Te Hiku Sensemaking - Manaiakalani

Today the Woolf Fisher Team was presenting the online observation data taken at the end of Term 2, 2020. Click on this link to view the Te Hiku - OLO & Qs presentation 2020

What does your classroom 'text diet' look like?

These slides have definitely made me realise that my classroom has a certain type of 'text diet'; school journals, PM Readers, Reading to Read, short videos related to text, NZ and Maori voice. 

I need to include more short fiction, poetry and news and make it visible on my class site. I read extended texts to the students but don't often offer them extended texts (group novels etc). I don't put our shared books on our class site which is something I will change from now.

Think about having a range of texts for students to see themselves in the text or to see out their window into another world; for example cultural, local context, national, international.

Do my students understand why they are using a certain text or have exposure to lots of different texts? There were some examples of teachers in Manaiakalani explaining about T-shaped literacy approaches to student so they understand why teachers use multi-modal literacy choices. Click on the link to view the OLO Exemplars

Now that you have seen the data, what would you talk to teachers about in terms of what a classroom 'text diet' should look like?

One of the points that came out was that there was no emphasis on purpose of the text that was evident online - this has made me think again - what should be on our class sites? Is there a risk of too much information which can confuse students, lots of what is being discussed around this data is probably the focus on guided reading sessions. This is where we need to 'capture' guided reading discussion, peer discussion. This thought is shared by our teachers and leaders here today.

Other links to Term 4 mahi - Te Hiku Term 4 Staff Meeting 2020

Inquiry 2020 - What has worked?

Term 4 - Week 3 - What worked in this literacy inquiry?

• Small group situation. 
• Opportunities to choose how to collaborate and share 
• Focus on acceleration, not thinking remedial!
• Celebrating success  
• The students understood what acceleration was and were excited that they were going to accelerate in their reading/writing. This engaged them in the group and motivated them to get started.
• The students felt safer sharing their ideas in the smaller group, getting the reassurance that they were correct.
• The students were part of the teaching and planning of the lessons - scribe, what can we do to meet these goals?
• Using text/exemplars at level (NZC) with scaffolds gave the students confidence in themselves to read at a higher level. High expectations, resulted in higher learning!
• The language ‘Prove it’ and ‘Justify it’ helped the students to make it a habit, to read for meaning.
• The students found reading/writing more meaningful when they had a clear purpose for their reading/writing and they had a choice in what they were reading/writing.
• The focus on making connections to prior knowledge and ideas in text in each lesson generated lots of enthusiastic discussion on each topic.
• Reinforcing known strategies using exemplars, helped to engage the students in the reading process. It helped them with their understanding of what was being read and made them enjoy  reading more.

Term 3 - Inquiry - Acceleration

 Term 3 Week 7-9 - Learning in the Fast Lane - 8 ways to put all students on the way to academic success by Suzy Rollins - IMPLEMENTING ACCELERATION

The focus for the target literacy group has been around having more choice in their literacy learning and having the opportunity to collaborate more with their peers during  this time.

There have been positives and challenges to this focus.

The positives have seen the students self-efficacy increase which has led to an increase in self-confidence and engagement in learning. The shift in academic achievement for 2 students in particular is clearly evident during reading sessions and a significant shift has occurred in one of the students reading behaviors.

One of the most effective strategy changes has been handing over the reins of learning to the students. In the past they have been the receivers of information and been directed to their learning. By offering the students choices, they have shown that they are more enthusiastic learners during their learning sessions by being in the right place at the right time without being monitored. When using their group books, they have enjoyed taking turns doing the writing in their shared book and have worked more collaboratively to work out the meanings of unknown words.

The students have been on a systematic reading schedule since Week 5. They read with our teacher aide 4 x per week individually with an independent levelled book and then they join their reading group for guided reading at an accelerated level! This has seen an evident increase in their ability to decode in group reading sessions and in terms of more understanding.

Next steps: The students will continue to focus on self monitoring their reading meaning when they come to a word in the text that they do not understand, a voice in their head will say “Uh on, I don’t get this - problem! Warning Bells! Time to stop and do something about it. These reading strategies will be explicitly taught during guided reading sessions. 

