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.