Christchurch Presentation

Today was a first for me. I was invited to Christchurch by Mark Maddren, Manaiakalani Outreach facilitator for the Hornby Cluster. I was asked to share my MIT journey with the lead teachers from the Hornby cluster. What an absolute privilege to be asked to do this and to have the opportunity to make new connections face to face. I felt confident speaking about something I am passionate about and was happy to share, and be asked to share our R5 Writing Toolbox. Thank you to Mark and to Manaiakalani for challenging me to do this.

Sharing Time!

http://thesparkfoundation.tumblr.com/post/133768481501/gregs-buddy-experience

ULearn15 Presentation

Today we presented our inquiries to our audience at uLearn15. Empowering to be a part of such a innovative cluster.

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers 2015

Link to MIT15 presentation

'You can't help yourself unless you can see yourself' - Jason Borland

'Creating communities that learn how to improve student achievement' - Michelle George

'Don’t teach the same concept twice... our learners have one language tank' - Kyla Hansell

'Students re purposing docs for their own needs in the process gives an interesting insight and highlights gaps in the planning' - Karen Ferguson

'Plan lots of opportunities for our learners to collaborate' - Sheena Campell

Sharing the evolution of our Room 5 'learner speak' resource. 

'We speak two languages and it is important to remember that as teachers we do not speak ‘learner’ anywhere near as well as learners do!

Maniakalani Hui Presentation

This was my presentation at the Manaiakalani Hui. It reflects my inquiry journey so far. Our next step is to share our rubric with the other classes in our school with the challenge to adapt and change our resource so that it becomes their resource. We're looking forward to their feedback.

MIT Update #4 Making Connections - Merging the learning

Fine and Ducati used the 'ifaketext' task to help them merge the learning from the last few weeks to write a persuasive text that reflects their own perspectives and harnesses the power of the structure and language features needed. What I noticed here was the power a 'critical friend' had when they were able to see by referring to our co-constructed DLO which language features had been included and which language features had been overlooked. The peer led feedback was very powerful as both students were able to have real discussions that were based on fact and supported by a reference point that both learners had buy in and understanding of. Below are two powerful examples of the end product.

Should New Zealand change its official flag?

Ducati's Perspective:

In my opinion, I don’t really know what to choose. Have you made a decision? Well I haven’t, and I don’t want to be cruel, but I don’t want to choose the wrong side. So I don’t know what to do.

1834, 1840, and 1903 are all the times New Zealand has changed the flag. But, the flag is still similar, so we have still kept the honour that our soldiers have fought for our freedom, it’s making my decision hard. Yet about 5% of the world’s flags have not been changed, so the rest of the countries have changed their flag.

I am unsure, and apprehensive about my decision. The flag is a symbol of honour so it would be hard to give up, and  it’s making my decision hard for me. If you're unsure about a decision, then you know how I feel. Everyone is trying to make me “Think like them” and choose their side to be on. Thinking about my decision is so hard, considering that I am very picky(I have a hard time making a decision).

Would you choose changing the flag? Or Would you choose not changing the flag? Well I just don’t know. Neither side is wrong, yet neither side is right. My decision will come in time, not now, tomorrow, the next, or the next, but it will come.

I just don’t have a decision to make, because the idea of the flag changing is alright, but what about not changing the flag? Well could I ask you one thing?  “Do you think I’m right?”

Fine's Perspective:

We grow up in a generation where a flag defines a country’s importance, stereotyped label, past and future. New Zealand already has a flag that shows our importance and what kind of a multicultural country we are. It acknowledges our past and will contain our futures memories. So I ask you this question, how does changing the flag respect our countries milestones and hardships? I feel that if we changed our flag, we would be being disrespectful to many. If we redesigned our flag, will our coming generation be able to respect the soldiers that have died for it? Will they be able to see through the stars and appreciate our ancestors that navigated all day and night to find our homeland? Will they be able to see the small amount of red that resembles the blood of our tiny nation? Will they be able to appreciate the navy blue that surrounds and protects our shores? No. They won’t, because the most important representations of our country won't be acknowledged.

