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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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}.
