Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

                                          Looking closer into my interventions... Using the Success Criteria created is creating a way forward for learners to base their feedback and feedforward in their writing. The Stop, recognise and respond moment I am having is let's build our knowledge more about what is a Narrative, pick some familiar narratives apart for learners to use the thinking skills of the Build Knowledge rock from the Learning Process.    Created in conjunction with Sammy Weir (CoL) Involving parents in the feedback process through flexi connects are about to start next week. Parents are booking in their time slots to have a 10 minute connect with their child, teacher and themselves. This is to strengthen whānau engagement and to create assessment capable learners to know their areas to work on in writing and their next steps.  An exciting space to be i...

The challenge of student learning you plan to focus on in this inquiry. Below is a series of pictures from School Talk which gives us a clearer picture of the evidence I have about my Y1/2 target learner. Fig 1 In summary this visual is showing us that 7 learners out of 10 target learners are tracking their below expected level for reading and writing, including the three Māori learners. One learner is tracking at the correct reading and writing level for their age. Fig 2. On the whole target learners are all working towards their writing progressions in writing from range of Deeper to Surface Features. Fig 3 When looking at the the learners graduate profile (the whole child) there is a trend that learners are still developing strategies for being in the learning pit , and are lower in assessment capable skills . In general reading and writing levels are lower than mathematics. Digital Literacy skills are also lower at this Y1/2 level. There is work to be done in this space. A wonder...

 A reflection on the year 2020 Did teaching practice change? What were the shifts in student learning? How do we know the shifts in teaching impacted the learning?

In less than a weeks time I will be launching into my reflections at Burst and Bubbles to talk about.  A sneak preview of my Burst and Bubbles for 2020. How I am using Learning intentions and Success Criteria The power of using  Teacher-created resources, including multi model texts  designed to support student reading and writing activities Ensuring the learning is visible and fluid through School Talk I will talk more in-depth about the images you see here at...

An observation of my writing lesson completed in September this year. Some insightful tips on setting learners up for success prompts to help gift language and build knowledge. Statements and comments show the scaffolding process to support learning.  Narrative notes Tawhiri-matea What words describe him? He is strong let's highlight  Power let’s highlight power yes it is a word that describes him He is forceful  Special a good one  Thrashes around the trees Thrashes was mis spelt  Give 2 mins sit with someone you don’t normally work with and take your buddy to find as many description words as possible Anita roved supported and timed  Did well in that two minutes great highlighting  What words really describe Tawhiri-matea?  Shared from pairs Clarity around vocabulary proud and pride word  What does he do with those 4 winds? Digging deeper than just the answer given   Special powers forceful etc affirming of all the contribution...

Wow! What a year! A year of change, exploration and opportunities. Student voice is saying that the most effective tools and strategies for their writing is...the sharing of our success criteria , using  picture talk enable oral language opportunities, and writing frames eg words cards and other tools that  gift vocabulary.  Data shows through student voice, writing samples, Eastle Writing, Combi Tool results that learners struggle with what to do when in the learning pit.  With this in mind I continued to build on using the success criteria, using picture talk, relating the learning to rich authentic concepts of learning (local iwi stories) and gifting vocabulary through digital media, conversations, deliberate teaching practises.  Upon reflections and with changing the channel of teaching through distance learning I have made learning experiences hands on, about an experience and bringing pictures to life.  The images show how the learning design has cre...

Some key i nterventions to take place... Extra dosage in writing Benefits:  More milage in writing, one - on - one support, catering for needs and differentiating teaching  Peer up both Māori learners to collaborate   (mixed ability)        Benefits: Learners given high level learning opportunities that empower them to be successful. Student engagement in stimulating activities is critical for motivation, achievement, and progress. When students are given more advanced opportunities to learn, they can make more progress than they might previously have been thought possible. Motivation can come from collaborating from peers. Increasing Oral language capability through gifting vocabulary Benefits: Children who can articulate their words and thoughts clearly have an advantage in learning to read and write extending vocabulary to increase communication efficiency, and expressing self. 

  How Maori Learners can articulate through talk and conversation by building their language capability of what, how and why they are learning in writing? My teaching practise is evidence of how I am unpacking my Inquiry Goal. Reflections are to continue with differentiating learning for our student support learners.  A good range of learning experiences linked to the writing process, Stonefields School learning process works in conjunction to manaiakalani's learn, create, share philosophy. 

  Using audio function in Explain Everything, opened up some great opportunities for teachers.  The power of voice record to support learners to build their vocabulary and provide as a scaffold to generate talk. Dr Jannie van Hees talks about gifting language. This shows how we can use the audio function in EE to scaffold discussion. This was another hit at my Create Workshop Search Results Web results

Inquiry Question: Build assessment capable learners, especially Māori Boys to increase their oral language capability to improve their writing                                             How am I going to implement this? Gift language as a scaffold for talking and writing Model picture talk Context related to interests Value high expectations of talk Use multimodel features in my learning design to support writing Scaffold writing frameworks Use Stonefields high leverage practises to enable assessment capable learners Use School Talk to support the learning Student learning: I want to see these learners showing confidence in speaking, and transferring their talk into writing. I want to see learners using their gift of language into their writing. Broaden their ideas and extend their vocabulary. Teaching hypotheses I felt it was important to...

I nspiration from Chalkboard a way to guide and inspire reluctant children to write, by unlocking the vocabulary and  building on this in my learning design.                                  

Another way to scaffold learners to talk about what they are learning and how the Success Criteria can support this process. This has been a great tool to support my writers. 

Using digital tools, interactive Big Three and the Success Criteria all in support for understanding what we are learning and how.

  Passionate learners collaborated, discussed and worked their way through the learning process to find out why hand dryers are more sustainable than paper towels. The dialogue, researching and note taking lead to writing not only factual information but a proposal to look into how to reduce the amount of paper towels and be more environmentally friendly. The initial discussion was set up through a Smarie Collaborative Learning Experience guiding learners to talk about and negotiate a process and way forward.       The incidental teaching lead to the principal passing through and giving us figures of how much is spent on paper towels through out the year.                                 Learners compared this with how many paper towels are used in a week across the school. Learners presented their proposal with confidence and passion. There was certainly a WOW factor in th...