The students are continually focused on what good readers do i.e good readers don’t guess, good readers use their ‘Handful of Clues’ strategies to work out what they are reading.

Student Design for Learning - Digital Create with DLOs to support High Leverage Practices (HLPs)

Manaiakalani Principals and Lead Teacher Meeting - Paparore School 18th September

Presenter: Dr Naomi Rosedale - Woolf Fisher

Naomi's research has included 520 DLO's across 18 Manaiakalani school's and one of the key finding's of this research is the fact that 85% of the DLO's are google slides. 40% of these are teacher templates. 

This led me on to thinking ... what is the DLO for? Is the purpose the same each time? Do the student's know why they are creating a DLO? Celebrating what students have been learning is only one reason for DLO's. How are students in my class and at our school currently sharing their learning?

How have these definitions clarified/conflicted with your own? 

I think that students need to understand the purpose of why they are creating each DLO. Is it to share learning, is it to teach others (rewindable learning) or is it to create a digital creation using a variety of modes to show learning content.

How can we create a DLO that has more agency from the learner using the new technologies learnt. What are some  opportunities to extend student DLO practices? 

Which DLO is more effective??? Which DLO is supporting the learning?? 

Which DLO will others want to learn from?

When creating a DLO, what can image, audio, video do that text doesn't do?

Process and Product - how do student have the opportunity to personalise their DLO's? 

We should at least be operating at orange.

MAPIC is an acronym to help teachers aim for more ambitious outcomes for learning. 

MODE

AMPLIFICATION

PERSONALISATION

INTERACTION

COHERENCE

How can we scaffold our learners to create DLO's that have more ambitious learning outcomes? 

How to examples ...

• Don't think of DLO as needing to be a polished product but a learning product. For example last 10 mins of each lesson could be discussion (recorded) in small groups of what they learnt, voice recorder, screen castify (2- 3mins)

Today's Presentation: Dr Naomi Rosedale - Woolf Fisher

Minecraft: Education Edition

Today I took part in a tool kit about Minecraft Education Edition led by Otako Kaufusi from Microsoft and Morgan McKeen from Noel Leeming.

Otako spoke about his 'why' for working within the tech industry. He talked about the fact that Maori and Pacifica people make up 25% of the population but make up only 2% of those working within the tech industry. 

Minecraft is a platform to engage ALL students in their learning and encourage more to enter the tech world.

Minecraft: Education Edition is available at no cost to all state and integrated schools under the Microsoft 365 A3 licensing. At this time, it is supported on the newest operating systems for PC, iPad and Mac and is now available on Chromebooks!

A focus of this session is on the unique world of Nga Motu and how it can be used in the classroom to explore te reo Māori, te ao Māori and tikanga whilst at the same time showcasing the educational features of the game such as the in game camera and portfolio to document learning. This is a video shown during the presentation to outline how Nga Motu can be used in the classroom.

You don't have to be an expert in Minecraft to use this in your class. Students will be engaged from the onset and as a teacher your role is being open to offering this platform for learning to your students.

Google World and Microsoft World can work together.

Reflection

I have students who are already very engaged in gaming, especially Minecraft. I have looked into using Minecraft in the past in my classroom but have always found it too hard to do as I felt like I was not an expert and could not validate the learning that is taking place.

As I have become more experienced in using technology to 'turbo charge' my students learning. I know that Minecraft would engage my students but now I understand how  Minecraft can be a learning tool for my students too.  

Term 3 - Inquiry - Taking Action

 What has gone well?

Handful of Clues has been a great tool for the students to independently use their reading strategies to decode unknown words. Using the prompt has been a way to move the students towards more independence.

What has been a challenge? 

Choice has been a challenge for my target students. They continually choose to do the easiest option and if they think that someone is not looking they will move onto something else. Student Agency has been the focus in class but has been a challenge for most of target students.

Let us know about an ‘aha’ moment with your students?

Reading with student 1 during group session, using handful of clues tool, student 1 was able to sound out 3 unknown words independently using the handful of clues. The delight in his voice when he worked out the word ‘children’ was great to hear. He used his vowel sounds  independently and was able to chunk the sounds. He stopped and really thought about the fact that he does guess every time he reads and he doesn’t have to as he has some reading strategies that he can use.

