Where am I up to as an "Action Researcher"

 Yesterday at our Kāhui Ako (CoL teachers) meeting, Russell Burt shared a thought invoking message which really supported pulliing me back into the reality that research as a teacher isn't going to look the same as research you may do in a university. We are, what he called, "Action Researchers." It is important in our jobs as teachers that if we find something that is working, we don't withhold this from other children (as you might do with a 'control' group in other forms of research). If something works, why wouldn't we give the opportunity to ALL students!? 

I am in a position where, since I am not in a classroom, I am not in a position to see a whole class of children. However, I am seeing a group of 14 children for an hour a week. These children are all getting equal opportunities in what they get when they come to see me.

Russell's korero made me ask myself whether what I am doing is beneficial to the children in front of me. My answer to this question is, YES. I believe that what I am doing is supporting these children with confidence and acceleration of their maths learning. I am using a strategy which is known to support acceleration for children in reading in our Manaiakalani schools: Mileage. Mileage in reading refers to giving the children lots of opportunities to read. Mileage in the maths sense, and with my inquiry group looks like the students being given lots of opportunities to apply their understanding in a variety of ways.

Is 'believing' this really enough? No. As teachers, we still need evidence to show that what we are doing is benefiting the children. In our meeting yesterday, I realised that I had such a focus on ensuring I had good pre and post data, that I hadn't put much thought into the formative assessment and data gathering throughout the process.

So how am I going to do this?

From now, I am going to make sure I gather up the work that each child is doing from week-to-week. This will support me in knowing whether there is an improvement in how students are solving the problems and showing their working compared to earlier in the intervention.

Thinking about the affordances of Learn Create Share that cause accelerated shift

 The affordances of Learn-Create-Share that cause accelerated shift are:

- Engagement
- Teaching conversations
- Cognitive challenge
- Visibility
- Scaffolding

Manaiakalani Research Presentation: Manaiakalani Hui: 26.08.16 - Rebecca Jesson, Aaron Wilson, Woolf Fisher Research Centre.

I analysed the intervention that I am implementing in relation to this list. This is what I found:

Engagement: The students are all engaged with the learning. They are keen to give the problem solving a go, knowing that they will get supported after about 15 minutes with more information to help them solve the problem.

Teaching conversations: I have been having lots of conversations with teachers who also teach these children to ensure that what I am doing supports what they are doing back in the classroom.

Cognitive challenge: The children are definitely being cognitively challenged with the problems. They are all being given opportunities to extend their thinking.

Visibility: This is an area I think I am currently lacking in. The problems we have been looking at are added to a google slide which is visible for the children however the learning that goes with the problems is not being made rewindable and visible to the children. I need to think of ways I can make the learning more visible and rewindable.

Scaffolding: The way I am structuring the lessons is a good balance of allowing the children a chance to grapple with the problems whilst also scaffolding them through the process and new learning.

Researching the why...

 Why am I inquiring into maths this year?

Manaiakalani and school data (see previous blog post on why this is such an important area of focus for our school).

ERO: Keeping children engaged and achieving in mathematics (February 2018). In this report by ERO (Education Review Office, NZ), it is mentioned that PISA data shows that in high school, there is an "accelerated decline" in maths achievement (page 2). 

LOTS of research arguing that ability groupings is not the best way to teach maths. The group of children I am working with are working with me because they all show an understanding of their multiplication facts. Is this ability grouping?? I don't think it is as within this group which I see, there are still children at a wide range of abilities within maths. I am also only seeing this group for 1 hour a week, so they continue to go back to their own classes for the rest of the week's maths classes. I would be interested to know if anyone considers this to still be ability grouping.

Strategies to be implemented, according to the ERO report:

- Mixed ability grouping - the group I see have been selected for a particular purpose - to move them from having times tables knowledge to being able to apply this knowledge. Within the group, there is a range of students with differing levels of times tables knowledge so it is therefore still a mixed ability group.

