Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Considerations for my Inquiry focus in 2022   I am highly passionate about Literacy across all year groups, my Inquiries have certainly helped to upskill and grow in this area. Over the years I have flipped between both Achievement objectives 2 and 3. Raising student achievement in either reading or writing they are both strongly linked. Next year I’d like to continue to inquire into Achievement Objective two (lift achievement for boys in writing). I was on such a great roll creating a momentum building relationships with whānau and their child to improve their writing. I feel I have so many more avenues for effective feedback, while building whānau engagement. This year to build these relationships I created a series of Writing Flexi Connects where the child and I were on one end of the google hangout at school and parents would be on the other end either at work or home. Their child shared what they had been working on, their learning intention and success criteria, what their ...

Proud to be  part of the Manaiakalani Cluster within school Community of Learning, and presenting our our Bursts and Bubbles Celebration. What a year of challenges, opportunity and learning.   Tena koutou Katoua, Ko Anita Taku Ingoa. This is always my favourite part of being a Manaiakalani CoL within school leader, where we come together (virtually this time) sharing learning, feeling proud and privileged to belong to such a rich learning community. COVID has caused disruption to our learning this year, which has meant learners and whānau and have had to quickly had to adjust. It has certainly encouraged me to adapt my learning design. My Inquiry this year has focused on increasing writing achievement for students. I identified writing as my focus when I noticed there were gaps in learners' oral language skills, they had limited vocabulary and therefore lackinging in ideas when writing. To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I collected the following evidence: o...

  Surveying my parents based on the Writing Flexi Connects - Collecting Data For parents the experience has been worth while It’s useful for me to know how I can support my child and what they should be focused on improving. It’s been especially useful over lockdown It was a great opportunity to see my child's writing and hear them understand their next steps in their learning. It is also great to have this chance to regularly touch base with their teacher to see how they are progressing. It’s does work to improve **** writing and give him chance to express his thoughts to describe It creates the connection between school and my child. It keeps the routine almost the same. comments taken from survey Reflecting on how I have made an impact for these learners and their whānau The connects have enabled me as a parent to work with my child and assist in ensuring she in working on the right things. Charlotte’s writing has really improved recently with her using more interesting words in...

Holt! Lockdown August 2021 - is it really a holt or is it a turning point? Although there was a slight pause, made me stop and reflect on how are we going to ensure student engagement and student wellbeing at the forefront. ERO 2021 An upheavel for whānau's lives and our tāmariki, wanting to keep the flow and continue the momentium of success.  I had reached out and to continue our Flexi Connects in Writing. The uptake was welcoming. Here are some shots from our goggle hangout out flexi connects.  Learners proud to show their writing during lockdown. Using the opportunity for a teachable moment on phonics.  Show examples of writing descriptive language for the audience. Continuing to give feedback on how to extend vocabulary. Learner taking agency to use the vocabulary tool and extend their use of descriptive language.  By grabbing the opportunities we can during distance learning and reflecting on what we can adapt the learning doesn't holt, for some learners and th...

  Language Experiences not only motivate our learners to write but it gives them a purpose and helps them to understand why we write. We write for an audience and as a part of a process. As Murry Gadd 2021 supporting research states by engaging language experiences help students see the relevance of writing and can make connections. These experiences help our tamarki to understand what has been asked of them through scaffolding the process of writing.