Boys in Literacy PD - 25/09/2020

 Name of Course/Programme/Seminar:

Boys in Literacy PD

Provider/Presenter:

Marshall Diggs 

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?

• Teach and develop Reading Strategies which invite boys to create, compete and imagine
• Teach boys these 4 strategies: Making Inferences, Making Connections, Decoding, Summarising

• Boys will read material that interests them and captivates their attention

• Boys shouldn’t be sitting for longer than their age and 10 minutes

• You can have control OR you can have growth, but you can’t have both

• Your greatest contribution at school is not what you can teach - it’s WHO YOU TEACH

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

• This PD was a reminder about the importance of knowing my learners.
• Use to my advantage the positive relationship I have with my boys as the stepping stone of really making a difference with their learning in literacy
• It hasn't changed my thinking - it's reaffirmed my thinking - particularly around the strategies I should be teaching in Reading. From the Sheena Cameron PD, earlier in the year, I had identified similar strategies as the NEED in my classroom. Today's PD confirmed I'm on the right track.
• Reminder that boys think, learn and work differently to the girls
• Move away from the traditional 'Writing genre teaching' and empower boys through engaging tasks that involve boys to write about facts, competition, humour, survival, conflict, adversity etc
• Inspire boys to WRITE through learning experiences - i.e the flying teabag experiment (Concrete Prompts for an Abstract Task)

What aspects of my practice would I consider changing as a result of this professional development and why?

• Some aspects of my literacy programme - include more warm-up games such as word association, Buddy A & Buddy B, Walk & Talk, Tap & Read
• Use videos to prompt writing
• Word Banks are effective when wanting students to remember key vocabulary (I had started this after the Sheena Cameron PD)
• Subtle Praise
• Boys shouldn't be sitting longer than their age + 10 minutes - so encourage them to walk about the class and elbow shake others or play the finger/palm game as little brain breakers
• Boys in Literacy PD 2020

 

Home Learning Part 2!

Description
Students in charge!

Significance
I got the idea from Poto's blog post - about giving the students time to talk, time to take ownership, time to lead!

Learning
Week 2 of Home Learning Part 2, I decided that Room 11 students will now host our morning calls. The decision was inspired by Poto's recent blogpost about letting the kids do more of the talking during the google calls.

The idea was mentioned last Friday in my class call with Room 11, response was 50/50, some looked excited and others didn't even blink. But thinking of lockdown and how i'd usually run my calls, it can be quite boring. If the students have no input or questions, they're sitting there for a good 45 minutes watching and listening to me. So, our first student-led session was this morning, I decided to choose Rottpon and Anna, because I know they'll get the job done and take the lead. I did provide an opportunity of 'volunteering' but I think they were still in shock, with the thought of 'Miss Tupou just said we had to run the meetings' - yikes!

But I know how my class works. Yes, they'll be hesitant and nervous at first, but once we get the ball rolling, they will roll it as far as they can.

So what?
I've learnt to practice what I preach! We often hear teachers talk about 'student voice is important' and 'learning should be student driven' but do we really let the students drive the learning? If so, how often?

As teachers, we're accustomed to the idea of 'leading the learning' and forget that our students watch us everyday. They know what we'd say, they know the class routines, they know EVERYTHING. Poto's reflection was a reminder for me to give my students a chance. A chance to have fun, to wear the 'teacher' shoe and to sit back and enjoy.

And that, is how Home Learning Part 2 is going :)

Blogpost #11 - Collecting Data

Describe how you will keep a record of each of the above in a manageable way

Having a plan for everything is part of teacher practice and as a CoL teacher. However, with the realities of Covid-19 and having been in lockdown twice this year, that plan wasn't executed as expected.
If you have a look at my previous blog posts, you will find out more about the changes I have recently made in my practice.

