Monitoring the Effects of My Intervention on Learner Outcomes

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.

My Inquiry: How can I change my practice to raise student achievement in literacy by promoting deep learning that requires students to develop cognitive engagement and critical thinking across the curriculum using Learn-Create-Share?

My interventions:

• Putting my students at the very centre of their learning and making their learning experiences authentic by designing LCS projects based on their interests and taking into account their identities.
• Scaffolding my learners during their projects by implementing and consistently using the tasks designed to improve their vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing skills.
• Utilizing drama to develop cognitive engagement and critical thinking and raise students achievement in reading and writing.

Monitoring the Effect:

• Student voice (evidence of their hight engagement and positive attitude towards learning -  collected through their blog posts, in-class & online conversations and sticky post-it notes in Term 3. In Term 4 the students will be asked to complete the same google form they did in Term 1 to compare the results/ changes)

• Photos, Videos, their Reading and Writing examples, online and in-class observations - evidence of my students' learning and progress (formative assessments):
• numerous LCS projects
• blogging and commenting, peer and teacher feedback
• maths word problems - incorporating Reading and Writing to gain a deeper understanding and new vocab
• Teaching of making inferences in a fun and engaging way: inferring from a picture, riddles and other activities - genuine interest, high motivation, critical thinking, etc 
• Introducing new vocab through topics of their interest and creating situations where they have opportunities to use their new vocab (Kahoot quizzes - students created, Film making, scriptwriting experiences,  use of S.Cameron and L.Dempsey activities)
• Drama (lots of reading and writing, problem-solving and KC) - Films for the Manaiakalani FF 2020 will be available on our class blog in T4.

• End of Term 3 data: Running Records and writing samples. All of my Year 3 target students moved up their reading and writing levels despite two lockdowns. All of them are now working at the expected after 3 years at school levels. I look forward to continuing with my inquiry next term and seeing my students' successes.

Boys in Literacy - Professional Development with Marshall Diggs

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

Marshall's inspiring presentation was aiming to empower teachers to understand boys as learners and equip them with skills and strategies to enable boys to achieve and succeed in literacy and in their learning in general. As we know every child is different but boys do learn differently to girls, and it was great to listen to his ideas and reflect on my own practice. These are some of the points I found most interesting:

• Being CLEAR means being KIND to the boys
• Competition gets them excited
• Boys learn best with short and sharp exercises (active games, PE breaks, brain breaks, etc)
• Who are their male role models? Do they see men writing for fun?
• Are there spaces where boys like to learn?
• What topics do they prefer to read about? What will engage them?
• Be firm, fair and fun
• How much talking is happening in a lesson? More reading/writing, less talking (teacher talk)
• Relationships with our students is a priority
• Learning is more important than the result
• Align the curriculum with the child and put the child at the centre.

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

I haven't changed my thinking, this PLD just confirmed that the use of the LCS pedagogy helps empower my male students to succeed in their learning. This year, I was impressed by the enthusiasm and engagement shown by the boys during our LCS projects. I'm very glad that I managed to involve more junior syndicate teachers in our LCS projects and see our boys' growing engagement and love of learning!

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

There are some pretty amazing things happening in our school but we can always be reflective and look at ways of improving. My plan is to have this conversation during our next team meeting and develop a plan to support our male learners:

• introduce short breaks and include them in our daily planning: 

- Word association game (president = Trump, Fruit = orange etc.)
- Give a fist pump to 4 people/elbow bump, touch 4 walls, find 4 green objects, etc
- Ninja punctuation activity: Capital letters - fist pump, Full stops - turn, Comma - twist,     Number - signal, Paragraph - yee hah
- Summary (in 3 words). Turn to your buddy and tell him/her what are you going to do this holiday? Then the buddy has to summarise in 3 words. Other students are to guess:-)
- Catch hand/finger game (activate both hemispheres of the brain - brain exercises)
- Word scrabble: how many words can you make from this one word (give time frame).

• Literacy - inspiring topics: Factual/ Competition/ Humour/ Survival/ Conflict/ Adventure
• Shared reading - big books - align with their interest and our LCS Term 4 plan
• S. Cameron and L.Dempsey activities
• LCS project - our learners have to be active participants
• Art - collect student voice! Differentiation.
• Maths - problem-solving and hands-on learning vs drilling
• Inclusiveness - identity and connections 
• Digital curriculum and digital tools to support boys' learning/ engagement

CyberSmart and the Purposeful Use of Google Meet Chat for Distance Learning

In this post, I'd like to focus on the purposeful use of Google Meet Chat and being Cybersmart during online meets. 

My students felt confident and comfortable during our online meets and, and at some stage, I noticed that my students started to take initiative in our online learning by sharing their ideas and experiences and inspiring each other to try new activities. I was very proud of my learners but also realised that talking ONE-At-A- TIME was a challenge for my young learners. It looks and feels different in class as I always use Think-Pair-Share and other strategies for my students to talk and share. During our 2 x 45 minutes long daily online sessions, it was a bit challenging for my young learners to stay muted. Soon, we decided to use the Google Meet CHAT! 

It became our new opportunity to cooperate and communicate with each other simultaneously. For example, when we solved each other's riddles, brainstormed rhyming words or answered Maths questions, all student could text their answers/ guesses to our Meet Chat and we all could see and respond to individual ideas, discuss, talk, give reasons and explain our thoughts. 

For me, it was a great opportunity to monitor my students' knowledge, skills, progress and gaps and then address their learning needs by assigning individualized tasks and/or giving timely feedback.

Maths:                                                                                               Rhymes:

Answering our Riddles:

From time to time, I had to remind my students to be Cybersmart. Reflecting on some of their comments (digital footprints), we also went over our School Values: Fun, Integrity, Respect and Excellence to support our Cybersmart learning and smart relationships.

Post-lockdown reflection:

When we finally returned back to school, I shared some of our Meet chat comments with my learners on a big screen and asked them to reflect on their online behaviours and digital footprints. It was a huge surprise for some of my learners who had obviously thought that their chat comments would have disappeared after we finished our calls. 

I hope this will have a big impact on their future online behaviours because I have provided my learners with real evidence and proof that everything that they send online stays there forever! 

It was a great CyberSmart life lesson!

Being CyberSmart - Smart Blog Comments

In class and during our Home Learning I promoted SMART commenting on peers' blogs. The students enjoyed expressing their opinions and communicating with their friends in a positive manner. I believe that blogging and commenting helped engage learners in good conversations about their learning and experiences.

Whanau Engagement during Home Learning

Learn-Create-Share culture, Whanau engagement and Smart Footprint

The students were very active during our online meets and on their blogs because they felt proud of their learning. They knew that all of them were important and their contributions greatly appreciated! Every day we had our Talanoa time when my students had opportunities to share what they did independently pursuing their personal interests or passions. Sometimes I was blown away by my students' abilities and creativity! Ka Pai, Room 5!

Our home learning was great and we will take on board the best of our new experiences. But we are looking forward to coming back to school on Monday!