Teacher Inquiry Check In: Thursday 17th May

We started the session with a Kahoot quiz about Formative Assessment. If you missed the session or would like to take the quiz again, you can Click Here.

We discussed where we are at with our Teacher Inquiries in small groups. We all shared our next steps. 

We will be celebrating our inquiries in Week 9. We are all learning from each other!

Writing- 22nd March

Today we discussed something new that we have tried in writing this week. Here are some examples:

Susie-

Nicola: 

Ximena:

Writing- Monday 19th March

Teams got together to discuss their Teacher Inquiries.

Template: Writing Inquiry Planning

Writing- Session 5 (Planning for Triples)

Minutes by Ximena

Present: Jude, Suzanne, Shona, Anna, Ximena, Susie, Nic, Gillian, Gabrielle
Apologies: John and Scott.

Triples planner: The work will be for ongoing sessions.
You will need to complete planner (see doc)
This might link to your TAI but other things may pop up.

Discoveries:
Anna- Triples as a Kaizen step to TAI. (Both can be used as evidence for PPG).
Gillian- Good to have this time to chat, ask questions and clarify how triples, TAI and PPG all fits together. Also good to share context of TAI so others in the group get a clearer picture of the aims.

Action:
Have lesson planner ready before observations next week.

Writing- Session 4 (The Hunches)

Minutes by Nicola

Scott: I am sharing writing from an EEL . I am really impressed with this writing. I like how he did not follow the structure. He has shown imagery and is in the scene. He is gaining lots of vocab. He is orally ready.



Anna: I am sharing a child’s writing. We read Rata and the tree and took on different character from the story. He has taken on board feedback from mum on Seesaw. The editing that he has done is punctuation and has taken out one word. You can see personal voice from the forest people. Philosophy and ideas are strong. He has the purpose and audience.



The Writing Hunches

Anything you think is not relevant or anything to add?

Maybe our students already have an audience. They share with each other. There is Seesaw and there is us I think it is better when there is an audience. Looking out for more opportunities. The Minecraft video is a good example. There are different levels of audience and purpose. Feedback from parents is always rosy. What are we saying? Peer buddies give accountability. Everyone is heard.

Parent engagement in writing is difficult. Looking through a feedback lens- how much do parents know? What kind of feedback is given? Getting parents involved is light at the moment.

Sometimes teachers/ students need to say why they are posting or add articles.

Assemblies are a good time to share and use opportunities to say why we are doing what we are doing.

The purpose/ audience needs to motivate writers. Sometimes writing can be flat and meaningless.

How do we differentiate cognitive load for the different writers in our group? How do we extend the willing writers? How do we value the oral language? How much is linked to oral language? Anticipate the planning process…

One thing at a time…

Making it small and visual and manageable. They need to do one thing at a time. There is a lot of modelling and thinking aloud.

Make a community link. Writing would be more purposeful if it is seen at home.

Session 3- Writing (Teacher Inquiries)

Minutes by Shona

WWW in writing so far this year.

All the Y5 and 6 have taken off from where they left off last year.
When my writers are given enough time, they are editing more- underlining words.
Purpose of a plan.
Results of our survey- children helping each other to complete survey- more relaxed getting feedback with peer support. Cool linking bet reading and writing
Discussed “What a good writer does”- didn’t give up.
Playing with words.
Simplifying the criteria.
Fun seeing what kids do write.
Letter formation on whiteboard every morning- helps with flow and ease of mechanics
Creative writing- originality
Goal setting meetings- kids know next steps
Megan sharing writing after goal setting was great- knew why she was sharing her writing.
Conversation around purpose and audience at goal setting meetings very useful.

Targets from last year.
Look at in own time.
Page 7 Data and disparity info. New targets (in blue) now that Nat Stds gone- “acceleration”- tightening up targets. The ones we are monitoring are girls not meeting expectations, maori not meeting expectations, boys not meeting expectations. All names will be included and a small target group will be identified. Use 2017 data for baseline data. To be completed “together”.

