencast for learners

During our Talanoa a few of my CoL colleagues sparked some inspiration for me:

- Clarelle Carruthers about Rewindable resources.

e.g. a rewindable video of peers explaining their maths thinking.

Am I providing enough opportunities for children to rewind and revisit their learning?

- Hannah West shared her Honours Dissertation with me around using student-created screencasts in maths.

Will screencasts allow my target learners to provide additional valuable mathematical thinking through oral language rather than only written problem solving? 

I am so grateful to have inspiring colleagues, and opportunities to openly share practise and ideas during our CoL PLG's. 

Research #3

Ell And Darragh, F. D. L. (2021, November 1). Teaching and learning mathematics at primary school. The Education Hub. https://theeducationhub.org.nz/teaching-and-learning-mathematics-at-primary-school/

I connected with a lot of the information in this article, particularly the last section about engagement. 

An important idea that studies have shown to impact students’ mathematics engagement and progress is mathematics learner identity. Mathematics learner identity describes the relationships students form with mathematics and how they see themselves as a learner of mathematics.

The Agency and wellbeing data shows that my target group has a lower perception of themselves as learners than their peers. My next step is to deliberately help build their view of themselves as capable of learning mathematics, even if it is hard; and to value learning mathematics, showing them the relevance it has in their lives. 

I am going to focus on these things when connecting mathematics concepts and skills together with my learners attitudes, prior knowledge and thinking:

1. Talk: this includes teacher talk and students talk. It is important to discuss thinking, explaining and justifying their ideas. If I explicitly model and teach them a framework of how to break down mathematical tasks/language, then they will be able to understand and solve maths problems. 

2. Tasks: To promote engagement and powerful learning, the tasks teachers choose should show that mathematics is also for solving puzzles and problems, working things out and making connections. This term I have been working with an external Maths PLD facilitator around designing these ‘open, low floor - high ceiling tasks’. Everyone can make a start because the entry point is easy, and students can take the mathematics as far as they like. The purpose of using these types of problems is so all learners feel success, hence building their confidence and resilience when learning mathematics. 

Howley-Rouse, A. (2021, November 7). Five research-derived themes to consider when teaching maths. The Education Hub. https://theeducationhub.org.nz/five-research-derived-themes-to-consider-when-teaching-maths/

Research #2

BES. (2016, May). Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou [Video]. Education Counts. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/bes/introduction 

This video specifically talks about how the BES pedagogy accelerates progress in mathematics education and supports student collaboration and wellbeing. There were many points that made me think of my inquiry, especially hearing the student’s voices. 

Learner A voice = I like it this way because we can communicate with each other and work and talk together to find out everything. 

Learner B voice = If we don’t get something we will be able to get help and we’ll be able to explain what we don’t know and we’ll get help from that which is quite good.’ 

Learner C voice = It’s good to let other people have a go and not just yourself, it’s not always you get it right, you can use other people’s ideas to get the question right and it’s alright if it’s wrong because you know what you’ve got to learn next time.

Looking at my target learners' voices, they feel okay about their maths learning and are aware that sometimes it is tricky. However, I am wanting to fill their ‘toolbelt’ with what can help them with problem solving. e.g. a process and visuals to help them solve maths problems. I would love to see my target group's voice at the end of the year emulate the above student voice from the video. 

My end goal is that my learners find mathematics enjoyable and relevant. One comment in this video caught my attention when a teacher talked about using meaningful contexts for the problems, specifically what students do at home. 

This reading helped me form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning.

Research #1

In my previous blog posts, I have detailed a rich profile of students’ learning through the collection of data.

The academic readings that have helped me form hypotheses are outlined in the following blog posts:

Anthony, G. and Walshaw, M. (2009). Effective Pedagogy in Mathematics. Educational Practices Series, no. 19. Brussels: International Bureau of Education.

Effective teachers shape mathematical language by modelling appropriate terms and communicating their meaning in ways that students understand.

This reading confirmed I need to be breaking down the content so my learners can understand the problem. My next step is to build a framework for how learners can unpack a mathematical task/problem. For example, at Stonefields School we have a school language called the Learning Process, which teaches thinking skills to help them in their learning. 

Students learn the meaning of mathematical language through explicit “telling” and through modelling... The teacher should model and use specialised mathematical language in ways that let students grasp it easily. 

My next teacher act is to deliberately teach and model the use of the learning process thinking skills. By connecting the thinking skills to visuals, this will help learners know how to access them and use them when they are in the learning pit/stuck in their learning.

When reading this information, I was reflecting on how I can bring the Manaiakalani pedagogy of Learn, Create, Share the forefront of my inquiry focus.

As we learn the mathematical content we are also learning a process for learning. 

Create artefacts/resources to share what we have learnt.

Share these to support others in their learning.

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

Manaiakalani TOD

On the last day of Term 1, we had a Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day with a focus on literacy. The inspiring Keynote speaker; Dr Rae Si'ilata talked about “What is effective practice when it comes to reading, and what is effective practice for our communities?” She talked about culturally responsive pedagogy and effective bilingual/biliteracy practice for our Pasifika learners. Throughout her presentation, she shared personal experiences and anecdotes which really hit home and gave me some perspective. My biggest takeaways were to always privilege the native speaker in the room, include more bilingual texts and texts need to act as mirrors, not windows! Get the learners to write their own stories and then read them! What is their story?

I also attended three workshops led by other Manaiakalani teachers where I reflected on my practice and learnt some new strategies that I can implement.

Workshop 1 = Shared Reading & Integrated Learning
Workshop 2 = Better Start Literacy

Workshop 3 = Deep Diving into the text

Dr Shawn Hawthorne: ‘What works for teaching ‘reluctant’ writers?’

In Term 1 we were lucky enough to have Dr Shawn Hawthorne share a presentation around ‘What works for teaching ‘reluctant’ writers?’

Here are my takeaways: 

The data:
- By Year 4, 25% of students are achieving below level 2 

- Girls score better than boys on most writing tasks 

- Attitude towards writing declines with age

- Maori and PI students have lower scores than Pakeha students

Engagement can be considered to have 3 key elements:
1. Behavioural 

2. Cognitive 

3. Emotional 

Researchers have recently added ‘ agency’ as a 4th element.

Sometimes children fail to engage because they do not see themselves as writers, they don’t see a need for writing, writing is too hard and it will end in mistakes to correct. Engagement is essential for other conditions to ‘click’. 

Factors that affect engagement:

Something that stood out to me was the Key Belief of ‘all students are able to improve their writing.’ One way we can help these students improve is by giving them strategic knowledge which involves developing their knowledge and skill, in using strategies that help them to effectively manage the demands of the writing process. 

Shawn Hawthorne’s Effective pedagogy for teaching writing closely links with the information I shared in the Writing Process PLD which I co-presented with Anita and Gina at Stonefields School. He believes there are 8 effective practices for teaching writing:

Practises 5 and 7 closely align to The Writing Process I have been implementing in my learning design to teach writing.