Bursts and Bubbles 2024

Malo e lelei

Christine Tupou-Fonua

Y7&8 Team Leader and Teacher

Across school CoL

Inquiry: 

• My inquiry this year focused on two things: 

Critical Thinking and transition into High school.

What was happening? 

• The Year 9 drop-off was often a ‘topic of discussion’ in our PLG meetings

• Drop in student attendance 

• Several pastoral incidents

• Students continue to navigate the onset of adolescence

What evidence do I have to support this?

• 91% of Y9 students scored a stanine 4 or below in their beginning of year PAT assessment

• There is also evidence that the likelihood of students staying in school can be heavily

• dependent on the success of their transition into secondary school. 

• Some studies have shown that secondary school drop-out rates are lower when

• students’ contributing primary/intermediate schools have clear secondary school transition

• programmes to help students prepare socially and academically for the upcoming changes.

What changes did I make?

-Collection of assessment data was used to inform what to focus on in reading
-My intervention this year was to create a mentoring group involving six Y9 students and six Y8
students. 
-We started in Term 2 with a “get to know you”’ session where the mentor/mentee created learner
profiles. 
-Subsequent sessions became more educational based and varied - including a Critical Thinking
session, a Q&A session where Y8 learners interviewed their mentors about High School, and a
debate session - mentor vs mentee, about propositions Y8 learners came up with.
-Students also got to share their reflections on a professional reading assigned to them.
-The most recent session, “Shadowing your Y9 mentor for the day”, saw the Y8 students spend
the day at Tamaki College - to experience a “day in High School”. 
-The above selections are just a sampling of what was offered.
-The purpose of the intervention was for the Y9 students to act as Mentors/advisors/coaches for
the Y8 learners.
-The Y9 learners were my ex-students from last year and their dean agreed they were suitably on
track with their own learning to participate. 
-I worked closely with Albert Tu'uga Stevenson to make this happen so huge shout-out to Albie,
and to Amber George and Dorothy Apelu. 
-Special thanks too to Scott Mansell, whom I’ve met to talanoa with about how best we could
implement a similar programme next year.
-I am keen to strengthen the relationship between Secondary and Intermediate, to work together
and identify further needs to be addressed to enhance a smooth transition.
-The sessions were not solely planned by me.

-Student voice from the mentors highlighted what
they thought was important to focus on, and what they wished they had available to them when
they were in Y8.
-Termly e-asttle tests were also assigned to the Y8 learners.

Some literature that helped me along the way?

-RPI resources on critical thinking
-Ted Talk videos and scholarly articles on Critical Thinking 
-Articles on primary & secondary transitions found on the education hub

Hardest thing for me to change?

-Adapting to different educational settings and changing my practice to cater for older cohort of kids
-Understanding the importance of showing empathy, dealing with divergence and the challenges of
early adolescence 
-Figuring out a way of how I could implement Critical thinking learning into the intervention.
-Thanks to conversations with colleagues and SLT, including this in the mentoring sessions
became the solution
-Working with the scheduling and timetabling of High School. It was so hard to find the
time/availability to schedule the sessions but thanks to Albert Stevenson for his time and actually
helping me make this work

My Wonderings

-What known and unexplored elements of a mentoring programme would best support Y8s
transition into Y9 at High School?
-How might a collaborative approach for High School and Intermediate support this cause?
-Perhaps teacher exchanges and/or a badge system at intermediate that relates to the NCEA
structure

For explicit detail on this intervention and student achievement data - please check

out my professional blog 🙂

Malo ‘aupito

Intervention so far...

My inquiry this year has been a real test/challenge. Being an AS CoL teacher, you have to ensure that you are on top of the game always.

I started off by talking with our former school principal about what it would look like. With Y8 transition being at the forefront of my inquiry and interweaving literacy throughout. Chris said 'start off with Glen Taylor being your initial school or target group and hopefully reach out to the other schools in the latter half of the year'. 