Collecting Data:

1. OTJ's - Overall Teacher Judgements
2. Assessments - Probe/PATs/Teacher Observation/Student Educational Output
3. Student Voice on reading & writing
4. Frequent Spelling/Grammar mini-tests
5. Student Blogposts
6. Video recordings of lessons
7. Learner Wall - display of student literacy work

Record Keeping:

1. ETAP graphs - these are produced once assessment results are entered
2. Spreadsheet 
3. PAT graphs
4. Video recordings of students working independently but also in guided reading sessions
5. Photos
6. Interlead Reflections
7. Observation notes (either from myself or from another Teacher who has come in to observe a lesson)
8. Student Voice - have a recorded visual/audio of a talanoa between students and teacher about their thoughts & feelings about Literacy and the focus on Vocabulary

Blog post #10 - Monitoring the effects

Identify informal and formal ways you are monitoring the effects of your changed practices/intervention on learner outcomes. Explain the reflections and tweaks you are making along the way 

1. Interlead Reflections - Glen Taylor School uses interlead as an appraisal tool. It allows us to reflect on our teacher practice as much as we want. From 'wow' moments, to 'fail' moments. It's a great way for me to monitor the effects of my own practice and the new changes I've implemented.
2. Student voice - this occurs informally and formally at GTS. Once a term, our learners provide learner voice on our practice. Informally, we use google forms or padlets to gage student ideas on what learning should look like for the term, what they enjoy most about each learning area, what Miss Tupou needs to work on etc. We are open to feedback from our learners because we tell them "We want to be the best teachers we can be, so be honest about what needs improving, no offence will be taken".
3. Teacher Observation - With shared reading, I've noticed student engagement is at an all time high. For the first couple weeks of re-introducing shared reading, we looked at song lyrics and spoken word poetry. Our goal was to 'infer using evidence from the text'. First time we worked on this as a class, it was a fail, due to interruptions through out the lesson (Kapa Haka rehearsal, support staff teachings, dentist appointments etc). So, I tried again the next day, with my whole class there. It was a huge success. The song was 'Dear Mr President' by PINK. We had a class copy put on the whiteboard and each student was given a copy of the lyrics. By the end of the lesson, most of the students had made 5+ inferences/anecdotes on their pieces of paper. Below is an example of one students anecdotes on a piece of spoken word poetry piece, we used for shared reading.

#9 - Inquiry Implementation

Describe how you will collect information about the implementation of your changed practices/intervention

What changes have I made in my teacher practice so far:

1. Having a balanced reading programme - Using 'The Reading Book' by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey and after attending an inspiring PD early this term (Term 3), hosted by Sheena and Louise,  I began to follow the recommended programme. So, I do teacher read for 10 minutes (also known as Modelled Reading), then we have Shared Reading for about 15 minutes, then it's time for the guided reading sessions (40 minutes), this is when Daily 5 takes place also, giving the students time for student-led learning and self-choice of the tasks, but also provide me with time to meet with groups. This is how my reading programme currently looks like, and it's on a roll!
2. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction - using resources & strategies that focus on improving vocabulary knowledge. (The Reading Book by Sheena Cameron).
3. Repeated exposures to new words/strategies to help determine word meanings - Some of the activities I'd include in my reading lessons were word diagrams, vocabulary ranking, front-loading of key words and its definition and analysing vocabulary choice. Miss Wilson Says pdf 
4. 2 minute warm-ups - At the beginning of my literacy block, I give my students 2 proverbs for the day. After screening the first proverb, students are encouraged to discuss in their table groups what they think the proverb means and why. It encourages critical thinking, vocabulary awareness and gives learners time to talk to each other.
5. Shared Reading - I gave up on shared reading last year because I felt like I wasn't doing it right. It also gave me more time to work with my groups. So basically, it was an easy way out. Sheena Cameron's PD inspired me to bring it back and do it right. She shared a sample planning template on how she plans for shared reading and how it would look like in the classroom. From that moment, I told myself "I'm going back to shared reading". I can say now, that in the first 3 weeks of doing this, the engagement went from 0-100. Maybe it's because our text types for those weeks were song lyrics and spoken word poetry. I knew it would hook my students in, so I decided to use it. But also, Sheena suggested doing so with the older kids (7&8).

#8 - Discuss and Blog post

My Inquiry Question and theory of action/chain of events

How will I change my teaching practice to ensure my learners are developing a deeper understanding of vocabulary (in Literacy)?