Where to next?

Focused group work, more choice to CREATE and share learning in different ways. BRAINSTORM ways that the students would like to share their literacy learning.

Something to think about ....

Te Hiku - Manaiakalani CREATE Staff Meeting - This meeting gave me lots to think about in terms of what I could be doing to amplify student learning ESPECIALLY for my target students literacy sessions!

Term 3 - Teaching Inquiry - What's happening?

Term 3 - Week 1-3

Self Managing independent learning has been the focus across the class this term. This is something that has not been as much as an option for the target students. In previous times, the students have struggled with what to do, and managing themselves to actually do their learning, there was very little motivation to do the right thing at the right time in the right place.

The term started well with the students enjoying having the opportunity to make choices in their learning in terms of who they sit with, what they are working on. I have called this a trial and the students understand that this is an opportunity for them to have more choice.

I have adjusted my planning to allow more choices in the students writing and reading. Writing has 3 writing choices with a similar theme. The goal for the target students is to write 4-5 quality sentences independently using a planning template as a scaffold. In Week 3 this includes a video, google slide deck with pictures and a paper planning template.

I tried using the students blog for writing, they were happy to do a blog post and were even happier when they realised it was their writing. This was an aha moment as up to that point they have thought of reading and writing as separate subjects. I had thought they knew they were linked but clearly I need to make this link for them. 

They were happy to use their blogs to respond to their reading and were also happy to show that they could take a partial screenshot of an illustration in the book that they wanted to use.

I have been using a ‘Workflow’ spreadsheet in class for the students to manage their learning. Some of the students have enjoyed this, however my target group have found the transition tricky as they require more reassurance. It feels a fine line between them asking for help and and not wanting to persevere. This has been a tricky juggling act.

2020 Teacher Inquiry

‘Will I accelerate the learning outcomes for my target students in literacy, by providing more opportunities for collaboration and student choice in learning, creating and sharing in literacy?

Scanning - What's happening for my priority learners at the moment in literacy?

I am focusing on six Year 4 students as part of this inquiry. All the students are boys and have had difficulty in literacy since starting school. All of the students are more positive about reading than writing. Although reading is challenging, the students enjoy reading sessions but only one student genuinely reads for pleasure outside of our class reading. Two of the six students write at home regularly with whanau support.

Poor decoding skills and/or lack of vocabulary/word acquisition means reading is challenging for these students.

Each of the students needs lots of prompting and support to get started on writing. This is a more difficult area for the students than reading. It has taken these students 2 terms to even attempt writing independently and writing output is low for most. Four of the students write 3-5 sentences per writing session.The difficulty often comes back to 'what do I write?' Even 'Free Writing Friday' needs encouragement for topic choice.

Two of the students write more but it often does not make sense and is hard to follow due to spelling errors.

All of the students do not recognise when their writing does not make sense or when they have made errors in their spelling or punctuation.

I have been reading the Woolf Fisher Research Centre 2017 Case Studies as a guide for effective practices (digital pedagogy in relation to literacy outcomes) to support further innovation in the classroom.

These are some of the slides that I thought would support my inquiry as well as the text 'Learning in the Fast Lane: 8 Ways to Put ALL Students on the Road to Academic Success' by Suzy Pepper Rollins.

Kahui Ako - Within School Teachers Day

The 'Achievement Challenges' of the Kahui Ako (22 schools): 

Goal 1: To strengthen students’ engagement with their schooling. 
Goal 2: To lift the achievement of all students in writing. 
Goal 3: To lift achievement at NCEA Level 2.

The goal has been to develop a 'Teaching and Learning' context across our kahui that is built on teacher inquiry around, ‘Quality Teaching and Learning.’ 

My role is the in-school Kahui Ako teacher and our school is part of the Quality Teaching and Learning inquiry.

In school role - bringing people together, promoting best teaching practice, collaboration, try to capture key ideas, facilitating inquiries 

My Inquiry - What am I learning? What changes can be made? How can I make a difference for my students?