We need to know that the designer of our new flag will be able to include essential icons of our nation. We need to know that he/she will produce a flag that is instantly recognized as ours, and our current flag has accomplished that quite well already. How can we put so much trust into one person? Although many people feed off pressure and use it as a fuel to drive them towards their goals, we can’t expect the designer to produce a flag as good and honourable as the current flag.

The cost for changing the flag, is an estimated 25.7 million dollars! Money the wrecked homes in Canterbury have been overlooked for 3-4 years could well use. How can New Zealand be able to use all this money on the changing of a flag, when we have citizens who have no homes. The money should be going to the families who are struggling and the people who actually need help. This is a waste of money, that New Zealand can’t afford!

The soldiers who have fought for us in wars, used the flag as a motivation to fight and bear through the heartache, loss and pain. They used the flag to represent themselves whether an individual or crowd. They used the flag as a symbol of hope to return home. They used it as a promise, to fight for the freedom of their families. Why do the people who have probably never even held a gun in the defence of their country, get to decide whether their connections with the flag are taken away?

We can not change the flag of New Zealand! We can not take away history and memories! We can not take away the opportunity of the coming generations to grow up with the proud flag we all have grown up with! We have to make a stand and remain with the same flag that our ancestors have fought for, our athletes have been represented with, and the same flag that has brought our country pride. New Zealand’s history needs to remain intact!

Punctuation Questionnaire

The MIT group devised this questionnaire to see where our class was at with their own understanding of punctuation. They sat with each student to support them with their responses. This decision was made after a group discussion revealed that maybe not everyone would feel confident answering questions if it wasn't explained properly. The group wanted this to be seen as an anonymous questionnaire so they created it on my devise and only I could see who has sent the responses. I printed this out (minus the names) and gave it to them to collate the data.

Our decision: We need to add DLO's that support and scaffold the learning to our rubric so that everyone can access and use it.

MIT Update #3

With our year 7/8 camp over and the work to celebrate the amazing learning we had outside our usual four walls completed, my MIT group are back in action. We are still in the create stage of our 'student speak' rubric and know that if this is to be a success we need to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. I think the most exciting component in our rubric is our decision to include DLO's created by ourselves to help make the learning visual for others. In effect we hope to create a tool that facilitates and support independence when revising a piece of written text, thus helping to shift student achievement.

We realise one size does not fit all. Many of my students stated in an 'anonymous' google form questionnaire that they needed something that allowed them to check their own understanding before they felt confident enough to give others feedback. It was that realisation that if all students in our class were not able to use the rubric with confidence, then it would simply become digital decoration. That is most definitely NOT what we are striving to do. Our aim is to create a tool that becomes embedded in our learning environment and is used often and accessed by many.

Our monumental challenge!

The pictures above show us beginning the challenge of creating our own writing rubric that all the students at PBS could understand. We reflected on our earlier task of assessing our own writing against a rubric written in student speak. Although some of it made sense after we unpacked the language we felt that we needed a rubric that we could use in language that we could understand. Thus the idea of creating our own rubric was born. We started with sentence structure as that had been our learning area the day before and moved onto punctuation. The discussion taking place was amazing. We borrowed some ideas from exemplars but made sure we made the learning our own. I was stunned to see the students 'testing' whether their words were specific and easy to understand. Still very much a work in progress but we're off to a great start! Thank you to Ms Kirkpatrick, Mrs Millward and Mr Wong who helped us check if our thinking would make sense to their students.

Sentence Structure

Today I used my MIT group as 'experts' but have noticed that these students all have strong and dominant personalities. This often results in them taking the lead leaving those who need further support in coasting mode. However today there was a twist... the 'experts' could only question the people in their groups. This completely changed the locus of control, something my 'experts' found very frustrating. 

How did one 'expert' overcome this 'frustration'? 

St. #1: This is really frustrating Miss, they just didn't get how they had to write things in their own words.

T: So what can you do to help them?

St. #1: I could ask them different questions using easier words I think.

T: True... and while you're thinking about what you could say think about how Austin's friends helped him...

St. #1: Oh... I need to be more specific!

T: (thinking) Yah! Connection made!

