Changing Direction

On a recent visit to Stonefields school in Auckland, I had the opportunity to discover new or alternative ways of teaching and learning and reflect on both my own and my teams own practices and pedagogy.

The trip reminded me of what I believe in with one of the most prominent things being learner agency. Back to last years inquiry!  What is new to me about this is the term of Assessment Capable Students. This is not new but it reinvigorated my thinking that if the kids can lead their learning and assess their own learning then I feel very confident that we can get accelerated growth from all students.

So my inquiry is shifting slightly to trying to figure out how to create Assessment Capable students in literacy. How can I get my student to buy into this and provide evidence on their own to show what they can do? My dilemma is that teachers struggle to understand writing and all of its complexities, so how am I going to get students to do this as well?

Everything I have discovered this year has been fantastic and has helped shape organisation of learning and lessons as well as developing strong relationships with my target kids. However, the acceleration has not been enough.

So, how can I create assessment capable students? How will this impact on their learning in literacy?

Purpose - A reading of interest

One thing I have struggled with is getting out of the mindset of writing genre all of the time. This article really resonated with me as it reinforces what I see with my target students. When writing for an authentic purpose there is less fight, frustration, and feeling of why do we need to. They buy into it and if anything need some holding back to make sure they are on the right track before rushing.

It has hit home that the skills for writing are transferable across genres and it is more a change in language features that are used to to make sure the writing is effective for the purpose at hand.

Exploring Elaboration

From a while back but a good reflection for me on what goes on with the boys.

Term 2 Summary and Next Steps for Term 3

Term 2:

Some reflections I have made throughout the term.

Link to Target Group Planning Doc

What teacher practice made an impact on my writers writing?

• Short sharp lessons of 10-15 minutes
• Gathering vocab to use in writing and use to help with ideas
• Shared planning 
• Writing progressions helped with a focus/goal and then accountability in including this in their writing
• Reading to improve knowledge before writing
• Reading to unpack writing techniques
• Variety

Where to next?

• Continue with what works above. Anne suggested to not rush onto the next thing all of the time. Embed and build confidence in the boys feelings towards writing. Work towards their independence and less reliance on teacher support.
• Sentence Structure work: This is a need identified through e-asttle and observations in class. The question is, how do I tweak my current practice or develop new strategies for teaching this as I have taught it a lot over the years. The kids have also been taught this a lot over the years so why hasn't it sunk in yet?
• I do think I haven't explored the link between reading and writing in my previous years. This is in terms of identifying sentence structures in others writing and pulling this out of texts we read. My teaching has relied upon my modelling and then the kids practicing the techniques. I have seen the impact reading has had on ideas, so now I think I need to translate this into improving the kids sentence structures.

Student Agency - Writing Goal!

My next step with my Target Group is to develop Accountability and Student Agency - We will begin to explore the Writing Progression rubrics and where their writing fits on these.

I stated in my last post that my target group work well when directed by myself but they lack the desire or motivation to try their best (care) every time including when writing independently.

I introduced this rubric to the group. We had explored this earlier in the year when unpacking 'the teacher words we don't get'. We explored the meaning of elaboration and what this looks like in writing. So when we came back to this it wasn't a big shock or intimidating.

We began by looking at others writing and finding out what a year 5 (rubric score 4) piece looked like and included. The boys enjoyed this as it built on existing knowledge from previous lessons, however they soon tired of looking at others work. After discussing the importance of including both questions and senses in their piece I sent them off to write a creative piece using an image prompt. 

The following day I printed these off and they had the task of highlighting where they had elaborated in their writing. It was a lightbulb moment for some of them as they realised that they often either only included their senses or answered the questions but not both. We did the same session the next day but swapped pieces so that they were marking a friends work. They enjoyed this again and were able to identify the aspects that were elaborated much more easily. 

Again they did respond that they would rather mark their own work. They also all asked if they could go off and write another piece so that they could show that they can include both types of elaboration. I found this interesting and asked them why they couldn't just elaborate the existing pieces we had just looked at. 'Na, we've finished these', was the reply! Something for us to explore moving forward.

On a side note, I asked they boys how they felt about sharing their writing with others, as this was something that earlier in the year they had said they didn't feel comfortable with. They all smiled and said they really enjoyed it and want to do it more regularly. Nice!

Next steps:

- Continue to refer to the rubric and demonstrate elaboration in their writing consistently.

- Continue pulling apart their writing and marking each others work against the rubric.

- Explore what complexity looks like and learn to include this.

- Sentence structure is an issue that needs some focus next. This fits nicely with re-crafting and editing our piece which they seem to think is not possible. The first draft is the final draft apparently.

