Bursts & Bubbles - Celebrating my 2021 Inquiry!

 

Whānau voice / Student voice Distance Learning Edition!

Last post I discussed how I wanted to gain learner and whānau voice about their writing learning at home and how I can support them. Here is what was shared:

 

These ideas will be further developed in our Digital Learning Conversations next week where we will have the opportunity to mutually share insights, progress and achievement and discuss the learners next learning steps.

Aug-Oct Lockdown & Distance Learning Reflection

With most of Term 3 in lockdown due to Covid-19, distance learning has been the ‘normal’. With this, come some challenges in keeping the momentum of my inquiry going. I have tried my best and adapted my inquiry to make it work for all my learners during distance learning. Manaiakalani’s Learn, Create, Share pedagogy has been my guide and put my students at the very centre of their learning. 

Here are my reflections:

We have used an integrated approach, linking our concept learning about Space with the curriculum learning areas of Reading, Writing, Maths and Science. 

The learners have impressed me with their device readiness, showing etiquette in the new digital classroom environment. They are communicating using the Google Meet hands up tool and muting microphones on and off with ease. 

Learners have created so many rich records of learning. These have been shared during our workshops and on Padlet. We have been able to provide feedback via the Padlet and SchoolTalk. It was great to see learners writing comments on each others posts as well.

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 NZ Polish

This evidence identifies formative feedback of students progress which was recorded on SchoolTalk for writing learning progressions. 

Term 3’ distance learning has highlighted the importance of involving parents in this process as well. Throughout this lockdown period, we have had high whānau engagement and interaction, it really feels like we are all in this together. In Week 8 and 9, I spoke with each family and discussed their child’s challenges and successes of distance learning and what learning they were most engaged in. I recorded these connections using the Whānau Kotahi tool so I can monitor the engagement and level of relationships.

As distance learning seems to be continuing for this term, my next step is to gain learner and whānau voice about their writing learning at home and how I can support.

TOHATOHA - Manaiakalani SHARE!

I was fortunate to facilitate a Share meeting just before we went into the latest lockdown.

Myself and educators from around the country were able to connect and share strategies around writing and our learners. We had rich dialogue, lifted each other and shared resources. Thank you ladies for your openness, you have inspired me!

From Planning to Implementing

 Restate your inquiry question:

How will I change my teaching practise and design for learning to support learners' ability to articulate their next steps in writing? 

Implementation =

The learning outcomes I want to improve for my students in this inquiry are:

• Know and understand what successful writers include in their writing

• Co-construct the success criteria for writing 

• Use the success criteria to articulate their next steps in writing
  
  

The changes I have made to my teaching practise are:

• Using the writing process and slowing the learning down. We now spend a few days building our knowledge before we even write! 

• Adopting mixed ability writing ropu (groups) and moving writing to the morning block of the timetable.
  
  

  
  
  

• Showing learners multi-modal examples of what good writing looks like. Below is an example from my learning design around narratives.
  
  

  

• Co-constructing the success criteria with learners. Below are some examples from my learning design around narratives. There are different success criteria for my 3 different ropu.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  Implementation of my change in practise will be evident in my design for learning and will be recorded on this blog.

Monitoring = 

I am monitoring the effects of my changed practices/intervention on learner outcomes through SchoolTalk evidence and writing samples. I keep samples from each learner from the beginning of the year till now and it shows the progress they have made. I will also be monitoring thorough student voice, observations and anecdotal notes. This information will be recorded on my blog. 

Reflection = Learners are engaging with the co-constructed success criteria and can reflect on their writing when conferencing with me. However, I want to further develop learners' ability to articulate their next steps in writing when they are independent of me (working with a buddy or whānau). My next step is to create feedback prompts to support learners articulating their next steps. 

Additionally, I have noticed an increase in learners' confidence in writing. I had learners at the start of the year that were writing 1-3 lines with lots of teacher support. Now these learners are writing 1-2 pages independently! My next step is to gather student voice to see if this is reflected with the learners. 

Data

Over the past two weeks, we had an update of our mid-year data. This data shows that writing is the biggest need in Stonefields School.

Here are my noticings =

We are seeing some progress!!

The overall year group shift data uses matched data to show how different year groups have made more or less than expected shift in the last 12 months.  Therefore, the year 1s are left out of this data set as they have been at school for less than a year. 

Of standout note are the Year 2s where 24 learners have made more than a years' gain.  This represents 53% of all year 2 matched learners.

My Wondering = Year 2’s data lower than Year 1’s. How can I reduce this statistic?

Along with National data, there is an emerging phenomenon that boys are achieving lower than girls. Why is this still the case?  

This data gives me motivation to keep up the mahi in my inquiry so I can see positive change in the data at the end of year.

Causal chain

This is the causal chain for my inquiry which shows my plan for the rest of the year.

This may be adapted as the year progresses to meet the needs of the learners.