Causal Chain - mapping my inquiry...

As a part of the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako we are challenged to think about what we want to achieve then work backwards to map our steps. This is called a causal chain and is the logical thought process we follow to help us stay focused on on track throughout the entirety of our inquiries. As I completed my causal chain for 2025 I realised I was actually building on from the inquiry I began last year. This is exciting as it is an opportunity to see how the team alignment we worked so hard on last year strengthens our team when staff members change and a new program (structured literacy) is introduced.

Link to my 2025 Causal Chain

A causal chain is when 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...start from D and work backwards Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action.... To really understand deeply how teaching (as a cause) leads to a valued student outcome (effect), we need to know about more than just the first cause in the chain and the final - we need to know about each link.' - Dr Aaron Wilson

Causal Chain - mapping my inquiry...

As a part of the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako we are challenged to think about what we want to achieve then work backwards to map our steps. This is called a causal chain and is the logical thought process we follow to help us stay focused on on track throughout the entirety of our inquiries.

A causal chain is when 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...start from D and work backwards Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action.... To really understand deeply how teaching (as a cause) leads to a valued student outcome (effect), we need to know about more than just the first cause in the chain and the final - we need to know about each link.' - Dr Aaron Wilson

 

Link to my 2024 causal chain

Causal Chain... A tool for planning and reflecting...

Link to causal chain

This year I want to find out if a focus on spelling conventions foster an environment where word consciousness strengthens connections to the learning? Creating a causal chain helps me stay focused on the purpose of my teacher inquiry. As I have said before, it is so easy to fall down many rabbit holes along the way so having a causal chain to look back on helps to keep me on track. Creating a causal chain allows me to visualise where I want my students to be at the end of the learning year, then map backwards the steps I will take to strengthen our (mine and my learner's) connections to the topic. 

My 'crusade' this year is to grow the vocabulary knowledge of akonga in my literacy groups. This year Dianne and I are undertaking a collaborative inquiry as we share a learning space. Although we are approaching this challenge in different ways, the reason behind it remains aligned. We have seen our students fall back on the familiar and simple words like 'went' when writing independently, possibly because don't  have the confidence to draw on the more powerful words that would move their writing to the next level. Our hunch is that reliance on the 'known' maybe due to the 'fear' of making mistakes when spelling the more challenging words expected at a Year 7/8 level. Spending time focussing on identifying meaningful chunks in words (root words, base words and affixes) might be the key that unlocks the door to the 'unknown' and may help my learners strengthen their vocabulary, spelling and decoding development in literacy so they are able to use and apply this knowledge when working independently..

Causal Chain... A tool for planning and reflecting...

This year I want to find out if a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading? Creating a causal chain helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your teacher inquiry. It is so easy to fall down many rabbit holes along the way so having a causal chain to look back on helps to keep you on track. My biggest takeaway from looking at a variety of readings is if we are to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we need a collective and collaborative approach that allows our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading. 

Looking back at my causal chain I realise my students are seen as readers through our Leaders in the Library initiative, through sharing reading tips at our school assemblies and by actively reading for enjoyment in the classroom. It is important that my learners see themselves as readers too so I have made a point of capturing all of this in photos which are clearly displayed in our classroom. However when I look back at my causal chain I can see that because I'm always taking photos I have not been allowing my learners to consistently see me as a reader. As we approach Term 3 I know exactly what my goal is... make sure my learners see me as a reader too.

Link to causal chain

TAI 2020 WFRC #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.

My challenge is to explore if strengthening connections to Smart Relationships will help my learners to understand and use content specific language and vocabulary in context. I feel that by doing this it will help my learners to make accelerated shifts across the board in reading, writing and maths. In all assessments our students are required to read and respond to questions. As with my previous inquiries I am very aware that it is often the content specific language along with the language of questioning that causes disconnects in learning. My idea this year is to use their blog posts and blog comments to help strengthen these connections.

Link to backwards map

The tools/measures/approaches:

Planning changes:

• My initial approach will be to actively plan time in class, (and now in our current distance learning situation), for students to comment on each others blogs and respond to comments on their own blogs. This will help me to see where connections to the learning content are strong and where gaps in knowledge are evident.
• Adapt lesson formats so that regardless of curriculum area we spend time thinking about how we can share our learning effectively on our blogs, and time thinking about giving and responding to blog comments that are linked to our learning. 

Instructional lessons:

• I need to create opportunities for my learners to focus, notice and use the words that help us make sense of the learning, and model this.
• Teach and model the Manaiakalani cybersmart lessons inside core subject areas to help my learners strengthen their understanding of the blogging process and understand how paying attention to the feedback received in blog comments can help them move their learning to the next level in context.
• Provide scaffold frameworks and rubrics to support this process that are used across the school. 