I must admit, it's been full on and I just haven't had time to involve another school. It was already complicated to work around the dynamics of when the Y9 students would be available, because High School timetable is different to Primary.

So I started with my target group of Y8 students and with the help of Ms George and Mr Stevenson, I created my Y9 mentor group (all 6 students being former students of mine). Created the 'Kau Taki' group (aka The Leaders). The students briefly met in Term 2 but the mentoring sessions didn't start till beginning of Term 3. The purpose of the sessions were to support the Y8 learners with their learning, while preparing them for the realities of college.

Our sessions included:

1. Meet and Greet (mentee and mentor)
2. Working on engaging Critical Thinking Reading/Maths Tasks
3. Q&A session (about High School) between Y8 and Y9
4. Sharing Back of Professional reading findings
5. Reading Comprehension Tasks
6. Debate Day (D-Day)
7. Key into Inference Tasks
8. Y8 mentees shadow their Y9 mentors in High-school for 2 blocks
9. Evaluation/Reflection

What I am hoping to achieve from this intervention are:

1. My Y8 students achieve pass their EOY Reading Assessments

2. Y8 students leave GTS being Confident in who they are, Confident in their identity and language

Session #2 and #3 - KAU TAKI Intervention

End of Term 3 and we've completed 3 of our KAU TAKI sessions for my Y8 and Y9 students. It's great to see the students have built a good relationship with one another, they've surpassed the 'awkward' stage and are getting on with the work.

Below we have some images of them working through their 'tasks' together as mentor and mentee. So far we've worked on some Critical Thinking Reading tasks that included - Reebus Puzzles, Riddles & Brain teasers, Sudoku Puzzles, Would you rather questions and we had a Q&A session where our Y8 learners asked our Y9 mentors 10 FAQ about High School.

In today's session, we planned what our 3 sessions next term would look like.

Session #4 - Watching 'Inference' youtube clips and inferring them in pairs.

Session #5 - Y8 mentees shadow our Y9 mentors in High School for the day (if not available, we will look at 1-2 blocks).

Session #6 - Reflect & Evaluate our intervention. Give feedback on what went well and what possible next steps might be to ensure the intervention could be implemented in another school.

Session #1 for our KAU TAKI mentor group (Intervention)

Preparing for our first mentor session today. Each pair will have a clear file that has a few activities inside. Each activity supports the reading skill of 'Critical Thinking' in fun and engaging ways. To start off, our activity pack this week features:

1. Reebus Puzzles

2. Quick Fire - Would you Rather Questions

3. Sudoku Puzzles

Seeing it is our first mentor session. Why not include activities that are fun and engaging and requires some deep thinking. I was thinking for the next session, mentees will have the opportunity to write up some questions they'd like to ask their mentor about High School.

One of the objectives I'd like to achieve from this intervention is being able to find ways where we (teachers and schools) can support our learners with transitioning from Y8 to Y9. Even through talanoa, bringing awareness, informing our students of what to expect is huge. Why wait for Term 4 to prepare them? When it is something that can be done from the beginning of their Y8 year.

I think also having Y9 students as mentors bring some reality into the equation. Students that are close to them in age and are experiencing what they will soon be going through is a good start.

Our 'Get to know' you session - Mentor and Mentee

We had our first meet & greet session a couple weeks ago and it was a success. With the students, we decided on holding 6 sessions to run our 'mentoring programme'. 

Session #1 would be a 'Get to know you' session, Session 2-5 will be mentoring session where they would be working on Critical Thinking Reading Tasks, PEP talk for High School and building relationships. Session 6 will be an 'Evaluation/Reflection' session.

In our first session, I provided a Kai (this is traction for our tamariki), and when they finished, they sat as mentor/mentee and shared a talanoa. At the end of their talanoa, they introduced each other to the group and shared some things about one another.

We can't wait to see what our next couple of sessions turn out to be like.

Causal Chain for my 2024 Intervention

 This years causal chain was a joy to make. I'll be honest, I think I finally have my head around the understanding of my theory of action.