Gaining Independence

So we have been repeating the process in term 3 of preloading, gathering key words and phrases, planning together and then writing in small bursts. This has all been modelled and led by myself with students input slowly increasing. My target students are however still very reliant on me as a safety net. 

So my next step as discussed with Anne is to slowly phase myself out of the process and scaffold the boys into being able to do each of these steps by themselves. I have introduced reciprocal writing into some lessons. One student leads the process and follows a script which includes prompts for what the boys need to do throughout the lesson. I am still there for support but mostly as a member of the group doing as I am directed.

The first session I tried this and I had to step in a lot for behavioural reminders, as it was a bit strange for the group to be led by one of their own. When it came to the task though (reading and recording vocab) the boys did this easily as we have had a lot of practice.

In the second session things ran a bit more smoothly as I introduced sharing tokens (4 each) that were used when someone had something to share or say. I had introduced this earlier in the day. This allowed the session being led by a student to flow nicely and the boys all completed the task. Some said we could do that by ourselves, I don't really need someone to tell me. Others said that they liked hearing others words and ideas so wouldn't want to do this on their own yet.

This was all pleasing to hear as it shows that some of the boys are getting how to record ideas and use this to write. 

One of the boys just does it by himself now which is great. He thrives on factual pieces so I am interested to see if he can translate this to more creative types of writing.

What did I do? 
- I implemented a reciprocal writing process to help create independence in the boys writing
What impact did this have? 
- It allowed the boys to go through the process on their own and believe that they are capable of doing it without me.
Where to next?
- Some of the boys know how to write with quality in small bursts, but forget about quality and our learning or ??? when writing independently.
- Create an environment or motivation to want to think carefully about how they write every time.

How do we develop our ideas?

The focus for my inquiry is to improve my students confidence by helping them to develop their ideas when writing.

So how do I do this?

Through discussions with Ann Grady, Sandy Harrop and my team, the importance of linking reading and writing has jumped out. If the students have no knowledge of a topic how can I expect them to have ideas to write about.

I/we will:

• Build our knowledge: Incorporating a second teaching session for my target group after lunch we will read about the topic. Mining for example.
• The students will create a word bank from this reading to use when they write.
• We will create a shared plan for writing using the word bank.

How did it go?

• The boys are writing more and better quality with a shared plan to follow.
• when a shared plan is created the boys feed back that they better understood what to write about and how to structure it.
• The boys liked not writing for writing. They loved reading about what they would be writing about.
• Using word bank - boys feedback is they like it for ideas and words - when they see the words it reminds them of different ideas that they can use.
• The boys feel like they know what to write about when reading about a topic precedes the writing.

Next steps:

• So I will continue to preload knowledge by reading before writing.
• Continue creating word banks for the boys to use.
• Begin scaffolding the boys into planning for themselves and creating the word banks for themselves.

A side note:

• I am still thinking genre with writing and often the purpose for writing is forced from the writing and the boys don't always engage with what they are asked to do because of this.

Speed

My target students feed back that lessons are too long and they get bored distracted and don't understand the big words! 

I observed them over the next few sessions and discovered that they lasted about 10 minutes before they began fidgeting, looking away, whispering to each other and the lesson lost its impact and purpose.

So this created something for me to focus on. Short and sharp lessons were called for. After being filmed I realised that of the 20 minutes in a lesson, I tried to do too much which confused the kids and distracted from the main purpose.

So moving forward, my planning didn't change much at all, my delivery did! I now focused on just what I had planned to do in the lesson. 

Lessons speed up. We discussed the reason for the lesson and then got straight into things. Read a small piece of information and discussed the ideas we had read, or watched my modeling and then practiced a writing skill or technique once or twice and then moved on.

How did it go?

I found it easier to focus on the one thing, not trying to do too much. The boys seemed less confused as we were only focusing on one thing. They also feed back that they liked the shorter lessons and engaged more as they didn't get bored. With single focus and short timeframe, the tasks/learning was more achievable for the students. 

So moving forward, short sharp lessons are far more effective than 30 minutes of me talking and only a small number of kids contributing. 

Focusing in on my Hunch!

So my hunch is that the boys struggle for ideas or with developing ideas. They also struggle with organisation and sentence structure but... confidence is going to be really important for the boys to be motivated to want to get better and engage with writing. So due to the boys talking about ideas in writing, I have decide that this will be my focus.

Some thinking and discussions I had with a colleague (Erin Drayson) led me to realising the following.

Ideas - By developing complex and elaborated ideas the students will need to create complex and compound sentences, use precise vocabulary, organise their ideas into paragraphs which are all area’s of improvement identified in e-asttle and other writing observations.

