Wednesday 22 February 2017

New year... New CoL Role...New inquiry!

This year Learning Space 2 (LS2) looks and sounds very different from the LS2 of 2016. Our new learners are much quieter, preferring to work independently and listen to the thinking of others, rather than collaborating and sharing their own thoughts and understandings. To be honest I have struggled with this as I’m not used to so many ‘passengers’ who are travelling alone. I’m used to an environment that is buzzing with ‘drivers’ of full cars negotiating their positions on our learning highway. I’m certain that hiding behind this ‘quiet’ is a plethora of conversation waiting to be unlocked and set free. The challenge for me as their teacher is to come up with ways to turn the keys in those locks so that my learners realise not only it is ok to be heard but it is also important to become a confident voice in LS2.

It is this observation that sparked my curiosity and has laid the foundations of my personal inquiry: How can I strengthen connections and accelerate shift in reading through dialogic discussion and multimodal approaches?  Woolf Fisher identified that the way forward is to empower our priority learners by providing opportunities for them to talk about what they are learning. As I write this post I am thinking about my priority learners who seem unsure of when and/or how to talk about their learning. I know I need to develop a dialogic environment where learning conversations are the norm. I know these conversations are most powerful when students have a strong connection and a deep understanding of a topic. I know I need to make changes in my teaching to ensure these connections are made… the question I’m asking myself currently is “How will I do this?”.

Woolf Fisher’s feedback suggests that when thinking about accelerating shifts in Reading we need to go ‘wide and deep’. With the learning needs of my students in mind, my first ‘how’ is to provide my learners with access to multiple texts that are linked by theme or topic. My next ‘how’ is to ensure these texts scaffold prior knowledge, build and consolidate understanding, offer a contrasting opinion and strengthen connections.

Our current theme and topic ‘Wai Care… Why Care?’ links closely to our cluster-wide inquiry Te Taiao o Tamaki, however before I can expect strong connections to emerge through collaboration and dialogic discussion I need to take a few steps backward and think about ways to break down the walls of silence.

Thursday 2 February 2017

Teaching as Inquiry 2017


Click here to see how I align my inquiry with the Manaiakalani framework.




“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”


The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning. In 2017 for my inquiry I selected the following CoL achievement challenge: 


  • #4. Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10, in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.


       


I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:
LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,
 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,
SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:


LEvidence
Learn - Gather Evidence
CPlan
Create - Make a plan
SPublish
Share - Publish
LScan
Learn - Scan
CTry
Create - Try new things
SCoteach
Share - Co-teach
LTrend
Learn - Identify Trends
CInnovate
Create - Innovate
SModel
Share - Model
LHypothesise
Learn - Hypothesise
CImplement
Create - Implement
SGuide
Share - Guide
LResearch
Learn - Research
CReflect
Create - Reflect
SFback
Share - Feedback
LReflect
Learn - Reflect


SReflect
Share - Reflect