As a teacher it is very important to reflect on what went well and what didn't go so well continually so that you are continually offering your students optimum teaching and opportunities. Often we ask the children to reflect also on what worked well for them, and where they think their next steps are. One thing that I know that I don't do as often is reflect with the students on a big picture scale, so I made sure that I did this at the end of the term so that we were on the same page going into next term.
It was interesting to see what worked, what didn't work and what we could change from a student's perspective and I was surprised to see so much about the changes between my teaching style and the teaching style of their previous teachers coming through - especially since it took a number of the students a while to adjust to the changes. What this tells me though is that the students value having the extra clarity about their learning, having the ability to direct their own learning paths and having more defined structure within their lessons, even though it means more work for them.
In regards to what didn't work - not enough PE and more rewards - unfortunately for the students, they will not be getting more 'rewards' as such but I do wonder if this was there as we have just started a rewards system within the class where the students earn whole class rewards. PE is changing this term and more PE will be occurring as a result of not having swimming in our PE session time. It was great to see that the students wanted more writing experience opportunities. The majority of the students that I am working with are still developing an understanding of what the basics are and how these need to be included in their writing and it was clear that this style of writing allowed the students to achieve and recognise what success looks like to them.
Having settled into my new classroom and gained an understanding
of my children I have noticed that there are two large areas of need that
require focus. These are their maths knowledge and their writing - a
large number of students are working below and well below the standard. I
have been thinking carefully about how I can address both of these and which
one of these is most pressing to address.
I have completed a mini inquiry around developing maths knowledge
during the time when we are doing statistics. In order to develop my own
professional knowledge around this I have read the following research amongst
others:
As a result of this mini inquiry my knowledge sessions are now
varied for the students and include a range of interactive websites that offer
explanations, teaching hot spots around certain knowledge areas, interactive
games for students, games that students are able to share in with a partner,
the development of sheets that allow students to see where their knowledge gaps
are and to choose how these can be filled using a variety of different texts
and materials and the opportunity for students to use songs and music to help
them retain their knowledge. This seems to have worked so far and is
proving successful. Within the last week of term I will retest these
students using summative assessments and be able to use evidence to confirm my
observations and formative assessments.
The inquiry that I have decided needs to be largest focus is
around writing and develop within these students knowledge around where they
are at and knowledge around what tools that they can use to help them progress
and achieve their ultimate end goal of working at/above the standard by the end
of the year so that they are ready for high school. Within my class I
have students working from between a 2a level and a 4b level with the majority
of them sitting around a 3b level. I have decided to focus this inquiry
on these students that are classed as sitting well below as they need to make
hugely accelerated progress in order to be where they need to be by the end of
the year.
Key findings that I have noticed so far from the students who are
working well below:
- Students are not planning their work
- Students are not confident editing their work
- Students are not comfortable knowing when to use basic or
complex punctuation
- Students are still developing the ability to recognise
grammatical errors
- Students do not know what they do not know, and therefore
are unsure how to improve.
The one that stands out to me the most is that these children do
not know what they do not know - they are not aware of how they can improve and
they are not aware of what their errors are. In order to help students
with this, they have been provided with requirements that have them working
towards the national standard at each sub-level of the curriculum. They
have now identified within their sub-levels the goals that they wish to work on
and we have co-constructed success criteria for these goals. The other
findings will be discussed and explicitly taught over the next term across a
range of contexts so that they can be understood and applied within a range of
contexts - however through having developed goals, students are already far
more motivated and are already noticing areas in which they can improve and are
wanting to learn.
Inquiry, curriculum integration, thematic units - these words were tossed around interchangeably when I first took up my new role at this school nearly nine weeks ago - however throughout this term we have begun to make changes around what our school curriculum looks like and how it is played out in action. This was due in part, to the leaving of both the previous principal and deputy principal within a short time period. As a result of this, lots of questioning is happening regarding the terminology that is used and what it actually represents. Through discussions and readings around inquiry and curriculum integration we have decided that as a school what we are currently doing is a thematic approach to learning, rather than true curriculum integration - and that true inquiry where it is led by the students is something quite rare within our classrooms and something that has not traditionally happened. This has aligned with the minimal focus that has been placed around student voice and student led learning that is future orientated due to other huge factors that have influenced the staff at the school. The students that I am working with came to me with quite a fixed mindset about what they could and could not achieve and it has taken eight weeks for them to begin to be at a stage where they are able to talk about their individual goals and their progressions towards these.
