Planning for the future-Col 2022 Interview

What next, This is a look at my possible 2022 inquiry 

Which  Achievement Challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2022 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

Lift the achievement in maths for all students years 1-13, The last two years have made consistency a challenge and I have noticed not only with my own class but across our school teachers discussing the challenge of children remembering and retaining knowledge of key mathematical fact needed for advancing in their problem solving. I think this is a good area for me to focus on as it is an area I have not inquired into for sometime. I also know now from over two years of inquiring into reading what is working for me and my class and accelerating many learners. See my burst and bubbles for more. Manaiakalani data also shows that mathematics is not accelerating at the same rate as writing. 

What learnings from the 2017 - 2021 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking?

I looked at a range of blogs including most blogs from the CoL teachers from the year 2017-2021 who focused on this achievement objective. What I found was firstly that this was not an achievement object with a large number of Col Inquiry and that most focused on talk related to problem solving rather that foundation mathematics skills. 

Robyn Anderson 

Elena Terekhina

Khismira Lal,  2017

Matt Goodwin 2017

Trish Hockley

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and  kaupapa?

We all know there is a need in mathematics across the country but we have data to show this need. Have a systematic, fun approach to developing and maintaining key knowledge required in mathematics that could be shared and that embraced learn, create share would benefit everyone. While I do not want to jump ahead an make assumption about my particular learners for this year data and observations across our current year 3/4 learners suggests that many benefit from movement and songs this is a widely seen cultural practice in most cultures. This also fit with what some Engage games are trying to achieve. 

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

I like to think the the ideas what we have found work in writing and reading might be the key to support and challenging our thinking in mathematics. The idea of mileage if something we come across in both areas as a key to success in these curriculum areas. As is the ideas of wide and deep or T shaped literacy. I think drawing on these ideas and seeing how they might apply to mathematics could be of read benefit. 

How would you like to be supported in 2022 as you undertake this inquiry?

I believe the best support I can get in this inquiry is drawing on the experts in and across our schools already doing great things in mathematics. I also think conversations with Fiona, Aaron, Rebbeca and others have been key to my inquiries in the past and will I hope continue to support my inquiry next year. This year I worked more closely with others inquiring into similar topics and I think this collaborative inquiry style could support me again next year.  

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

SHARE, has always be a huge part of what I do. Ask for help, share what I have noticed ask what they are noticing and be a sounding board. You don't know what someone needs help with until you are asking. I pride myself on being available to help others whenever I can and will continue to be no matter my role in 2022. 

Burst and bubbles

 This year my inquiry focus was initially on, How will using a variety of high interest texts and providing open tasks impact students critical thinking?  

This was fulled by a few areas of student learning I was worried about. Firstly in my class of 27 learner at the start of 2021 only one was reading at their chronological age, of those not reading at their chronological age all were at least a year behind with many being two years or more behind their age. 

This raised concerns for me but also prompted the question why? What is holding them back. 

I identified critical thinking as a focus when I noticed children across the class were not thinking about what they read, not asking questions about new words or ideas even though they expressed an enjoyment of reading. While critical thinking stayed as a focus vocabulary also became and area of need. 

To build a rich picture of these areas of need and strength each learner had I looked at a range fo data. 

-Running records

-PAT reading

-Star Reading

-Student voice interviews

-Vocabulary based Arbs task

-Picture description

This highlighted again challenges around vocabulary with students expressing frustration over not understanding what words meant. 

After collecting all this data I asked so what am I doing? 

I have focused my inquires on reading for some time now but have continued to take a very differentiated  approach to reading task and with groups not working on similar text and ideas. After doing some wide reading and connecting with the idea of wide a deep for juniors I decided to focus more on whole class teams. Using the same open task for all texts with the hope this would allow for more collaboration across reading groups and more exposure to vocabulary on a theme. 

Changing the activities was an easy but huge change that shifted the responsibility from me to the learners to do most of the thinking.

Overall I would rate the change in learning as huge, for many of the learners in my class reading as not come easily. Given term 3 shift data I feel confident that many learners have made great progress in reading. However I do state that this may not have all been from this intervention as many attended Quick 60 reading also. 

For me the most important learning from this inquiry was that making more work for ourselves and less work for the children doesn't help anyone. Children need to be the ones thinking, creating and doing for true critical learning to happen. I also want to note that never in this inquiry did the children say they disliked reading even given it was such a huge challenge for most of them. Their positivity I believe played a huge role. 

I also want to note that this reflection does not take into account the impacts of lockdown as I would have had to talk for way longer than 3mins to include that information. Please see my blog for more about that. 

Lockdown Reading reflections

Today we met as a home class to talk about what it has been like learning from the distance. I asked the children to think about how many books they had been reading. 

After that the children and I talked about what things they had read. 

We discussed What we like a dislike about reading during lockdown. 

Finally I asked the children to put themselves on a scale to show how they think their reading is progressing during lockdown. 

This information comes from a range of children some in and some not in my inquiry group. The results of this survey are mixed. some children feeling they are reading lots and progressing lot while others don't this shows the diversity experiences during lockdown. What this does not account for are the children who have not had the ability or opportunity to connect digitally. 

Reading shift 2021

This data shows that during time at school many of the Room 19 learner not just those in my inquiry groups were making considerable shift in reading. I am aware that for some of these learner there was an additional intervention of Quick 60 reading. However learners who both did and didn't have this intervention have both made 2 years progress and 1.5 years progress which suggests that the classroom intervention played a role in this move in reading achievement. 
 

Reading during Lockdown

During Lockdown we took a team approach to distance learning. In order to make sure all learners had learning at/near their level we organised all five year 3/4 classes across our team into 3 groups of each subjects. 

This is our organisation for reading:

From Monday- Thursday each group has a reading task connected to one more more texts at their level. Then once a week they meet with a teacher to discuss one of these tasks and focus on specific needs of the group. During distance learning I took the middle green group. This group would have had a few of my inquiry learners however many of the learners from my class who would have been in this group did not engage in distance learning. This meant many of my inquiry group learners were in the higher turquoise Group working with Angela Moala. This is an example of weekly reading planning. This was done by our wonderful students teachers. 

This Class Onair Lesson provides an example of a reading lesson with my group who are working at a reading age of 7-8 years.