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 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. 

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. 

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. 

Challenge of student learning

This year I wanted to look at a different challenge for my learners and something that would be impactful for learning now and into the future. 

As such I looked at what the Makanaialani data showed. What I noticed was that for all year levels our cluster and school data was tracking similar to the norm but between it. 

This shows the data some of which is matched data for 2021-2022 year for PAT Maths in Manaiakalani and for our school. 

It is clear from this data that the children are across the board not reaching the level we aspire to in mathematics. But why?

I have had a number of discussion about this and while this has always been a challenge it is made larger bu the inconstancy of schooling over the past two years. 

I believe that memory of facts and ability to recall and use these to build mathematical knowledge. This seems and is a huge challenge but I believe that increasing knowledge of facts will have a huge impact for all learners but specially those stuck at a counting on level. 

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. 

Professional reading: T-Shaped Literacy

 

T-Shaped literacy is something I have been familiar with for some time. Rereading the article made me reflect on how I could and should be using this idea better. 

The key thing were: 

• Wide reading is essential to vocabulary acquisition. 
• A quote that really spoke to me from this research was "We also hypothesised that a condition for  acceleration of students of any ages is the opportunity to “do harder stuff sooner” in their  schooling."
•  I found it interesting that this research found that "our observation data did suggest that much classroom talk focused more on the strategies that  students used for reading, than on the ideas that emerged from those texts"

What does this mean for me.

• I have been trying to connect texts at every level through a share idea and bringing this discuss to the class.
• I believe even more mileage and diversity of texts may be needed to extend my learners.

Professional Reading: Effective literacy practices years 1-4

This book discussed the idea of language development. It mentioned that children develop language overtime through the hearing of words. Exposure through listening, speaking and seeing are key parts of language development. 

As readers children use visual sources, the way in which the letters and words are group to understand new information.  

 "Fluent readers and writers draw on their prior knowledge and use all available sources of information simultaneously and usually unconsciously."  

• This is the level of skill I want for the readers in my class. 

"Beginning readers and writers need to be taught to draw on these sources and to use them efficiently."

• Students in my target group are currently moving from being beginning readers to become fluent readers however many are stuck drawing on all sources. 
• Often they come to words that they have not encouraged orally. 

The texts suggest that a wide range if high interest text with explicit teaching and opportunities to speak and write are essential to moving from a beginning reader to a fluent reader and developing vocabulary.  

Professional Reading: The Reading Book

 I started my professional reading looking back at the reading book to understand what the key ideas behind vocabulary instruction are and what might fit with the needs of my learners. 

"The more words students know, the easier it will be for the to comprehend what they read"

This book talking about a vocabulary program and suggests that these for elements are needed in order for students to have comprehensive vocabulary to support reading. 

1. Word consciousness
2. Learning/teaching of individual words
3. Learning/teaching of word-learning strategies
4. Planning and encouragement that leads to independent reading

So what does this mean for my inquiry: 

This reading provided some good points to consider as I move into increasing vocabulary in my inquiry. As a teacher I feel individual word teaching is a strength of mine and something I do regularly. What I now need to work on is building learners interest in words and increasing their excitement more unpacking what they mean and connecting words in word webs. 

 

Looking closely at reading behaviours

Over the last two weeks we have been looking closer at learners in our class who struggled with decoding. 

I took a number of opportunities to listen to children individually in order to see what they do without their peers to listen to and copy. 

I looked at my inquiry target group. 

This is what I learned: 

Reading about vocabulary.

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFQ 7)

Book: What every primary teacher should know about vocabulary, chapter 2 The nature of words. 

I read part of chapter two focusing on word frequency. 

What I learned from this section:

• Having a estimate of the vocabulary size of the children is important. 
• Knowing what words they need to know is important. 
• Words are high frequency or low frequency in a text. 
• Only seeing a word once and discussing it will not cause knowledge of a word
• Children need repeated exposure to word to really know and understand them. 
• Low frequency words can make understanding a text very challenging for learners. 
• High frequency words must be learned before moving on to lower frequency words. 
• Word family understanding can help children better understand words from root words, prefixes and suffixes. 