Having worked through the collaborative challenge we played a version of whiteboard tag. Each group member had a role to play in sharing their understanding of our learning. Sajiha, Fine and Yvette created this quiz about sentence structures to help Room 5 consolidate their learning. We wanted everyone to be successful so allowed the 'open book' option using the group notes if answers needed to be checked. The best part was that by the responses I could see every student showed that they had made a connection to the learning.

How Austin helped Room 5

Sharing Austin's Butterfly with my MIT focus group helped them make real connections to the power of feedback. The students were amazed at the transformation of Austin's initial image to his final drawing. This clip allowed them to see how using 'the eyes of a scientist' his peers were able to guide him through six drafts. Our challenge was to notice what the feedback looked like. 

What we did:

Ideas were recorded on whiteboards independently then shared with a partner. The objective behind the 'list sharing' being to compare lists and merge ideas into one list. This allowed a further two opportunities to connect to the feedback. Once all lists were compiled we shared as a group. By doing this we were able to co-construct the success criteria that would guide our own feedback skills.

We think feedback is:

• Information that supports the learning
• Kind and positive
• Helps people realise and see their errors
• Critical (but not mean)
• Detailed and specific
• Useful - should have a purpose

From our success criteria we derived our learning intention:

• LI: To give useful, specific feedback 

This lesson was observed by our literacy facilitator who asked if they had the opportunity to make a decision about their learning during that lesson and if it was successful.

Student 1: Yes I did because I got to help decide what our Learning Intention was and what that would look like. It will help me to help my critical friend by getting them to see their mistakes in a kind way.

Student 2: Yes because we set our own success criteria. It was fun learning about how Austin changed his simple butterfly into a detailed picture. I think I will think about this when I'm helping my critical friend because it will help me look at my own work too.

What's next?

I need to provide real situations that will allow for specific feedback to be noticed and given. This will allow the students to see how the feedback helped them make changes. To move learning to the next level I will need to provide time for the students who receive feedback to explain in their own words why they were given this advice.

Austin's Butterfly

The power of giving specific feedback. Amazing! 

... and we're off! MIT15 Update #2

What a week! It's the end of Week 6 and those of you who are teachers will know that means we are now half way through term one. For me that also signifies the conclusion of our visit from the Education Review Office (ERO)! 

When reflecting on the last week I have identified a personal high point of ERO's visit. I know that for many teachers having a visitor in your room is daunting, but when you are part of the Manaiakalani cluster visitors to your learning environment are the norm. I have learned to embrace visits as opportunities to share my classroom practice and celebrate my student's learning successes. Someone was definitely looking after me that day because my observation took place as we were building the foundations of my MIT inquiry! In addition to being asked about the current learning taking place, I was asked to talk about the ways I extend and engage my students. Apart from this being something I am truly passionate about, having an active class site and blog meant I had a wealth of supporting evidence at my fingertips. Many of my learners were spoken to and it was evident from our discussion after the lesson, that all the students spoken to understood what they were doing, why they were doing it and could talk about what they needed to do to get to the next level in Writing. This excited me as I could see that my MIT focus was very much alive in Room 5.

One foot in front of the other:

My next step from Update #1 was to look closely at the content of the comments and see if genuine connections had been made by comparing the comments with the actual work analysed. Unfortunately when I did this my initial euphoria did a very large u-turn. I noticed that there was a significant amount of mismatch between what had been written in the task and what was 'noticed', evident in the comments.

The collaborative success criteria based on content only:

You will have done this correctly if you have:

• Written in past tense
• Listed at three goals you hope to achieve
• Explained what you will need to do to achieve these goals
• Included at least one question

The example above shows that the success criteria was used to help prompt the feedback but it is incorrect. There is no evidence of a question being asked, nor any evidence of how this student hopes to achieve these goals. 

This week saw us peel back and start by developing student content knowledge. I took advantage of the fact we have just done e-asTTle writing samples as that made the task of how to give feedback both purposeful and relevant. I explained that the rubric was what helped teachers find out what level their students were working at and helped them find out what they needed to teach next to help everyone move their work to the next level. This will make an interesting comparison when I compare my marking with theirs!