- Use of Talk Moves (Revoicing, Repeating, Reasoning, Adding on, Waiting)

- "Engaging in authentic mathematics tasks" (p12)

- "Developing children's confidence to share their strategies and learning." (p12)

- The structure of learning that I am going to be following is similar to that used by a school mentioned in the ERO report (page 36). This is where students get an opportunity to use their prior knowledge, be modelled new learning and then a chance to apply knowledge.

- I found it interesting that in the ERO report (pg43), they talk about a case study class who use multi-ability groups however the class to begin with has children with "similar needs." When you look at our school and class data for the spread of maths needs and levels, it becomes clear that we may need to do things a little differently.

- Page 49: "Developing children's confidence to share their strategies and learning."
                    - Two Challenges: (1) Reluctance to share ideas  (2) Needed to slow down and think
                    - Intervention: Introducing Talk Moves, Introducing Visual Prompts ("What is the important                          information?", "What do you have to find out?", What operation / strategy are you going to                          use?) 

- Page 56: A poster to support maths problem solving:

Effective Pedagogy in Maths (Glenda Anthony & Margaret Walshaw)

- One suggestion they have is to give students "independent thinking time." This is something I have not yet explicitly included in my intervention but I think it is worth adding in. Their argument is that children need time to think the question over without their thoughts and ideas being confused or warped by those of others.

- Another suggestion is to build learning from mistakes that the children make. 

- They talk about "making connections." I think this is a valuable thing that I am incorporating into my intervention. The whole idea with how the lessons with these children are structured is to support them in making connections in maths.

Anecdotal Reflection

So far, my inquiry is going very well. I have started sending my target group of children off on sports tournaments as videographers and the response from them is really positive. One student has now filmed at 2 tournaments so I am beginning to get self assessment responses to form a comparison.

Responses from the students has been positive and they are starting to be more reflective with the improvements they are making. 

As the students begin going to more tournaments, I will be able to start comparing their footage to see how it has improved. I therefore need to create a rubric to assess the quality of the filming.

Roaming Videographers Feedback/Survey Responses

 The children who filming at sports events last week have now given feedback and responses to their experience. I have compiled the responses here:

Of the three children who filmed for the Matariki Day celebration, all felt they enjoyed filming a sports event more than filming at the Matariki Day.

Some things that children felt they got better at included:

-Learning how to use the camera cover during rain.

-Felt they got more confident each time they recorded.

Some children went to the events by themselves while others went as a buddy. Responses were positive for all children, despite whether they were by themselves or with a buddy:

- "I felt good by myself. I felt like I needed to work independently."

- "We were able to record games with not many complaints or arguments."

- "He was a good buddy with recording was because he helped me a lot with recording and he was very fun videoing with."

The responses from children who went out to sports events as videographers was really positive. This can be seen in the graph above. All children came back feeling that they had a positive experience. Reasons for this included:

- "I loved it! but I got soaking wet."

- "It was a good experience because I came out of my comfort zone and it was just a lot different."

- "Because I loved videoing them playing [sport] and watching how good they are."

- "I enjoyed it because recording them was fun. I thought I got some very good shots..."

I feel that these responses couldn't be better! The children's written responses are all positive and enthusiastic.

Of these four children, one was happy sticking to being a videographer. The other three all expressed interest in giving other news roles a go too. None of the children said they didn't want to be doing it. I feel that this is a really good indication that they are feeling more confident through being videographers.

Inquiring into my teaching practice

Hypothesis:

If a less experienced classmate is supported by a more experienced classmate to learn a new skill, then their confidence in this skill will begin to develop. Confidence will begin improving in this skill as well as in other areas of school and life once they are out making decisions for themselves as members of the PENN (school news) crew. 

What specific aspects of my current teaching are relevant to my hypothesis:

How am I teaching the more experienced classmate how to follow the values of the Tuakana Teina approach?

- Ako (learning/teaching)

- Manaakitanga (caring/uplifting each other)

- Rangatiratanga (uplifting students)

- Whanaungatanga (relationships)

- Tuakana Teina (apprentice-expert)

At what point do I as the teacher let the less experienced classmate start having more independence from their more experienced peer?

What is my role in this if the more experienced peer is taking on the 'teaching' role?

