Te Hiku Cluster Presentation

Last week I joined the Te Hiku cluster for their TOD. Apart from meeting some lovely people and taking in the new learning myself, I had an opportunity to present my 2019 teacher inquiry and run two workshops.

Mr Wong's Maths Challenge...

Earlier this week Greg Wong shared an awesome resource he had created as part of his teaching inquiry. Today I introduced 'Mr Wong's Maths Challenge' to my to my Maths group and it was met with a huge level of enthusiasm. I have added the link as Greg is happy for me to share it (Don't forget to give him the credit!). My initial thinking was this basic facts challenge would be completed in 15 minutes, however when I called 'time' I was met with a collective, "Miss can we keep going?"

I am very much a believer in capitalising on learner engagement and enthusiasm so we carried on. Greg's randomly generated arrays were designed to support knowledge gaps in basic facts recall. The timed element of competition is how this challenge is able to meet individual learning needs, but on this occasion that took a back seat as rich dialogic discussions about how different strategies suit different numbers and which strategies were the better choice evolved. 

ISTE 2018 - Beyond the fourth wall - one school districts quest to make thinking visible

Lake Zurich Community Unit District 95 is following a pathway similar to our Manaiakalani ethos and COL practises. This panel of teachers spoke to a series of predetermined questions that told the story of their shared learning journey. Throughout the session they used menti.com to allow real time audience participation. I really enjoyed listening to these teachers as their passion was evident and their experiences real. Below are my notes from this session.

What is visible learning and why does visible learning matter?

• What students know v don’t know - inquiry conceptions v misconceptions - ref to TED x Luis photographic process v actual pic we see. Students and T u/st what they need to learn and where the gaps are - current fb to engage and forge connections - often students tell us what we want to hear but T can use technology and instructional strategies to explore beyond this - need to remember to get students to explain their thinking... it matters because it allows for self reflection from students that is then developed by T fb - use eg of clapping to show u/st - T claps student's grade but T doesn’t know why or how she got these marks - Fb needs to remind how success can be achieved but need to give choice options - Children need to know how to learn and how to receive fb so that they accept it as a growth opportunity - visible means knowing where u r on your learning journey and T know how to keep this journey going

How have administrators and coaches helped teachers develop a common language and practices around visible learning?

• Where am I now? 
• Where am I going? 
• How can I close the gap? - shared language of instruction so T have vocab to talk about their practise cluster wide - cornerstone of learning T tell students what they are learning and how they can achieve it LI/Sc - look for questioning and fb with students eg to corroborate - Hatties research of Teacher Efficacy 

How have visible learning strategies made a difference for students?

• Students use the same shared language... Where am I now? .... Where am I going? ... How can I close the gap? to talk about their learning. Effective as all students understand what this means - Remind students about the power behind words

What are some examples of successfully paired visible learning and technology?

• iPads - digital discussions eg: menti to ask qu - embrace failure - stdnt fb on app choice - keynote - president - slides - green screen - stop motion... look up torn paper version. SAMR - G suite - seesaw (annotate pics/selfie video) - flipgrid - talk ideas - canva - twitter type info bytes will see what main ideas are being internalised - Storify - post it plus - clips

How do we know our interventions have been successful?

• Efficacy and ownership of learning and gaps in learning - be able to communicate this to others - create to show u/st

My takeaways:

• Use menti.com as a way of encouraging student questioning as it removes the fear that often comes from our struggling learners when they are asked to ask questions
• Introduce the app 'post it plus' to LS2
• Build on the global connection I made so that LS2 have American blogging buddies and their Y7/8 class have NZ blogging buddies

Visual Connections

Yesterday I was in Karen Ferguson’s class at Tech and was immediately drawn to the display she had on her back wall. Karen has created a 5ft x 3ft google drawing that breaks down the structure and language features of an explanation. Her display is specific to her graphics class but as I could see the potential connections that could be so easily made by my learners I immediately asked Karen if I could use her template to create an example specific to my learners. I have seen a lot of displays in classrooms and online that teachers have created to help their learners make connections, but the content, layout and size of this one completely nailed it!

                                    

The link to Karen’s blogpost where she explain her thinking behind this resource is here. As always Karen was happy to share work so my next step is to create my own version to help my learners cement their own connections to the structure and language features needed in explanation writing.

Observation Opportunity in LS2...

I work in a shared learning space with Kiri Kirkpatrick but rarely get an opportunity to formally observe her teaching practice, so when an opportunity arose I grabbed it with both hands. 'Teachers who share their love for words (logophilia) and who provide engaging opportunities to interact with words across all content on a daily basis will ignite this word learning passion in their students' (Keys to Literacy blog). This is something that most definitely happened in our learning space this week.

