My chosen few...

To get a more detailed and accurate profile of the students in my ALL group - I used a Learning Map doc. This doc allowed me to gain valuable information about my students' attitude and thoughts about Reading. This information becomes the foundation to what I need to plan.

I will also be using the A.L.L strategies such as Front-loading, Double Dosing, GRR
(Gradual Release of Responsibility) and Visual Learning.
These strategies will help assist in accelerating the students understanding of what they are
reading and what particular reading strategy they are learning.

Currently, with my target students, I see them 3 times a week. 2 of those sessions are explicit teaching and one is a 10-15 minute front-loading session. This occurs during my scheduled Reading time in class which is from 11-12pm every day. I also see my group for 10 minutes before morning tea to front-load/double dose them with what our sessions will be about.

The reading progressions is an important text I refer to when I am working with my students. The A.L.L intervention is a programme that was developed to accelerate the students. So I use the progressions to identify what my group needs to be able to do at Level 4 and I teach that, with support from the A.L.L and reading strategies.

These are some of the tools and approaches I am using with my group.

Data Analysis

Today, my fellow CoL within schools teacher, Poto and I decided to sit down and thoroughly look through our 2018 End of year assessment data.

Thoughts surfaced, wonderings came to mind and questions were asked. The discussion we had was very intriguing and informative. Here's what we found:

What did we notice:

Reading:

1. There was an increase in no. of students achieving at WELL BELOW
2. Increase in those achieving ABOVE expectation
3. Maori - achievement much lower compared to other ethnicities
4. Decrease in no. of students achieving BELOW
5. Decrease in no. of students achieving AT, but increase in ABOVE.

Writing:

1. Decrease in BELOW, but increase in WELL BELOW
2. Decrease in AT, but increase in ABOVE.

Maths:

1. Increase in BELOW and ABOVE, Decrease in WELL BELOW and AT
2. Increase in ABOVE,decrease in AT, Increase in BELOW apart from Pasifika and girls.

What judgements overtime can we make:

From the findings we discovered, we came up with many questions and discussed possible next steps for our Inquiry focus here at Glen Taylor. Some of the questions we had were:

• OTJs vs Formative assessments - what provides more insight? What is being measured?
• Did the ALL intervention in 2018 for Writing, prove to make discernible impact?
• How consistent are the teachers in evaluating formative assessments?
• What changes can we make in our Teacher practice to ensure the resources and materials we use in class are effective?
• Mixed ability grouping in maths vs ability grouping? Which is more effective?

Teaching Inquiry 2019

Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to
focus on in this inquiry. Be as clear and specific as you can
about the evidence you about this to date.

Malo e lelei EVERYONE,

Earlier this week all schools in the Manaiakalani cluster met down at Tamaki College to look at the achievement data across all schools in the cluster for 2018. It always is a great learning experience for both teachers and Woolf Fisher research team to identify the strengths and weaknesses in our students learning.

Before attending the meeting I was still indecisive about which achievement challenge to inquire into this year. After the meeting, I decided that my inquiry focus for 2019 will be: Achievement Challenge #3 - Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Maori students (both genders) Years 1-13.

Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning. Locate your inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.

Listening to Woolf Fisher present their findings and learning that the gap is widening between Manaiakalani schools achievement levels and the national norm provoked me to focus my inquiry into reading. Leaving the meeting, I was adamant that Reading was the way to go.

Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year

Being a Year 7 & 8 classroom teacher, it becomes a goal to ensure my students are prepared and advanced in their learning, ready for high school. Having had success with my focus in Writing last year, I'd like the same outcome for Reading this year.

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.

Learner Voice about ALL Journey so far.

I thought to get some student voice on what the learners think about the journey thus far. I wanted them to give me feedback on what they've enjoyed most and what they're most proud of. I also asked them to provide me with feedback on what to do next.

Here's what they had to say:

 ALL Boys Responses