As year 7 and year 8 students, I think it is highly important that these students are introduced to, and confident working within, an inquiry style of learning both within the "core"/national standards subjects and all other subjects that make up the New Zealand Curriculum.
In order for me to provide my students with this opportunity I have done research over a wide variety of areas - regarding what inquiry is, best practice for student centered learning in areas such as maths, reading and writing and the benefits and challenges of true student centered learning. A lot of this has overlapped with reading that I did last year around the POGIL styled programme that I was teaching and so this has been most helpful to make comparisons with.
I know that as these students do not have a student centered learning background it is important for me to give them appropriate tools so that they are able to understand and talk about their learning in order to be able to have more guidance over the direction of it. An interesting reading that I stumbled across today The Benefits and Challenges of Student-Designed Learning talks about true inquiry learning (within a high school context) and letting students have complete control about the direction that they take with their learning and how they present their learning. It emphasises that from a student point of view, whilst it was exciting to have control over their learning at first it became difficult when they did not have any guidelines. It also discusses the importance of students having goals when directing their own learning and how this was helpful to them.
This has helped me to have confidence that I am on the right track with these students and developing them to be students who can work within an inquiry style of learning. At the moment there is both clear guidelines about what skills and knowledge they need to be developing, they are presented with a range of ways to do this which is helping to allow them freedom over the style of learning that works best for them and they are consistently setting and achieving mini goals whilst working towards their bigger goal which is allowing them to achieve success along the way.
I am sure that we all know the song 'My Favourite Things' from The Sound of Music. If you are unfamiliar with it it goes like this...
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad.
I was walking along the beach in the holidays looking out over the sea and marvelling at how lucky I am to be working in a job where I am able to take holidays in order to rejuvenate and regain my spark back for the following term when I realised that as much as I love the beach and the holidays I only have one more term left with my class before they move onto intermediate and that they truly are my favourite things. These children are the reason that I became a teacher and they bring joy, laughter and brightness into my life everyday. I decided to write my own lyrics to favourite things...
Bright eager eyes and a passion for learning
Telling their stories and playing with yearning
Watching young children frolic and swing
These are a few of my favorite things
Duty with kiddies holding my hand
Listening to my students play in the band
Helping my students to grow their own wings
These are a few of my favorite things.
Students in leotards doing forward rolls
Young students singing with all of their souls
Those 'aha' moments that make kids go 'ping'
These are a few of my favorite things
When reports are due, when markings not done,
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel quite so bad.
Recently I was talking to a teacher who is trained in high school physical education. She noted that the amount of work that we have to do as primary teachers is phenomenal compared to what she had to do at her old school and queried how we manage to get through it all. At the time I just shrugged my shoulders and was not sure how to answer, but when reflecting back on this conversation I realised that I do it because I love the children I work with and I know in the bottom of my heart that if I did anything less than the best I could for them then I would not be worthy of being their teacher. At the moment that workload is growing even more - we have normal school life, summative assessments needing to be done, reports that are due in and camp that we are needing to prepare for - however students still deserve to see the best of us every single day and not have teachers who are worn out, stressed or tired. I know that I can be talking to other teachers in the morning and be feeling stressed out about what I have not yet done as the to do list in teaching is never ending, however the second I see my students those feelings of stress dissolve and smiles and laughter fill their place. Part of what makes working with children so special and so rewarding is finding out what makes them tick and what helps them learn. This year I have a number of Maori/Pasifika students and so this has influenced the way that my classroom has been run, from our greetings, to commands, to the way that the students are able to work in groups and support each other. I feel blessed to be working in a job where each day the relationships that I have with my students and their families makes a difference - whether this is due to a child achieving something special and their parent knowing, helping a young child who is hurt on the playground or looks as though they need a smile, encouraging a student who has lost all motivation or cheering a student on as they achieve a goal that they have been persevering with.
With term four comes reports, and with reports comes up to date summative assessments.