With the ever so changing year we're in, my inquiry has experienced twists and turns along the way. I was unsure of whether I was going to continue with this, or change it because of the impacts of lockdown, but evidence, assessment data and my heart tells me, to go back to square 1. Stick with the initial inquiry question because it's an area of concern in my class.

Theory of action

For a number of years, teachers and researchers have identified VOCABULARY as one of the key areas of concern amongst our learners. While our students have made great progress in Writing, there are still unanswered questions with why the results are not the same in Reading (vice versa). My concern is that students vocabulary knowledge will continue to be a weakness amongst our cluster and school community. For this reason, I decided to focus on the reading achievement for my inquiry challenge. 

In reading, I introduced the Daily 5 programme as a new approach to the teaching of reading. Reason for this, I felt a lack of structure to my reading programme. I needed something to follow, something of sequence and something that proposed order. Daily 5 has been great. It took 6-7 weeks to set-up the programme and I feel like it's an effective running programme in my class. All Daily 5 tasks support VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE, providing opportunities for students to read to self, read to someone, work on writing, word work and listen to reading. This Daily 5 tasks are great for independent activities and self-driven learning while I focus on my group guided sessions.

From this, I noticed when working with my groups that 'decoding' was a struggle. Bringing to awareness the need for a huge focus on VOCABULARY. Taking this into consideration, I began looking for resources that supports children's understanding of vocabulary. Some of the activities I'd include in my reading lessons were word diagrams, vocabulary ranking, front-loading of key words and its definition and analysing vocabulary choice. Miss Wilson Says pdf 

In addition to this, I finally opened up 'The Reading Book' by Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey. This was the missing piece to the puzzle. It provided me with a structure on how to run an effective reading programme, it made me bring back 'shared reading' into my programme, and it brought structure. #LightbulbMoment

The reasons I think these changes in my practice will be effective for my learners are because it brings increase focus on DECODING. Enabling learners to practise chunking, phonics and analogy. Small changes like paying attention to prefixes and suffixes, use of small whiteboards during shared reading and encouraging moments for 'think, pair, share', 'walk and talk' and 'tap and read', giving students base words and getting the learners to add prefixes and suffixes and even reading aloud rhyming words. These changes can result in huge progress. Says who? Says Sheena Cameron. 

Professional Reading #3

 Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme

The Reading Book

Author/s or Lecturer/s or Speaker/s

Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey

Synopsis

• Explicit teaching of Reading is important at all levels
• Reading for pleasure, Reading to support Writing, Reading to Learn
• Work to ensure students develop a love for a Reading and a love for Oral Language and Vocabulary
• Do a lot of Shared Reading with Year 7 & 8
• Reading Process - Critical Thinking, Cracking the Code (Decoding), Comprehension
•  

Motivation

• This Reading Book has helped re-ignite my passion for teaching Literacy. It started from the PD (beginning of Term 3) and since then, my planning for literacy has improved. It makes sense, I am more motivated to teach literacy and I have implemented changes into my planning and my teacher practice.
• I am CONFIDENT that with the changes/interventions I have in place, that my students will make great progress, come end of year assessments. I have more structure to my planning, I have goals in place and have belief that it's working in my class.

How will it help me? How has it helped me?

• This book has been a pivotal tool in my change of practice in literacy, particularly in Reading. In Term 3, I introduced a structured reading programme that includes modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.
• I have seen engagement from students that were disengaged from reading and hated the subject. Two students in particular would always claim they couldn't read any material whatsoever and would often ask me to read it for them. From Sheena's book + PD, she encouraged using song lyrics as a resource and use it to teach inferencing. I'd introduce the goal (WALT) through my shared reading lesson and continue it in the guided lesson. The inferences made by these students who claimed to not be able to read, was astounding. I highlighted parts of the lyrics for each student to infer. Responses from our discussions were recorded in the modelling book.
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So What?

• Having a structured reading programme and following it consistently has been very effective. If this is the result from having changed my practice a term ago, I can't wait to see the difference it continues to make over time.
• Yes, having a structured programme has been a positive change, but I believe including Pasifika cultural competencies in my practice has contributed to the success also. For example, demonstrating awareness of my learners identities, cultures and languages underpins the way they think and learn. Having positive and respectful relationships enhances learning and well-being for my Pasifika students. Inclusion of effective pedagogies for my Pasifika learners such as Talanoa, celebration of language weeks, authentic learning experiences such as making an 'umu, roasting a pig on the spit or making a hangi are moments in time the learners' will celebrate and remember forever.