Inquiry at Paparore School

Next Steps

• Paparore School Action Plan - shared Kahui Ako folder
• Staff Collaborative Slides - Snapshot of inquiry thinking right now
• Catch up with staff to discuss inquiries before the end of the term.

Sense Making Manaiakalani Meeting - Higher Leverage Practices - HLPs

The Woolf Fisher team (Selena and Naomi) joined our Te Hiku Manaiakalani Cluster on a google meet to help us to unpack the Reading data. 

Today we are exploring some goals and ideas for reading across the cluster as reading is the focus for the year. 

This is a video about High Leverage Practice from the Woolf Fisher Team.

Schools in the cluster shared some examples of high leverage practice examples (HLP) they have tried in their teaching. 



The teachers shared so many great examples of high leverage teaching practices shared today such as;

• T-shaped literacy
• front-loading
• modelling
• motivation and engagement of learners
• multi-level texts
• collaboration
• discussion
• language acquisition

It is fantastic to be part of the Te Hiku cluster with the Woolf Fisher data guiding our practice and learning from so many talented teachers. There are so many things to think about to improve the outcomes of our students in reading but it is clear that our cluster is on the right track!

'Teaching Back in the Classroom'

Although I enjoyed teaching from home, it has been great to get back into the classroom to see all the students. They were all so excited to see each other this week. There are quite a few changes in place at school which ensure everyone is safe. The biggest changes that affect our class are: we start early and finish early - Start 8am, pack up at 1.30, Pick-ups at 1.45 and Bus leaves at 2pm. Everyone uses hand sanitise when we leave the class and when we enter the class. The students sit at their own tables with no moving around the classroom. All the student know that if they spread their arms out and can touch someone, they are too close. Our break times are different from the juniors to make sure we can maintain social distancing in the playground. The students keep their bags and drink bottles by the classroom.

The students were very keen to get into their learning this week and most showed excellent self management skills to navigate their learning on the class site. They will be working hard next week to share their learning on their blogs. Our class were able to have a whole google hangout with two of the students who are learning from home, which was awesome as it was one of the students birthdays! I have been in contact with these students and they will join us for at least 3 hangouts next week which will be great. One of my students is working from home but does not have any connectivity. I have arranged work for him while he is at home.

Overall I was very impressed with the class and their focus. I had to video them while they were working as it was so so impressive!

Distance Learning - Week 4

I can't believe that we have already been learning online for 4 weeks this term. I feel like the time has whizzed by thanks to the effort that the students are putting into their learning. I have 21 students in my class. One of my students does not have connectivity at home and his whanau did not want a device, so I have been dropping off learning packs to him every 2 weeks. Every morning I log in and I am greeted by at least 15 of my 21 students each day.

The students have a weekly timetable to follow which is on our site.



We  start everyday online at 9am with a specific focus. It may be sharing news or learning, blog commenting and on Friday it is 'Free Writing Friday'. I then schedule in reading and math groups until 12.30. I see 15 of the students at least once a day if not twice and the other 5 students check in during the week at least twice. All of our google meets are optional. Our learning is on the class site so if the students do not join into the google meets, it is fine as they can access their learning from the class site independently. If the students choose to join our google meets, they follow our google meet etiquette. The following poster has been very helpful for managing the students and they need very few reminders now compared to 2 weeks ago. This is on our class site.

I have found the reading and math groups a fantastic way to continue teaching as the very keen students are always there. My target students are often at these small group sessions so it has been very beneficial to have such quality time with these students that I may not have had in the classroom. Some of the students use our sessions together for questioning, for help and it's always good for them to talk about their learning with others. We have also used these sessions for blogging.

I record every session though I have not stopped the recording for each session which means some of my recordings are 4 hours long. However I have found the recordings really helpful to inform my teaching. It is something I should do more in the classroom and I will look to do that when I am back at school.

We have been doing FREE WRITING FRIDAY as a group for the past 2 weeks during our 9am catch up. Last week we had 16 keen writers and this morning we had 11! Our writing focus is on FREE WRITING which means the students can write about anything at all! They know that re-crafting and editing is important however this session is all about sharing thoughts and ideas without worrying about mistakes. The students can re-craft and edit at a later date if they choose to. It is amazing how much writing can be achieved in a 20 minute writing session.