As a result, summative assessments have already begun being carried out in my classroom - so far students have all sat an IKAN test and some students have completed running records. The great thing about summative assessment is it shows visible growth that students have made as they have sat the same standardised test earlier on this year. It also shows me as a teacher where I need to place more focus and which students continue to/or are starting to need specific help or extension and as a result I am able to make changes to my programme. I was especially pleased with the IKAN results of my students as it demonstrates that our math warm ups and number knowledge revision games have been effective in helping children to grow and maintain their number recall. The running record results of the students who have sat it so far have all been positive as all students have moved up a reading level and the students have all made progress in their comprehension also. The moment that inspired me the most with my running record data however was when a student took the ability to transfer her summative assessment and make it into a formative assessment for herself - she said to me - I know that I need to work on inferencing now - I am going to make that part of my self directed learning programme for the rest of the term.
However, the one thing that frustrates me is about summative assessment is that all students are required to sit the same/similar tests - and this is where assessment for learning becomes a real positive - this is no longer the case with assessment for learning.
Each child is provided with feedback and feed forward based on where they are at and the assessment becomes real for them - it becomes a tool that they can utulise - whether in the form of feedback and feedforward from me as a teacher or whether via self/peer assessment and feedback/feedforward.
When I came back on Monday of term 4 I was unsure how much of the work around success criteria influencing assessment for learning that my students would retain as Term 3 had left them all very tired and they had just had two weeks break. However, within the first block of learning time I overheard a number of students referring back to their success criteria both individually and to help others achieve their WALTs. This was a real positive for me as it showed that the work that my students had been doing on having clarity about their learning was transferring through all curriculum areas for all students - making assessment something that they then began to see as something that helped them learn rather than something that was there to judge what they had learnt.
We have just completed our second video observation feedback session based on Michael Absolum's Clarity in the Classroom text. Our first one was a term ago and we received feedback based on a rubric then and have just had to redo this now. This second rubric highlights the growth that I have made in regards to student and teacher understanding of what they are learning, how and why they are going to learn it and how they will know if they are successful.
As a school we have been lucky enough to have a local artist - Nicola Bennet - come to work with us during staff meetings and provide us with professional development around Art in the classroom. As a PRT I have found her wealth of knowledge and experience extremely helpful and in my own way am playing around with some of the ideas that she suggested.
Attached below are the two powerpoint slides that she has shared with us in order to inspire us. During each of these session we were able to experiment with and explore different aspects of her presentations.
At the moment in class we are doing an art portfolio unit where the children are being encouraged to explore a range of different types of art styles. The pieces that we are working on include sketching with charcoal, watercolour sketching, collage, paint, dye and pastel. The children are loving exploring their creativity through this unit and it is a wonderful opportunity to hidden talents emerging from a range of students.
One of the things that Nicola talked about was the way that Art is one of the things that people decide at a very young age that they either can, or cannot, do. I find it quite special that in my classroom a culture has developed where students are so encouraging of each other and of themselves - one wee young boy came up to me today telling me "Miss M - isn't my art great. I am so proud of it and I did my best - it doesn't look exactly like J's one - but I don't mind because it looks how I want it to look."
Another student came up to me whilst he was on independent writing today to discuss his work - he was thrilled with the creativity that he was involved in and shared with me how he was transferring his learning about gesture drawing in sketching into his writing. It was an exciting moment for both of us. My hope is that my students continue to feel this way about their creativity in art and across the curriculum for many years to come.
I love the holidays for two reasons. One - they are a time of rest and relaxation after a crazy term and two - you end them feeling like you are on top of everything and ready to take on the world. And what a feeling it is!!
Every teacher - and every student - could tell you about the importance of teachers being energetic and lively and how this impacts student teaching, however I can certainly say that in the last few days of an 11 week term those words are not adjectives that I would have chosen to describe myself.
