2021 Teacher Inquiry Evaluation

This year I set out to find out if a focus on oral language in maths would accelerate student confidence and capability to use spoken and written maths vocabulary and language.

In order to be able to do something, you need to have access to the tools you need and the understanding of how to use them. This is no different in a classroom. The challenge for my students this year was to make accelerated shift in Maths by being able to talk about their learning in thinking groups, explain it on their blogs and create comment threads that invite others to respond by talking/writing about their learning in maths. This was something I quickly realised that I had to unpack fully, as my initial analysis of my target group’s thinking group conversation showed that my students were not able to access the content vocabulary they needed to be able to have a rich learning conversation. The quieter students chose to remain silent which resulted in the more confident students filling the void with ideas that lacked detail eg: “I did this and then I moved that number…”. They did try to initiate a discussion however, “What did you do?” was the only question I heard being asked. Simply put, my students were not able to talk in depth about their learning.

Being silent is not an option if acceleration is to take place so I realised quickly that I needed to model the language of explanation eg: “I saw that the question was asking me to… so I knew I needed to think about…” or “Groups of means… so I…”; and support the use of questions that encourage justification, eg: “How do you know it works?”, “So what happens if you…”, “What about if you say…does that still work”, “So if we…”  if I wanted rich learning conversations to become the norm.

Summarise evidence about key changes in teaching and other factors that influence student learning.

When asked specific questions eg; “What is this question asking us to do with the numbers?” or “How did you find your answer?” The learned go-to was to remain silent, however being silent is not an option if acceleration is to take place. My initial thinking was that a lack of comprehension remained one of our biggest obstacles. After listening and observing from a distance I realised my students were just not confident when using maths vocabulary as the connections between the words and the strategies had not been made. 

I began breaking down the barriers by:

• Introducing the Talk Moves framework into our maths program so that the discussion stems could become the norm within our learning time. This didn’t work for us because we simply did not use or connect to the words in the stems in. Our solution was to repurpose the Talk Moves idea by co-constructing and implementing a framework that we could connect to because it used our own words. We called it LS2 Moves.

• Modelling the language and supported the use of questions which lead to justification like “How do you know it works?”, “So what happens if you…”, “What about if you say…does that still work”, “So if we…”. 

• Unpacking Jo Boaler’s positive classroom norms.

• Stepping my students through the Talk Moves framework by explaining each component and giving individual students different roles within the group.

• Explaining the purpose behind having a learning conversation.

• Actively planning for talking about and reflecting on our learning in each lesson.

• Actively planning time in class, for students to create blog posts, comment on each other's blogs and respond to comments on their own blogs. This allowed me to see where connections to the learning content were strong, and where the gaps in knowledge were evident.

• Acknowledging individual success in talk time regardless of how big or small that success was.

• Setting the expectation that during our talk time, everybody in the group needed to participate actively.

• Modelling how to bring someone into a conversation in a way that wasn’t seen as ‘scary’.

Summarise evidence about key shifts in the problem of student learning:

Due to the impact of lockdown the shifts in my student’s learning this year are based on OTJs and observations. I collected detailed baseline data in Term 1 and student voice in Term 1 and 2, but am unable to make any time point 1/time point 2 comparative shift analysis this year as lockdown forced me to draw a line under my original inquiry. I literally lost contact with half of my focus group. Due to the length of time we had been learning from home, as a school we decided not to formally assess our students at the end of the year. Because of both these reasons I can not make accurate measures in academic shifts this year. I have additionally chosen not to use the three student voice comparisons I did manage to get as this does not paint a true picture of the change in my learner’s perspectives on maths. 

Write an overall evaluation of your intervention in terms of the causal chain you had theorised. To what extent was the intervention successful in changing factors such as teaching? To what extent were those changes in teaching effective in changing patterns of student learning?

In all assessments our students are required to read and respond to questions. Often our students are not literate in their own language so the gaps that emerge when questions are written in English are getting wider, thus causing bigger disconnects in the learning. This year I want to implement the strategy of Talk Moves in Maths. Talk Moves is a strategy that promotes classroom conversations centred on maths that helps to improve students' understanding of mathematical concepts. It is a framework to prompt the discussion, and will allow me to capitalise on the learning I got from my inquiry in 2020 by providing authentic opportunities to use this 'talk' within blog posts and blog comments to help strengthen connections.

What I had begun to notice in class was that there was a stronger connection to the maths language used in written questions. The evidence I have for this I have taken from my observations in class lessons (T1/2), GLOSS testing (T2) and online collaborations (T3/4). 

