How do you RATE your teaching practice?

Today's staff PD session led by Dorothy Burt was a timely reminder that effective teachers are THE key component in achieving success in the classroom.  The world of digital learning offers many bells and whistles but nothing can replace what a competent teacher body can bring to the classroom.

Dorothy introduced us to the RATE framework. I found it very useful to breakdown how I can access EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTISE and continue my own personal journey to develop my teaching skillset.

R = RECOGNISE Effective Practice by seeking out out teaching practices that work. We got to see this in action at the end of our PD session with staff split into groups, role playing a guided reading session with a focus on a specific element of the NZ Curriculum (Reading, Level 2) with a 'teacher'  supporting 'students' to overcome decoding challenges. Lots of great ideas on display!

A = AMPLIFY Effective Practise by using the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. Staying connected to other educators through our networks, keeping good practice visible, feeling empowered to get out and put different ideas into practise and taking advantage of colleagues skills and experiences at at time and place that suits (ubiquitous) e.g. online toolkits

T = TURBOCHARGE Effective Practise by using digital technologies to provide learning experiences that were previously not possible (SAMR model) or were not available 

E = EFFECTIVE PRACTICE 

Inquiry 2019 - A focus on Reading

BACKGROUND: The 2018 Woolf-Fisher research findings showed a clear achievement gap for Manaiakalani students in Reading across all age/gender groups in the cluster.

Reviewing my end of year data for 2018 highlighted a group of Year 7 students who had made no or little shift in their reading level over the year. Their end of year test results showed a reading level below their chronological age of 11 and 12 years old. In 2020, these students will  transition to their first year of high school and as Year 9s, will need a higher level of reading to support their learning

HUNCH: The reading comprehension of this group is being negatively impacted by a limited knowledge and understanding of essential vocabulary. My intention is to build an approach to language acquisition that uses specific word consciousness activities such as strategies developed by Paul Nation and Janni van Hees, that can be supported at home by a student's parents/caregivers. 

INQUIRY FOCUS FOR 2019: Manaiakalani CoL Achievement Challenge 4: To increase the achievement of Years 7-10, in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

TARGET GROUP: a group of five Year 8 students (2 female, 3 males) who have reading ages ranging between 8.5-9.5 years. An initial goal is to raise their Reading Age (R.A) to 10 years by the end of the year.

FOCUS QUESTION: How will an explicit focus on words and word meanings improve the reading comprehension of Year 8 target learners?

STARTING POINT: I will test each target student to assess their current reading age and vocabulary levels. I will then trial a set of vocabulary strategies over a period of time before re-testing each student using the same test tools to determine what, if any, changes have happened.

Thinking ahead to the Class of 2020!

Our first meeting for 2019 and Andrea has challenged our team to identify the qualities/traits of what we think a typical Year 8 student would 'look' like. I got to work with Angela - back in the Team 5 fold after a break of a few years. Our brainstorm of ideas is below:

In no particular order we decided that if a Year 8 student left PES with the following attributes they would be ready to take on the world in their first year of high school.

seeing possibilities

respectful of others

risk-taker

self-pride

self-belief

goal oriented

self-confidence

resilient

problem solvers

kind

It was a powerful exercise. It was worthwhile to take the time now to think ahead to the end of the year and envisage the kind of young person we would be sad but proud to farewell. I would be really satisfied knowing that I played a small part in ensuring they leave us full to the brim with the 'right stuff' that will hold them in good stead not only as they take their first steps in their next learning journey at high school but also beyond into their chosen career paths.

End of Year Reflection for 2018

As the end of 2018 draws to an end, I am pleased with the progress I have made in the following areas:
Success with Year 7 student flagged as student with high behavioural needs (on Autism spectrum). I have worked hard to build a strong positive relationship with him. This effort has paid off as he has been willing to talk through incidents as they happen and take on board advice on how to improve his decision making should a similar situation arise in the future. As a result he is much more reflective and better able to take more ownership of his part in ‘incidents’ and can recognise with minimal prompting how he could have handled a given situation better.

