Reconnaissance - student inquiry foci

Through conversations with members of my school's leadership team as well as colleagues, I have decided to address the following Manaiakalani Achievement Challenge for 2023:

At the end of last year, I had in my mind that I was going to address the achievement challenge : Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/Key Competency using symbols, languages and texts. In particular, I had in mind that I was going to focus on supporting children who were challenged in staying focussed in class and as a result, lacked experiencing the feeling of success. Creative Space is a place which allows children to find their strengths so I thought this would be a great inquiry focus. However, how I would assess progress in this would be a challenge.

After discussions with my colleagues at the beginning of this year, we discussed how our children don't have many opportunities to be extended in Maths. This got me thinking as I teach the school extension programme. I also manage the gathering of assessment data for our extension children throughout the school. Our current school extension programme is more literacy focussed/weighted. With my colleagues we questioned: could we start up a school extension maths programme and what could this look like? Between myself, Clarelle and Danni (both also CoL teachers), we wondered how we could all support this getting up and running. We discussed how we could run it with Year 6 to 8 children OR we could run it with Year 3 & 4 children. The Year 3 and 4 children have a less busy schedule so a programme with them would be more manageable and successful. 

After my discussion with my colleagues, I thought more about the WHY. Why do we need to run a school extension maths programme? What is the challenge we would be trying to fix? 

Having taught in the classroom, the answer to this was obvious: a typical classroom includes a range of mathematics levels. How do we as teachers realistically support the children who find maths really challenging while also extending those who find the logic of maths more natural? It is challenging, that's for sure! We have a really unique opportunity here where we can run an extension programme for those children who we identify as gifted in Maths, allowing the classroom teachers to spend that session focussing on building the knowledge for the rest of the class. The extension group can then return to their classroom and use their new knowledge and skills to work alongside their other classmates to build their maths knowledge.

After talking with my colleagues, I had conversations with members of our senior management team. In their conversations, I got a really positive response - a programme like this would hugely benefit our school and our students' learning as our current school extension programme is very literacy heavy, mostly as a result of time restraint. Creating an extension mathematics programme would allow extension opportunities to more children. There can be children in the extension maths programme who wouldn't typically be in an extension class when literacy assessment data is taken into consideration as well.

I am really excited about inquiring into lifting achievement in maths as a collaborative inquiry this year!

Going forward: 2023!

This year has started with a potential deviation in my inquiry direction! After talking with Angela Moala, Clarelle Carruthers and Danni Stone, we asked ourselves how we are currently extending our children who are strong in mathematics. I currently run the school extension programme however this is more heavily literacy weighted than maths. We wondered whether we could begin an extension maths programme for some of our children. Back when I was a Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers, we collaboratively worked through the initial inquiry direction brainstorm. One element of this was to begin an inquiry by thinking 'pie in the sky' - as big as you can! Even if you think it is impossible! I considered this:

What if, during my CoL release time each week, I took an extension maths class of year 3 and 4 students?

Pros:

• Great use of my time to benefit the children and the school.
• Allows time to really extend these children who are strong in mathematics.
• Once a week, allows time for the classroom teachers to teach to the needs of the other children in their class while I can extend a smaller group.

What would it look like?

• 1x 45 minute session each week
• Either number-based, strand-based OR project-based (integration of both)
• Utilise DMIC values/strategies/structure of a lesson
• Extending the children beyond what they already know

Why Year 3 & 4 children?

• These children are not out of class for any other groups so they won't be losing valuable class time - in fact, it will be benefiting everyone involved.
• These children are down the same corridor as me this year so it could be look at as an extension of their classroom - easy to manage transitions on this day.
• Lots to still extend these children in number knowledge to support their success in project-based learning experiences. 
• Preparation for going into Year 5 to 8.

There is obviously still a lot to think through if this is to be my CoL inquiry for this year - first of all, I need to consider the WHY. Why would I be doing this? How would I measure change? What would be the criteria of success? Would this be a collaborative inquiry along with the other teachers involved? What would this look like?

Where to for next year?

