Thinking of my 2022 Inquiry

This week I have been thinking about the next steps for my teaching inquiry. Last year, I focused on accelerating our students' learning in Maths by implementing the best world education practices and working closely with my colleagues to achieve better results for our students.  The beginning of 2022 brought us a new reality - Hybrid learning. What can we do to make learning accessible to all of our students no matter where they are now. How can we get them connected, include them in our group and class learning and provide timely feedback? 

At this moment nobody knows how long this new covid reality will last, so the first steps will be:

• create a team approach to deliver quality teaching and learning to all of our Year 3-4 tamariki
• collaborate and cross-teach to improve students' learning experiences
• collaborative planning to deepen my team's knowledge of learning progressions in all the NZC areas
• provide opportunities for all the learners' in my team to stay connected with their peers and teachers
• collect and analyse the first set of data to plan for learning
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Burst in Bubbles 2021 - TAI 2021 Evaluation (Maths focus) - #23

Kia Ora, my 2021 inquiry started after collecting my first set of data, when I discovered that 61% of my learners were working well below their expected levels in Mathematics. 

During the profiling phase, I used student voice, formative and summative assessments, and referred to their historical data that revealed a widening gap in their achievements over the past years at school. Sadly, many of these students didn’t believe they could be good at Maths, some said that Maths was too hard for them. Interestingly enough, the same students enjoyed much better results in reading and writing.

So I decided to dig deeper into High leverage practices in mathematics to try to accelerate their learning.

We started by co-constructing positive norms, using Talk Moves and having ongoing conversations about the growth mindset. Soon,  most of my students began to feel more comfortable doing Maths.

During the planning stage of my inquiry, I looked at international results in maths and referred to research and practice of the most successful countries. I questioned myself, about what they’ve been doing differently from New Zealand and from our school.

I identified many differences but focused on the most crucial findings:

• They use well-designed maths programmes supported by textbooks or digital platforms, not depending on individual teachers’ planning
• They value explicit teaching, use of materials and deliberate practice in order to develop student’s ability to transfer their knowledge and skills
• They often revisit topics to build long-term memory and deepen understanding.

Reflecting on these, I restructured my maths programme to accommodate these best practices. For example, I now allow more time for deliberate practice with a gradual release of responsibilities. Another important skill that I’ve been explicitly teaching and practising with my learners is ‘translating’ word problems into maths equations. This definitely helped to improve their comprehension, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The mid-year data showed some good progress of my learners and I’m now in the process of collecting term 4 data.

I also extended my inquiry across our school. Supported by the management, we had a staff meeting with a focus on maths data, content knowledge, progressions and understanding of assessments. We planned to have a school GLOSS and JAM moderation. Collectively, we reviewed school expectations for planning, use of resources and delivery of mathematics. I tried to support my colleagues by sharing my practice via class on-air and on my blog, by modelling maths lessons, helping with planning and resources and pedagogy behind them. At the beginning of the last lockdown, I curated and shared a collection of digital tools for online learning. 

I believe that the changes that I made this year in my own practice and initiated school-wide will have a great impact on our teachers and learners raising their confidence, engagement and achievements in maths. 

Due to Level 3 in Auckland, the Bursts and Bubbles were conducted online. Below is the video I recorded about my inquiry this year and how I have improved my own practice and supported my colleagues. This year wasn't a usual face-to-face teaching year but there was still some great data and evidence that came out of my inquiry.

Year 4 Maths PAT data - repeated measures - TAI #22

Yesterday, I administered a Year 4 Maths PAT. We started by talking about integrity when doing the test online. The cameras were on all the time with no creative backgrounds and no other people around them. We also had a conversation about how teachers use the test information in their planning. Practice makes perfect - that was our purpose for this test. I used filters to compare the results of the students who participated in Term 1 and Term 4 tests (comparing 'apples to apples'). 

I'm very proud of my students who have shown resilience, great engagement and love of learning during these lockdown times and kept improving their knowledge and skills despite the circumstances!

TAI - cognitive engagement and critical thinking during online learning - #21

It's been a rocky year with a lot of changes in practice due to the lockdown and adapting to prolonged online learning. 

During these times, I tried to continue to run a balanced programme for reading, writing and maths using high leverage practices and the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. I was pleased with how students responded and participated during online learning.

I designed a number of integrated units using multimodal sites. I believe that this approach helped to differentiate during online learning but also raise students' confidence to participate and contribute. 

I continued with the main part of my TAI 2021 throughout the distance learning times - How will I change my practice to ensure my learners are cognitively engaged and develop their critical thinking skills across the curriculum - and can definitely say that my online learners deepened their critical thinking and stayed cognitively engaged during online learning. I recorded some Class onAir episodes and shared my resources to support these units.

TAI - Integrated learning during lockdown - #20

During remote learning, I continued to strengthen cross-curricular connections by designing a number of integrated learning units and multimodal sites to give my students multiple opportunities to learn-create and share. 

One of the units was "Mapping Our World'. My focus was on unpacking and front-loading math vocab and concepts and the use of digital tools to foster my students’ mathematical and spatial thinking. The students learnt how to understand and communicate directions, locations, proportional relationships and the connections between objects. During this unit, the students learnt to create their own simple maps (floor plans, local maps, Google MyMaps) and to use appropriate units and devices to measure length and distances.

This unit brought many learning areas under 'one big umbrella' and provided a real purpose for learning. To add fun and to test their map knowledge, we created a Kahoot quiz and played it at the end of the week. I believe that the entire unit was a success due to the authentic learning opportunities. We even enjoyed wider whanau engagement as some families worked together to create their whanau maps.

The "Mapping Our World" multimodal site, extended planning and reflection are available on the Class OnAir site - Elena Terekhina, episode 12.

TAI - Critical Thinking and Mixed-ability grouping in Reading - #19

Class on Air - Episode 9: Critical thinking and mixed-ability

The Learning Intention for this lesson was to think critically about the text and the topic; actively participate in a sense-making conversation by discussing different points of view, supporting our thinking by evidence from the text, other sources of information and our prior knowledge.

I often work with mixed-ability groups as I believe that holding high expectations for my learners and creating an equitable learning environment empower them to be successful. The way I structured the lesson encouraged a lot of discussions, but also argumentation and provocations.

TAI during Lockdown - Supporting other Teachers - #18

I was impressed with how our teachers took on board the latest PLDs and conversations about Maths in our classes and continued to improve their practice during the lockdown.

To support other teachers, I compiled and shared a number of digital resources. I keep getting positive feedback about this collection as it's easy to use for online learning at all levels. I hope you might find it useful too. 

Below is a number of great resources and online tools for teaching Maths in-class and especially online. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need support.

Steve Wyborney's Blog - Numerous pptx like Splat, Subitising, Estimations, Cube conversations, Hundred Board etc

Learning at Home - weekly plans 

Place Value 3 digit number representation - interactive

Problem Solving - all levels and strands

Problems and solutions for students

Picture books with mathematical content - all NZC levels with activities. Most of the picture books can be found on youtube.