I have included my Inquiry focus/question - some of the outcomes I wish to achieve - my intervention - what my learning will be and what learning I hope the learners achieve - a few measurable outcomes I hope to achieve at the end of the intervention and what it should look like.

Causal Chain 2024

Intervention Check-in...

 Share: Share data that you have collected/ recorded about the implementation of your changed practices or intervention (what evidence do you have about what you did differently?

Describe: Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practice/intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these

• e-asTTle - assigning termly tests for learners to sit to monitor progress.
• Teacher Observations - photographs of learning moments
• Student Confidence and Engagement
• Reading Task-boards - including student text selection and voice in what they're learning

Explain: 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.

• Everything is still in action so it is quite hard to reflect explicitly. However, something thats proven to be a slight issue in this inquiry is TIME. For a number of weeks now I have had to step into class due to shortage of relievers, meaning I don't get my release, so I don't get to work on my Inquiry.
• Y8 and Y9 learning timetable. It has been difficult to organise the sessions for both cohorts of students to meet because learning times are different in Primary than High School. I had to schedule our first mentoring session to have straight after we had Tech down at Tamaki College.

Intervention insights...

Sooooo,

Let me give you an insight to what my intervention is.

Because my CoL is around the transition of Y8 to Y9 - I decided to create a target group in both Year 8 and Year 9. I thought 6 students would be ideal because it's not too big or too small. Fortunately with Tamaki College being our local High School and I know some of the teachers there, I contacted Ms Amber George, Ms Dorothy Apelu, Mr Mansell and Mr Albert Stevenson for some help.

Eventually, I was able to form my target groups and from Term 2 of this year, I have met with my group 3x. Another bonus is, my Y9 target group are my ex-students from last year. 

The plan is to meet with them 4x this term and 4x next term. For my sessions this term and term 4, they will be working with my 6 Year 8 students, in the role of a mentor. 

For their first session, it will be a 'get to know you' session and for the remaining 6-7 sessions - they will be working on some 'Critical Thinking' tasks, Q&A session, Reading Focus session, Debate session, Key into Inference session, a 'shadow my Y9 mentor' session etc. Some of the activities included will be around Reebus Puzzles, Riddles, Brainteasers, Debate Provocations, Professional Readings etc

Last year we had the WayFYnders mentor group from Tamaki College come and work with some of our Y8 students. We found it very effective. The students who were selected as mentees were students who had attendance, self-esteem and motivation issues. After a term of mentoring, our Principal checked the attendance rate of the learners and we saw some really positive changes. This was the inspiration for my intervention this year.

I am hoping that through this mentoring programme between Y9 and Y8 students, the anxiety and stress for the Y8 learners transitioning into High School will be less tense and less pressure for the learners.

Meeting with fellow CoL teachers

This term I have had the opportunity to meet with Sandhya from GI primary and Scott from Tamaki College.

We met because we wanted to talanoa about our inquiries and gain ideas from each other. Sandhya said she needed anothers perspective on what her intervention ideas were. We spent a good hour sharing our inquiries to one another and even the barriers we came across this year.

Scott and I met because our inquiries were quite similar. I am looking at the transition of Y8 to Y9 and Scott is inquiring into the importance of learners being one with their culture, language and identity (something along these lines). Scott had a lightbulb moment when he came to our farewell assembly for our previous Tumuaki and saw how engaged the learners were (In Primary level) with their cultural background. He noticed that in High School, their main focus is on NCEA and teaching Reading, Writing and Maths. It's missing the sense of belonging and identity aspect. It was a very effective talanoa because we left agreeing that Scott will make a visit to GTS - to observe how it is in the classroom, the culture and group teaching we do and I left making plans of meeting with my Y9 students who will mentor my Y8 learners.

A great TALANOA indeed.

Lightbulb Moment

I had a lightbulb moment today and I am proud of it - YAYYYY!

I have a clear understanding of my CoL intervention now. 