 In 2022, I inquired into developing confidence using videography roles within the Pt England Network News programme. There were some great things I learned through this inquiry, particularly the value roles like videographers can provide to develop confidence in some children. Going forward into 2023, I want to continue to utilise roles within the Pt England Network News programme to develop confidence in children. I will continue to think about what the role of videographers may look like and add in more opportunities for children to do movie editing. I will work through challenges. One of the big things that played on my mind during 2022 was that I was very conscious not to have the same children out of class too often to video at sports tournaments as, even though there is huge value in leadership, creativity, problem solving and making decisions when out as videographers, I didn't want their role as videographers to hinder their progress in classroom subjects.

Next year, as I continue as a within school Kāhui Ako teacher, I want to look into a very different challenge. I want to use learning opportunities provided in the creative space to look at developing persistence and success in children who find focus and success a regular challenge in their schooling. How this looks, I will spend some time developing over the first term of 2023, so watch this space!

Bursts and Bubbles 2022

 It was unfortunate that this year I wasn't able to attend Bursts and Bubbles in person as I was leading a school trip. I pre-recorded my summary burst so it was able to be shared at the event.

Thinking ahead to my possible inquiry for 2023

Below are some thoughts about where my inquiry may go next year.

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and texts

I am in a unique role where I get to see children from right across the school. I want to put more energy into creating some progressions and variations to the Creative Space programme to account for children with additional needs so they can all achieve in some way.

This is something which I have observed by giving variation in tasks throughout the year, however what do I do when there is a child who refuses to take part?

• Survey to find out why they aren’t taking part.

• Ask what they want to be doing?

• What could I do to help them achieve?

• What would an engaging task look like for them?

What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

This year there were many CoL inquiries into engagement and enjoyment: Robyn Anderson and Kelsey Parrant looked at this for reading. Christine Tupou-Fonua looked into student and teacher wellbeing and how that influenced achievement, enjoyment and engagement.

I want the children to come to my space and feel that excitement, enjoyment and as a result, achievement - but how do I achieve this for the children who find it more difficult to focus?

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?

Learn-Create-Share

Transferrable Creative tasks which can also be done in the classroom - ubiquitous

Engagement of children through the create

Transferrable skills

Making strong and replicable progressions for different learning experiences where teachers can challenge children, pull back if it’s too much or look at alternatives if it’s not engaging some children.

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

2017 research into the main teaching activity observed: conference, instructional, learning model, behaviour/management, q&a or roving.

Developing in Digital Worlds: 3 21st century skills in a digital environment - cognitive, interpersonal, intrapersonal. The benefits of a digital environment in teaching key comps for children. 

I could rate children on key comps at the start of the year compared to the end of the year.

How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?

Regular release so I have guaranteed, regular time to work on my inquiry. This is really important as I don’t have the children constantly in front of me as classroom teachers do.

Collaboration between myself and classroom teachers to support the target group of children.

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

Creative activities which can be used in the classroom to support the children with additional needs.

Support of children in the key competencies to lead to the feeling of success for these children.

Bursts and Bubbles 2023

Last week, the annual Manaiakalani Kahui Ako Bursts and Bubbles was held! I picked out some of the inquiries which really resonated with me this year which I could utilise in my role.

Dot Apelu: Focus on supporting children to connect with their local community. 

Scott Mansell: Emphasis on local histories to raise engagement with learners.

Jo Gormly: Building solid foundation of literacy. 

Kelsey Parrant and Robyn Anderson both focussed on enjoyment of reading. Robyn's inquiry focus made me wonder how I could share tips for good reading etc on PENN. This is something to think about moving forward!

Christine Tupou-Fonua: Teacher & Student well-being - how does it influence achievement, engagement & enjoyment?

Poto Faalili: Preparing Year 8 students for Year 9.

Videography Rubric - Results

I am going through the video footage taken by my target students who have been out to video at various events. I have marked them against the rubric I created to compare the quality of the video they have produced. Below are the results, put into graphs.

Student 1:

Student 2:

Student 3:

Student 4:

Student 5: