Where are you at?

 For every inquiry it is important to know where the children are at and how the children are working. 

As part we gathered data in term 2 to understand not only where children are working in terms of number knowledge but also how they can apply this in strand. 

It again confirmed that for my learners at year 4 there is a wide spread of knowledge and gaps that has a huge impact on children. On way in which we did this was by using e-asstle tests to provide a picture of where children were at. I read the questions when needed so that did not impact the test results. 

What we think Children...

As part of my Inquiry I worked with Hannah and Danni to create surveys for the learners,  Leadership team and children about maths at our school. 

By far the most interesting and influential of the surveys was reading what the kids had to say about their maths. 

What I found interesting was the level of recognition they had about their strengths and needs. Many identified the need for more times table knowledge and the attitudes of learner in maths were very different from the completely positive view the children had when we did a reading survey earlier in the term. 

I appreciated the honesty that come through when the children wrote about what they wanted their teacher to know. 

Below are the results from the Child Survey found here. 

What we think teachers...

As part of my Inquiry I worked with Hannah and Danni to create surveys for the learners,  Leadership team and children about maths at our school. 

It has been interesting to see what the teachers think are the key areas of need and to read descriptions of what is happening in each year level. 

What I found most interesting was that well teachers felt they were teaching basic facts with a whole class approach through song, movement, Xtramath, Mathwhizz. It was also an area in which they felt there was a big need for children that wasn't being addressed. 

They also mentioned the different between strand and number knowledge teaching and the pressure this creates for doing everything well which was similarly mentioned in the SMT survey. 

What I liked and appreciated about this was the clear links to what the children thought about their maths (although these were only year 4 learners) and what the teachers noticed as needs.  

Below are the results from the Teachers Survey found here. 

Causal Chain, So what?

 This year I have been looking at what I can do to support learners in maths when they have a varying degree of knowledge, skill and understanding. 

How do I make this fun and what do I need to do as a teacher to know the issue, where to and what next? 

This is what I have come up with so far. 

What do you think SMT...

 As part of my Inquiry I worked with Hannah and Danni to create surveys for the learners,  Leadership team and children about maths at our school. 

Looking at the results has given me an interesting preceptive on what are believed to be shared challenges across the school and what are challenges that only the children identified. 

Below are the results from the Leadership Survey found here. 

The first view I wanted to share was that from one of our management team. I share that basic facts, place value and foundation teaching are strength, well more consistency, earlier teaching of multiplication and teacher knowledge building are gaps that we need to work on improving. 

Thinking about the problem

The challenge in student learning that I have identified for this inquiry is the ranging abilities in maths and how do we address these within the classroom setting while drawing the strength of all students. 

This is important to me because initial testing with the children along with Manaiakalani data has shown that there is an increasing gap between the ability of children in mathematics.  This is representative of the wider issues in New Zealand education. Overall this leads to a problem of data suggesting that children are failing in mathematics when in fact what I've noticed in my classroom is that many children are excelling in particular areas of mathematics while others are struggling in the same areas.

Over the years many teachers have identified the complexity of language in mathematics and have explored this in their inquiries. Over the past few years Manaiakalani has identified a shared pedagogy for reading and writing. At the school we are aware of the increasing challenge and catering to all students in mathematics and making sure that learning in mathematics is accelerated over the year. As such, Danni Stone, Hannah West and I have come together to think about the way in which we can accelerate mathematics by using opportunities for extension groups and collaboration within the classroom. 

Our initial plan: In her role as creative space teacher Hannah has the opportunity to pull children out and work with them on specific targeted projects which will allow them to accelerate. As such we have discussed that she may take out a group of extension children from year three and four to work on their gaps and push them to think creatively in mathematics. From this wonderful opportunity I hope to draw what she is doing in her extension program and look at ways to create collaboration within my maths classroom. I believe that there is a real need for children to be aware of their gaps and strengths and how these can be developed over the year.