Kiri introduced her group to a shared text using the sophisticated picture book, 'Memorial' written by Gary Crew. Throughout the sequence of lessons Kiri introduced her learners to a wide variety of vocabulary that not only explored the content but also the layout of the text and the hidden meaning behind the images. 

Learning Through Talk cites Blachowicz et al, when defining word consciousness as being 'an awareness of words and their meanings, an awareness of the ways in which meanings change and grow, and an interest in and motivation to develop new word knowledge...'(p73). Kiri used this strategy to explore a wide variety of themes the learning was most definitely not 'dumbed down'. 

The vocabulary explored like the text was sophisticated. Each new word was unpacked through paired and whole class discussions, defined and explored in context, and linked back to something the learners could use their prior knowledge to forge a strengthened connection to. What this meant was that her learners were motivated and connected to the content. To grow and develop this new word knowledge Kiri used questioning throughout to revisit the language which ensured each word was not only seen and heard, but also used. 

The DLO below is an example of the follow up tasks that reflect the content covered.

My takeaways:

• The teaching strategies in our shared learning space are aligned through the use of a shared language of instruction. This sets our learners up for success regardless of who the teacher is in front of them.
• To introduce my focus students to more sophisticated vocabulary to help ignite the passion for wanting to develop new word knowledge (eg: peritext, juxtaposition)
• To look for opportunities to use sophisticated picture books as a mentor text in writing lessons
• When looking at language features and vocabulary in mentor texts ask questions like:  'How do/does ... add to the text?' and 'Would the story make sense without...?'

Sharing how we 'Rewind to Remind'...

Here is my first ever screencast. It describes how I have set up my google drive to store my digital modelling folders for learners to access immediately after lessons. Hopefully this will inspire a few more Chromebook teachers to have a go at using 'Rewind to Remind'. 
Fiona Grant captured this process on digitally and will share the work flow early next term.

Here is the link to my site if you wish to see how my learners access our 'Rewind to Remind' modelling clips.




Here is the link to Mele's blog post that explains in her words how we use 'R2R' in our maths time.

Collegial Observations... 2018

Last week +Karen Ferguson and I were talking about ways we could help our learners access and connect to the content language they need to be able to find success in their learning. Today Karen came to observe a literacy lesson in my class. The link to Karen's blogpost is here. 

I am currently exploring new ways I can help my learners see, hear and use the content vocabulary they need to strengthen their connections to the learning, so it was great to see what my lesson looked like through another person's eyes. I look forward to seeing how her takeaways from today are applied with older students and plan to reciprocate the visit to see this in action. On my part sharing the thinking behind the strategies I used was very powerful as it encouraged me to reflect on my practise at a deeper level. Thank you Karen.

Image courtesy of +Karen Ferguson 

Using statistics to create accountability and ownership towards blogging...

In 2013 I wanted to my class to take responsibility for ensuring their completed work was published to their individual blogs, so I asked them to analyse the number of posts they had published over the year. We graphed these results and analysed why some months were stronger than others. This was such a powerful learning opportunity that I have introduced this at the start of each new learning year since then. 

Developing a level of accountability and responsibility for blogging regularly are the reasons behind this task. As the statistics available to each learner are personal to them, this quickly allows each person to make a connection to the learning. Over time I have adapted this task to looking back at blog post totals by year at the beginning of the new school year, as mentioned perviously, to looking at blog post totals by the month in term three. 

This is an amazing motivator as there is no hiding from what is still sitting in Google drives compared with what is published on blogs. The analysis process (done in teacher chosen pairs to help develop new working relationships) promotes a wealth of rich conversation and a healthy sense of competition. I find it really interesting listening to the honestly behind the reasoning why blog post numbers have fluctuated over time. The best part about this learning is the ongoing discussion that emerges afterwards as the analysing continues. I display the DLOs on the wall and find that my students tend to gravitate towards this display as the connections are strong. 

Here is the link to my planning for those interested in trying this in their own class. The links to the student blogs below will provide great exemplars for your students. 

Ofa’s blog, Alex's blog, Sanujan’s blog, Mele's blog, Jeremiah's blog

Some students took this a step further by creating a Screencastify to explain their learning.

    

Setting our PBS teachers up for Inquiry success

Part of our TOD PD was ensuring we were all on the same page as far as our personal teaching inquiries are concerned. Kiri and Richard asked me to revisit the Manaiakalani inquiry framework with the staff so that this year our PBS inquiry framework aligned with the cluster inquiry framework.