Formative information about your current strengths and areas for development:

Student voice (also in previous blog post):

Findings: Three children felt confident with knowing how to tell their teacher that they needed help. Four children felt that their confidence with this dropped compared to their primary responses. I'm not entirely sure for the reason for this however, it could result in the fact that in a Tuakana Teina relationship, the more skilled peer is like their 'teacher' and my role as the teacher was to step back from that "traditional" role. The children need to be seeing their peer as their teacher in this pedagogical approach which may still feel slightly uncomfortable to the children.

Practices which are currently implemented to support the hypothesis:

I was fortunate enough to have a whole day with my target group and their more skilled peers during our recent Matariki day. However, what practices am I implementing for general day to day improvement?

- Daily PENN crew - photography, video editing & presenting, studio technicians

During the daily PENN session, I teach children skills for developing their photography, video editing and presenting.
Presenters come in at 8am, open the script and rehearse before their turn to present.  I give the presenters in the moment support and tips based on their own individual needs.
Photographers get opportunity to develop their skills learned through Creative Space. I give them feedback on their photos on their return, explaining what makes their photos good.
Video editors get autonomy to learn how to transfer files between SD card and iMac. They also learn editing skills through iMovie.
Studio technicians set up the studio (lights, green screen etc).

- Sports events - Videographers and Photographers

Students attend sports event with video camera and still camera. This is a challenging area as I cannot attend the sports event with these children to teach them new skills and techniques. 

What changes can I make to my practice?

Currently, there is no implementation of a weekly training time for the children who are photographers and videographers. This is something I should definitely be implementing to explicitly encourage confidence for these children. This could be a before school on Friday session (since I don't run PENN on this day) OR a weekly lunchtime session (where we go and film sports trainings to learn skills). 

What do I need to do to implement this?

Videographers lunchtime club - Meeting together regularly to learn the skills of videography and photography.

More mileage of videography and photography for these children.

How can I measure changes to my practice?

I will measure changes to my practice by:

- Continuing to gather student voice about how students feel they can ask for help.

- Making a comparison of the interventions and implementations that I have added during the year.

Examples of children creating the content to develop confidence, communication and oral language.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have had some awesome examples where children have used film/videography as a medium for their learning.

These first two examples were learning experiences led by our Sport Coordinator, Sally Va'afusuaga. Sally worked with our 2022 House Captains to create these movies for the school. These are clear examples of film being used for the teaching and developing of confidence, communication and oral language. 

The first movie was also edited by Finau and Jade, two Year 8 House Captains.

This next example was created when our year 5s & 6s had their fun day in place of the usual year 5&6 camp. I had some time where I took two keen year 4 children out to try out the video cameras. This is an example of developing confidence but also communication as the children had to ask questions to learn more about using the cameras.

These are just three examples where tauira are being given opportunities to use film as a medium for learning, developing confidence, communication and oral language. 

How can I develop more confidence through PENN and how can I encourage more of this sort of learning to be happening through the classroom?2

Data collection: 10 August

 In class today, I used the prompt cards with the children.

Tasks: Scratch - How an athlete's body moves.

Speaking & Presenting Opportunity: Respond to learning from today as you work your project.

Time spent on new intervention: 30 minutes think time.

Responses:

NB: Prompt is in red

- Child 1: "I learned how to draw ears."

After he said this, I explained how he could add detail to this idea.

- Child 2: "I decided that I wanted to make my character get bigger as he moved towards the camera."

After he said this, I asked the children if they knew the name for this. We discussed how this was perspective.

- Child 3: "My friend ________ asked how you could make a bone appear in scratch...whether that was possible. If anyone is thinking how to do that, I can help you."

- Child 4: "If you want your sprite to move in a different direction then you need costumes to make the animation happen."

When I encouraged this child to share something about the topic focus (i.e. How an athlete's body moves) rather than the medium for creating (Scratch), they found this really difficult. They finally responded based on their sport of boxing, "If someone is punched in the head then they will be knocked out."

