Meet my 'passengers'...

Marie Clay (2005) highlights the point that 'owning a new skill, concept or understanding can only be achieved through a process of deep engagement with the skill, concept or understanding; practising it, trying it out and using it'. This term we have been working in mixed ability groups during Reading to help strengthen individual connections to the learning. I have tried hard to provide learning opportunities that have allowed my learners to practise, try, use and talk about a variety of strategies to help deepen their connections to the topic allowing them to contribute informed opinions about texts read.

With our baseline data collected from a variety of assessments I now have a clearer picture of where my students are at:

All students in this group are reading to learn. Boy 1 and Girl 1 were in my 2016 reading group and have been exposed to multimodal mixed ability group learning. Both students know that having learning discussions help strengthen connections but tend to shy away from sharing their thinking without being prompted. Boy 2, Boy 3 and Girl 2 are still learning it is ok to disagree or see something from a different perspective but do not as yet have the confidence to share their thinking. This was evident in the PAT results where a trend was evident in their ability to synthesise the text to their personal experiences. The PROBE data reflected gaps in a similar type of questioning with evaluative, reorganisation and reaction responses being more difficult for these students to articulate their answers.

Looking at these results I imagine people would question why I have chosen this group of priority learners. All these students have a solid foundation that allows them to access the learning but all five students sit silently when working in their collaborative groups. These students do not have the confidence to talk about their learning with their peers. They are my 'passengers'. This makes me think that if these students are not able to actively participate in learning conversations without teacher direction, my less able learners will find that hurdle even harder to get over.

Informal observations of have highlighted a common thread. These students do not challenge the opinions of others even when their body language shows me they disagree with what is being said. Maybe because they are uncertain of their own connections and knowledge, possibly they do not have the language skills to put their point of view across, or it might be that they simply don't realise it is ok to disagree.

Dorothy asked me at our second CoL meeting how I was going to measure this. She suggested I record the group discussions and look at the word count. However after three failed attempts I have decided to use the Student Capabilities Matrix from Evaluation Associates. I want my learners to see themselves as 'drivers' and by assessing themselves over time they will be able to see their own shift towards being active participants who have the confidence to travel on our learning highway, turning left and right or even stopping and reversing if the need arises.

Getting the 'chat' going...

Exciting to see the collaboration evolving in today's Reading lesson. My R-E-A-D groups are all working on different self directed tasks while I took a step back to observe the conversations taking place. The conversations are still very 'polite' at this stage of our learning journey, with a number of students preferring to listen. The next step is to co-construct some speaking frames with my learners so they have the language to disagree and the knowledge of how to use their words to justify their thinking. 

Introducing my inquiry...

Our second CoL meeting was an opportunity for us all to share our inquiries for 2017. I found listening to the thinking behind each inquiry really interesting as regardless of year level, we are all facing similar challenges in our classrooms. 

You can follow all our inquiries here.

New year... New CoL Role...New inquiry!

This year Learning Space 2 (LS2) looks and sounds very different from the LS2 of 2016. Our new learners are much quieter, preferring to work independently and listen to the thinking of others, rather than collaborating and sharing their own thoughts and understandings. To be honest I have struggled with this as I’m not used to so many ‘passengers’ who are travelling alone. I’m used to an environment that is buzzing with ‘drivers’ of full cars negotiating their positions on our learning highway. I’m certain that hiding behind this ‘quiet’ is a plethora of conversation waiting to be unlocked and set free. The challenge for me as their teacher is to come up with ways to turn the keys in those locks so that my learners realise not only it is ok to be heard but it is also important to become a confident voice in LS2.

It is this observation that sparked my curiosity and has laid the foundations of my personal inquiry: How can I strengthen connections and accelerate shift in reading through dialogic discussion and multimodal approaches?  Woolf Fisher identified that the way forward is to empower our priority learners by providing opportunities for them to talk about what they are learning. As I write this post I am thinking about my priority learners who seem unsure of when and/or how to talk about their learning. I know I need to develop a dialogic environment where learning conversations are the norm. I know these conversations are most powerful when students have a strong connection and a deep understanding of a topic. I know I need to make changes in my teaching to ensure these connections are made… the question I’m asking myself currently is “How will I do this?”.

Woolf Fisher’s feedback suggests that when thinking about accelerating shifts in Reading we need to go ‘wide and deep’. With the learning needs of my students in mind, my first ‘how’ is to provide my learners with access to multiple texts that are linked by theme or topic. My next ‘how’ is to ensure these texts scaffold prior knowledge, build and consolidate understanding, offer a contrasting opinion and strengthen connections.

Our current theme and topic ‘Wai Care… Why Care?’ links closely to our cluster-wide inquiry Te Taiao o Tamaki, however before I can expect strong connections to emerge through collaboration and dialogic discussion I need to take a few steps backward and think about ways to break down the walls of silence.

Teaching as Inquiry 2017

Click here to see how I align my inquiry with the Manaiakalani framework.

“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning. In 2017 for my inquiry I selected the following CoL achievement challenge: 

• #4. Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10, in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

       

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,

 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,

SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect

Strengthening connections to Manaiakalani

'He tangata he tangata he tangata'... A valuable reminder that Manaiakalani is about the people... not the computers.

Photo sourced from here

Today I took part in the Manaiakalani Orientation day as part of my Manaiakalani CoL role within Panmure Bridge School. It was a fantastic way to connect with colleagues from across the cluster and to strengthen my own connections to the who, what, how and where's of Manaiakalani shared by Dorothy Burt. We are extremely fortunate as a cluster to have so much support to guide the learning journeys we take our students on each year. 

Click here for the resources from today's presentation

Click here to see my notes from today's session

Photo: +FionaGrant

Key Competencies in action!

This morning the key competencies were alive and kicking in LS2. Using our multimodal reading site each group accessed the learning at their own pace and in their own way. This allowed for stronger connections to be made, something that was evident in the discussions that were taking place. Great collaboration LS2!

Thinking and making connections

Self managed reciprocal reading

Participating in and contributing to the learning

Understanding language, symbols and text

Relating to others