For many of our teachers this means starting new inquiry blogs. Kiri, our Y4-8 Across Cluster CoL teacher and I, our PBS Within-school CoL teacher, will be there to support this journey every step of the way. 

Learning from my colleagues...

During the 'iPads in a Chromebook class' toolkit last week lead by Fiona Grant, I saw how valuable Explain Everything could be to me as a teacher in a Chromebook classroom. Explain Everything (EE) is a tool the junior syndicates across our cluster have been using for a number of years, but not something I have used in my class. Fiona showed us how effective using EE as a digital modelling book could be. The simplicity and efficiency to provide an immediate form of rewindable learning hooked me in immediately, so I arranged a time the following day to observe Chantal Millward using EE as a modelling book with her Year 2/3 class.

I saw first hand how valuable this was as a way of capturing student voice and teacher evidence. The subtle way Chantal used the record button meant that the conversation she captured was real and in the same place as her written teaching prompts. This was then uploaded to the group's EE task page before they had even returned to their seats, giving them immediate access to their guided session should they wish to revisit it.

My next step is to collaborate with Fiona to create a 'how to' DLO to show other Chromebook teachers how EE can be used to strengthen rewindable learning opportunities in their classrooms.

Sharing and Modeling

Photo: @Karen0986

Earlier this term Karen Ferguson, one of my CoL colleagues from Tamaki College came to visit us in LS2. She spoke to my learners about how we use self assessment in our learning. Karen's blog post about her visit can be found here.  Although initially a bit shy, it was great to see how my learners were able to talk confidently about their learning. I was able to see from Karen's conversation with my learners that I scaffold this quite a lot, and perhaps need to lessen this to promote increased independence. My take away is to visit Karen and have a similar conversation with her Year 9/10 learners. Doing this will help me blend into my instruction, some of the self assessment language she uses to set our students moving on to Tamaki College, up for success.

Today Dot Apelu, another of my CoL colleagues from Tamaki College came to observe us in LS2. Dot had seen a previous post I wrote and contacted me about sharing my practise. Her summary of our initial discussion is here. I explained to my learners that Dot was here to see how we used some of our learning strategies to strengthen our understanding to new learning. 

To model our dialogic learning in practise, I asked my learners to identify and summarise the main points of our learning linked to our work with Tamaki Wrap the previous day. I explained that we needed to hear their learning talk so it was important to use their words, and as we moved around the groups I observed something that was new to us at the beginning of the year, is now something perceived by my learners to be the norm. They were able to explain their thinking and use examples from the available information (including our rewindable example of the flipgrid they created yesterday) to support their reasoning. 

The well established collegial connections we have in place in Manaiakalani are definitely as asset to both our teachers and our learners as we work towards bridging the transition gaps between Year 8 and Year 9. My take away from today is to make time to observe more of my colleagues across our cluster, as the best professional development is available right on my doorstep.

Collegial Sharing

Yesterday I was invited to share my inquiry journey so far with our junior syndicate at their team meeting. I talked about the process of my inquiry, and how my original hunch has spiralled in different directions. I felt confident giving an honest account of my journey so far as the discussion flowed honestly and openly both ways. My next steps with the junior syndicate are to model how I generate and use student voice within a lesson and to co-construct ways this might be further developed in the junior school. I am excited to work alongside these teachers as I know that this is going to be a two-way learning opportunity.

What my inquiry looks like in LS2...

I was asked to share and model my inquiry process by creating a DLO that shows what my spiral of inquiry looks like in practise. This will be shared next week as a scaffold to help our teacher strengthen their own connections to the inquiry process. This was a great opportunity for me to see exactly what my inquiry looked like through other's eyes and reflect.

Positives

• Routines established
• Repetition without boring
• Transparent learning
• Multimodal learning opportunities
• Actively listen to learner feedback
• Observations of good practise across PBS (LS2, Room 3, LS1 done)

Negatives

• Talk doesn’t flow as readily as I hoped
• Most able not engaging
• Gender/cultural shyness?

What are my next steps?

• Week 5 observation with COL across school teacher (Matt).
• Exploring published research
• Accessing literacy facilitator
• Continue to actively plan for dialogic learning opportunities
• Observations of good practise across PBS (Room 1 and Room 5 booked for Week 6)

Speed Dating at PBS

Last week I saw a teaching idea shared by the Year 7/8 teachers at Stanhope Road School. They used 'speed dating' to get to know new vocabulary needed to help their learners make connections to their new inquiry. I adapted this idea to our inquiry getting me learners to share their knowledge of two components of our learning. My learners had a lot of fun and made strong connections to both topics through lots of rich discussion.