Having spent the past two days in school I feel refreshed, renewed and filled with enthusiasm about the coming term. I have changed around my planning and have been inspired to create a mini inquiry into some of my lowest students for writing - these are students who are below and not quite well below but will still need a lot of directed and individual focus to get them to where they need to be by the end of the year. My mini inquiry is based around the question: "If I work daily with my struggling writers, instead of seeing them twice a week, will this provide them with the structured guidance that they need to have moved up a sublevel by the end of term - and to also have transferred their learning across to their independent books?" Usually I mark writing books with the students when conferencing and then make notes about what to discuss with them from their follow up sessions. With this group I will be conferencing with the three of them daily in a group session but then also marking their follow up with them in the afternoon and having them hand in their independent writing books each night for me to be able to see also.
I have attached as google docs some of the planning that we have done for this term - and also my weekly timetable for the first week. I have not yet planned my Maths as the students will be doing a pretest before the lesson - also where it says POGIL this means that the students have their own sheets of activities that they work their way through - based on the focus within the teaching session and their choice of what they need to learn at that time - decided through conferences and goals.
Below are attachments that highlight what our focus will be for the first three weeks of school.
I have been very lucky as a beginning teacher to have wonderful tutor teachers that have provided me with support and guidance over the past one and a half years. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for him) my tutor teacher has just become a principal at a new school. The past six months have been a whirlwind for me and I have learnt more than I would have thought possible - and now that my final six months are beginning I have a new tutor teacher - who also happens to be my team leader. In order to bring closure to the past six months I have compiled a written record of meetings and observations that have occurred in the first half of this year - in addition to this I also have pages of hand written notes, but will not put these up here as what I have recorded neatly summarises these anyway. Over the past six months I also have records from observations from my team leader which I will post up here also as having all records of observations etc in one place will provide for an easy starting point for the rest of the year.
As the term progresses and the children have developed a high quality understanding of POGIL and it is working effectively, I have found a need to change my inquiry slightly - to cater more effectively for the needs of all my students - specifically the two children in my class who have dyslexia. As POGIL is quite a student directed style of learning there is a lot of reading and writing - which does not suit these children all of the time.
We are conducting student led conferences at the moment and one of the mums of the dyslexic children in my class sent me through the following article Dyslexia Daily - 17 ways a teacher can support a student with dyslexia before coming in for her student led conference. I thought it was quite relevant and pertinent at the moment and so have explored some of the ideas in it.
I have taken the following things from this reading that I can change and implement in my programme immediately:
Talk regularly: As these students often work with the teacher aide, when they have problems or are confused I often trust the teacher aide to help them out. I will change this so that they have opportunities to talk to both myself and my teacher aide when they are stuck so that they feel valued and that they can come to me at any time when they are stuck.
Watching carefully: Within this student led style of learning, the children are often in charge of talking to other students before they see me if they are stuck - and so I allow them time to find a solution to their problem before jumping in to help. I do the same with my dyslexic students and believe that this is the right approach however I feel that I may need to provide more explicit modelling for these students around how to find help from other students - as often they are probably focussed on paying attention to what they are being asked to do and so may miss out on the more subtle hints and modelling that is occurring.
Visual Clues: Providing visual clues is one thing for dyslexic student that automatically makes their day so much easier. The dyslexic students in my class have visual clues in their books to help them alongside the written text but I will try and incorporate more visual clues around the classroom rather than just having it all written.
As a result of reading this, and of my ongoing thoughts around my inquiry, my next focus for my inquiry is: What strategies and processes can I put in place that directly support my dyslexic learners within the POGIL style of teaching that is occurring in my classroom.
I have recently had a colleague through my classroom specifically to view POGIL. This is the feedback that she gave me.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks again for the opportunity to see your maths programme in action on Thursday 4th June.
All the students in your class were on task and engaged in their learning. The students I spoke to could verbalise their learning and the reason for this. They explained to me that following a pre-test, they then identified their own learning needs; learning that needed to be reviewed and new learning, in the area of Patterns and Relationships. They explained that POGIL was fun way to learn. A group of students I spoke with agreed that they could support one another with their learning in a group situation. They enjoyed the autonomy provided by the POGIL way of learning, as it gave them greater ownership. They could reflect on their learning using the 4E’s and explained what each of these meant.
Next for me is to trial this method of learning in my classroom!
Kerryn
I have found it really helpful to have feedback from a person who does not usually see this programme in action as it has reaffirmed for me that I am on the right path. My next step for my inquiry is to look into how I can effectively help my learners with dyslexia within the POGIL programme.