Individual TAI- look at writers in group and see what they are already doing, to determine own TAI. Plan for next week’s writing- who needs a stretch? who isn’t where we thought they were? Think about a shorter TAI- eg termly. ERO recommendation. How much alignment might there be between TAIs with teachers? Could pass TAI on to another group if appropriate.

Purpose of today_ get info ready to share with teams- what are needs of specific kids- eg. how goal setting at beginning of sessions affects writing.

Teams for TAI discussions.

Writing Inquiry template from Nic- make a copy for own inquiry.

Identify focus- done today.

Create own TAI and aim to complete by mid term 2 therefore 3 TAIs in a year completing each mid term (2, 3 and 4). Is this making a difference or not? If not, then change.

Aim for the “LIfting it up”- sharing mid term.

Think about “Hunches” for Thursday. Do you agree?

Questions we want to Inquire into:

1.Do our students know have an audience to write to/for?  

  Are they clear about the purpose for writing?

  Do we plan for ‘audience’?  

2.How do our attitudes towards writing influence our students?

  How would developing the literary culture amongst staff affect         achievement?

3. How can knowledge of themselves as learners (learning to learn)    impact on writing achievement?

  How can we develop student agency in writing?

  What is the impact of having clear writing goals and regular reflection?

  How many goals at a time?

  What is the impact of feedback on development of writers?

  How can students develop their critical eye as writers?

  

4. How do we extend willing writers?

Writing- Session 2 (Teacher Inquiry Examples)

Thursday 22nd February - PD- Minutes by Anna

Suz’s Inquiry - 6 kids using goal setting strategies and reading recovery strategies. Making use of the matrices and having them front of mind.


Aim: consciously be thinking about what they need to add while writing, strengthening neural networks (letter formation and confusion).

Only one child decided goal for each session. The reflection would influence next steps (the goal for the next day.)

One on one→ transitioned into groups of 2 of 3 based on needs.

What made it an intervention: “Biggest goal was to improve my responsiveness to what I saw and respond immediately. It was also targeted to what I noticed”.

10 minutes each day

Tracked at the end of each week and did vocab test at start and end on inquiry (which was a term).

Reflection: Jumping in BEFORE they wrote, the kids were more conscious and aware of their letter formation and confusion. Is the Davis programme a next intervention? Keeping everything front of mind so you could work on today’s goal, AS WELL as the previous days goals.

Ximena’s Inquiry - How to accelerate priority learner, especially Maori in writing

Successful year of writing in 2016

Broke down into 4 terms and what general focus would be.

Simplified learning goals - created goals in smaller ‘like’ groups

Students chose one goal and would come to one workshop with teacher, then have to practice that goal at least three times before checking with teacher. Students would identify goals with red dots.

Use range of engaging writing prompts and choice writing--along as they were practicing their learning goal.

Reflection: Smaller achievable goals, all students were exposed to other children’s goals but had no pressure to focus on them. There were fun prompts and choice = better engagement. Needed more child voice, what they thought. Big group, so hard to stretch better writers. Could have introduced more mixed ability groups earlier.

John sharing writing from his group

reluctant writer

played with words and came back to shape time and time again

3/ 4 days of work, crafting, playing, shaping process. Green pen use. A page and a half of playing.

Really proud of final result and process

Aim: develop critical eye of kids, so that rather than writing a lot, they are playing with words and choosing the best words, in the best order. What words don’t you need? Using a criteria - does it sounds good? Does it look like a poem?

Gillian sharing writing from her group

Using keywords like ‘can’ and then creating a story with pictures

Sounding words out

Words and stories coming from oral language

Teaching as Inquiry

Team inquiries - ‘overarching’, things that might challenge and shift thinking about writing

Individual Inquiries - ‘ground up’, what the kids in front of us are doing/their needs

Hunches

Writing- Session 1 - Overview

Writing Professional Development- Minutes taken by Gabrielle



Session 1 - Overview

What are we doing to enable all of our students to be writers?