 I wish to include more assessment and discussion with children about their learning and gaps in order to make sure that they are able to fully understand their next steps. At this stage in my inquiry I'm looking at gathering data to fully understand each child's gabs and strength and formulate a plan for sharing these with the children in a way that is meaningful. Look forward to continuing to collaborate in this inquiry and hope it will provide a way forward for maths in a diverse classroom.

Chit Chat about Math

We discussed a number of challenges that we felt were important to student learning and I've left of these below.

- Children having a range of knowledge but not being able to apply it correctly.

- Children revert to early number strategies as these are the most prominent in their brain even though they have more effective ways of solving problems.

-Children having gaps in knowledge either from Covid or from not retaining knowledge from previous years.

- Children not understanding how they can move onto the next step in their learning.

- Children not having the self-confidence or self-efficacy to learn from others and apply that learning in different contexts.

As we reflect on the many challenges we have identified in mathematics we realise that this is a massive area to study and look into. We wanted to choose the biggest ticket items for each class or group and really understand how we can make a difference for the children and there is. I told her up, perhaps looking at children understanding the gaps and their next steps as being something I could do in my classroom. I also discussed how building self-efficacy, self-confidence and sharing of knowledge could link nicely to Hannah's extension group.

Meet the CoL Across School Teachers

 We are so privileged to have wonderful experts in our community. These wonderful Across School Teachers are support kind teachers who are her to help us.

Elena

Is a wonderful year 3 teacher at Glen Taylor School. She has challenged herself and put herself out there as a class OnAir teacher. She loves maths and intergrating the Curriculum. I encourage you to connect with her and check out her Blog. 

Danni 

In the past Danni has support many people in the past and I myself have often gone to her for support. She has inquired into many area but has a special interest in teaching reading. You can watch her wonderful teaching on Manaiakalani Class OnAir and learn more about her on her blog. 

Scott

Is a wonderful high school teacher. He is in-charge of history at his school. He is happy to support teacher with the New Zealand Histories curriculum. He discuss how children are under a lot of pressure to move from one topic to the next. Can we integrate and collaborated to make learning more relevant for learners and their real lives. Learn more about him on his blog. 

Amy 

Is a wonderful year 7/8 teacher who has worked hard to develop project based learning and a culture of talk, discussion and positivity through a number of inquires. I love hearing her ideas and encourage you to think about how you might reach out and connect with her on her blog.  

What amazing people. I will definitely be connecting with the people along with many other CoL teachers as I work to develop inquiry and grow as a teacher in 2023. 

Brust and Bubble 2022

 This year I sadly could not make Burst and Bubbles in person due to health reasons. I did however record my presentation. I hope you enjoy my reflections on my 2022 inquiry. 

 This year we hoped that everything would go back to normal, but of course there is no sure thing as normal. Being a year 3 and 4 class most of us hadn’t experienced much normal school, school without lockdowns, masks and illness. 

Our Teacher Mrs Carruthers was aware of this and particularly worried about the impact this had had on our learning, understanding and attitudes towards Mathematics. 

Mrs Carruthers asked us what we thought about maths, she gave us a little test and looked at the data from the maths test we did on our ipads. She noticed our many strengths in counting and how lots of us had learnt cool things when we were learning at home. 

She also noticed that we were not very confident or quick with recalling maths facts using them to solve problems. 

Our teacher is a learner just like us and she wasn’t 100% sure of what to do. 

She looked at research on her computer, she asked other teachers and thought really carefully about what would help us the most. 

Mrs Carruthers had lots of cool ideas but time was not on her side. She gave us daily basic facts to work on and talked to us about them. She made sure we had opportunities to work with our friends when we were doing maths. She even helped us make some fun videos to practise our facts. 

What helped me most with my maths was…

”Using my maths booklet every day, from there I practised division” 

“My fun activities helped me learn my times tables by putting them into groups.” 

"My teacher is she the best maths teacher, The maths in year 3 is harder and you made sure I understood." 