The students are doing well but definitely losing steam by Friday so I decided to make Friday a 'Fun Day' focus to encourage the students to keep motivated until the end of the week. We had a lot of fun today with our scavenger hunts. It was a really fabulous way to end the week with the students saying things like, 'this is the best day ever' and 'I can't wait for next week' which is awesome!

We finished the week online with our class assembly where I acknowledged each student who received reading certificates, Mathletics awards and class certificates. Click on this link to check them out. I shared my screen and the students celebrated each achievement. Each of the certificates were emailed to the student and their parents email addresses. Some of the students have chosen to share their certificates in their blogs which has been fantastic. 

I am unsure of how many more weeks I may be teaching from home but I am very pleased with the efforts my class are putting into their learning and I feel confident that we will have success sooner in the classroom when we return because of their efforts!

Distance Learning - Week 2-3

The past two weeks have whizzed by even though I have only left my road 3 times! I'm finding that teaching from home has it challenges and benefits and each day I am thankful that our school is part of Manaiakalani Outreach. I find myself continually going back into my DFI folder to use some tool or trick to make teaching from home more effective and I have also found the 'Teachers Using Google Suite for Education' Group on Facebook helpful too. 

ANZAC Day looked a little different this year in my home 'classroom'. I set up an ANZAC Day page on our class site with plenty of different choices for the students to make in their learning. During the week we discussed the different ways that we could commemorate ANZAC Day at home and on Friday 24th April our first google hangout of the day was all about ANZAC Day. I encouraged the students to wear a poppy, wear red or bring something that they had made during the week. It was a very bright hangout.

This was my ANZAC Day backdrop during our google hangout and my ANZAC commemorations that I shared with the class.

Reflections on Week 2-3:

Positives: 

• Adding a meeting code to our hangouts has meant that students can not join the hangout if I am not there.
• 15-17 students join our first google hangout of the day, everyday.
• Most students connect to at least one of our google hangouts each day.
• More students are starting to share their learning on their blog without prompting. 
• Students have commented that they have watched my 'how to blog' videos. They are using the videos to help them instead of emailing me.
• A few of the students who needed support from their whanau to access their learning are not needing as much help now as they have become confident using our class site.
• Students are more willing to share their learning during our google hangouts.
• Sharing the document link in the chat works better for the students than looking for the link on the class site.

Challenges: 

• Some students are not prepared to take part in learning during group sessions and think they are just there to say hello. I need to work on this still - I need to be clear with the group session expectations as I am with the whole class sessions.
• A few students are pushing boundaries during the hangouts. It is tricky as I am glad they are joining in, but they need to remember that there are expectations as they are joining our online classroom.
• I will reiterate expectations verbally and with a visual.
• Each student has quite different expectations of what home learning looks like in their homes. 
• I have listened to and read a lot about the expectations on teachers, students and whanau during this unusual time. The most important thing to consider is is everyone okay? Being encouraging and kind is the first and foremost thought for our me in our class. I have realised quickly that I can encourage, engage and try to motivate the students using the class site and our google hangouts however it comes down to their whanau as to what they will actually do each week. Adding pressure and anxiety during an already stressful situation is not what the students or their families need. For this reason, I will continue to run a full learning programme via our class site and hangout. I will encourage, support and suggest but not pressure the students in the learning that they do.

Distance Learning - Term 2 - Week 1

What a fantastic turn out it was from the class at today's hangouts. I was so impressed with the effort that the students put into their learning today. We had a whole class catch up, 2 math groups and then 4 small hangouts throughout the afternoon for those who needed some help to sort out technical issues.

Some of the students have learnt to add extensions to their chromebooks, namely the grid view for google hangouts and Screencastify and are becoming more confident when presenting their screens to share learning or troubleshoot any tech problems.

One of my students wanted to share a few chords he has been learning on his guitar. It was so great to see his confidence in terms of sharing his screen and playing for us. 

Reflections on Week 1:

Positives: 

• Most students connected to at least one of our google meets each day.
• Students were very enthusiastic and positive about what they were going to do each day.
• Overall connection for most students was good and they had a positive experience during the hangouts.
• Group sessions - at least half of the group joined each session.
• A few students have started to share their learning on their blog without prompting.