The Boys! What makes them tick? - Focusing & Developing a Hunch

So since identifying my target students, I have been watching, listening and questioning them to find out as much as I can about them and their learning habits in class.

After our recent PLG session where we identified possible focuses I was able to sit them down and asked them some more focused questions as a group. We sat in a breakout room and we all chilled out sitting on bean bags, desks, stools or standing. Relaxed was the name of the game!

Recording #1

Recording #2

The main points that I took out from this session and these recordings are:

• The boys don't mind writing, in fact most of them really like it when they get to write about the things they like writing about - rugby and other sports, gaming, wrestling, recounts of experiences
• They all said that they struggle for ideas, or they have too many ideas and just struggle to know which idea to pick to write about.
• They get confused by all of the 'big words' that teachers use. 'I mean, what are paragraphs, I've got no idea' one said. This got them all going.
• They don't like writing for ages, however, they all complained that they never have enough time to finish their work!
• They all said they either struggle to get started, get stuck in the middle or struggle to write a whole piece. I GET STUCK!
• The lists of vocabulary (Child = "what is vocabulary?" Me =  "fancy word for words." Students = "Oh!") really help them all with what to include and how to make their writing sound good. Success in their mind seems to be that they have used 'wow words.'
• They hate sitting on the mat for ages.
• They don't really like sharing their writing, as they see other students writing from those who are good writers, and this makes them feel stink!
• Mum and Dad read their writing and say it is great, however they can tell from the look on their face that they don't think this. Or mum and dad don't read my writing.

After talking to them it seems to me that it mostly comes down to engagement in real purposes and a lack of ideas or an understanding of how to expand on their ideas. I think this is where I will make the most impact for now. DEVELOPING IDEAS!

Focusing my scanning - Scanning #2

17.03.13

Focusing - What will have the biggest Impact?  Make a copy and share with your PLG coach. - Chris

List three possible focus areas that arise from your scanning. For each of the four key criteria – manageability, impact, commitment and link to evidence – Make notes on the areas below.

• Manageability - Think about your context, capacities, strengths and areas of challenge to determine how manageable each area is and how it links to school priorities.

• Commitment / Buy In - Think about the evidence you have gathered. Is this something that connects with what the students have said they need to learn or other student voice you have gathered?
• Impact - Think about what you know from research, and draw on others in the room, to determine how much Impact you might get with change in each area. Or is it trivial? It needs to make a difference.

What did the discussion bring up that needs to be thought about or addressed? Has another area emerged? Could two be combined in a clearer focus?

Possible focus	Manageability	Commitment / Buy In	What impact will you have.	What evidence will you use to show that you have made enough of a difference?
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Key prior knowledge is provided ahead of time, enabling students to connect to new information	Developing learner assets- and helping the students to make the links between what they learnt today and yesterday. (is it important to make this visual) Developing the vocab before introduced to others. Linking writing to reading - models	I need more evidence: I need to question around these ALL areas to develop deeper understanding of the kids perspective. Learning pathways developed and shared with the kids. (impact is low for this)	This will make an impact as it means students will have increased understanding and confidence when heading away to  write independently. We saw a significant impact when introducing this at the end of last year.	Student feedback: Initial baseline info collected Week 7, first checkpoint end of Week 8. Create a quick feedback tool eg; points scale to use to gauge understanding of student feelings towards lessons (length, understanding & relevance) Regular checking E-asttle scores of an independent pieces. Based on the ALL process.
RELEVANCE: Treats relevance as critical component to student motivation and memory.	Helping develop understanding of a genuine purpose & audience Fun!	I need more evidence: I need to question around these ALL areas to develop deeper understanding of the kids perspective.	This has a massive impact on boys especially, as when a genuine purpose is used students don’t see the task as writing, they see it as doing what I need to do to achieve my purpose.	Student feedback: Initial baseline info collected Week 7, first checkpoint end of Week 8. Create a quick feedback tool eg; points scale to use to gauge understanding of student feelings towards lessons (length, understanding & relevance)
Pacing and direction:	Having a goal = Success Criteria. Keep lessons to 10 minutes - one focus skill - then onto practice or applying for remainder. Helping students to make connections.	Student feedback from last year was all about being on the mat for too long. I need to question around these ALL areas to develop deeper understanding of the kids perspective.	Sitting on the mat turns kids off. Watching a movie of a child during learning 10 minutes was when he started wriggling and getting distracted. What was taught afterwards was forgotten.	Student feedback: Initial baseline info collected Week 7, first checkpoint end of Week 8. Create a quick feedback tool eg; points scale to use to gauge understanding of student feelings towards lessons (length, understanding & relevance)

Scanning 2017

In collaboration with my team, we identified the following information about our writers based on November 2016 assessment information. The year 6 students identified as a noticeable difference between boys and girls at risk, with the year 5 students also showing a slightly higher number of boys to girls at risk.