Blogpost #7 - Plan and conduct detailed inquiry...

Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature.

Prior to lockdown, I decided to implement the Daily 5 reading programme in my class. It took me 6-7 weeks to set-up before launching it. It's been a success so far, the students enjoy the independence of selecting which daily 5 task they complete and in which order, in addition to the blocks I will be working with them.

However, I still felt like something was missing. I wasn't clear myself on what I wanted to see. But personally, I didn't feel the spark or the connection between my inquiry, what I had implemented and my students learning progress. I decided to approach other teachers in the CoL cluster for some insight, they suggest implementing dual language texts in my sessions, did that. Yet, I still felt the same.

Current Strengths:
After seeking some feedback from colleagues and other CoL teachers on planning, implementing an integrated curriculum and inquiring into a different approach for teaching literacy, I've identified the following aspects as strengths in my practice

- Being culturally responsive to my learners
- Inclusion of student voice
- Planning format changed (Merged aspects of ALL intervention + A balanced Reading programme by Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey)
- Clear learning intentions - student speak
-Respond to student voice and ideas
- Try something new - having a clear structure for my reading programme
- Integrated curriculum (cross-curricular approach) - ie. Celebrating events that provide authentic learning experiences for the students (Our Samoan Language Week, Ancient Egyptian Studies, Matariki - refer to slide below for evidence of work created by the students)

To date, I am pleased with the progress my Literacy Champs have made, especially during and after lockdown. I have seen an increment in engagement and student output. Although guided sessions have been minimal, I am still looking for a structure or proper reading programme to follow. Yes, Room 11 follows The Daily 5 reading programme, but I know and feel there is room for improvement.

From the literature I've read, I plan to continue adapting the method of TALANOA. I believe it creates unique opportunities for my students to engage, interact and communicate in a way they familiarise with, including talanoa in their first language. Taking into consideration my target students ethnic background, the group consists of dominantly PASIFIKA and MAORI students. The Pasifika way is spoken rather than written, based on oratory and verbal negotiation which have deep traditional roots in Pasifika cultures. Talanoa for Pasifika inquiries and researches will make available more valid and authentic information than other methodologies (Vaioleti, 2006)

Areas for Development: 
I hope to provide my students with more opportunities to recognise the vocabulary of literacy success. I also plan to have video recordings of a typical literacy lesson in my class where talanoa takes place, in hopes it captures students learning new vocabulary while in dialoague, or when completing follow-up tasks or independent activities.

I'm on the look out for a structured programme that is effective, easy to follow and makes sense to me. Right now, DAILY 5 feels like its only one piece of the puzzle. I am currently looking at the Reading Book by Sheena Cameron for some ideas. So I hope that provides me with the other piece to the puzzle i'm looking for.

I also plan to continue my talanoa with other CoL teachers who are working on the same achievement challenge and have a conversation about strategies that might be working well for them.

Professional Reading #2

Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme
Talanoa Research Methodology
Author/s or Lecturer/s or Speaker/s
Timote M Vaioleti
Synopsis
Author Timote argues that TALANOA is a personal encounter that enables peoples to story their issues, their realities and aspirations, allows more mo'oni (truth, pure, realities) information to be available...Talanoa can be referred to as a conversation, a talk, an exchange of ideas and thinking whether formal or informal. In a good talanoa encounter, noa creates the space and conditions, Tala intermingles the researcher/teacher and participants/students emotions, knowledges and experiences. This alliance leads to an energising and uplifting of the spirits, and to a positive state of connectedness and enlightenment (Vaioleti, 2006).
Motivation
This reading reinforces the importance of ensuring I know how to best communicate with my Pasifika learners. Taking into consideration my target students ethnic background, the group consists dominantly of Pasifika and Maori students. The Pasifika way is spoken rather than written, based on oratory and verbal negotiation which have deep traditional roots in Pasifika cultures. Talanoa for Pasifika inquiries and researches will make available more valid and authentic information than other methodologies. 
How will it help me? How has it helped me?
What I enjoy about talanoa with my students is the fact it removes distance and provides presence and a face they could connect to. It's a technique where the nature of the questions has not been determined in advance, but will depend on the way in which the Talanoa develops. It is a respectful, reciprocating interaction. The reciprocity embedded in the talanoa will raise the expectations that teacher and students have of each other, promoting mutual accountability, which adds to the trustworthiness and quality of the learning.
So What?

