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

 

Valuing Cultures

I had the privilege of attending the recent Piako Cultural Festival where students from local schools celebrate the/their Maori culture through kapahaka. It was a great reminder of how powerful it is for Maori students to celebrate their culture and feel pride for who they are.

As a part of the build up, I was asked to join the boys for their practices for behavioral reasons. What hit home very quickly for me at these practices was the importance to these boys to have me (a male and their teacher) there to support them and most of all value their culture and what they were learning and sharing. To see the boys who are disengaged and feel out of place at times in class, instead thriving, motivated and striving to give it their all was just amazing.

It's not always easy to get outside of your comfort zone and place yourself in someone else's culture as you feel like you will make a mistake, or you don't belong, but this is far from the truth. So, I am reminded of the importance I must place on valuing my Maori students by attending these practices and events and making the effort to really show them that I care and am interested in who they are and their culture by participating as well.

My goal for next year is to learn the haka with the boys.

Student Feedback on Literacy and Learning

It was very interesting to get some feedback from the students about writing, reading i-Time projects and my teaching. Every student surveyed enjoys writing and reading which is great, although they all had feedback for how it could be better.

• Being able to write about what they want all of the time
• No reflections
• Less time talking about writing on the mat
• Help with getting started
• Longer deadlines and less interruptions by teachers 

These are a range of responses for how to make writing better and how can I be better at teaching writing. When I see these responses they make me think about adapting my practice to help improve their experience and learning.

• Being able to write about what the want all of the time.

The students have a lot of independent choice in their writing which is great. It makes me realise though that when the context and purpose is relevant and real that they don't see transactional writing as a chore. When the context or purpose is forced this is when enjoyment is removed.

• No reflections

A number of students said they don't like reflecting on their learning and success criteria. They felt it is hard enough to write, let alone think about making their writing better while writing. For me this comes back to accountability. Most kids just want to do what they want and don't like being made to be accountable for improving. We have relied on reflection movies to help with this accountability as peer reviews are what make the students want to be at their best. Regular reflection through teacher conversations works for those that are motivated learners but not those that are not.

• Less time talking on the mat and less interruptions

This comes back to me. I need to action this as I often get wound up in the task and behaviour and loose focus or emphasis on the success criteria. Knowing the kids who made this comment, did make me chuckle, because they are the ones who are distracted and go away not knowing what we are doing. Something for me to work on though thats for sure.

•  Help getting started

I feel like this has improved immensely and it was only one student who mentioned this. I have been using far more models lately so this is why only one student mentioned it. The student is extremely dependent in all learning area's as well. But, this shows me that I need to cater to their needs and provide some support and encouragement without telling.

• Longer deadlines

This made me laugh. Boys! Maybe some learning around priortising time better. Saving the socialising for after instead of before. I do think we rush through learning at times though and don't allow for sustained silent writing time.

So in general, so work ons for me. I am pleased that they all enjoy writing and that they all felt that the rubrics we are using are worth while as they like knowing where they are. For the most part they like the writing workshops as well, so the change of teaching approach has worked there.

Link to feedback

Student Voice

This year more than any at DSS, student voice has impacted on learning approaches and learning contexts. We know we want to encourage and embrace learner agency as it is proven to improve engagement in learning by allowing the students to take ownership of what they learn, how they learn and how they improve.

I thought I would list a number of contexts where student agency has happened / is happening this year, followed by some reflections based on Literacy learning.

• Choosing topics to write about.
• Choosing format for writing about a topic.
• Choosing/creating independent learning activities in reading.
• Access to learning progressions for maths so students can take charge of their own learning.
• Writing Rubrics and next steps for the same reasons as above.
• Opportunities to opt into workshops.
• Opportunities to opt into an area of art they are interested in (the gallery workshops).
• Passion Projects and i-Time projects. Projects relating to a passion of their own.
• Opportunity to opt into cultural groups for inquiry in term 2. The opportunity to then choose what aspect of that culture that interests them.
• The opportunity to co construct learning in concept time. In term 2 and 3, the students questions have led the direction of learning and veered from planned path.
• Opportunities to present work in multiple mediums/medias.

To expand on one of these area's I have focused on Literacy:

The students tell us constantly through conversations or through body language that they want to write about what they are interested in. When they are forced to write about something they do not connect with they lack motivation and interest and the outcomes are often below their own standards. When asked what they wanted:

1. To be able to write about what we want to write about. 
2. To know the purpose for doing what we are doing. So what? Why?
3. To know how to get better.
4. To have time to ourselves to do things.

None of the above are anything new to me, as these are very common things students want. But often getting the balance between what we as teachers know that they need to learn and what we know they want to do is the hard part. So what have I/we done about this.

1. Provide choice. Choice on the format of how to write about a context (letter, recount, explanation) and provide choice in what they write about (independent choice writing weeks).
2. We introduced RAFT which is helping the students understand the role and audience they are writing for. We have tried to allow/plan concepts contexts to create an authentic need/purpose for writing  (cultural inquiry, reporting to parents about what we have learned)(justifying our choices when designing our garden space).  We have also changed our practice from teacher a genre piece of writing to teacher skills in workshops that can then be put back into writing pieces. This has been a big shift for us.
3. We have introduced the writing rubrics to show where they students are and where to next for each feature of writing (although our focus has been narrower than all features).
4. Allowing time for the students have independent writing time where they get a choice in what they write about.

How has this impacted on their learning outcomes?