Challenges: 

• Students can join the hangout when I am not in it which has been discouraged by myself and school. I'm going to add a code to our sessions
• Some students are taking longer to navigate the class site than others during groups sessions. Next week I will try to have a few 1:1 sessions with a few students if they are able to to. This will help them to feel more confident.
• Some students are not prepared to take part in learning during group sessions and think they are just there to say hello. I need to be clear with the group session expectations as I am with the whole class sessions.
• Each student has quite different expectations of what home learning looks like in their homes. 
• I have listened to and read a lot about the expectations on teachers, students and whanau during this unusual time. The most important thing to consider is is everyone okay? Being encouraging and kind is the first and foremost thought for our me in our class. I have realised quickly that I can encourage, engage and try to motivate the students using the class site and our google hangouts however it comes down to their whanau as to what they will actually do each week. Adding pressure and anxiety during an already stressful situation is not what the students or their families need. For this reason, I will continue to run a full learning programme via our class site and hangout. I will encourage, support and suggest but not pressure the students in the learning that they do.
• Very few students are using their blogs. I will use at least one group hangout to focus on blogging. For those who need help I will have 1:1 sessions. I will also make learning videos for our class site. Check these out on our cybersmart page - Click here

Something else to think about:

I wonder if some of the students will want to share more often online compared to in class as they feel very comfortable and more confident in front of a group within their own homes. It's something I will be mindful of moving forward.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Teacher Connect

I took part in my first Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu teacher connect today which was fantastic. It was great to hear from other teachers about their blogging experience and I appreciated seeing some excellent blog exemplars. 

I learnt quite a lot about how to use google hangouts successfully during this catch up and managed to add 'grid view' which made the meeting experience better. 

I made a video using screen castify to teach my class how to add grid view. Most have used it to add this extension to their own chromebooks which is great.

Covid-19 - Distance Learning

The presence of Covid-19 in NZ had already seen community events, sports practices and games as well as whanau celebrations cancelled due to restrictions that had previously been put in place. However as of 11.59pm Wednesday night, the country was placed in lockdown, only essential businesses can operate for the next 4 weeks and schools are closed.

For the past three weeks at school, we had been educating the students about Covid-19 and the importance of having good hand hygiene practice. This means washing your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds. If students sneezed or coughed they knew to do this into their elbow. We had also been encouraging students to greet each other in non contact ways. Hand sanitiser had become a go to after each learning session and the students were becoming very aware of the word social-distancing. 

The Nanogirl videos were very helpful with this learning process and the students understood things very clearly after watching her videos. You can find the link to these videos on our Te Manga class site - click here

In anticipation of schools closing I felt quite prepared. I had decided last weekend to start planning for what distance learning might look like for my class and felt confident that most of my class would be able to manage their learning online as they have worked from the class site since the first week of school.  To help my students and whanau prepare for distance learning I prepared a home pack with a detailed newsletter for them to use at home for their learning. Click on this link to the class newsletter. I also set up a google group and have been in email contact with all my class whanau. When we were told on Monday that the country was moving into lockdown, I felt that I had given as much information as I could, so that my class and their whanau were as prepared as they could be, given the circumstances.

As this week has progressed, the Ministry of Education moved quickly to bring the school holidays forward which in effect meant that the students only had 4 learning days at home this week. I had sorted learning for the students for 2-3 weeks. It's worked out well, the students who love doing things had plenty to do and the students who don't always like to do as much could pick and choose what they wanted to do. Less stress for families. 

I have had 2 google hangout's with my class this week which have been quite fun and excellent learning too. The feel that the more practice I have at google hangouts the easier they will be. 

They also have activities to work on over the holidays if they want to which include fitness, science, art, construction and zoo visits. Here are some of the examples of what the students can do.

Check out all the activities by clicking on this link to our class site

I am planning on being offline next week to enjoy the time at home with my whanau for school holidays but I will have hangouts with three of my students who have birthdays during the holidays and I will run 2 google hangouts in Week 2 of the school holidays to get the students thinking about Term 2 - Week 1.