Year 6 Data

 

Year 5 Data

We looked at the individuals and how they fitted in our Ako groups (there are two Ako groups in the senior school, each with 76 students). In Ako Kea, 22 students were identified as being either at risk or in need of monitoring as they have only just achieved the standard. Of this group we identified 8 year 5 boys. Two are below writer and the remaining six are just meeting the standard.

We decided that being male, surely I was best suited to accelerating these boys learning in literacy.

2017 - Analysing the data

Scanning:
At our first TOD we looked at schoolwide data for writing, reading and maths.  With my colleagues we identified trends and focus areas for us as a school to concentrate on in 2017. Boys stood out as a group of our learners that are not performing as well as our girls and there is some disparity between the groups.

Next Steps:
Next steps are to attend a PL session with Anne Grady to learn about boys and how they learn. As a senior team we will identify our teams target students and formulate a plan of attack for decreasing the disparity between these two groups.

Boys and Writing PL January 2017

Today we had PL with Anne Grady. This had a focus on boys learning, specifically writing. We also unpacked our school data and formed a plan or to do list of how we will move our students learning in one or two aspects of writing.

My big take aways from this PD are:

• Be courageous enough to challenge/change my beliefs about my teaching practices, students learning styles and interests, how I will implement these changed beliefs.
• Boys are different and need to be thought of carefully in planning (already do this but need to break it down even more) for learning.
• Doing, moving, making, manipulating
• Clear identification of student strengths - goals - how to move from point A to B

My struggles/worries/challenges in early 2017

• I don't know what a good model is or where to find one? What will I do about this?
• Talk to colleagues
• Read and classify as I do this
• I get overwhelmed by quantity of things to teach in writing. 
• Break it down
• Simplify
• Do one or two things well
• How to lead our team and keep things simple when there is some much to do!
• Talk regularly to Vicky & Jo
• Improve my planning and diary maintenance
• How do we utilise three teachers to accelerate learning in our ILE
• How do I coach / mentor my team?
• What is the right balance between telling and letting the students come up with how
• Is my feedback effective? Does it help?

How will this impact on my teaching:

The following are notes relating to our Professional Learning with Anne Grady (January 2017)

2017 Writing beliefs - Teacher Only Day Professional Learning

Reflecting on 2016

Using a model which allows exploring what the writer has done.

There has to be an audience for the writing

Authentic purpose - know the audience, purpose

Success criteria - clear and constructed with the students when appropriate, sometimes it will be teacher written

Keeping it simple, achievable learning intentions/success criteria

Holding the learning intention for a longer time

Knowing the learner and what works for them

Some early writers with a sentence frame can develop their writing

The purpose will determine the genre not fitting the writing to a timetabled genre teaching time

It takes courage to be a writer trying new things, taking risks, having a go

Teacher feedback/responses to the writer is important and needs care not to stop the writer to be a risk taker

Teacher as a writer, allowing the students to see the blocks, difficulties through think alouds.

Writing occurs daily - may not be a completed piece of writing.

Link between reading and writing - using the model in reading, links to concept.

Knowing the students - relationships and their identities

Writing is a tool for thinking

Writing has a complex relationship to talk

‘We can’t give children rich lives but we can give them the lens to appreciate the richness which is already there’ Lucy Calkins

Can we have courage without beliefs?

Or do we need courage to change/develop our beliefs?20

Graham Shaw - TEDxHull

Why people believe they can’t draw

-and how to prove they can

How many beliefs and limiting thoughts do we can around with us everyday?

Who are the people that are influencing you?

Share these with others.  Developing your own beliefs.

Reading Research - Boys

What do we already know about the ‘Boys’ at David Street School?

What do you know about their learning styles?

What do we know about their culture and identity?

What do we know about their language?

What do we know about preschool opportunities?

What do we know about attitudes?

The ladder of Inference - Chris Argyis

The way we often reach decisions.  Observations and lead to assumptions.

Pool of data

Professional Readings Activity:

Using a selected professional reading about boys.

Prepare a slide or a chart to bullet key messages from the reading to share with the groups.

WALT:

‘Sift’ key messages from the text

Success Criteria:

Identify key words

Explore a key phrase with a partner

Make connections (to David Street School)

Re-write information in our own words

Evaluate information by adding -agree or disagree to researcher statements