Again the students were paired with their critical friends. Each pair was given a version of the e-asTTle marking rubric written in 'kidspeak'. The more able student was given the task of noticing what their partner did well as I want my learners to see receiving feedback as a positive part of our learning. The purpose: To identify what level they are at now. 

What we did:

This was a step by step process as we explored the 'Ideas' component. Exemplars were used to show what this might look like at different levels. We then discussed what it was we were looking for and then carried out the task. I found the students to be extremely honest in their evaluations. Interestingly I noticed that the owners of the writing were fully engaged in trying to 'prove' they were at a certain level, and the critical friends were searching for real evidence to support this. Without me saying anything I observed that each pair was looking at the next box on the rubric to identify next steps. Yah! Connections are being made! We then wrote statements following a prompt:

I think I am at level ____ because _____. To move to the next level I need to _____.

I found that proving where they were at was the easy part. We had to reign back the next steps to only one point (per criteria) as there was a little bit too much ambition. I need this to be achievable in reality and not simply look good on paper.

The best part was this is what ERO observed taking place! Way to go Room 5 your learning conversations showed that you know where you are at and what you need to do to move your learning to the next level.

Throughout the week we continued the process exploring each component of the writing rubric.

What's Next?

I need to have the same learning conversations with my more able learners so that they too can identify where they are at and what their next steps are. Once we have done that we will devise a way of making our learning needs visible that everyone is happy with. Not sure what this will look like but I am sure of exactly what is needed in my planning!

First Steps: MIT15 Update #1

I have been fortunate enough to move through to the 2015 teaching year with some students who were in my class in 2014. This has given me 'feedback experts' who have a level of skills and knowledge in one curriculum area and can talk those new to our class this year through the process of giving peer led feedback. We have a new independent reading challenge which is allowing us to build on the familiar. By that I mean strengthening the feedback comments that were developed last year. This has been a very positive process so far. I love hearing the learning conversations that take place as the 'experts' guide my new learners. The exciting part for me is that the buy in and engagement in these tasks is gaining strength as the unfamiliar becomes the familiar. I have set up the program so that everyone has a buddy. This has allowed me to spend time guiding and conferencing each pair at the level they need. For some we have walked slowly through the process, and for others the scaffolding has almost been removed. 

The album below reflects examples of peer lead feedback in Reading, the curriculum area we focused on last year. The next step is to find out if my learner's feedback skills and knowledge in one curriculum area transferrable to another.

By providing this 'peg to hang the new learning on' I leapt into the oblivion and buddied up my class so that each person had a 'critical friend' to give them feedback on their personal writing. I needed to see where my learners were at as far as being able to give feedback in Writing so I simply asked them to work together to see if, when wearing their critical friend glasses, they could use our success criteria to notice where their partner had made a connection. 

The album below reflects examples of peer lead feedback in Writing. This is a snapshot of the initial independent feedback comments. The students were reminded only to use the success criteria to see where their partner had 'got it right'. 

What's Next?

The comments I have included in the album show that I have a great starting point. My next step is to look closely at the content of the comments and see if genuine connections have been made. I will do this by comparing the comments with the actual work analysed.

Creating something that is going to help somebody else learn:

Today the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers 2015 (MIT15) group met to share the focus of our inquiries. It was inspiring to be a part of this discussion and to have the opportunity share this process with such talented educators.

Stage #1:

I am very passionate about shifting student achievement and know that by empowering my learners with the tools to help them reach those ever changing ‘next levels of learning success’ is one way of achieving this.

Student success in Writing is quantified against a series of levelled national standards and national norms. The achievement levels of our own priority learners are measured against the achievement levels of all New Zealand students at the same year level, and sadly our data continues to reflect noticeable disparities. Last year an assignment for university provided me with an insight to the power that peer led feedback had on shifting student achievement in Reading when it was given and received in real time and context. This year MIT15 is allowing me an opportunity to explore if by drawing on this knowledge, I am able equip my students with some of the metacognitive tools that will allow them to strengthen their own understanding of the language features and structures needed to reach national levels in Writing.

The ‘Comments’ tool in Google Docs, when used as a forum for the learning conversations peer led feedback facilitates, will afford my learners opportunities to learn with and from each other in a safe place, where successes and errors are noticed; and ideas can be suggested, challenged and resolved, as opportunities to 'create something that is going to help somebody else learn' are actively sought.