I'm going to encourage the talanoa methodology more effectively in my literacy lessons. Rather than having semi-structured comprehension open/close ended questions, give time and space for a talanoa to take place. Encourage the students to talanoa because research says that this particular methodological framework is more appropriate when inquiring or researching about Pasifika peoples (ie. my Pasifika learners).

Blog post #6: Most worthy hypotheses about teaching...

Explain the hypotheses about teaching that you decided were MOST worth testing, and why...

As identified in my blog post #5, my hypotheses are:

1. IF I provide opportunities for more authentic learning experiences, THEN my students will be able to read & write about it in a more communicative way, because they are able to make connections to it, and write in a way that connects their audience to the experience.
2. IF I see my target students consistently 3 times a week, for focused/guided sessions, THEN I can provide constructive feedback & feedforward on areas they need to work on i.e.Vocabulary - decoding, retrieving etc.
3. IF I teach my students at LEVEL 4 literacy (Reading & Writing), THEN we'll most likely produce accelerate results in literacy.
4. IF I change my teacher practice so that it encompasses opportunities of integrated learning, THEN my students will be able to consolidate strategies and learning in all areas of the curriculum (using the Learn, Create, Share model.
5. IF I can help develop my students knowledge of vocabulary, THEN my students will be readily prepared in literacy, for high school next year.

Highlighted above are 4 chosen hypotheses worth testing. WHY? Because I want to prove to myself that changing my practice will result in better student learning outcomes.

Providing opportunities for more authentic learning experiences, accelerate teaching, explicit teaching AND integrated learning is new to my practice. I'm hoping this change is for the better that end of year data proves it too.

• Authentic learning experiences enables deep sharing through talanoa, semi-structured interviews, questioning, visual learning and more.
• Seeing the students for in-depth guided lessons allows me to specify which areas in literacy they need support with. For example, in Vocabulary, there are many strategies to teach, such as decoding, retrieving, interpreting and explaining etc. Receiving constant feedback and feedforward is crucial to students developmental understanding.
• To receive accelerate progress, you must teach at an accelerate level. With the ALL intervention strategies such as front-loading, double dosing, gradual release of responsibility, I'm hoping the students learning will progress noticeably faster in an upward movement.
• Integration fits perfectly with the learn, create, share model. What better way to incorporate the Manaiakalani way than through integrated learning.

Professional Reading #1

Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme
How can a makerspace in the school setting increased motivation, engagement, and achievement for Pasifika and Maori

Author/s or Lecturer/s or Speaker/s
Rebecca Bishop and Savelina Lepou
Synopsis

• Through teacher-led inquiry, a group of teachers and students from an Auckland primary school created a school 'makerspace' learning environment with the aim to use it as a space to improve learning for Maori and Pasifika students at risk of underachieving.
• Students were engaged in the project. They responded well to the given opportunities in sharing their ideas, making choices and developing their skills for future use of the makerspace.
• Project based learning emerged as a pedagogy in the creation of the makerspace. (ie. Passion projects or Genius hour)
• Further teacher led inquiries were developed to investigate how teachers can effectively support students to transfer the skills from learning in the makerspace, back in to their classrooms.

Motivation

• This reading was given to me by Allen Wu (Woolf Fisher researcher), who suggested it would help with my inquiry this year. 
• This Reading provides insight into what I can apply in my classroom that will enable my target students to feel supported in their learning. To ensure my learning environment or 'makerspace' has accessible resources, student selected texts, technological devices, a culturally responsive setting that encourages them to feel 'safe' and motivated to learn in all areas, in particular, literacy. This will further support my CoL inquiry for the year.

How will it help me? How has it helped me?

• Importance of Student Voice and including students in decision making 
• Trusting the students to take the lead in the project
• Giving time to create, plan and reflect
• Online Resources - making sure everything was accessible by the students
• Purposeful Learning - students to know and be aware of the purpose for what and why they are learning it

So What?

• Making sure the class is an inclusive learning environment. Knowing it is important for our Maori and Pasifika students to feel at home and safe, giving them a sense of belonging.
• Acknowledging students ideas in what we're learning. If the students want to make an 'umu for their language week, encourage the idea. If they plan to build a school fale, support them with the planning for it.
• Provide an opportunity for higher level learning to take place - having resources available, provide opportunities for authentic learning experiences, reading and writing about their experiences etc.

Blog post #5: Developing Hypotheses...

Describe your process for developing hypotheses (hunch) e.g. what you read, who you talked with...

Developing a hypotheses proved to be challenging this year. With the national lockdown, everything that use to be deemed 'normal' was no more. So, I had to sit and really think this one through.

After discussions with my fellow CoL teacher (Poto) and our school Management team, we've identified that literacy is still an area of concern.

The following things are what I have identified as my hypotheses. I feel that if I manage to accomplish these steps or make some progress on these things, it will further clarify what my next steps would be in regards to my inquiry.

1. IF I provide opportunities for more authentic learning experiences, THEN my students will be able to read & write about it in a more communicative way, because they are able to make connections to it, and write in a way that connects their audience to the experience.
2. IF I encourage Talanoa as a methodology for gaining insight from my students, THEN I am taking into account my students ethnic/cultural practices and creating an environment that my students feel connected to.
3. IF I teach my students at LEVEL 4, THEN we'll most likely produce accelerate results.
4. IF I change my teacher practice so that it encompasses opportunities of integrated learning, THEN my students will be able to consolidate strategies and learning in all areas of the curriculum (using the Learn, Create, Share model.)
5. IF I can help develop my students knowledge of vocabulary in literacy, THEN my students will develop an in-depth understanding that will enable them to think critically about what they're reading/writing.

Adapting to virtual learning & teaching in 2020!

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar:
Home Learning 101.
Provider/Presenter:
Fiona Grant (Manaiakalani), Chris, Johanna & GTS Staff
If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?

1. Establishing a new network of online/digital connections.
2. Implementing whole class instructional teaching via Google Meets
3. Initiating change to improve virtual teaching/learning.
4. Ensuring practices from in-class teaching are applied ie: Differentiation, Student Engagement & Motivation, Creativity

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

• Due to the unprecedented event of the pandemic, teachers were challenged to familiarise and implement the pedagogy of distance learning. The implications of living in a technological environment are now heavily in focus.
• The absence of being able to physically teach the students was a huge challenge. I had to ensure that the resources and activities were manageable for the students to complete, digitally. 
• Making sure we weren't just setting up the students with time consuming "busy work". We still needed to take into consideration our school curriculum overview, inquiry focus, LPF learning and implementing it into our planning.
• Taking into consideration the students well-being, I was constantly thinking of ways to make the learning fun. Making sure I can eliminate the 'fear' from the situation the whole country was encountering, and manipulating it into a source of learning. For example: for maths, students were to investigate, compare & contrast numbers of confirmed cases between New Zealand and 10 other countries in the world. 

What aspects of my practice would I consider changing as a result of this professional development and why?

• Learn-Create-Share pedagogy and the integrated curriculum is utilised to keep my learners engaged, motivated and feel successful during these uncertain times.
• Informed learning. Setting up learning tasks that enable the students' to explore this lockdown experience in depth. One day they will look back at the current situation and be able to share, reflect & talanoa to others' about it. #Historical
• Use a cross-curricular approach and a range of deliberate acts of teaching in flexible and integrated ways that lead to the success of understanding what they're learning. Increasing my learners' cognitive and intellectual engagement.

Blog post #4: Collecting of Evidence and Data

Begin to collect evidence and data and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence

Collecting Data and evidence has been at a steady pace because of lockdown. However, student work output provides some form of evidence of students work ethic and abilities.

I started collecting evidence by using the Literacy Learning Map document. This was provided by our ALL intervention facilitator. Using this information, I converted it into a google form Learning Map - Google Form (as did my fellow CoL teacher Poto Faalili), and invited the students to complete this to provide me with some background knowledge on their interests and what their thoughts are about literacy.