So what:

This book has so much in it I have to chunk it into very small parts to gain the value I need. From this section I have learned to think carefully about vocabulary. I adds to my understanding that the gaps in student knowledge may in fact relate to high frequency words/sight words. Will plugging these gaps cause the shift I want in reading? Is there more to this problem? What is the best way to teach sight words? Is it root, in context or some other way I am yet to think of? 

What is the best way to develop wider vocabulary knowledge in literacy? Are these learners ready for that? What will have the biggest impact now without effecting the current high levels of motivation? 

Professional Reading Two: The Challenge of Challenging Text

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFQ 7)

Professional Reading Two: The Challenge of Challenging Text by Timothy Shanahan, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

This text is interesting in the way it compares reading to lifting weights. It discuss the idea that as we build up our ability to lift weights we add more weights and suggest we do the same in reading. 

I guess this is why we have levelled reading systems in our school. 

My question is what if you have been lifting 5kgs for 3 years but according to standard tests can't lift 10kgs yet. Do you stick with five and hope it build enough muscle our struggle with ten? If we put that question in terms of reading, if you have been reading level 5 since year 1 and are now in year 4 should you keep being given level 5 books or be pushed to a higher level with support? 

Reading this article was interesting here are some of the main ideas I learned from it:

• Student should be purposefully moved through reading at different challenge levels to help them gain skills. 
• Texts are made challenging not only by words but the way the form sentences. 
• We often focus on topic specific words and not the more general terms that skill challenge learners. 
• "complex sentence structures are necessary to communicate complexity of information itself..."
• Demand if placed on students working memory when faced with challenging texts. 

What are my thought after reading this text? 

What is a challenge for one kid may be easy for another, this is why we differentiate right? But when students are differentiate does it mean they miss the opportunity to build complex knowledge? How can we build working memory complicity for our learners to increase ability to read longer sentences. Can vocabulary be taught outside of sentences and skill support reading, maybe not? 

Professional Reading One- Closing in on Close Reading

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFQ 7)

Professional Reading One- Closing in on Close Reading By Nancey Boyles

See text here

Summary: This texts looks at the key ideas of close reading. Student being able to read the text closely focussing in on key vocabulary, ideas and asking questions as they read. It states "...Close reading can't wait until 7th grade or junior year in high school. It needs to find its niche in kindergarten and the years beyond if we mean to build habits that will lead all students to deep understanding of text."

Reading this article was interesting here are some of the main ideas I learned from it. 

• Students who have close reading experience of challenging text no matter if they are struggling readers or not gain more proficiency. 
• Close reading is about uncovering the many layers texts have and it often requires repeated reading. 
• Focus on the text itself and not is wider world connects allows kids to connect with the key messages and develop word and sentence knowledge. 
• Unpacking words at each stage of reading helps develop over all text awareness. 
• Short texts can be useful for this as they provide an opportunity for more learners to engage with the same text. 
• Students summarising in their own words is ore useful for comprehension development then quoting directly from the text. 
• Students should be the ones to ask questions of the text, however teachers must be ready to model and support development of questions.
• There is a table of question that I think might be very helpful to me. 

What are my thought after reading this text? 

As a teacher I still believe that wide reading is incredibly important and pervious inquiries I have done support that fact that the more you read the better you get. However this as made me question how much text I should explore in my group teaching sessions. Could we look at smaller sections of text? I also wonder if I do too much for kids in terms of questioning. How can I get kids asking more questions? I wonder if providing question ideas would help. This text had a very useful table that has ideas of questions and parts of texts to explore. My other question is how challenge can the text be especially for my target group and can support such as audio be used to bridge the difference or will this limit children's learning of decoding strategies? 

How will I identify my current teaching practice.

Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature. Inquiring into your teaching should give you:
-Formative information about your current strengths and areas for development
-Baseline information that you can use at the end of the year  to provide evidence of shifts in teaching
-Use multiple tools such as self- or peer-observations, analysis of your class site, student voice. (WFQ, 8) 

In order to understand my current practice is relation to my hypotheses that a more rounded reading program with more discussion, student questioning and specific vocabulary teaching with increase reading ability I will use three measure to look at my practice in more depth. These are observation, reading site review and a student survey. 

