Evaluation of inetervention

 This year my inquiry has focussed on supporting my students to gain reading ability and confidence to tackle unseen texts. 

I noticed that this was particularly the case when they encountered lengthy or challenging texts, or when they were required to read several different texts in a short time period - such as on a PAT test. 

At the start of the year

I noted a really need to increase reading ability for a number of student working below their chronological age. The aim was to identify their needs which I found was around vocabulary, decoding strategies and letter sound knowledge. 

Starting the Intervention 

Throughout the year the intervention and its focus adjusted. There were many factor that impacted the changes including progressional learning, lockdowns and changes to the way we were teaching more generally because of covid.  

Final Data Collection (mid term 4)

Over all reading data in my class was very mixed. 10 students made significant progress over 1.5 years in a year. While 5 made a years progress and the remaining students made less than expected progress. Given the challenging year we had with Covid19 and the two significant lockdowns and on going effects of those it is hard to say what factors determined reading success. 

As for my target group:

5 students made significant progress of 1.5 years or more. With one of these student boy E making progress of 2.6years. Girl D made 0.9 year progress which well compared on norm progress is not significant compared to the less than a year of progress she has made in her prior 3 years of school this is significant for her. 

However there were sadly some results that were not has positive with 6 students making 0.5 years progress or less two of these made no progress in reading level during the year. 

These results were supported by the start test data shown below. 

With average progress for year 4 being 16.2 and progress for a year 3 being 27.6. You will note that Girl C, Girl E Boy E and Boy A made over average progress. While girl B came very close to average progress. 

Given this data I feel confident to say that the intervention had mixed results but was also influenced by a number of facts including lockdowns, attendance and attitude. 

What change have I Made to my teaching in 2020

My inquiry focussed on supporting students in reading with a focus on understanding new vocabulary and being able to decode unknown words so that they could tackle more challenging age approbate texts with less support. 

In June I looked at my teaching in depth asking what texts am I proving learners with a why, what do the children think about my teaching and their learning and what strengths and needs do I have in my practice. 

Changes to the way I teach reading

As a result of this study I made a point of actively including sight words along with other text specific word work to every reading group lesson. I also made more opportunities to talk about words and made this rewindable through our group digital modelling books. 

Changes to my learning design

To be honest this was something I did not change because of my inquiry but rather because of the ever changing needs of 2020 with Covid-19 and to address every day changes in the classroom. I found that I was providing less differentiation. This included proving one book a week at the children expected level with audio support to encourage engagement with more vocabulary and complex language structures. 

Did the change in teaching affect student learning?

This is a challenging question as for some students these changes provided a needed challenge and pushed them to engage more with a wider range of vocabulary and ideas. While for others the challenge was perhaps too much and therefor served to discourage them. I don't think I found the hapy middle ground I would have liked. 

To what extent did my teaching change?

I think my teaching changed in small but significant ways. I began asking why did I choose this text and how can I provide challenge within the scope of what learners are capable of.

What has shifted and why.

I have been asking myself a lot this term what has been the impact of my teaching? Have I really made a difference for these learners and how do I know?

This lead me to think back about the shifts I have been monitoring this year and the interventions I have put in place for my learners. 

Below is a presentation that shows writing samples from one learner over 3 time points. It looks at what shift was made in terms of number of words, working out unknown words, content and punctuation. If you look through the presentation you will see that this learner has made a great deal of shift in these areas. 

I included this example as the main way I monitor writing shift is through conferencing with the learners and looking closely at their writing looks. 

Below is the reading shift for my class from term 4 2018 to term 3. The blue shows the starting point by number of students at each PM reading level and the red the number of students at each level in term 3.  You can see we have had a large number of students shift however shifts have not been as significant as I would have liked. 

This data shows level and age shift of my target learners. Many of whom have moved a number of levels but this has not meant a large shift in reading age. 

During this reflection I have found that the interventions I have put in place have been beneficial for the learners however they have not been constant enough. This is due to time spent out of class with my CoL Across School Role and the changes that have happened in my space with year with changing co-teachers. 

Across schools Col teacher Role

What do people want?

Supporting with Cybersmart Kawa of care 

I have worked with a number of teachers and classes using iPads for the first time. This has involved modelling lesson or supporting lesson around the the skills they will use everyday in explain everything. 

In one lesson we used the skills of taking a photo, cropping, duplicating, moving and locking to to build a Castle. 

 

See this blog post for more.  

Support with creation of class sites

I am privileged to work with Dorothy Burt, Fiona Grant and many others over my time teaching. Due to this I have a good understanding of the elements of class sites and how to make them appealing for learners. I have worked with a number of teachers to help them develop their class site and discuss the content they create for their learners. 

Creating with iPads

Getting started with animating 
This animation was created by a child in my class. I have used examples from the children in my class and modelled in classroom and supported teachers in 1-1 iPad classrooms. I this has helped to to enhance their use of iPads for creation.

Getting started with coding
I have also worked with teachers to impanelment the digital technologies curriculum. This has focused on using Scratch junior and the directions used.
I also have this Manaiakalani Google Class Onair lesson to support others wanting to use scratch junior. 

Blogging App

Many people have come together to create the Manaiakalani Blogging App. This App makes sharing simple and straight forward for our year 1-3 learners working on iPads. See this blog post for how to use the App. See Fiona's Blog for the journey of the blogger app. 

Inquiry Conversations
I have worked with a number of the CoL within school teachers and other teachers having discussions about their inquiries. I have also visited classes to see their inquiries in actions and provide questions, ideas and support wherever I can to help them.

Opening up my classroom to others
I have also welcomed many people into my classroom both physically and digital through (Manaiakalani Google Class Onair) to share my practice and discuss what I do in my classroom.

I'm here to help please book me using this form, leave a comment or email: ccarruthers@ptengland.school.nz

Reflectioning on my inquiry

2018 has been a huge year of learning for me and my inquiry focus has been language acquisition in mathematics. I have learnt so much about shifting the balance of talk and providing support for learners to engage in talk.

This is my presentation about my inquiry and my findings. I have also share some insights into my tool and how it has worked for me and my class. I hope that you will find this presentation interesting and perhaps it will have an impact on your practice as my inquiry has in mine this year.

Inquiry update Term 4

This year I have learnt a lot so far but also seen some gaps in my teaching and my implementation. Recently I tested my inquiry group on the gloss test again and conducted the vocabulary survey again.

My findings were interesting.

Gloss

What I noticed was that three of the six in my target group have made progress in some areas of maths. I found the shift in fractions interesting was this area is high in topic specific vocabulary that students did not know earlier in the year. This links to the data form the vocabulary survey in which I found students understanding of mathematical language tested earlier in the year had improved greatly.

Vocabulary Survey 

I am wondering if Students A and B's lack of shift has to do with the way in which they engage with others in mathematics as these students skill struggle to talk positively to others and share their ideas in DMiC.

GAFE Making a Classroom Site

Hi all,

here is the presentation Danni Stone and I created for the GAFE Summit in Auckland this year. Sorry for the delay in sharing but I wanted to blog it with the video I promised at the session explaining how to make a timetable for your site.


I hope that these ideas and the video are helpful to all on a journey to creating a Google site for their Classroom.

Here is a video that will help you if you are creating a timetable for your classroom site. 

Manaiakalani Teaching As Inquiry Framework

My 2018 CoL Inquiry Focus

"Increasing Mathematical ability,  using coding to build computational thinking and vocabulary"

The Manaiakalani cluster are always working together to overcome challenges for our learners with a focus on specific achievement challenges that exist with our community of learning.  

In 2018 my inquiry will focus on the CoL achievement Challenge: 

Lift the achievement in maths for all learners in years 1-13. 

I will be using the Manaiakalani cluster inquiry framework to focus my inquiry and make my learning and teaching visible in 2018. This framework has been co-constructed specifically for Manaiakalani schools drawing on the New Zealand teaching as inquiry framework and using the Learn, Create, Share pedagogy as a guide for inquiry. 

Throughout the year I will label my blog post to make sure it is easily accessed by others. I will label them using the Learn, Create, Share structure. 

Click on this link to see blog posts organised by label-Inquiry links