Mrs Carruthers can see what we have learned a lot this year. She sees it in the way we happily join in in maths, the excitement we show for maths Kahoots, the way we can now use our basic facts and knowledge to solve problems and in our blog posts. 

We know the changes we have made in our class helped us, the consistent practice of facts has been a big help to us. Mrs Carruthers and Room 23 are sure that it was our can do attitudes that made the biggest difference for us this year.

Looking forward to 2023

As I reflect on 2022 as a year I look back to see many positive, many Challenges and many possible next steps forward for myself as a teacher and the learners I teach. While Literacy as not been an inquiry focus for me this year I realise that critical and collaborative literacy are areas that has not been as central to my practice as I would like. 

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise? 

As a result I would like to focus again on Achievement Challenge 3:  Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1-13 with a specific focus on critical literacy and collaboration. 

While I have many able reader in my class this year the area in which they struggled most has been making connections between text, connecting what they read to their own experiences and asking questions about the author and reliability of the texts they read. This was reflected in group discussions. 

I am passion about this as I know that being inquisitive, critical, collaborative and thoughtful helps children to create and share in a way that is meaningful for them and help them to build a strong understand of the world around them. 

What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

There have been so many wonderful inquires into the area of reading and within the cluster there are many amazing resources. 

Two inquiry on Robyns inspired me and provide a great spring board. In 2019 she looked into comprehension strategies in reading and this year the enjoyment of reading. 

Another inquiry that has influenced my thinking has been Hannah West inquiry looking the at impact of vocabulary last year. This connected closely to my own inquiry in 2020 and we both found that vocabulary played a huge role in literacy achievement. 

This year Jo Gormly inquiry around vocabulary was also inspiring for me. It puts into perspective the ideas that teachers have a responsibility to gift model and support the language they expect from learner, Which I believe could be a key fact in forming the collaborative and critical in the classroom and way of engaging with each other. 

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and  kaupapa?

There ware many ways this focus would connect and support the Manaiakalani pedagogy:

• It reflects the values of learn, create and share. 
• It connects to the valued reading practices that a known to get shift for learners. 
• Skills for learning that are transferable across the curriculum. 
• Collaboration 
• Most of all it focus on supporting connected and empowered learners. 

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

This is support by the research from Manaiaklani surveys around reading and high leverage practices. Both Collaboration and critical thinking are points that have regularly been discussed drawing on Manaiakalani research but also wider research. 

Some examples of this research are:

T-Shaped Literacy

Developing in Digital worlds

How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?

In 2023 I would like to connect more in my inquiry. It has been great being back together this year and having the time to talk and discuss. In 2023 I would like to actively collaborate in the creation of tools to access progress and interventions with others who have a similar interests and whose learners have similar needs. 

I also great value and will continue to rely on the many experts in the Manaiakalni team. 

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

I and I feel anyone who know me would agree love to share and discuss. I think this is the way in which I will most benefit and support others in my inquires in 2023. I also love to listen to others ideas and have in my years in as a CoL leader heard many ideas of others and pointed people to research, blogs or other teacher who might support them. 

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. 

CoL Across School Role

 

Kia ora, I'm Clarelle Carruthers ! I'm a year 4 teacher at Pt England School. 

I have a passion for inquiry and have had a strong focus on reading over the past few years. In 2020 we all experienced lockdowns and this impacted my inquiry however I tested many ideas and this has lead to some of my thinking around my 2021 inquiry. 

One of the way you can get to know me better is by visiting my CV page. I update this each year with achievements I am proud of. 

In 2018 I was a MIT teacher and through this experience I focused my inquiry on mathematics and specifically communication between students in mathematics and use  and understanding of mathematical language. 

In my practice I have a strong focus on capturing all learning digital and emerging learners in meaningful creative digital activities across the curriculum. Having taught both year 3 and 4 during my 5 years at Pt England School I am confident in using of both iPads and Chromebooks to lead learning and understand the transition between these devices and the way in which the Cybersmart curriculum supports this.  

Please feel free to visit my class site, or watch my lessons on Class onAir.