Inquiry Question: How will I change my teaching practice to ensure I am creating opportunities for learners to think critically in their learning?

Intervention Draft: I have been in touch with a couple of staff members from Tamaki College to talanoa about my vision. So part of my inquiry this year is the transition from Y8 to Y9. So far, I have a target group in Y9 and a target group in Y8. The students have helped by putting this intervention idea together. 2 key ideas I gathered from meeting with both cohorts were:

• Have more High-school weeks at school. Often this is a one week initiative a year that we hold in Term 4. The Y9 learners have suggested perhaps having more of those. 2 in Term 3 and 2 in Term 4. Reason being, one of the main struggles for the Y9 learners was moving around the school for class.
• Create an opportunity for the Y9 learners to mentor the Y8 students. Meet with them couple times in Term 3 and in Term 4. First session is a "Get to know your mentees" and the rest of the sessions is when I implement some critical thinking tasks for the students to work on with each other.

Professional Readings

 1. Teaching Critical Thinking - An evidence Based Guide

Critical thinking is about reasoning and asking questions, analysing and internalising. Critical thinking also allows students to become problem solvers through active investigation. It is also about “high order thinking processes”  in order to make some informed decisions.

• Games to promote critical thinking 

  1. Puzzles, mazes, mystery bag, brain teasers, rebus puzzles

  
  

  HOW?

  • Encourage agree & disagree

  • Asking why questions

  • Talk about implications / solutions

  • Reflections

  Encourage students to listen, internalise and then respond

- This reading was a reminder of why teaching Critical Thinking is important for the students learning. The benefits of critical thinking goes beyond the classroom and can be applied to any experience in education.

- As teachers, when Teaching Critical Thinking Skills, it's important to slow down the pace. Pose a question of the day as something to stimulate thinking. Create a response box that students can slot their responses in throughout the day. Debates is also a great class activity for students to partake in. Deciding whether they're for or against a proposition is effective.

2. 5 Critical Thinking Skills Kids need to Learn

• Children are naturally curious to find out how things work, to make sense of the world around them - they use their critical thinking skills.
• Children who have been taught critical thinking skills, have higher IQs and do better in language comprehension and problem-solving. 

• Encourage students to ask ‘why’. Ask do you agree/disagree and give reasons. Ask for clarification and if they can give you an example.

• Talk about implications. When reading a story, stop in the middle and ask what do you think will happen next. Why or what would you do.

-This reading was a reminder to encourage opportunities for students to practice questioning and giving full detailed answers (for younger learners). Teachers to also encourage exploration and investigation to find the answers.

3. How to help your child develop Critical Thinking Skills

• Children who have been taught critical thinking skills, have higher IQs and do better in language comprehension and problem-solving. 
• Encourage students to ask ‘why’. Ask do you agree/disagree and give reasons. Ask for clarification and if they can give you an example.
• Talk about implications. When reading a story, stop in the middle and ask what do you think will happen next. Why or what would you do.

-This reading was a reminder that Children are naturally curious to find out how things work, to make sense of the world around them - they use their critical thinking skills.

Target Group Info...

After collecting student voice and ideas from the 2 groups I am working with, I was able to analyze and record it on a table. I've also finished with assessments so I've included the data in my profiling information.

Now that I know more information from my Y8s and Y9s, I am hoping to find time to work with the Y9s, to come up with an action plan/interventions on how to better assist our Year 8 students with transitioning into High School. I also aspire to find time where both groups can meet or we can visit each other and have the Y9 students work like mentors for our Y8 students.

The mentoring idea comes from my Y8 students in 2023, working with the Way-finder mentors from Tamaki College last year. Our students loved it and data showed that those particular students attendance improved, engagement in class was evident and they enjoyed having someone check-up on them weekly. Someone other than their class teacher.