1. For a number of students this has resulted in an increase in motivation and the quantity of what they have written. It has not translated into improved writing skills. Feedback from the students is that they don't want to think about all of the things they need to do to get better at writing, they just want to write. For some students the freedom is actually a barrier. They find to much choice confusing and it creates indecision about what to write about. They prefer to have some suggestions that they can then choose from.
2. Knowing the purpose and audience has helped most students understand what they are writing for, although this does not always mean that they change the way they write to suit the audience and purpose. I think due to their current maturity levels, they tend to want to write for themselves, forgetting what the audience would want to hear. You see this in the students writing, where the writing matches or is suitable for the audience, these students tend to be the more mature ones of their cohort.
3. All students feedback that they like to know where they are or what level they are. They would like to move to the next level, but the rubrics don't help this, or are to much hard work to achieve. They also just want to write without thinking about how to write. This makes me think re-crafting is still one of the biggest and hardest skills to learn. They currently think first draft is final draft.
4. The students do enjoy having time to themselves to be able to write, however, when the topic is an independent chosen one, they seem to think they are unable to show the skills they have learned in this type of writing. Evidencing success criteria is new to the students so it is not a natural embedded habit yet. When there is consistency through the school and time, I think the habits and common language will rectify some of these beliefs. My view is that silent writing time is important for the students. They can not make this time themselves so it will be important for me to help provide the environment for them.

Feedforward from Ann Grady Observation

I was lucky enough to be observed by Ann Grady yesterday, which resulted in some constructive and very useful feedback on the lesson.

She observed a lesson with my target group of students who are Well Below - Below writers.

Yes!  Use audience and purpose with this group to engage them.  These students need a strong sense of purpose to keep them ‘on track’ with their writing.

Yes!  It would be a good idea to make this group’s focus the guided work they do with you.

Yes!  Make connections to sentence structures in reading so that they get a sense of ‘auxillary’ verbs.

Ensure your model includes auxillary verbs and that you model this process/use of – for your students.

You may need to include a ‘space’ in your graphic organiser for the helping verb.

Think about the pace/excitement/zest that you model for them as a writer.

2^nd group:

-working on connecting sentences

-relating them to the purpose/audience

- 5 day pattern of learning

Very helpful.

Level 1/2 writers

Level 2/3 writers

Modeling

A goal I have identified in my teaching of writing is to improve my use of models of writing. After watching myself teaching on video and reflecting with Rob after my observation, we identified that I need to consistently provide effective and appropriate models for the students to use in writing.

So since my observation I have:

• Written pieces myself - Please stop cooking mushy greens!
• Crafted sentences or skills that demonstrate the workshop purpose
• Used models from other teachers
• Co-created word walls with the students for the students to use
• Modelled the writing process

Modelling is something that I always have done, but the observed lesson showed the importance of modelling the right part of the writing process or for the purpose of the lesson.

This has been great for me to see how hard it is to write at times, and for the children to see that I am just like them and make mistakes as well.

Reflection on Reflections!

In one of my posts from earlier this year I wrote the following:


What will I do about this? Through making the learning clear (split screening), and by adding accountability to the kids to put learning in workshops into practice in their independent writing. If the students can show where they have used a skill they have learned, then they and I will know the have been successful.
So how has this gone so far? Has it been successful? How do I know?

The split screening is still a work in progress as I have the confusion of using split screening as a tool for learning skills or a tool for learner assets or both???? I am not confident with this yet so I will post about it in the future when I can more confidently comment on its success or not.

Adding accountability has been hugely successful, with an improvement in the ability of the students to use, discuss and share the skills they have learned in workshops. So far the workshops have focused on vocabulary (super verbs, upgrading vocab to more precise and technical words and using wow words) and writing simple sentences using this improved vocabulary.

Our success criteria was, 'to be able to demonstrate and show where I have upgraded my vocabulary in my writing'. The students learned some skills around this in our workshops and then put it into their writing. They also went back through previous pieces and recrafted by upgrading the vocab.

As part or our cycle we have a fortnightly reflection and sharing session where the students reflect on their writing against the success criteria by highlighting where they have done this, and then recording a quick movie to explain how they did this. They then have a sharing time with their peers (groups of four students of mixed ability and peers) where they have to share their work and show what they have done. They also have to comment / feedback on the others in their group by orally feeding back with a star and a wish and commenting on their peer's blogs.

This process has placed the onus back on the students to take ownership for their learning and accountability to be able to show what they learned and where they can prove they have used it. Peer assessment is such a valuable motivator for them all. They embrace it and thrive on it. This has been a real success and will be a regular as part of our routines now.

How do I know it has been successful?

I know it has been successful because all of the students are able to do this reflecting and sharing which is great for their own confidence. The students are thinking about their writing and taking ownership now and not relying on the teachers. I can see the improved use of more powerful and purposeful vocab in their writing every day in class. I can see it in the e-asttle results for a good number of the students. I can hear it in their ability to discuss how they use language to add detail and enhance their writing for their audience. I can see it in their willingness to share with the class what they have written. I can see it in their confidence and smiles when they hear the positive feedback they get from their peers and their teachers.

Below is an example of what it looks like. This is the first time we have done this, this year, so I expect the students will get much better at doing this as they do it more regularly. First time around not all students created a movie. All students highlighted their work but most shared it orally and explained in person in the sharing sessions. In seeing this model below the students all now know what is expected and will all be required to make the movies in the future.