Observation:

In order to gain a detailed picture of my teaching practice my plan was to observe myself using video already recorded through Class Onair and have another teacher observe me teaching and provide some feedback. Both observation would look at, How often do I provide specific vocabulary instruction? What does this vocabulary instruction look like? Does it relate to a sight word or topic specific word? How often do the children talk about the book? Is this retell, connecting to their experience or asking a question?

Reading site review:

Look at a notes number of books provided, level, topic and main sight words in the book for a two week period. What does this tell me about book selection. Am I provide enough challenge. Does this reflect patterns of student word knowledge as reflected in teacher notes? 

Student survey: 

Conduct a student survey to ask about general reading behaviours and thoughts. Always asking specific questions about teacher practice. These questions will aim to gain and understanding of teacher reading practices including, frequency of reading, word work frequency, discussion frequency and opportunities to ask questions. 

Note it would have been ideal to have done this earlier but due to Covid 19 and my other CoL across school commitments this is sadly the first formal student voice I have collected. I will re conduct this survey in weeks 5 & 10 of term 3 and weeks 1 & 5 of term 4 to give a picture of change or not change depending on the results. I may also change questions as changes are made the the intervention. 

I believe this data will provide a great reflection point on the changes I have already made in my practice and future plans that I have. 

Most Important hypothesis and evidence I will collect.

8. and 9. Explain the hypotheses about teaching that you decided were MOST worth testing, and why and explain how you will test it and what evidence would support (or refute) that hypothesis.

Scaffolding and Gifting
I choose this hypotheses because I felt it has the most value in terms of developing students writing and reading ability. We often talk about the power of teacher supports for students learning and I believe a close look at and changes to the way I scaffold could have a big impact on students learning. I know this because of the conversation we have had with Rebecca Jesson and Dr Jannie van Hees. By looking closely at my scaffolding I will become more critical of what I am scaffolding, why I am scaffolding and how children feel about these scaffolds.

How will I test this:
First I want to make a list of all the types of scaffolds I use, what they aim to scaffold and identify exactly what I am doing. I will also get some to come in and develop and observation tool for looking at how children are engaging with the scaffolds. I will also use a survey to ask children how they feel.

Connections between reading and writing and sight words. 
I have wanted to make connections between my reading and writing program particularly in terms of developing vocabulary. I believe this will be a good hypotheses to test because I have noticed that students engagement and excitement reading in much higher than in writing time.

How will I test this:
I will use my reflections in reading and writing to see if the ideas and links are being made. I will also video both reading and writing lesson, looking at engagement and vocabulary connections. I will also look at samples of writing and look at what sight words they are using that they learnt in reading time. I will do a sight word test on target group, reading and writing sight words.

Process of developing hypotheses

7. Describe your process for developing hypotheses (what you read, who you talked with).

Professional conversations:
Rebecca Jesson, Looked at writing samples with me and we discussed what data I could collect next and how to look at the closer break down of writing sample data.
Russell Burt, Discuss how ideas could develop and what value they might have for others.
Christine Eadie, Constantly discussing the children's writing and reading data and observations that we make.
Team conversations: In our team we have noticed treads and have been talking about these and what we can do.


Blogs I have connected with:
CoL within school teachers,
Naomi, has a similar inquiry focus to me and looking at her ideas has helped me form questions and develop my thinking.
Angela, Her 2018 inquiry looked at vocabulary and using Dr Jannie Van Hees strategies and this has helped me thinking.
Helen, Is doing a lot with sound and word knowledge to fill gaps.

Research
Jannie's Book: What every primary school teacher should know about vocabulary
Effective literacy Practices years 1-4
Colleen Hayes: The Effects of Sight Word Instruction on Students'Reading Abilities

Pekky The Pukeko

There are many sources of spoken language, song, stories, videos, face-face communication, poems and so much more. 

The uptake potential is different for our children, digital interaction with has less uptake than the face to face interactions that have a social context.

We then discussed this text and the key ideas breaking it down and identify the vocabulary groups we we would discuss with the children. We talked about the ways this could become a much larger piece of learning. 

Some of the vocabulary we discussed, boisterous, engaged in play, favourite place to play, tugged on the laces, powerful red beak. 

We want children to understand that words keep company with each other because words have power and if we gift words in group children will know to use them in groups in way that make meaning. 

Words have Power Part 2

Today we had Dr Jannie van Hees visiting us again today. 