Developing self-confidence as classroom teacher - Due to maternity leave by two colleagues in Term 1 and Term 2, I found myself to be the 2nd longest serving member in Team 5. I have enjoyed supporting the interim Team Leader and new colleagues in the Team 5 space.

Embracing new DMIC maths pedagogy - I have really enjoyed taking part in the PD, having the observations/mentoring sessions and analysing/deconstructing my maths teaching practice. It has given me a greater appreciation for the vast content knowledge that is needed in order to do a decent job in guiding students in their maths learning.

Now looking forward to 2019, a few things that excite me having:

A fresh opportunity work on routines and transitions to improve behaviour management - my intention is start from Day 1/Week 1 with a strong focus on establishing group norms for my home class, literacy and maths classes.

Being able to get more time in class to tweak my teaching practice especially in Writing. Figuring out creative ways to engage students in writing. I would like to move away from formulaic checklists and somehow get students to respond more instinctively to writing prompt

Improve how I gather/analyse formative assessment as well as being more reflective of my planning and including differentiation.

Inquiry Update - Term 4

UPDATE: I have continued to use a targeted vocabulary approach to support reading comprehension for my Year 7/8 class with ideas adapted from research by Paul Nation. I select 8 words and phrases from the text of the week for a given group and have them attempt to unpack their meaning and find clues to the type of text to be read.

OBSERVATIONS: Using this method, I have seen students who usually need extra support are visibly more engaged when they come to read the text. It seems that having an explicit purpose for reading helps them to focus on working out what the words/phrases mean. There is an (unintended) sense of competition so students are keen 'be the first' to read the text and check if their predictions about a set of words/phrases are correct. Students are quick to let others know they have gotten it right but there is no major fallout if someone's idea misses the mark.

NEXT STEPS: Continue to use this targeted approach but build student's usage of selected words/phrases in to writing activities. Encourage more student-led discussion around the meaning of selected words/phrases.

Inquiry - Term 2 Update

My inquiry this year has been to investigate how the use of TALK MOVES can support my priority students to improve their understanding and make use of higher level Maths concepts.

A REALISATION

I have been working hard to get the students in my Maths class to use at least one of the 5 key talk moves but particularly the Repeat and Add on options. In wondering why the students were struggling to use prepared talking frames (see poster above), I had an epiphany!

The Talk Moves are for ME to use to support the students discussion not the other way around!

AN ALTERNATIVE
I have adopted a model which explicitly sets out two roles for students in their small groups. They are either Knowledge seekers (asking questions) or Knowledge holders (sharing what they know). These roles are fluid from session to session but this simple step has given my students a more clearer sense of what they are to do when in their groups so their time together is noticeably more purposeful. They are proud to announce that they are a Knowledge seeker and need help or are a Knowledge holder and can help others.


WHAT NEXT?
Developing my use of Talk Moves to facilitate all parts of the DMiC learning process - Group Norms, Launch, Small Group discussions, the Half-class reporting back and Connect.

Term 2 - Inquiry

A student survey of 26 students from my maths class revealed that almost half of the class have some level of confidence when it comes to speaking up in front of their classmates during the small group sessions. However, there was a noticeable drop in confidence as the size of the group increased to half and then whole class.

Most of the students had tried to use talk moves 1-2 times in recent lessons. Almost two-thirds (61.5%) of those surveyed had asked others to REPEAT their Maths thinking; while almost half (46.2%) had requested others to REASON, while just over one-third (34.6%) had asked others to ADD ON.

NEXT STEPS

Based on the feedback from students, I will move my inquiry forward by taking the following steps:

- Use talking frames for the TALK MOVES to scaffold students as to what to say to others when discussing their maths thinking
- Keep group sizes to a maximum of 4 people - this number of people is less intimidating for those students struggling to share their maths thinking in front of others in safe half or whole class settings

- Make time for small group sessions to give more targeted support to students