- Child 5 (talking about another child's project on boxing as a sport at the Olympics): "I was walking around to have a think about what I was going to say and I saw ______'s work. He just had the person standing and punching. I asked him a question and I told him that before he started to punch he could change the position (put the hand here) to make it animate."

- Child 6: "I don't understand what happens to the Archer's hand when they let go of the arrow? Do they just let go with two fingers or the whole hand?"

- Child 7: "I still want to know how a sailor actually sails the boat because it is very confusing."

- Child 8: "I'm confused about how the runner's bones get stronger each time they take a step."

- Child 9: "One reason for making my pad [crash mat] 3D was I wanted to see / I wanted the pad [crash mat] to perform like in real life."

- Child 10: "_________ pointed out when I was drawing the legs on my person that the bottom part was thinner and the top of the leg is thicker so I changed it around."

- Child 11: "_______ mentioned that if you use your whole hand or 2 fingers it...

At this point, I mentioned that we needed more information. It wasn't clear what was being talked about. I wanted this child to be explicit by stating what sport was being talked about. She responded with:

"If you use 2 fingers then it will go way further than your whole hand. If you use your whole hand it will just flop on the ground. "

Based on this response, more work needs to be done to teach the children what it means to be explicit with their responses so the audience knows exactly what you are talking about. In this case, the child was talking about archery however there was no information to tell us that.

Five children did not know how to respond, even with the support of the prompt, which they had been given 30 minutes before the time of sharing. During this time, they were also encouraged to talk with their neighbours about how they could respond with the prompt they were given.

What can I do next?

As a result of this, the children who did respond were thoughtful and purposeful with what they shared. I need to teach the children what it means to be really explicit with what they are talking about so their audience understands them.

I need to teach the children how they can add detail to their ideas, rather than just sharing one sentence.

Conclusion:

This was a really good attempt of using these prompt cards. Many of these children need support with their confidence in sharing their ideas via speaking and presenting and this supports many of these children. I need to figure out what I can do to support those children who did not share any ideas.

Victoria-RuizVD, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Implementation of a new tool into my practice

This term, I have begun implementing my new tool for the year 5&6 extension class. Using a range of conversational and discussion prompts from online, I have made a set of speaking prompts for the children. During each session with me, the children will be given a laminated card with a prompt. Their job is to respond to the work from the session using the prompt they have been given. This could be in response to a video they have watched, a discussion point or a text they have read, for example. 

From today, I would like to start giving them their prompt at the beginning of the session so they have a longer amount of time to prepare their response. We will finish each session 10 minutes before the end of the day so the children can share their responses. 

The initial implementation of this tool has been really successful. The children find the prompts useful and they appear much more confident when they have the prompt to support them in speaking and presenting. Here are copies of the prompts:

I have had discussions with a year 2 teacher at school who really liked the idea and thought her year 2 children could benefit from a similar approach. This began me thinking about how we could adapt the design for different age groups.

End of Year Data Collection

My hypothesis was:

A focus on critical thinking and causal reasoning when responding to texts will support increased levels of critical thinking and ability to create causal links in online written interactions with others for year 5 children reading between 10 and 12 years.

After implementing use of Peter Worley's framework, The Concept Box, into reading lessons, I collected data to compare with the data I collected at the beginning of the year. Graphs from the beginning of the year are also in these slides to make comparisons.

Analysis of Blog Comments: Critical Thinking

As part of my inquiry into critical thinking, I have compared blog comments written at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. 

I used this blog commenting rubric to score comments:

Children who participated in the Concept Box Framework Sessions regularly: A, B, D, F, J
Children who participated in the Concept Box Framework Sessions more recently: G, I, K, L

This first graph shows levels of critical thinking and interpersonal skills at the beginning of the year.

This second graph shows levels of critical thinking and interpersonal skills at the end of the year. On the whole, level of critical thinking and interpersonal skills in blog comments progressed.

This third graph shows a comparison in the level of critical thinking seen in blog comments (beginning of year to end of year). All 5 of the children who made progress in level of critical thinking, participated in the Concept Box Framework lessons.

This forth graph shows a comparison in the level of interpersonal skills seen in blog comments (beginning of year to end of year).