When carrying out an inquiry into your own teaching practice it is really helpful to have a critical friend who can see your practice from a different perspective. Their feedback and feed forward helps you to adapt your practice to continue to meet the learning needs of the students in your classroom. As I mentioned in a previous post, for me this person is Donna Ryan. I know what I think I do/say when I am teaching, but having Donna observe me taking a phonics session, and record exactly what she saw me do, was a valuable learning opportunity.
This is what I did/said to help my learners make the connections they needed to make sense of the learning:
- Recap learning from last session
- Check in to see if understanding is in place
- Co-construct the learning intention (LI) and goals for the lesson
- Asked the students "What do you need to do today to achieve this?"
- Gave students control of the learning by giving them the opportunity to choose the follow up activity
- Asked "Why are we doing this?" to recap on the purpose of the learning
- Reinforced the focus/goal as a reminder
- Modelled the learning
- Guided/scaffolded students towards next step
- Checked in to make sure understanding was in place
- Identified where they had met the LI
- Reaffirmed "I like the way you have used the commas correctly, we learnt that yesterday and this shows me you were listening carefully"
- Asked "Can you remind me what we were focussing on today?"
From this I can see that I share control of the learning with my students, continually check that connections are being made, scaffold through questioning and teacher modelling, and reaffirm to ensure self efficacy and confidence continues to grow.
WFRC #10: Describe how you will collect information about the implementation of your changed practices/intervention (so it is clear what you doing differently)
WFRC #11: Describe how you will keep a record of each of the above in a manageable way
When I began this inquiry my initial question was whether increased emphasis on reading comprehension instruction can lead to better subject achievement in reading, maths and writing. After talking my inquiry through with Fiona Grant last week I realised that I had already narrowed this from 'increased emphasis on reading comprehension instruction' to 'increased emphasis on the reading comprehension strategy of inference'. We all need an overarching umbrella question to guide our inquiries whilst giving us room to veer off and explore, but I now realise I had an overarching marquee! My question was too broad and without refining would have meant valuable stones were left unturned.
Why had I made this change?'
Firstly the data that identified the gaps in comprehension across my focus group, reflected none of them were able to respond accurately to questions that were asking them to infer. Secondly, my reading and conversations with colleagues identified that often it is the inferential component in a written maths question that causes the disconnects. Finally, it was the fact I took the time to step back to watch and listen to the interactions taking place during learning time that helped me realise which direction I needed to go in.
I have been collecting data at the end of each term linked to self efficacy and Probe running records and in-class maths assessments (both formal and informal). After listening to the advice from Hana and Aaron (WFRC) at the last CoL meeting I have looked at how I can use the ARBs in both reading and maths, to monitor the connections that have been made to inference on a more regular basis. Whilst I had been monitoring this informally, I hadn't been recording this data.
What am I doing differently in class?
- Consciously using think alouds to model explicit use of content language and/or the strategy I am teaching in all subject areas.
- Seek and embrace feedback and suggestions from expert colleagues.
- Use discussion and follow up tasks to give my learners the opportunity to use and apply the vocabulary and strategies in context.
- Provide recorded models so my learners can make visual connections to the learning
- Have implemented an oral language/phonics programme that has an inferential component, aimed at Y7/8 students with the support of Donna Ryan.
- Make time to listen to and implement student feedback
How will I record this?
- Use the phonics recording sheets, observations and the ARBs to have a more up to date, and ongoing record of micro-shifts that can inform my planning rather than waiting for end of term data.
- Use video footage to capture my dialogue and record it.
- Use a Google Form to ask my learners which words or strategies I use that help them connect to the learning.
- Continue to capture and reflect on the end of term self efficacy and achievement data.
Last term I videoed myself taking the maths lesson I blogged about in my previous post. The purpose behind this lesson was help my students to grow their maths language, and the purpose for my video was so I could see the explicit teaching strategies I use in a maths lesson. It's always a challenge to critique your own practice as there is no opportunity for the conversations that can affect change through both affirmation and guidance. I invited Donna Ryan, one of our Across School CoL teachers, to be my critical friend. Together we reviewed this lesson and identified the strategies I use to help my learners strengthen their connections to and make sense of our learning.
When introducing new learning valuing the power of front loading helps our learners avoid disconnects between what they already know and what they are about to learn. I captured 14 minutes 36 seconds of footage, with 6 minutes 55 seconds at the start given to helping my learners make the very important personal connections to the content they need if they are to be able to draw on and use their prior knowledge to help them make sense of new learning.
During this time we noticed I:
- use teacher think alouds to capture interest and evoke curiosity
- provide opportunities for paired discussion to make connections to the known, reflect on responses given, use the language in context and problem solve
- value and accept all responses
- share my own knowledge gaps and how I might fill these
- value students as experts
- ask questions
- use teacher tell opportunities when scaffolding with materials and images
- share the purpose of task
- remind/prompt known scaffold opportunities
- question
- give feedback
- initiate opportunities for negotiation
- remind students to value their own thinking
- revisit the same content in a variety of ways
- invite my learners to take risks in a supportive and collaborative environment
- give clear explanations
- use content vocabulary in context
On reflection I am quite surprised how many ways I find opportunities to help a wide variety of students make connections within a lesson. This was really affirming as it proves I know my learners, something that is vital to effective teaching, as one size really does not fit all.
Going forward I will definitely be making use of Donna's suggestion to include more opportunities for my focus group to practise using and hearing maths language in other learning areas to help them see that maths is not just something we do at maths time. I have asked Donna to come back later in the term to repeat this process so we can see if I have been successful in providing opportunities for practical challenges that bring maths language and learning into our Reading and STEAM lessons.
