Blogpost #3 - Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use...

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

Tools:

• Google Form on Identity & Cultural Competencies shared to my class
• Inter-lead Self-Assessment and Student Voice tool. 
• All about the Learner Profile created by ME. 

Measures:

• Teacher Only Day Workshop Presentation - had students open up the workshop by sharing about themselves, their cultural background, their name and the story behind it. Attendees were highly engaged and provided feedback reinforcing the importance of IDENTITY.
• Student Attendance & Engagement
• Student Confidence
• Oral Language 

Approaches:

• Bus-stop activity using post-it notes by students and teachers.
• Target group - whole class
• Teaching through a Pasifika Lens

I chose these approaches and tools because student voice is what drives the learning at Glen Taylor School. This proves to be a good tool because learners love being involved with planning what they're learning. The best way to understand a student's preferred way of learning is to ask them (Causton - Theoharis, 2009) and to have them involved in the planning and assessment process of it all. 

"Often the student has the best ideas of how we might work with them, if we take time to reflect on what they might be trying to communicate."

Outreach teacher, project interview TKI, 2013 

Self-assessment is also important as it provides insight to teacher practice. It allows us to reflect and evaluate what is working, what can we do better, what can I change in my practice, to ensure we are catering to every learners' need. 

For the past 3 years, I have focused on Reading and Writing. It's helped me unpack my thinking and identify my what it really is I wanted to inquire about this year. I spoke briefly about implementing Talanoa and using Cultural competencies in past years, but I sit and ask myself now "Did I do it justice? Did I incorporate these Pasifika learning tools effectively? How can I measure it's effectiveness differently this year?

As a Y7&8 teacher, I want to ensure that my students leave GTS at the end of the year, confident in themselves, proud of who they are and embrace the richness in cultural knowledge they carry. I still find it difficult to match my Inquiry to a particular achievement challenge because my Inquiry is more than a curriculum focus. My Inquiry is to do with the knowledge captivated in each learners' story, held deep within that you need to be a 'special teacher' to unlock that taonga. 

Dr Rae Si'ilata stated at our Teacher Only Day at the end of Term 1 that "English can never translate the depth of our reo & talanoa" (2021). My inquiry encourages learners express themselves in their language, through their cultural lens and identity. If my learners Maths/Reading & Writing learning needs to be taught in a bi-lingual way for their understanding to enhance, I will endeavour to do so. It's important for the learners to make a connection before they can actually engage in the learning.

Blogpost #2 - Possible Inquiry Focus for 2021

When I completed my Masters in 2016 on Tongan concepts of Wisdom and Knowledge, I developed a passion and desire for Accelerating Pasifika Education. I carried this passion with me into the classroom and it became the drive of why I enjoy teaching in a community that is dominantly Pasifika and Maori. 

This year,

MY INQUIRY QUESTION IS: Can we make accelerated shifts in Literacy through teaching Identity and Cultural Competencies?

I have always believed that the importance of culture and language plays a vital role in a Pasifika and Maori students' learning journey and achievement. It is their identity being recognised and acknowledged. Being Pasifika, making an emotional connection with the child/learner is a complex situation, but a very rewarding step. Our stories, morals & values are kept within, they remain secure and protected until someone is able to unlock it. If/When a teacher is able to unlock that secured taonga, you have managed to engage that learner in a relationship built on trust.

Similar to the work of Amituanai-Toloa's (2010) coconut model, she explains the process of getting to the core of the coconut. As told by many, the coconut is a very useful organic resource in the Pacific. It is a source of life. The core of the coconut or the inner layer, is where the knowledge and wisdom of a Pasifika learner is kept and protected. Using the talanoa approach enables the teacher to break through and reach that knowledge in the core, the 'loto' (centre) of the learner.

In previous years, I have focused on Writing (2018), continued with this focus into 2019, changed to a Reading focus for 2020 and I have decided to merge the two areas for this year. Literacy will be my focus but I aim to apply my approach to ALL learning areas.

A problem that our cluster has encountered is the rate of achievement progress decelerating over time, particularly in years 7-10. Being a Y7-8 teacher, I often see a cohort of students stall at certain reading ages, usually between 8-9.5 and sometimes between 9-10 years. Same goes for Maths, I see many students stagnate in Level 3 (Stage 6) over the years, with a few making break through to Level 4.

As such, this year I aspire to inquire into this, TEACHING THROUGH IDENTITY & CULTURAL COMPETENCIES. The goal is to implement strategies that accelerate the students' learning so they can achieve closely to their expected levels or surpass them. I have been able to accelerate students in the past, through my CoL inquiry + ALL intervention programme, now I want to measure what the difference will be when I change my pedagogical approaches to focus on culturally responsive competencies that are more effective for Maori and Pasifika learners. I want the learners to be able to talanoa confidently, share their stories and see learning through their lens and own it.

Research & Pasifika methodologies I endeavour to incorporate into my CoL Inquiry this year:

1. TALANOA - Timote Vaioleti
2. KAKALA METHODOLOGY - Konai Helu-Thaman

Blogpost #1 - Brainstorming Student Inquiry Focus

Our Manaiakalani Cluster Data for 2020 painted a clear picture of where the need lies and what my focus needs to be for 2021. In the week of lockdown, Glen Taylor CoL teachers + Management met via google meets to discuss our possible Inquiry focus for 2021. This Talanoa was refreshing as well as eye-opening. We received validation from our principal for our intended inquiry focus and discussed what support we might need throughout the year and what support we could offer our school, in return.

My 2020 Inquiry looked at Reading and helped me identify a few reasons why reading progress was stalling. Unfortunately, due to covid, I felt like my inquiry was not as successful as I had hoped it to be. The connection was merely present due to limited face to face time and the unprecedented times the world was exposed to last year.

At Glen Taylor School, we believe that if we really want to influence the Students' learning, then we need to change our teacher practice, to ensure the results differ. To inquire effectively...

..."teachers need to make sense of their experiences in the classroom, LEARN from those experiences, and CHANGE it. (Teaching as Inquiry, Harvard Education, 2004)."

In addition to this, according to John Hattie, 50% of what a child achieves is from home, the next 30% is based on the choices the teacher makes.

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. 

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.

Describing and Explaining the Changes...

Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practices or intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these...

1. One evidence I have acquired throughout the year to identify formative feedback of my target students was having a tracking sheet for each term, of their assessment results.

2. Learning Wall - this wall is filled with the students learning from our Monday (whole class) reading sessions. Some of the reading activities we have pursued this term: Word Diagram, Vocabulary Ranking, Analysing Vocabulary, Drawing characters and scenes and Hot-seating etc.

Explain the reflections and tweaks you have made along the way and the reasons why you made these changes. Share your evidence for these decisions...

Reading whole-class on Monday: I came across my students assessment results from last term and found 3 areas the whole class needed support in. These areas were: VOCABULARY, INFERENCING AND ACQUIRING INFORMATION. I thought back to my early years of teaching and something my tutor teacher would do was use Monday as a whole class reading day and would teach grammar, vocabulary knowledge etc. That was a lightbulb moment for me and decided to try it this term.
I also took into consideration learner voice and student interest. So I chose a novel that has a movie to go with. The movie is seen as an incentive for when we finish the novel study. This term, I've split the 10 weeks over the 3 areas that needed focus on - Weeks 1-3: VOCABULARY, Week 4-6: INFERENCING, Week 7-10: ACQUIRING INFORMATION (Retrieval skills, skimming & scanning etc).

Student Ownership: Through learner voice feedback, students felt that I needed to give them more of a choice in what they are learning.

So, I created a padlet and asked my class 3 questions: 

1. What do you enjoy about Reading? 
2. What text types would you like to read more of? 
3. What would you like to learn about in Reading next term? 

The responses were great. I had students share that they like how we use different forms of texts for reading (Song lyrics, spoken word poetry, novels, plays etc), I had some students ask for more comic based books, non-fiction books about history and I had some students ask if they can read more about historical events, stories from the islands etc.

Monitoring evidence, sharing, and interrogation...

Describe how you will regularly monitor shift for learners, as a result of your intervention. This includes collecting, recording and reflecting on the micro-shifts of learners over time

How have you been systematic in that collection?​

- Teacher observations

- Formative Assessments

- Student work

- Student Engagement

- Student Voice

What are you going to do with the data in terms of ‘tweaking’ your intervention?

- Change my Teacher Practice

- Find resources and materials that better cater to the students learning needs

- Communicate with ALL facilitator for support/professional advice

- Professional Readings

- Talanoa with my learners

What does the data tell you?​

- Inferencing, Vocabulary Knowledge and Acquiring Information is an area of weakness for my learners. A change in my Teacher practice I've made since identifying this, is dedicate Monday to whole class sessions. The purpose of this whole class session is to tackle the area of weaknesses. My belief is that Monday creates an opportunity for the whole class to work together on the WALT. Then Tuesday-Friday, I will work in my guided groups and continue to scaffold the WALT from Monday. If I feel the group does not need to be scaffolded, I will find the group another WALT, based on their assessment results.

Here is an image of my learners LEARNING WALL and the work they have completed around VOCABULARY, INFERENCING & ACQUIRING INFORMATION.

Acts of Service (as CoL)

For our first CoL release this term, we got the opportunity to go into classes at school and observe our teachers do what they do best - TEACHING. The purpose of it was to collect baseline data around reading and how teachers deliver their reading lessons.

We looked out for 3 things:

1. Independent Activities
2. Collect Student Voice
3. Guided Group Lesson

What I took away from this learning opportunity

1. How are we supporting the teaching and learning of decoding and comprehension strategies?
2. Are all our teachers confident in teaching reading? (Content Knowledge)
3. Do our students understand the PURPOSE of what they are learning?
4. How can we, as CoL within schools teacher, support our teachers to teach Reading?

   

Summary of my CoL experience for 2018

Summary of CoL Journey for 2018

Having started the CoL within schools teacher role half way through 2018, I decided to apply for the role again because it was an informative learning opportunity for me. I became more interested about Inquiring into students' learning and my own teacher practice.

Last year I had the opportunity to work with a group of 6 Year 8 boys and 1 Year 7 who were disengaged and not interested in Writing. They lacked self-confidence and self-belief in their ability to write. I implemented the Accelerated Learning in Literacy strategies of front-loading, double dosing and gradual release of responsibility into my teaching practice. I asked questions about their interests and incorporated their adoration of music and visual images into Writing.

Long story short - here are the results made by my focus group from 2018.