I find it is always just as you feel like you are finally starting to get on top of things - that something knocks you side ways and makes you question what you have been doing. Today that something is a whole mix of little things - colleagues planning, professional reading and feedback from my students.
My children love POGIL, and they love to tell other people how much they love POGIL - they are extremely confident and familiar with their learning - and I am beginning to wonder if because of that they are starting to let their guard slip - that or we are in Week 8 of an 11 week term - or realistically maybe a mix of both.
As I am the only teacher in my school currently trialling POGIL styled learning across all subjects my planning, and how I have presented it - both to the kids and as a professional record - has changed each week as I try to find the best way. I was sure I was finally starting to see the light with what I had done when the kids mentioned that it is difficult for a reliever to come in and pick up my planning and for the programme to run as smoothly as it does when I am in the classroom - which is natural with the style of planning that I do as it leaves a lot of room for student direction. The problem here however is that I have a release teacher in my classroom once a fortnight for PRT release.
Over the weekend I have changed how I do my planning and whilst it is still spread out over a variety of sources for the children these have all been hyperlinked into my main planning document for weekly planning and there is a more detailed weekly overview with opt in workshops clearly marked also.
Coming out of university I had in my CV what I believed to be comments that spoke very highly of me as a student teacher. What I of course did not realise was the huge difference between being a student teacher and being a full time classroom teacher in charge of your own classroom. I had heard it all before from the teachers in my family - give yourself space to breathe, you can't do everything at once, everybody makes mistakes... and every time that I heard it from someone new I got frustrated. I didn't want to be a beginning teacher that felt like I was drowning and knew nothing - that may or may not however have been the exact impression that I gave off to the principal of my school in the first term. I would take everything on, and crumble inside - but remind management many, many times that I am brand new at this - it was in a way my excuse for not having everything perfect. What I didn't realise was that it was perfect at that stage to be a brilliantly imperfect teacher - and through not knowing things, making my own mistakes and learning from the mistakes of others was exactly what I was supposed to be doing - that was the perfect role for me at the time. I had left university as a teacher, and by mid year of my first year of teaching I had finally reaccepted my position as a learner. In line with this, I find the following saying very true - both for myself as a new teacher and for teachers who have been in their position for many years and may not necessarily want to learn new things.
Over the following two terms, I relished my role as a learner - and soaked up as much as I could - whilst still learning the ins and outs of the school that I was working at. This year is where I believe that the change has been for me however. I have an outstanding tutor teacher who has complete faith in my abilities - both to teach successfully and to fail at teaching (and learn from it). Having a tutor teacher who has seen me succeed well, and seen me fail (not so well) has led to conversations that are very growth minded. He knows that I want to learn and grow and that I see myself as a learner - and so he has led from alongside me and provided direction by jumping on the learning journey with me. Working underneath this person has moved my love of teaching students to a passion for developing myself as a teacher continually. He has helped me set goals, visit other schools, observed me, helped me find professional readings that challenge me - and most importantly allowed me to play around with my own style of teaching. In my class I have been experimenting with POGIL (as referred to in previous posts). This has been one of the things that I have done as my Teaching as Inquiry this year - and I have fallen in love with it. Hence the next picture.
However, I am extremely grateful that I learnt the importance of viewing myself as a learner early on in my first year of teaching. The POGIL style of teaching was slightly chaotic at first and left my team leader making comments about the noise level in the room - and wondering if the students could concentrate at that noise level. However, as the weeks have gone by and I have adapted the philosophy behind POGIL to my classroom everything has settled down. The children love their new style of learning and so do I. They are inquisitive, they have urgency for their work - and they truly are learning because they want to - and for no reason except for that. They help to analyse their own data and determine what they will be learning and they love it. The same team leader came into my room last week and commented on how well the kids were working and the programme that they were doing. As a result of sticking with this, my whole team is now experimenting with POGIL styled mathematics tasks - adapted to the teachers individual journeys with POGIL.
This next picture stuck out to me because with POGIL this is true - my children work so well together that I know that the same depth and breadth of discussion could be happening regardless of whether or not I am in the classroom and working with their group. I have become far more of a facilitator and guide than someone who issues them with instructions etc.