I noticed that my target group approached a written question by immediately looking at what the question was asking. (eg: This says XXX had 3 times as many XXX… that means we need to times it). By doing this, the talk then moved quickly to which strategy would help them solve this in the most efficient way. On this occasion I saw this group all solve the problem using their preferred multiplication strategy, then share their ideas with the group. Student G83 then took on the leadership role, cast our LS2 Moves framework to the TV and asked everyone to share their strategy. What was interesting to see was that without a teacher involved the discussion flowed much better. Possibly because these students feel less pressure when talking in front of their familiar group of peers. Acceptance of all contributions was the key to the success on this occasion, with student B82 taking on the role of affirming each response.

During GLoSS testing all these students repeated the question I had asked aloud, then set to work to find the answer. What impressed me here was no one ‘worked it out in my head’ - the usual go-to when they don’t have the words to explain what they did. There were calculation errors but the foundations for the Y8 students were much stronger than I remember in the previous year. What I wasn’t expecting was all these students asked questions for clarification when their connections to the strategy they had chosen weren’t as strong. I asked each person what they felt they needed help with and got quite specific responses (eg: I want to learn more words that mean addition… I think I need more help with XXX strategy… I need to learn my times tables so I can use them to help me with the bigger numbers… I need to practise my place value…) 

The online environment was completely different. The talk just stopped. This meant I had to think carefully about how I could keep the thinking going. I did this through skill drill challenges, which for some reason got huge buy in,  by basing our maths questions around popular topics/themes and by introducing the idea of ‘find the error, fix the error, explain the error’. My thinking here was that if I couldn’t hear the talk I could still read it. My students shared with me that they collaborated on the maths tasks so behind the scenes talk was happening, but most importantly they remained connected as a group.

Write a reflection on your own professional learning through this inquiry cycle.

This year’s inquiry into my own practice as a teacher has highlighted the importance of being creative and making adaptations that work for the tamariki in front of me. One size definitely does not fit all and in our case using Talk Moves did not work. Rather than discarding the idea of using a talking framework, I asked my students why they felt this wasn’t working. We came up with the theory that we simply didn’t speak this way, so we worked together to co-construct a framework we felt would work for us. A week later LS2 Moves had evolved and had become visible in our learning environment.

We were on a roll when lockdown happened this all changed. I have summarised my own learning in my Bursts in Bubbles presentation which can be read and/or watched here. My journey this year reminded me you need to continually think outside the box. You need to adapt and try, then try again. If something doesn’t work, look for the why then find a how.... then repeat.

Bursts in Bubbles 2021

This year due to Covid restrictions our Bursts 'and' Bubbles became Bursts 'in' Bubbles, an online opportunity for the Manaiakalani COL teachers to share their 2021 inquiries into their own practice. You can watch the presentations here.

Inquiry Focus Question

Will a focus on oral language in maths accelerate student confidence and capability to use spoken and written maths vocabulary and language?

The ability to use Maths is a communication tool to describe relationships and connections becomes compromised when maths language and literacy skills are not in place.

I noticed that my maths assessment results did not align with what I was seeing in the classroom. Formative maths assessments require students to read and respond to written questions, or to derive an answer and explain their thinking. The disconnect gap continues to widen when our tamariki do not have the comprehension and language skills in place that allow them to talk about their maths using maths words.

I used the evidence and data from the PAT Maths, IKAN, GLoSS and Running Record assessments, student voice and baseline observations to build a rich picture of my students’ learning.

During the profiling phase I noticed my target students sat silently in maths time, listening carefully and nodding their heads in agreement to avoid looking lost in the learning. Not having the words meant they became visibly anxious when asked to share their ideas. Collecting student voice each term allowed me to see maths through their eyes and helped to inform the changes I was making to my own practise.

Profiling of my own teaching after capturing and analysing the words spoken my baseline lesson gave me a valuable insight to the words and scaffolds I use. I use a wide variety, and a good balance of deliberate acts of teaching. However, I also realised that by stepping in with scaffolds too early meant the students who were less confident with sharing, weren't given a true opportunity to take a risk and share their thinking. The lesson captured was an honest one. I did not do anything I don't normally do, because someone was observing me as I wanted real and purposeful feedback and evidence.

The changes I made in my teaching were to consciously allow longer periods of wait time and to find activities that allowed us to use the maths words in context. We introduced the Talk Moves framework, but did not connect to these question stems. When I asked my students why, they pointed out that we don’t actually speak this way. That was true so we adapted the original framework and made our own version called LS2 Moves.

The literature that helped me make informed changes are summarised on my blog. These readings reminded me that Talk is not an add-on... it is a critical component of the lesson... that allows students to explore ideas and use evidence to build and critique academic arguments. It promotes the transfer of knowledge, and skills with learning to talk and learning through talk being of equal importance.

The easiest thing for me to change was actively planning time for talk to take place, time for scaffolding the talk and time to let my students respond in their own time.

Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as a work in progress. When lockdown sent us back to teaching online, the talk literally stopped. I lost contact with half of my target group and the students I did see, did not have the confidence to share their thinking in an online environment.

The most important learning I made in regard to increasing student confidence and capabilities when using spoken and written maths vocabulary and language was that you need to be creative.

Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are that you need to think outside the box. You need to adapt and try, then try again. If something doesn’t work, look for the why then find a how.

Professional Development Updates...

During this current Level 4 Lockdown I have taken advantage of several online professional development opportunities that were offered. Distance learning in LS2 was about doing what we could to keep our learning going, so that's exactly what I did. 

Reading for meaning - Teaching comprehension strategies: Sheena Cameron

Focus: 

• To explore what good readers do
• To unpack the levels of comprehension
• To explore the role of executive skills
• To explore the importance of talk
• To explore a variety of reading strategies

This year LS2 has been working with Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey on their poetry focus. This in itself has been a really valuable and purposeful learning experience for both myself and my students. A few weeks ago Dianne, Linda and I were invited to take part in this workshop which was an amazing opportunity as the LS2 teaching team were able to all hear a shared message about Reading. The powerful part of this learning came from the conversation we had the following day. We now have a shared understanding, shared language of instruction and a shared vision (photo below) to implement so that we can help our students make connections and gain meaning when reading, regardless of level.

My Takeaways:

• Good readers use specific strategies to gain meaning from text by searching for connections, asking questions, making inferences, identifying important ideas, synthesising/summarising information (as new information emerges opinions change when meaning is made), monitoring understanding by (rereading, reading on and looking up words), and visualising ideas in the text. They have a purpose, know why they are do something and what they will need to do with that information. Students need to be explicit about the strategy they are using when self monitoring.
• 3 levels of comprehension - literal (stated in text, can point to it), inferential (use text information and prior knowledge by thinking about the author and me when searching for hidden ideas) , evaluative (justify opinion using information from the text to analyse and think critically).
• Comprehension processes depend on what you read and your purpose for reading.
• Executive skills - working memory (keep something in mind while doing something else), cognitive flexibility (able to shift attention form one activity to another), inhibition/self control (ability to stay focused on task).
• Talk is key for understanding as it promotes listening between other ideas to consolidate understanding. Talk prompts need to be visible!
• Short punchy lessons remind students of strategies already known.
• Teach strategies in shared reading (use DATS)
• Make strategy posters visible.
• If you understand the structure of the text type and language features comprehension is stronger. Preview text structure before reading help students organise information.
• Purpose must be explicit!
• Remind students to adjust speed of reading to match text demands
• Key words are the most important words in a text.
• teach comprehension strategies with the purpose of understanding how to use and how the strategy will help support increased comprehension.

• Activities I will be introducing:
• Dot to dot connections
• Y chart predictions using images
• Use key words to retell information in a text by creating sentences with those words.
• Visual summary
• 10 word summary
• Story map
• Character inferences using props
• Picture inference
• Explain the strategy you used and how it helped you make meaning

Fractions Toolkit: Donna Yates - Link to Donna's presentation

Focus: 

• To explore the progressions for Fractions through the levels
• To explore online materials to turbocharge the learning.
• To unpack the misconceptions students have with learning Fractions. 

Donna shared some key ideas for fractions and reminded us what knowledge is required at each stage for understanding to be consolidated and connections made. From this alone I can see that for many of my learners it is the gaps in their knowledge that prevent them from making strong connections to the learning. 

My Takeaways:

• Remember to provide equipment for students to manipulate
• Students need conceptual knowledge before they can progress
• Use words to get understanding before introducing number representations
• Explain the parts of a fraction
• Emphasise use of 'ths' code using language and words before using  numbers and symbols.
• Remember not to use 'out of' - this is not a fraction!
• Links to creativity tools
• Give your create tasks a purpose eg: Make sure your DLO can teach someone new knowledge

Jamboard Toolkit:  Vicki Archer - Link to Vicki's presentation

Focus: 

• To explore the functionality of Jamboard - a collaborative whiteboard space. 
• To explore the basics and some tips and tricks to get you started.

Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard. It gives students lots of creative work space. It can be opened inside a Google Meet (with the link being automatically shared in the chat) or created from your Google Drive. Both options allow you to save the Jamboard in your drive. 

My Takeaways:

• Use to add visuals alongside a task explanation
• Sticky notes can be used to collate student responses
• Remember to click on the select tool to use another feature or move shapes etc.

E-Tap

Focus: 

• To walk through the features E-TAP offers as a student management tool

Qu 8: How another lockdown period may impact the learners in your focus group?

How another lockdown period may impact the learners in your focus group? 

Will you need to make any changes to your Inquiry?

How might your intervention look different if you continue through this period?

• Do any of your intervention plans work via distance learning?
• Is there any information about implementation of your changed practices/intervention you could collect during this time?

As mentioned in an earlier post Alert Level 4 has pretty much seen my 2021 teacher inquiry come to a grinding halt. I do not have the authentic opportunities a face to face learning environment provides so I have needed to adapt what I am doing to encourage my students to keep the 'talk' going in Maths. 

Building on the 'familiar' by strengthening the language and vocabulary foundations already in place was how I thought we would move forward, but this has not happened in the ways I thought it would. With only my target students in mind, Google Meet attendance is an ever changing picture, making it quite challenging to get a whole group snapshot of where these students are at now. I have tried a variety of ways to try and organise a whole group Meet, but this hasn't panned out, with low level engagement being the barrier for two of these students.

Adapt and Try #5 asked my learners to write 3 maths questions linked to the topic of online gaming each using a different skill (eg: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, algebra…). Solve them incorrectly, then share the questions with a friend and challenge them to find, explain and fix the error.

The examples in the DLO show varied levels of understanding and I can see that these students are falling back on the known in their choice of number operation. Follow up conversations identified that these students chose to buddy up and collaborate for each part of this task, so my original idea did not work. Unfortunately, hindsight tells me that the real and rich conversations that took place were not captured. However in saying this, the interactions that evolved from my feedback in the comments tool showed me the depth of the thinking behind the co-construction of these responses.

Keeping the talk going in a distance learning environment is really challenging. This is an inquiry focus that is definitely best suited to a face to face environment. From the tasks I have set over the last few weeks I can see that 50% my target students are able to use maths language effectively to explain their thinking, 25% understand what it is they need to do but have not yet developed the vocabulary and language to allow them to do this, and 25% did not engage in this task. 

What has worked over the last few weeks, is that all my target group have engaged in the 'skill drill' type activities we have set. I have no idea why the buy-in for this type of learning is so high, but I'm taking this as a win. These students may not be physically talking about the strategies they are using, but they are using this time to strengthen their connections to the number knowledge foundations they need to have in place before connections to new learning can be built.

Being back in a face to face environment isn't going to automatically make my inquiry a success. I need to continue to reflect on my teaching and explore ways I can adapt and change my practice if I want to effect change and keep the 'talk' going in maths.

Distance learning: The dilemma of keeping our Year 7/8 learners engaged...

One of the most challenging aspects of Distance Learning is keeping out tamariki engaged. Having experienced lockdowns previously with a shared class, Dianne and I know the importance of having systems in place that have been revisited regularly so that should another lockdown occur, everyone in our class knows what it is they need to do to keep their learning going from home. Our students know to check their email every morning and know to look at the Distance Learning page on our class site to access their work. We have practised signing into and participating in a Google Meet, and know that all our students are able to do this.

Each day we were asking our learners to join in a Google Meet to make sure they stay connected with us, and with their classmates. Unlike previous lockdowns, this one seems to be the hardest to keep our learners engaged. Initially, a large number of our students saw the break from the classroom as a bonus holiday, which meant we had just over half the class taking part. During our time at Level 4 we have made a number of changes that have helped us to establish connections with a much larger number of our students, however each day who we are connecting with has become an ever changing picture.

Some students have attended every Google Meet and have completed all work set, some have opted in and out of the Google Meets but have continued to share completed work, whilst others have attended no Google Meets but regularly share completed work. On the other side of the coin there are those who have not been able to establish an online learning routine. These are the students who have attended one or two Google Meets but have completed none of the work set. In reality for some of our learners participating in a Google Meet is a step too far out of their comfort zone. What I have appreciated is getting one or two emails from our learners who find many aspects of learning a challenge in class. For many of these students online engagement has been a struggle, but they want to say hi and let us know they're ok. Finally, we have the students who appear to have completely dropped off our radar. The students who have not responded to any emails, participated in any Google Meets or completed any work.

This is not a time time for us to judge or put pressure on anyone. In reality we do not know or understand what their home situation looks like. There are many other factors that contribute here but the main one for all of us being that lockdowns are challenging and that it is incredibly hard to stay motivated. 

What we did...

Google Meets: 

• We changed from whole class meetings everyday, with Fridays set aside for Tech, to whole class meetings only on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now opt in meetings for anyone who would like to ask questions, have something explained in more detail or simply just say hi, and Fridays remain set aside for Tech. By doing this we noticed that some students sign in every day, some on Mondays and Wednesdays and others only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are not only reaching a wider range of students by doing this but also finding that the amount of work completed has increased significantly.

Student Voice: 

• One of the most powerful tools we have is the ability to listen. Our students simply do not see working from home as an opportunity to continue doing the work we do at school. I have seen many posts on social media from other teachers sharing how their learners simply adapt, but in our case ours don't, so we have needed to be really creative. We asked our learners what topics they would like us to cover and made our purpose for learning fit those themes. For us this has meant saying goodbye to our term focus of Hauora and hello to Anime/Manga, Online Gaming, Events in History and Famous People. By doing this we have been able to keep our learning going by keeping learner engagement in place. 

• The one that stands out the most to me is our theme from last week of 'Online Gaming'. Not playing the games (we had disclaimers in place on the very first teaching slide), but instead creating characters, graphing character emotions, justifying reasoning, writing character descriptions, describing settings, exploring vocabulary and using these words to summarise main ideas, writing paragraphs, creating and solving theme based written maths questions, taking a deep dive into coordinates in maths, reading maps, exploring direction and most of all having fun. The engagement and effort that went into the detail in the tasks completed was amazing, with a high percentage of our students completing all the work that was set. 

• Our students prefer tasks where the finish line is in sight and can be completed in any order. We very quickly adapted to this style of learning and find that the elements of choice we provide keeps more people motivated. It is a real challenge to cater for the huge variety of learning styles during distance learning, so developing learning challenges where students have the option to choose to collaborate, or complete independently, has been one of the keys to our success in helping our learners keep their learning going from home.

Purpose:

• Having a real purpose behind the learning has been one of the important messages we have shared with our students. As with anything you do, knowing why you're doing it, is what motivates you to participate actively. 

Feedback: 

• Dianne and I have made a point of giving feedback on every piece of work that has been shared with us. The comments tool in G Suite has allowed us to give affirmations and identify where tweaks (or if needed, specific guidance) can be made to increase the detail and accuracy of responses. This has proven to be a really valuable way to connect with our students on an individual level as the protocol in our class is to reply to any comment received. They can see by acknowledging their work we are valuing the efforts they are putting in.

• Linda (our amazing TA) is a highly valued member of our LS2 distance learning journey team. She actively takes part in all our Google Meets and comments on every blog post. By doing this Linda has not only maintained the extremely important connections she makes in class every day, but has used her online presence to provide our class with an authentic online audience.

As I said at the start of this post, this lockdown seems so much harder than previous ones to firstly capture, and secondly keep, our students engaged online. Our purpose in general has been to keep our learning going from home. Many of our students have been able to do this, but for some, the face to face learning opportunities that come with a move to Alert Level 2 will be their time to revisit and strengthen the connections they had made to their learning before Alert Level 4 restrictions were announced. It will once again be our time to tweak, change and adapt our program again to make sure we all end our 2021 learning journey positively with everyone having found an opportunity to celebrate the learning successes they have had this year.

Adapt and Try Alert Level 4 version...

With the move to Alert Level 4 last week my teacher inquiry pretty much came to an immediate standstill. The hardest part being for me to get my head around is that I now know all the momentum we have built so far this year will take a giant step backwards, however having been in this position once before I realised quite quickly that adapt and try was the only option available to me. So with that in mind earlier this week I set my learners the familiar maths challenge to 'find the error, explain the error and fix the error', something I unpacked earlier in this post.

Unfortunately I don't have online engagement with all my focus group at this stage. However for those who are engaging this was the challenge set ( - refer to DLO below). I noticed some students preferred to work collaboratively and others independently. I have no problem with the option they choose. There are a number of ways forward for me including a small group Google Meet and making use of applications like Screencastify, but for now this allows me to once again widen my focus to my whole maths group. 

