Team Inquiry

 This has been updated each term this year. See attached.

AKO 2 TEAM INQUIRY 2023

DMIC Observation with MARTHA

Here is the DMIC lesson I used today when Martha observed.

Again I was nervous about doing it, but she was great in discussing each step with me along the way.

These are new things I picked up on:

Less of children putting hands up and more of me calling on them.
*More of me asking them to repeat what each other has been explaining.
*More of me asking them to justify their thinking.
*Taking the lesson where it needs to go as the needs arise (it turned out that most of them had forgotten how to calculate a unit fraction of an amount to then find the greater fraction, but the context for this learning made it all the richer!)
*Looking at where to take this next in terms of the needs that arose today - creating our own real-life problem, doing the same survey with OUR class and then calculating the fractions... they were nowhere near looking at the percentage situation as the fractions need focus for now..

I really enjoyed this lesson and am buzzing with new excitement for DMIC Maths!

Writing Progress with Accelerant Group

I am very proud of the progress my accelerant writing group has made. Our team got the students to do a Quick Write to establish who could go in this accelerant group. We also discussed attitude when forming this group, so only akonga with a drive to move were put in the group. The other teachers planned workshops. I have had the accelerant writers for 3 weeks. Now we will extend it for three more. It's a great example of how our team collaboration has enabled acceleration for these learners (a group of 12 writers), to lift them to National Standard in writing.


Here is the team planning
Here is my own planning

Here is evidence of achievement in their use of commas.

Here is some evidence of their achievement in using improved vocabulary. (I could not access SEESAW for the children upstairs in Piripono 1 e.g. Toby and Theo)

YASH



MONTE




OLIVIA





OCTAVIA




CHARLIA




OLIVER F

Learner Agency in Reading

One way in which Jody and I have tried to accelerate learning through our collaborative teaching, is by sharing the teaching of reading for the akonga in our learning hub (Piripono 2).

So I have taken a larger group of 28 which she has taken the other 20 in a smaller group.

This term I had my group do an asttle reading test and then analyse their own learning pathway to establish goals, then to make an action plan as to how to achieve their reading goals.

It's been successful for the more self-directed, self-monitoring learners, but there has been a group of approx. 8 who I have had to very much guide through the process, which can be frustrating!

It's been great to see the independence and self-direction from a lot of the others though.

Here is Sophia's action plan..

DMIC Maths Observation 4 September

Today Trevor came to observe me take a DMIC lesson. I was anxious about it so he guided me through the process. I used a STAGE 7 GLOSS fractions question (which he liked!)

I was so stunned that the children managed to solve it and shared their thinking excellently through diagrams. Interestingly most of them cannot solve this problem on their own in the GLOSS diagnostic interview with me! But the collaboration led to deeper understanding. They even established a new rule/pattern which I hadn't expected. This was very rich learning so I'm looking forward to implementing more DMIC lessons.

Literacy Observation

Fleur observed me teaching my accelerant writing group today.

Here is her feedback.

Catholic Schools' Day

For Catholic Schools’ Day on Tuesday, Years 0-7 tamariki came to school in house colour mufti, the proceeds of which went to Caritas relief work in South Sudan. They started their day with morning prayer in the hall, followed by Caritas lessons in the classrooms, learning about life in South Sudan. Luckily the rain subsided for the middle block, during which the children met their houses to participate in Caritas Challenges, so that they could walk in the shoes of children of South Sudan. These were called MOVE IT, SWEAT IT, CARRY IT and LIVE IT. More information is included below. Our Year 7s lead a thought-provoking liturgy in the hall in the afternoon, which was followed by quiet reflection time back in our rooms.

 LIVE IT! For this challenge the children had to make cardboard shelters. There are millions of refugees in South Sudan who have to set up home in temporary shelters. Our tamariki worked well together to build their shelters. Special thanks to Music Mania and Elite Appliance Servicing for giving us so many cardboard boxes, as well as families who dropped some off during the last month.

 MOVE IT! This involved walking around the block for 25 minutes, in order to imagine walking long distances, as children in South Sudan would. The older children were very supportive of younger children during this walk. Here is a photo of the Costello House ready to move it!

 SWEAT IT! For this, the children did some chores around the school - car washes, weeding, picking up rubbish, wall-washing and dusting classrooms. Great acts of service!

 CARRY IT! Children lined up and passed buckets of water to one another to fill a clam shell. The leaders worked hard to run to the tap to fill their buckets! The older children were also very supportive of the younger ones in carrying the water. 40% of people in South Sudan have to walk 30 minutes or more to access water, which they then carry back! Sadly, 30% of them do not have access to safe water. Also on Catholic Schools’ Day, Our Year 8 ākonga attended a Mass at Holy Cross, Papatoetoe, along with the other South Auckland Catholic Schools in our Kahui Ako. They represented us beautifully.