The number of text the are in children lives is a huge factor is achievement, we know this from a number of resources. These texts however are best when they are accompanied by talk. We also need to be aware of the language we use with kids, if we keep puddling around it simple texts spoken, written and visual then all kids will know is simple texts. No matter the age or stage children need to be exposed to lots of texts that are too hard for them. 

What does this mean for our PM text that are simple in their nature that we use to teach students to read. Is there a different way of looking at this but not throwing out what we know. We can't just have kids repeating what they know we must move them beyond what they already know. 

Children have an outstanding capacity to learn, we must never be afraid to push children to work at a level they can't do it on their own. 

A question we must ask ourselves: How much time are we spending pulling from the kids and how much time are we spending gifting. 

Jannie then reminded us of the conditions we want for learning. She suggest that an encourager should happen 3-6 times with the teacher has a higher likelihood of up take. Jannie talked about putting the effort back on the kids and using specific feedback. 

We need to deep dive into the text, it is not to say we need lots of activities but that we need time and quality conversation to really truely build understanding. 

Talking with detail is a major change maker for our kids. Learners need to know they have to dig deep and that the expectation in the classroom is that we share in detail. We want the children in our class to talk to us the whole class not just the teacher. We need to work on how our children talk to everyone. We are sharing our thinking is because we learn together. 

No matter what we value each others contribution!

The teacher is a major scaffolder, however children can be great scaffolders if we scaffold their scaffolding and families can be scaffolder also. 

We want kids to talk the detail and expand our ideas. 

We want to stop saying it is more interesting, We want to say because you used more detail that your audience know what you mean. 

We must have a mantra as a teacher: I will alway offer vocabulary that talks the detail and say thing they would not normally utter. 

We need to get children to unlazy their brain, don't use the easy word because you have another word. 

We must keep thinking gifting, gifting, gifting. 

CoL Meeting

It was interesting to think today about the data more and identify patterns in one schools data and wonder if this is a pattern across the CoL. 

We talked about how collaboration is such an important part of inquiry and when we talk and discuss together and found that while our inquiries had very different foci we all have similar themes that emerged from our problems.

 

We as teacher need to think systematically about the data and get distance from the data, zoom out. This is why we need partners in our inquiries. People who can stand alongside us and help us to zoom out. 

We must consider what we value:

-Achievement

-Progress
-Māori learning as Māori
-Key competencies
-Participation
-Affective outcomes

What do we need to know about? 

There is so much to unpack in terms of the issue. If we are look at achievement in writing. We need an overview of where they are at in writing, their attitudes towards writing, their spelling ability, their current vocabulary, their oral language ability, what they like to write about, what children can do and how they do it, reading ability and known words. 

The measures we might use include:

-Looking closely at writing samples. 

-Spelling test. 

-Survey of children's interests. 

-Videoing student writing (how do they write). 

Next steps: 

• Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.
• Begin to collect evidence and data  and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence

After Our Meeting I sat down with Rebecca Jesson and discussed my inquiry and this is where I am going to start with writing: 

Before writing, how do they get ideas and what do they do with those ideas, having got their ideas What do they with them?
What do they do when they get to a word they don't?
How do you know if you are right?

Why is it Catalytic?

3. Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year (In chemistry, a catalyst increases the rate of reaction, but it also offers an alternate path for the reaction to follow).

This group of learners have been stuck in the 1B writing bracket for a long time. They write very short stories and lacks specific vocabulary. I believe this is a catalytic because it is holding them back not only in writing but across the curriculum as they try to respond in a write form in reading and inquiry.

I read a quote that said

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

— Louis L’Amour

I think for my learners at this point in time the catalyst is giving them the tool to start and to get to a place of flow. I think the best tool is vocabulary that is the water that I need to support the to full the faucet with so that when they start writing they have lots to flow. I also think that vocabulary being increase orally and capturing this to make it rewindable will help to increase recycling of that vocabulary increasing students ability to use it. These ideas come from the professional learning we have been doing with Dr Jannie van Hees. 

I know I still have a lot of learning to do around this problem but I believe increasing writing amount and vocabulary for these learner in a way that is recycling language is a key that may help them across the curriculum. 

While I have tried a number of things this far I feel I still have a long way to go in finding the big ticket approach/approaches to address this issue.