The responses on slides 2 and 3 (above) are varied in detail and use of content specific vocabulary but as with everything we do, it is about knowing your learners and understanding how they think and speak/write. What I take from these examples is that these students understand how to add decimals and understand the concept of BEDMAS, with the part that I'm get the most information from, being the explanations of the errors. In the example above I mentioned that any errors or misunderstandings can be easily ironed out in a Google Meet or through the comments tool using Mote or by written feedback. 

I need to find ways to keep the 'talk' going in Maths. However, at this stage my priority is to maintain and build on my student's maths vocabulary and strategy knowledge by continuing to provide authentic and purposeful opportunities for my students to use and apply this knowledge. Going forward we will use this time to build on the 'familiar' by strengthening the foundations already in place. 

Implement and Try #3...

During the holiday break I took some time to reflect on my teacher inquiry so far. Wanting to build on the foundations of what I have in place I started looking at ways other teachers get the talk going in maths lessons. One blog I found highlighted the reasons why we talk about maths. The bullet points below are the main takeaway I took from this post.

• Talking about maths allows us to share our thoughts.
• Talking about maths helps us clarify our own thoughts.
• Talking about maths helps us understand what we do and do not understand.
• Talking about maths prepares us for the future.

I know I've talked about this with my students but I now need to check that they understand these reasons. Talking about maths allows us to think about our own understanding of a concept or strategy. It allows us to use our own connections to agree or disagree with an idea. The power here comes from being able to justify our thinking by using maths language and strategies to show others why we think the way we do. Additionally being able to see how someone else's thinking is a more efficient way to find the answer helps to close gaps in knowledge. 

This week I introduced another idea I saw online. Instead of setting a challenge with an unknown answer I gave my students an incorrectly solved addition problem and challenged them to find, explain and fix the error. To help the talk flow I used the prompt 'How can you prove your answer is correct?' After solving the mystery the groups naturally moved around the room, eager to see if the others had found the error. 

I stepped back and listened  through the excited chatter to what was being said and heard that the LS2 Moves prompts we had been using, with absolutely no prompting from me, were being used to guide the conversations. The slide below shows the student voice collected. It was done very quickly but told me this style of facilitating conversation was a success.

I sourced this initial activity from Teachers Pay Teachers. My next steps will be to look at how I can incorporate and adapt some of the ideas in this resource to align with the content of our maths lessons. 

This is early days but I can't wait to see where this type of maths challenge takes us.

How I'm helping our staff as the in-school COL teacher for PBS...

As the in-school COL teacher for PBS part of my role is to guide the teacher inquiries of our staff. I have held this role for a number of years and because of that have had the opportunity to adapt and refine the ways I do this. If you're new to this role this post might be useful to you.

In Term 1 shared an overview of the purpose behind teacher inquiry at a staff meeting. Doing this helps us all get on the same page. Like many schools we have new staff this year so giving a shared message helps get the dialogue going. Graeme Aitken asked, “How can we come together and integrate our expertise and our knowledge to address significant problems?”  At our school we look at our data and use that information to guide our overall shared focus. We have found that by doing this for a number of years we get better traction as we have each other to bounce ideas off.  

From there teachers look at their own practice along with the data from their class, and begin thinking about how they are going to move forward in a way that allows them to grow professionally. It is at this stage that teachers are reminded that an inquiry into teacher practice is about the changes we make to help our students strengthen their connections to the learning. It is our what we do and how we do it that we unpack, reflect on and adapt.

The focus for Term 2 was to form our individual focus questions, choose a focus group, capture time point 1 data, and create a causal map to guide our inquiries. All of this data is then shared in a blog post that teachers can use as a foundation to build their inquiries on. To help ensure everyone is on the same page I created a google presentation (shared below) that aligns with the one the COL teachers use. This is a step by step 'how-to' so that everyone is empowered to begin their spiral of inquiry. I chose to share this DLO with a tern by term focus as that way no one is overloaded and everyone walks the journey together. 

In addition to this I have termly 'check-in' chats with everyone. This helps us stay on track and helps teachers to keep their inquiries alive by talking about what they have done so far and what their next steps will be. It is an opportunity to ask questions and have rich and real conversations that help us work towards our goal of accelerated shifts in student achievement. 

Coding in Blocks and in Python...

