Qu 3: Building an accurate profile of students' learning - tools, measures and approaches...

Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

Vocabulary refers to the knowledge of words and word meanings. Helping students become word conscious is a crucial endeavour for teachers across all levels, and more so for teachers working with students whose prior vocabulary exposure may be limited. One of the biggest hurdles I have observed when I ask my learners to complete a writing task is their problem solving skills when it comes to vocabulary choice. At some point in their learning journeys so far our learners have formed the mindset that making a mistake when spelling is not ok. This deficit mindset causes problems when it comes to experimenting and/or taking risks with new vocabulary. Additionally it stops the flow of writing and results in many students just giving up or embracing the idea that they simply are not good at writing or spelling. 

Dianne and I are carrying out a collaborative inquiry this year but have chosen at this point to work independently with different groups. Dianne chose the students who find spelling a challenge which has left me with the students who are more able spellers. Having collected the baseline data and captured student voice (shared in an earlier post), we have decided to adopt the strategy of divide and conquer. Our ongoing conversations about the spelling hurdles we need to 'knock down' have opened our eyes to the fact our students who struggle with spelling need a different intervention than those who have some understanding. We want our students to take risks but are fully aware that those who see themselves as 'not good at spelling' need to revisit the basics in a safe space where they feel empowered. 

The analysis below reflects the responses of the attitude towards spelling of the 25 students in our class who have shown in our data to be our more able spellers. When responding to the e-asTTle attitude question, ‘I am good at spelling’. 70% of these students see themselves as being good spellers, while in contrast 30% do not. It is the mindset of the 40% who’s thinking I need to change.

The tools/measures/approaches:

Planning changes:

Making time to implement anything needs to become a reality if any success is to be achieved. We have a dedicated time for Word Consciousness in our timetable so that we are accountable for teaching it and our students see this as something we value. In my group I have a mix of book work and digital work. We use dictionaries and thesaurus' to build skills and work both independently and collaboratively.

Student Voice:

Gathering student voice is a vital part of teaching. It gives us a clear picture of where our students are at, what they're thinking and what we need to do to allow of learners to make their individual connections to the learning. We have devised a Spelling survey which will completed at the end of each term, allowing us to measure both the small and big changes. 

Peters/e-asTTLE Assessments:

Analysing these results gives us a clear picture of what our students can do and where our knowledge gaps are.  We will use these results to inform our planning and identify shifts in achievement. 

Next steps:

• Explore creative and fun ways we can grow our word consciousness culture in our class
• Make word consciousness visible in our class
• Explore success in our school, other schools and other clusters 
• Professional Readings/ PLD
• Use student created DLOs as exemplars 

To sum up, we think limited word knowledge is the problem and now need to find out why it is the problem. It is not about weekly spelling lists, but rather meeting, noticing, unpacking, understanding, exploring and using a wider variety of words across the curriculum that will hopefully strengthen the spelling ability and word consciousness of the students in LS2 2023. Looking forward we feel that by addressing this now we will open the doors of learning wider when it comes to the transition into Year 9.