UDL tool - how to make a seesaw activity. Can direct to certain kids, and in folders. See Video.

Had writing with Murray Gadd and Sally Muir, how do we make this our own?

We’ll be completing Internal Evaluation of writing this year.

What makes good writing - it’s tricky. We’ll try and work this out collectively. Can you share something generated in classroom that you’re happy with?

What are we looking for in a piece of writing from kids?

Personal voice, authentic

Picture in your mind

Fits purpose

Makes sense, shows thinking

Some structure, finished - clarity over purpose practice or product

Impact, audience awareness

Supports, passion

Legible

Risks eg spelling

Purpose

Free as possible

Passionate

Pumped

Their writing, personal


Pride

Getting started

Pride “happy with”

Voice

Scaffolding balance especially with emergent writers, structure, phonics, letters, word bank

Fluency

Talk

Choice of genre

Link with reading

Text models eg Gail Laing book, model texts to share

Details overdone

Recrafting

Challenging yourself

Verbs not adjectives, rich words

Variety of sentence structures

Does it sound good?

Honesty in expression

Audience

Purpose

Clarity - legibility, ideas, structure



Discussion around personal voice

How to tap into great ideas when process (maybe physical) stops them. Could record stories

Technology can help, eg purpose can be to entertain and be good storytellers

Write without thinking - fluency

Goals and aims for literacy practice 2018 - take ownership of our teaching and learning of writing… what do we do that affects change?

Literacy Action plan 2017 - keep front of mind

Formative assessment

How do we give feedback, consistency across staff etc?

Direction for students

Communicated on seesaw too

Scope may widen beyond reading, writing and maths

Developing writing programmes for our students…

Teaching as inquiry - lifting student achievement - more on Thursday

Share in pairs ides

Nicola shared her writing inquiry term 4 2017. There was a focus on goal setting and progress towards that. Great engagement with boys bringing friends to the writing group. Lots of choice.

PLD about PLD

Jude's Inquiry this year was around effective PLD. She investigated the different levels of PLD and how they are all connected. 

As a result of Jude's Inquiry, we have begun to track our learning on this blog. We have also identified that we need to connect beyond our place.

This is a draft copy of a visual. The intention is that staff will use this when planning their PLD. 

The 7 principles of effective PLD will also run through this.

Principles of Effective PLD:

●      Links to identified student needs and learning outcomes

●      Integrates knowledge and skills

●      Operates within a learning community and culture of trust

●      Offers sustained, multiple opportunities to learn (= TIME)

●      Is collaborative, shared, collegial

●      Active role taken by leaders

●      Is inquiry-based( some not all is at present)

(Readings: Professional Learning in Effective Schools, BES: Teacher Professional Learning and Development)

Maths PLD, Feedback 2017 (this will inform our next steps for Maths PLD)

All teachers have made changes to their programmes based on their goals and learnings. Many staff members will be signing up to take the Stanford Jo Boaler course- How to teach Maths (for teachers). This is significant as it will create a big shift in teaching practice across the school.

Teachers were asked what they have changed in their programmes. There is wider curriculum coverage, number talks, Visual Maths, EOTC in Maths, Broad open ended problem solving, collaboration (teachers and students), Rich inquiry focus and a better understanding of formative assessment.

Many teachers found that triples were useful and affirming. It was good to set goals around these. The mini inquiries allowed for everyone to be accountable.

Teaching as inquiry has a huge impact on learners (including us as learners).

Next steps in Maths:

Staff are clearer about the Internal Evaluation process but not everyone is confident in this area.

We need to develop Number Talks as formative assessment and share these with each other.

How to teach mixed ability groups (the what).

Some questions to consider:

How do we ensure that we are stretching the higher achieving students?

Are we teaching enough strategies?

From our data, we have identified that we will need to have a focus on Writing next year.

Where to next for Writing?

We asked staff:

1. What aspects of your writing programme are you feeling good about?

2. Where do you need development and growth?

We will look at this data and make a plan for our next steps, using the visual template.