Last week I was inspired by the coding challenges Karen Ferguson was teaching my Year 8 students so I jumped online and ordered my own micro:bit.Today I joined in the coding lesson and experimented with coding using Blocks and using Python. 

Blocks is the best place to start if you are a complete novice like me. However with Karen's help and by following the tutorials I was able to use Python successfully. 

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T-Shaped Literacy for teachers of Year 1 - 3...

On Monday our staff attended Dr Rebecca Jesson's presentation 'T-Shaped Literacy for teachers of Year 1 - 3' at PT England School. Having used the T-shaped literacy approach for a number of years I know the benefits that can be gained from wide and deep reading. Seeing this done through the eyes of a junior school teacher has provided me with a deeper understanding as I know see how I can use this to meet the learning needs of my struggling learners too.

Here are my notes: Link

The video below captures the presentation.

Implement and Try #2...

Today I worked with my focus students to practise using our LS2 oral language framework in context. This is the process we followed:

1. Write a question on the board that linked directly to the strategy of long multiplication that we have been learning this week. 
2. Students then answer the question using the known strategy on whiteboards to give them a visual reference for sharing time.
3. Use the LS2 oral language framework to explain the steps they followed to find their answer.
4. Reflect on which question/s we found most useful and unpack thinking.
5. Share what we found 'hard'.
6. Repeat the process

One student shared that they weren't able to share their strategy confidently because they didn't have the maths words to explain the steps they followed, so after some quick thinking on my part, I wrote a list of the maths words on the board. (Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this.) The image below is an example of what we did. The focus here was on the strategy, not on identifying the maths in a written question. 

With the vocabulary list visible the students felt their conversations became more detailed. Afterwards we discussed the difference between the information shared without the vocabulary scaffold and with the vocabulary scaffold. 8/8 students felt they were able to make stronger connections to their partner's strategy. 

Student G83 shared that she 'felt more confident when it was my time to share as I had the words that I was missing before. This time I kind of knew what to say.'

The next change to my practice will be to co-construct a strategy specific vocabulary list during my guided teaching sessions. 

Abstract noun senses poem...

This term I have had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a poetry focus group run by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. Each week Sheena has worked with a group of students who find writing a challenge, to front load them with the skills needed to find success in a poetry task. I then follow the plans shared by Sheena and Louise with the whole class during our reading and writing lessons. 

I have noticed that the students who Sheena has been working with are empowered and fully engaged in this learning, taking on a leadership role each and every time. The poems below are the end result of a whole class collaborative writing lesson. Our focus here was to use the 5 senses to describe an abstract noun using similes and metaphors.

Implement and Try #1...

After realising neither myself nor my students had made a strong connection to the language used in theTalk Moves framework we changed the speaking frames to incorporate the language we use. I explained why we were making these changes, then embraced the changes my students suggested. 

Today we carried out our usual thinking group challenge, something we have been doing all year. This means that as we move into the latter part of term 2, the students are all familiar with each other and have developed the confidence needed to participate actively within these groups. We began the lesson by unpacking our adapted speaking framework. This meant that anything that needed further explanation was broken down so that connections could be made. I asked each group to choose a leader and that the leader could be anyone who wanted to have a turn to lead the learning conversation. 4/6 groups had a student from my focus group step up as the leader.

The photos in this slideshow capture a snapshot of the whole lesson to preserve the anonymity of the students in my focus group.

The difference today was once the initial independent problem solving challenge had been completed, the academically productive conversation flowed. I think this may be due to the fact I introduced the updated speaking frame as our own. Each group had a least one student who had participated in the process of changing Talk Moves into LS2 Moves so the ownership and connections were in place. The photos above show the level of engagement. 

At the end of the lesson I asked for group feedback linked specifically to the wording of our questions:

• 'Who has a different strategy? let students avoid self doubt if they had no strategy to share'. 
• 'My group feel that Who has a different strategy? and What other strategies could we use? are the same so maybe we could choose the one that helps us share our thinking more confidently.' 
• Can you tell me what you said? and Do you mean… are asking the same information. 

We discussed this feedback and decided that we need to clarify the purpose of the questions in context to help strengthen connections further.

Focus group feedback at the end of the lesson:

TOD: Pause, Breathe, Smile...

Today we had a TOD to walk us through the Pause, Breathe, Smile mindfulness program. Here are my takeaways from the day.

     Freepik Flaticon

Mindfulness - take time to check in with yourself to support your wellbeing. It is a life skill that encourages you to put your head and feet in the same place. An intentional focus on the immediate experience so that you can approach what is happening with curiosity, openness, acceptance and love (COAL). It is... paying immediate attention to what is immediately occurring (happening now) with kindness and interest. 

Attention Regulation - No one tells us how to pay attention which means we can look focused but our minds are elsewhere. Attention regulation is about knowing where the attention is... knowing where it needs to be... and directing it to where it needs to be. The more attention you are paying to the present the happier you'll be.

Gratitude - This is one component of the program I am looking forward to. Taking time to appreciate the ordinary and the things we usually take for granted. Gratitude is contagious and helps us to notice what is going well rather than what isn't. Gratitude helps counteract the negativity bias that our brains are so used to holding onto. 

Emotions - If you can name it you can tame it... if you understand what the emotion is you that you are experiencing  you can calm down from it.

Pause, Breathe, Smile is an 8 week program that focuses on learner wellbeing by teaching our students to notice and describe their feelings, pay attention and be curious, and regulate emotions by asking 'Is this being helpful?'. 

Link to my notes from the TOD

TAI 2021: Where am I at?...

Last week I was writing some blog posts linked to my 2021 Inquiry and realised I had 'lost' my direction and focus. Having been the in-school COL teacher since 2017, I was initially thrown by this realisation as I know that I know how to carry out an in depth inquiry. Rather than find excuses for not being on top of my game I decided to find out why so I began by reading the posts that captured my journey so far this year. I then looked back over pervious inquiries and realised there were two important parts missing. An actual inquiry question and a causal chain. I was actually quite shocked that even though I had an inquiry underway I had somehow overlooked writing the actual question.

Step one was to amend this immediately, however it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I was trying to fit too much information into a very small space. Fortunately Dr Jannie Van Hees came to the rescue and helped me put into words everything I was trying to say. This wasn't a planned meeting but was definitely a very worthwhile conversation. Dr Jannie reminded me that my question needed to be succinct and through questioning helped me 'drill down' to what it was I actually wanted to focus on which is, 'Will using Talk Moves in maths accelerate student confidence and capability to use spoken and written maths vocabulary and language?'

Step two was to put my causal chain together. I found this so much easier once I had a succinct question to guide me. I have used a causal chain for a number of years and is one of the ways I help the PBS teachers put their inquiries together. Causal chains help to plan steps forward (ie: a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect - A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D) by working backwards to create a chain of events that unpack the logic of the actions of the inquiry. Once I had done this I had more clarity but still felt a bit lost so I asked for help. I feel that highlighting the fact I asked for help this is important because so many of us overlook this step, preferring to muddle our way through rather than reaching out. It takes a village and within the Manaiakalani cluster we have many people who can and willingly give support when it is needed.

Step three was to organise a meeting with Fiona Grant to talk through my inquiry so far. Fiona helped me see that I that my hypothesis is if I use 'talk' to help my learners gain a deeper understanding of maths vocabulary, this widened connection to maths words will provide opportunities to improve their reading comprehension which will in turn lead to accelerated achievement in maths. I want to find out if using Talk Moves to 'learn' to talk in Maths will help my learners 'learn' through talk. Alongside this I want to see if the knowledge and skills gained can be transferred from the classroom to the blogs. 

Fiona asked me what was happening now in relation to my inquiry. I explained that I have introduced, unpacked and created group norms. I have introduced and unpacked the TM framework prompt 'So you're saying'  to encourage my learners to actively listen to others' responses. At that point Fiona asked me if my learners understood what that meant. This was when it dawned on me the reason I was 'lost' was because my learners did not have ownership of the Talk Moves process. 'So you're saying'  is not how we speak. My students can't see themselves in the framework so there is no personal investment.

When asked how I was going to engage my learners in what I wanted them to learn, I knew what I needed to do. I know I encourage my learners to 'look for the learning' when we are commenting on blogs so I am now thinking that if I ask my learners to 'listen for the learning' they will know what to do. We need to create our own version of the Talk Moves Framework using our language because this is how we learn in LS2. When I reflect honestly this disconnect applies to me too. I have no connection to the words used as I do not speak like this... #Lightbulb moment! 

As the in-school COL teacher I am always looking for ways I can support our PBS teachers. My takeaways from speaking with Jannie and Fiona are:

• Inquiry questions need to be succinct
• Ask for help if you need it 
• Use 'I'm hearing' when teachers are talking about their inquiries so that I am guiding not telling.
• Create a causal chain to help visualise your theory of action.