Due to Lockdown, I feel like my inquiry came to a halt. It was the fear of not knowing how to go about things because was use to be normal (assessments, in-class observations, 1 to 1, guided sessions) is no longer normal. Virtual learning is now the new normal.

However, in hindsight, I plan to use the following to collect data and evidence from:

1. Literacy Learning Map/Google Form
2. Student Blogs
3. Student Home Learning Site (This was an expectation for my class to create during lockdown. We are planning to use it for the remainder of Term 2)
4. Student Work Output (looking at the quality of the work they have produced)

Blog #3: Tools, Measures & Approaches

Blog #3 Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

Inquiry Question:

How will I change my teaching practice to ensure my learners are developing a deeper understanding of vocabulary in Literacy?

Reflecting on my 2019 inquiry, I decided to continue with a focus on literacy (Reading). Shifts were made by my target students, however, there was still room for more accelerated progress. After discussing with fellow CoL colleagues and teachers from school, I decided to continue with the focus on Reading.

I've identified possible tools that will help me carry out my inquiry this year, these are:

1. A.L.L strategies
2. Integrated curriculum using the L,C,S model
3. Learner voice
4. Students' prior knowledge and experiences
5. Talanoa
6. Cultural competencies for teachers of Maori & Pasifika learners - TAPASA, He Whakaaro, Tātaiako etc

To measure the students' progress, I will use assessments (standardised testing, formative assessments, overall teacher judgement, observations etc). This will inform me of what the students' strengths & weaknesses.

I aim to include the students' in decision making when it comes to their learning, having students choose the texts they wish to wish, choose what form of delivery they wish to be taught and encourage them to read both english and first language texts.

Working alongside the students' rather than a top-down approach will build our relationship, develop trust, result in highly engaged students and hopefully produce excellent results and higher level achievement throughout the year.

Blog post #2: Collaborate with school leadership team...

In our meeting with the senior management team, we identified our priority groups for 2020 using results from end of year assessments in 2019. Our priority groups are:

1. READING: Maori
2. WRITING: Maori & Boys
3. MATHS: Maori, Boys, Girls, Pasifika

Reflecting back on my Inquiry from the previous 2 years, I've learned a lot as a teacher and have seen some great shifts from students' attitudes & abilities towards literacy. 

As I begin to think about my inquiry for 2020 and after great discussions with colleagues and management, I realised that I need to maintain my focus on literacy and continue to build on this. Through observations and guided sessions with my students, I've identified VOCABULARY & IDEAS as areas of weakness.

I received a book from a colleague of mine, titled: What every primary school teacher should know about Vocabulary - by Jannie Van Hees & Paul Nation. I endeavour to read this to develop my understanding on new strategies and approaches to implement in class.

This year, my inquiry focus is going to be: 

Inquiry Question:
How will I change my teaching practice to ensure my learners are developing a deeper understanding of vocabulary (in Literacy)?

Blog post #1: Inquiry Stock Take

Reflection

What worked well?

• Using data to make informed decisions about selecting target students to work with, forming hypotheses, 
• ALL intervention strategies
• Whanau Engagement with intervention
• Student voice
• Talanoa sessions 
• Having another CoL Teacher to work alongside with at school 

Challenges

• Consistently monitoring/reflecting on my inquiry
• Identifying WHAT & WHY some students assessment results were inconsistent (probe results different to their PAT results)
• Finding time to commit to professional readings & research to help with my inquiry
• TIME!

Additional Support I'd like

• Taking it upon myself to reach out to other CoL Teachers (across & within schools), communicate with Woolf Fisher research team for some insight/advice
• Seek support from experienced practitioners to further enrich my inquiry this year

What I aim to learn about Inquiry this year

• How to be a more effective within schools CoL Teacher
• How to have a purposeful Inquiry - ensure my achievement challenge is relevant to school data results (ie. Our priority groups are Reading: Maori, Writing: Maori & Boys, Maths: Maori, Boys, Girls & Pasifika)
• How developing relationships with Woolf Fisher Research Team and Manaiakalani Team could enhance effective teacher practice and my understanding of research.