 

 Interesting Finds from Y8 learners and their attitudes towards Literacy:

1. Most of them like Literacy
2. There is a balance between preferences for both Reading & Writing
3. Some do not like the current spelling programme we have
4. They all think highly of themselves as doing well in both Reading and Writing
5. Most have requested for more Writing opportunities and learning tasks
6. Only a couple of them receive support at home with Literacy

Interesting Finds from the Year 9 students and their experience with High School thus far:

1. High School Week should be every term or longer than just one week. We usually run High School week once a year and is often in Term 4.
2. They would like to have time to check-in with the Y8 students. Give them advice on what to expect with High School.
3. Adjusting to a High School timetable takes a while. A lot of moving around and it can be quite overwhelming having different teachers every day.
4. They miss the attention and relationships they had with their Primary/Intermediate teachers.

Student Profiling...

This blog post explains who my target students are:

I have 2 groups of students that I will be working closely with this year.

Group 1: 6 Y8 students who I currently teach and I know they will be going to Tamaki College next year.

Group 2: 6 Y9 students who study down at Tamaki College. I will be using their expertise to help me develop my intervention/s for my inquiry this year.

I also would like to see them as some sort of mentors for the Y8 students. Try and have them meet couple times a term to help with preparing our Y8 learners., especially in Literacy.

To find out more information, I created a google form to collect student voice from my Y8 learners about learning in Literacy.

For my Y9 experts, I had imported the questions above into a google form and had them fill it out. We met as a group, and although they filled out their responses via forms, we had some deep and meaningful talanoa out of this.

After collecting the information from both of my groups - I will sit down and analyze the findings before creating my hypotheses.

The ball is rolling...

 Hi Everyone,

I know it's been a while. I had taken time off work to look after my mother who had terminal cancer. Unfortunately, my Mum lost her battle with cancer during the school holidays. Took a further 3 weeks off (to grieve and be with family) and returned to school this week (Monday 20th May - W4).

Before taking time off, I had met with Amber George from Tamaki about my Inquiry and my vision of what I want to achieve. She directed me to Albie Stevenson (one of the English teachers and dean). The learning area I am choosing to focus on is Literacy and my Inquiry is on the transition of Y8 students into High School. 

I also met with my Principal Mr Herlihy to gain some insight and expertise from him too.

So what now? The ball is rolling...

1. I've met with Albie and together, we selected a group of Y9 students, former students of GTS. Some may call them my 'target students' but I prefer to call them my "experts". I will be interviewing my group of students to find out more about their experience of High School so far, as a Y9 student. Over time, I want to identify strategies and ideas of what we can do from our end (as an Intermediate) to prepare our current Y8's for High School next year.
2. I would also like to pop in to some of their English classes to observe the students. Looking at attitude and behaviour for learning.

Before finalising my Inquiry for 2024, I had reached out to some of our colleagues at Tamaki College end of last year. I wanted to gauge some insight to their thoughts about Y9 students and also hear what they think we should do as Y8 teachers to prepare the students.

2024 - Let the new journey begin!

 Malo e lelei 2024 :)

Back and excited to be in a new role this year, working as an Across Kahui Ako Teacher. My focus this year will be on the transition of Year 8 students into High School.

This role would draw on my experience working with GTS colleagues and Y7&8 students, to assist students' transfer from primary to secondary learning by boosting their readiness, engagement, agency and confidence.

Throughout my years of experience in Education, I have witnessed the critical importance of a seamless transition for students from Intermediate to High School. This is pivotal in a student's education journey, influencing their future academic trajectory and personal growth. I am motivated to ensure this transition is as smooth and empowering as possible for each student.

In conjunction with this, I want to enquire about collaborative teaching and how it's deemed to be the "new successful approach" to teaching and learning, through all learning areas. 

I also look forward to further implementing the resources and knowledge I'll be gaining from RPI. Last year, I was a mentor teacher, this year, I decided I too wanted to further up-skill myself and actually take part in the Reading Practice Intensive, to better my own practice and to ensure I am doing the intervention justice. 

I look forward to working alongside my fellow Kahui Ako Teachers and our learners for 2024.