                                            William Glasser

Stage #2:

I will ask the questions:

• ‘Are the feedback skills and knowledge in one curriculum area transferrable to another?’
• ‘Are all learners able to notice and feedback on the deeper features of their peer’s writing?’
• ‘Is the feedback justified and interactive?’

Shifts in student achievement will not happen simply because the concept of critical friendships is introduced. Attaching a name to something will not cement understanding. To build and strengthen the content knowledge of my priority learners I need to borrow from Dorothy Brown’s idea by providing opportunities for ‘repetition without boring’ so that real connections can be made and understandings strengthened through informed learning discussions.

Sparking Student Interest:

This week saw the start of my MIT inquiry. I selected a group of talented young writers who will become not only my target group, but also our resident Room 5 'experts'. The group challenges will provide opportunities to work independently, collaboratively and with me on writing tasks that will challenge the students to move their writing to the next level. Taking a forensic (really close look) at what their peers have written is what will help each student in their 'critical friend' role to give focused feedback and feed forward. 

Learning from and with each other will help increase our overall understanding of structure and language features as our Room 5 writing programs evolves this year. The students are expected to take risks by trying to incorporate new learning into their independent tasks and when asked justify (say why) this new learning was used when responding to feed back.

Link to MIT student tasks

Outline of proposed innovation in 2015:

To use the ‘Comments’ feature in Google Docs to extend and accelerate my learners’ levels of cognitive engagement and achievement, through peer led feedback in Writing. This will leave a digital trail of evidence of genuine student voice (as a wider audience will be able to contribute their thinking in real time and in context), notify me via email so that I can monitor the quality of interactions and provide guidance in real time. Additionally it will create an online forum where successes and errors can be highlighted, ideas can be suggested, challenged and resolved; and changes implemented immediately. Something that could not be done without the affordances of technology. My inquiry would ask the questions:

• ‘Are the feedback skills and knowledge in one curriculum area transferrable to another?’
• ‘Are all learners able to notice and feedback on the deeper features of their peer’s writing?’
• ‘Is the feedback justified and interactive?’

I will monitor the learning gains that can be made with my Maori and Pacific students as they make connections between their established understandings and new learning in a different subject area. Writing could be seen as a challenge as it is a subjective, subtle and sophisticated medium. In 2015 it will be supported by ongoing school wide professional development that will provide a scaffolded platform for not only my knowledge and awareness to grow, but also that of my students.

Innovation in 2014:

I carried out a case study this year with a group of targeted Maori students in my class as part of the course requirements for the ‘EDCURRIC 740: Accelerating Digital Learning’ paper. The thinking behind this was that I would be able to accelerate learning in Reading by providing a platform, in this case an online forum, where the students would critically reflect on each others responses to a text and provide evidence to justify the reasons for their thinking. The aim of this intervention was to facilitate a dialogic environment where the students used the medium of discussion to become responsible for their own learning and drive their own shifts towards their next level of achievement. The link to the critical analysis has been provided for you to see the shifts made in the students thinking and achievement. Having deemed this ‘tool’ a success with a small group in Term 3, I introduced it to a wider audience in Term 4 that combined all of our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils. It was renamed I.R.C. (Independent Reading Challenge) and through emulation, guidance and shifts in their own learning has been running successfully for the last six weeks. It is important to note here that while shifts in e-asTTle data were not significant, shifts in STAR and Probe data have been, showing the value of student agency in raising student achievement. The success came as it allowed for peer led feedback to be given and received in real time and was in context. The ‘Comments’ tool in Google Docs allows for a wider and more varied audience to be reached quickly, something that could definitely not be achieved without being part of a 1:1 digital environment. Additionally it has allowed the students to access their learning and feedback anytime, any where and from any place. Thus allowing the students to drive their own challenge.

Term 3 Innovation

Term 4 Innovation

This pathway of student learning was created by two students in my class. It shows how my students access their learning and how they use peer led feedback to help them have self directed reflective learning conversations as part of our ‘learn-create-share’ process.

http://digitalfootstepspbs.blogspot.co.nz/p/blog-page.html