Maths Workshops

This term we have been using Asttle Maths test next steps of students' data analysis, to provide workshops. Students opt in to weekly workshops based on their goals. If no workshop is on offer for their goal, they do independent work on their goals.

This arose from PLD we did around student agency in Term 3 holidays. It involves a lot more collaboration among the team.

I have found this valuable in terms of revision for the students. Students say they feel it is personalised for them, but an adjustment in terms of a different team approach compared with how we did things before.

Here are some Asttle Maths individual learning Pathways. Student goals are in BLUE. They move to RED (GAPS) once they feel they have worked on everything in the blue section.

Challenges for us as teachers are finding time to conference with individual students and finding time in a hectic schedule to fit all of the workshops in. Sometimes collaboration is difficult in terms of communication or teachers not being prepared for what we are working on (just a planning/time factor really as we don't have much "collaborative planning time")

I have really liked how teachers have shifted classrooms too, showing our flexibility and less "owning of spaces"

I feel we could improve on this by planning more for the independent work students do on their goals and fitting more time in for conferencing on their goals.

The other thing I would like to improve on is students reflecting on their goals and showing evidence of achieving them.

Student Agency Breakout at ULearn

As well as doing one day of "Changing Spaces" on Tuesday 10 October, I am doing three days of ULearn (11-13 October)

Here is the slideshow re. Student Agency, a breakout I've just attended. There were some great discussions about how to do this authentically! Looking forward to furthering this with my team this term!

ILE Breakout at ULearn

Nikki Ulirch Presentation

Target Girls' Group Writing

Today and yesterday the girls have been learning about adverbs. They went back over their exciting verb writing from a few weeks ago and added adverbs. Here is some of the work:

Target Boys' Writing Group

This term Jody and I have combined our target boys and girls and we alternate teaching them each week. I took the boys this week and they worked on using exciting verbs. It has been successful in that it has been specific, achievable and timely. The work below is what they have all done independently.

Religious Education Observation

Here is my Religious Education Feedback from Noreen Meikle (DRS)

2017 RE Observation

Today's CoL PD around Mentoring and the Spiral of inquiry

Here is a Padlet of teachers' hopes and fears from our CoL journey so far.

Maths Observation

Here is my feedback from Judith - DP- from my maths observation.

Maths Observation Part 1

Maths Observation Part 2

Spiral of Inquiry Complete

Today I assessed target students using e-asttle and there have been positive shifts.

TM: Was asttle writing level 2A, this writing was 3P. I don’t think 3P reflects what she can do independently most of the time (usually below that), but she is clearly hitting Level 3. What made the difference for T with this writing was conferencing and making her accountable (high expectations). She has also been focussing on the “We like writing that..” checklist which lifts her writing to a Level 3 standard.

NL: Was asttle writing Level 1, this writing came out at level 2A. I am thrilled to have him move a whole level (accelerated!) from well below national standard to the below range, but he will have to reach level 3B by the end of the year to maintain this range. He as shown improvement across all areas.

PM: Was asttle writing level 2P, this writing came out at 3B. The main improvement was in his structure and language. P should meet national standards in writing by the end of the year.

NH: Was asttle writing Level 2P, this writing came out at 3B. I don’t believe that it reflects what he achieves independently most of the time though. He is still very much a level 2 writer. The significant improvements that came through in this piece of writing were in his organisation of ideas and punctuation.

TB: T’ asttle level was 2A and this piece of writing came out at 3B. The areas he improved in were organisation and punctuation.

EN: Ella’s asttle level was 2P (well-below for Year 6) and this writing came out at 2A. Her areas of improvement were spelling and organisation. If Ella can progress to level 3B, she will come in below national standard as opposed to well-below.

RL: R was not a target student for this inquiry. He is ORRS funded. His level was 1B at the start of the year and has come out at 2P in this piece of writing. Great acceleration!

What made a difference to these learners for this piece of writing was a graphic organiser to plan their writing as well as first reading exemplars of quality writing for the genre in question. This will have helped with structure and language features as well as organisation (which they all scored well on). Punctuation has improved for a lot of them, so the self-assessment check-lists and our team punctuation workshops will have helped with that.

The students are also continually being reminded to state what their writing goal is and to focus on this when doing their writing in class. They are BLOG posting to show that they’re achieving their writing goals. This student agency will have helped also e.g. T needs to stop using random capital letters in his writing, which he has done successfully in the piece I assessed. T and N both had a punctuation goal and their punctuation scores went up. TM is trying to make her writing interesting for the reader as well as proof-reading, and she has certainly achieved that in the piece I assessed. E’s goal is to use tools to help with her spelling, and her spelling has moved up a level in the latest asttle assessment. N’s is to take risks and give writing a go, not worrying about spelling and being wrong, and he certainly has done that.

What still needs work? Vocabulary still needs development for ALL of these students. Perhaps this can be part of the next inquiry.

Here is a link to the completed Spiral of Inquiry for Term 1 & 2

This is only accessible to people at St. Joseph's with the link.

Treaty Workshop

Yesterday we did a Treaty Workshop with Amy Tipene.
It was very thought-provoking and there was a lot of discussion around deficit thinking and casual racism. It's important not to jump on the inference ladder.
We also thought a lot about ways to uphold the treaty principles of partnership, active protection and participation.

Here are some notes from today:

Writing Approaches

Here are the approaches I have tried in writing to lift achievement of target students. They are based on boy-friendly strategies as well as student agency.

12/06/17

I am using graphic organisers to plan their writing and continue to use the self-assessment check-list. I am also providing exemplars of quality writing of the genre or the main idea we are writing about. This is done on the data projector or paper copies and we read together and analyse before writing.

Students are continually reminded of their writing goal and posting on their BLOGS to show they are achieving their goals in writing.

30/05/17

We have been using our novel Holes as a writing context (recommended by Joseph Driesson at Boys’ Literacy PD). Students have all been quite engaged with the task and are all giving it a go and risk-taking (yes!!). I am going to try to get students to incorporate evidence towards their second writing goal - which many already have! (as well as self-assessing). I hope that this student agency will bring on improvements in their writing. Evidence will be posted on Learning Pathways BLOGS.

16/05/17

I will ask students to check on their other writing goals. Have they achieved any of these in their writing?

If so, they can use this as evidence on Learning Pathways Blogs.

15/05/17

Two weeks ago the students made a “We like writing that..” list. This is now glued in their books and on the whiteboard.

This checklist will help to enhance deeper features. After a discussion with TM (target student), she has identified that “making her writing more interesting” is her goal and that she can use this check to achieve this goal. She knows that ticking 2 of these means she has achieved it and 3 means that she has mastered it.

Here is the “We Like Writing That..” list (student-driven)

10/05/17

I emailed PM’s mother last night to inform her that he has been working hard on his speech-writing. NH got a certificate on Monday as well for his efforts and attitude.

Students have set their goals which are up in the classroom. Learning Pathways BLOGS  have been set up for students so that they can show evidence of achieving their goals (3 pieces of evidence per writing goal - accountability) 10/05/17

Students have all had individual feedback on their speeches so far in Google Docs 9/05/17

They have a checklist of persuasive techniques that they are working on (Boy-friendly!).

BLOGGER Tutorial

Today I assisted teachers in the staffroom with posting on their classroom or professional practice BLOGS.

Learning Pathway Blogs: Student Agency

I have been assisting my team in getting Learning Pathways BLOGS up and running.
I have visited Rooms 4 and 6 to lead groups of students in setting them up.

This will promote student agency as students share evidence towards their learning goals (student agency, which we learnt a lot about in Karen Boyes' PD late last year)

Here is an example of one student's post:

Choir

Here are some of the songs the Choir has been learning

http://sjs-c-room5.blogspot.co.nz/2017/03/choir-songs-to-practice.html

Integrating RE and Science for Term 2

Our team met for planning on Wednesday 19 April. Together we have integrated the Holy Spirit Strand with Science for the coming term. Our focus is quite kinesthetic and links with a STEM approach.

Here is the plan

Holy Spirit / Science Term 2

Improving Boys' Literacy - Here is our CoL Slideshow for staff. We did this PD with Joseph Driesson on 21 March

CoL PD Cultural Responsiveness

Here is one of the Slideshows from our Cultural Responsiveness PD days with South Auckland COl on 28 and 29 March. This PD was very thought-provoking. We got to explore the surface features of culture and the deeper features. There was a lot of sharing around what the resasons may be as to why Pasifika and Maori learners are not achieving comparatively with other ethnic groups. The Treaty of Waitangi and our country's bilcultural identiity was a huge focus.My take away questions to reflect on are:

1) How will I engage Maori and Pasifika whanau with their children's learning?
2) How does my classroom environment and practice reflect the bicultural partnership of Aotearoa?
3) How can I accelerate learning of Maori and Pasifika students in my team?

Bi-Cultural Practice

All students in Room 5 have presented their Mihimihi this term. This has been quite powerful. One Maori boy had his mother come to listen and support him.

Also as part of our home learning, students had this task:

Concept Learning: Standing on the Shoulders of Those Who have Gone Before Us

Watch this video about Maori culture in NZ. Then choose ONE research task below to present in Google Slides.

Sharing will be Friday and each morning next week.

1. Māori Carvings
2. Māori Gods
3. Māori Welcome Customs (such as the Hongi, Powhiri, Mihimihi)
4. Māori Games
5. Māori Kai (cooking and food)

Please do this in your CONCEPT folder.

Has this been completed? YES / NO

New label

This is to make a label for my new areas of responsibility.

Writing Workshops in the Senior Team

This term we are trying to meet the needs of learners in our team through writing workshops.

We did asttle writing Week 1 and based on punctuation results, we grouped students for workshops.

There have been teething problems in terms of a very busy timetable and trying to fit it in.

However, students feel they were able to target specific needs more and wish to try workshopping early Term 2 for another writing area (structure and language next time).

Here is one of my presentations for my punctuation workshops.

Creating Labels

This is to create Goal Labels.