PAT/STAR/Probe/IKAN/GLoSS/e-asTTLE Assessments:

• Analysing these results gives me a clear picture of what my students can do and where our knowledge gaps are. I use these results to inform my planning and identify shifts in achievement.

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.

Feedback:

• I need to fall back on the known by repurposing an idea I used in 2015 to help my learners understand what feedback looked like. This was done by sharing the story of Austin's Butterfly to help my learners see that by paying attention to the feedback given by his peers, Austin was able to make the changes he needed in his drawing to make it more scientifically accurate. By showing this clip again and unpacking the learning within, I hope to help my current students see the power giving and receiving feedback has in strengthening their connections to the learning.

Peer to peer talk:

• Peer to peer talk continues to be huge part of our learning time as it provides authentic opportunities for new words to be used in context. I can see that buddying my learners up they can talk through a blog post then collaboratively decide the appropriate feedback and feed forward through dialogic discussion before leaving their individual comments.
• This will also provide the opportunity for my learners to buddy up and talk through comments received before responding.
• To do this effectively I will need to create speaking frames.

Explore success in schools/ cluster initiatives:

• Panmure Bridge School 
• Manaiakalani and Outreach schools
• Manaiakalani Cybersmart resources
• Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu
• Wairakei School - Link here  
• MIT/COL inquiries

WFRC #4: 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.

Link to backwards map

My hunch is that some issues with my students’ math achievement are related to issues they have with reading instructions and tasks. The students in my class who achieved higher scores in the PAT reading, STAR and Probe running record assessments also achieved higher scores in the PAT maths and IKAN assessments. My target group's data showed the exact opposite. With the exception of student B2 who scored slightly higher in the maths assessments than the reading assessments. The tools/measures/approaches I plan to use are:



PAT/STAR/Probe/IKAN Assessments:

• Analysing these results gives me a clear picture of what my students can do and where our knowledge gaps are. I use these results to inform my planning. This year I have been looking closely at the vocabulary used in the questions, and will be incorporating this into my lessons so that connections can be made to what these words are asking my learners to do. With my inquiry in mind I need to introduce, unpack and use the words: calculate, recognise, identify, find, plot, solve, estimate, visualise, interpret, percentage, fraction, proportion, decimal

Student Voice:

• Gathering student voice is a vital part of teaching so at the end of the term I asked all my students to complete our T1 evaluation using a google form questionnaire. I find this type of evaluation really useful as it gives me an insight into their honest responses, and not responses influenced by what their friends are saying. With my inquiry in mind I asked my learners what they enjoyed in writing, reading and maths to give me an insight into how I can capitalise on learning where student self efficacy is high as this shows me which teaching approaches were a success. Additionally I asked if there was anything they still needed help with in these learning areas. This information quickly shows me where student self efficacy is lower, and most importantly informs my planning.

Check in chats:

• I have been focussing on building student self efficacy this term so each week I have a 'check in chat' with all my instructional groups. I have found this really useful as I get immediate feedback and am able to see quickly where confidence levels are lower. During this time I give each of my students a vivid and give them 2 'teacher' minutes to write down any questions they may have, or any words they don't understand. This part is proving to be successful as I don't intervene (unless asked), and it is all done anonymously. I have noticed during this time that

Feedback:

• Continue to use the comments tool in G suite so my learners can see where I notice their success (this is something these students have told me they want to know), and can ask me questions or let me know if I need to spend some 1:1 time strengthening knowledge gaps. For this tool to be successful I need to allow time for my learners to reply to my comments. My target students still need support in doing this and I have found if they write their replies with scaffolding from our teacher aid or from each other, they are more likely to give me an honest response, rather than a response they think I want to read.

Peer to peer talk:

• Peer to peer talk is a huge part of our learning time as it provides authentic opportunities for new words to be used in context. I noticed my learners also used this time to seek clarification from each other so I have added in a 'fun' component of timed challenges to share knowledge with a partner.

Instructional lessons:

• Planning opportunities for time to unpack new vocabulary or revisit known vocabulary is embedded into all lessons and gives us an opportunity to focus and notice the words that help us make sense of the learning.

Spring into Maths/Rainbow Reading:

• At our school these groups are run as withdrawal groups. They provide the students who attend opportunities to grow confidence and strengthen their connections to the learning in a supportive small group environment. The teacher who runs these sessions aligns her programs with the planning on our sites.

Lesson format:

• I adapted my lesson formats so that regardless of curriculum area, the structure is the same. This will help to ensure I am actively planning time to introduce and unpack new vocabulary and/or revisit known vocabulary; actively planning 'fun' warm up challenges to strengthen skills/strategies/knowledge; and actively planning time for talk so the language can be defined/used/explored in context. By doing this I am hoping that my learners will see that the language of instruction we use in one area can be transferred to another.