I feel extremely honoured to work with such a great team at my school - and to have the support of other teachers. As well as my TT and my team leader I have had a small number of other teachers come and ask if they can observe how POGIL works also. My students are very keen to share their hard work and I am excited to have these other teachers in my classroom also. These teachers have no experience of POGIL and so it will be a learning curve for them just as much as it is from me and I am extremely interested to see the feedback that they have given me (My tutor teacher and team leader both have researched POGIL before coming to view it in my classroom).
My final thought for the night is the same thing that hit me half way through last year - the best teachers truly are the best learners - teaching is a journey where we help and support each other, through observations, through sharing readings and resources, through being able to talk things through, and sometimes by having a night off together that has absolutely nothing to do with teaching. I aim to be a brilliant teacher who can cater successfully to the individual needs of every student in my class - and to do that I need to be a pretty switched on learner. I am looking forward to continuing on with my teaching journey as a learner - and learning from everyone and everything around me.
Today we had a teacher only day where we looked at the PaCT tool and made professional judgements for our students based on the mathematics and writing aspects of this tool. Whilst this tool may still be considered controversial amongst educators I personally found it to be quite a beneficial tool to use. The judgements do not take too long at all to make and I managed to get through my whole class for writing in about three hours - not too bad considering that this is the first time that we have used the tool for writing.
Tomorrow we are making our maths judgements - as I have more experience with making Math judgements against PaCT I have found that the aspects in the tool can be quite useful in helping me to plan a differentiated programme within my classroom as they expose maths in a different light to the numeracy project.
Attached is a booklet that I found extremely useful for helping to clarify what the different aspects were in reading, writing and maths when I was making my judgements.
It is week six of term two, halfway through the term, and therefore probably an appropriate time to do a formal reflection of my teacher inquiry for this term.
My teacher inquiry question was:
How can I, as the teacher of a year six class, use strategies associated with POGIL to help my students develop independence and autonomy over their learning?
When this inquiry came about I discussed with my tutor teacher the importance of having a variety of sources of evidence to show whether or not this is working and highlight areas that need to change/develop and so I endeavour to do so below. I think that it is so important to have student voice as part of a measure of how successful I am in my teacher inquiry as realistically they are the ones whose learning it is affecting - and therefore they are the best people to be able to provide evidence. At times this is formal feedback in terms of videos and PMI charts and at times this is in the format of questions that my tutor teacher asks my students when he comes to observe me. As I will be referring to student answers to these questions throughout this reflection I have listed the questions below.
What were you learning today in …
Why were you learning that?
What tools have you used to ensure you are successful?
- How blogging has provided a voice for my students
View the hyperlink above to see how blogging has given my students a voice - it has changed the class from our classroom where it is mostly teacher led to being there classroom where it is hugely student led. Be sure to read the comments - it is heart warming to see the way that they support each other, both in terms of providing positive feedback and in the way that they help each other through providing appropriate and timely feedforward. What is most amazing is the way that this feed forward and feedback has crossed from simply being an online tool and become part of how they communicate in the classroom - even my shy students are no longer hesitant to tell other students when they think they are doing well, or how they think they can improve.
- The purpose of success criteria, and how these have influenced what and how my students are learning
- Excerpts from professional discussions that I have had, both with my tutor teacher and with other teachers within what I consider to be my professional learning community
- Reflections on my planning for this style of teaching and how these have changed week to week
Success Criteria
I have hyperlinked Reading Success Criteria that students have created since the start of this term. This is entirely written in student voice with the children referring back to Sheena Cameron's reading comprehension strategy sheets when they get stuck.
I believe that success criteria tie in very closely with POGIL in terms of helping students have responsibility and ownership over their own learning. The following quote speaks volumes about this:
" If learners are to take more responsibility for their own learning, then they need to know what they are going to learn, how they will recognise when they have succeeded and what they should learn it in the first place." (An Intro to AfL, Learning Unlimited, 2004).
Between the learning intention covering the what and the why - and the self created, and peer reviewed, success criteria covering the how students are able to gain insight and control over their own learning - and this is demonstrated both in the PMI chart and the video that are hyperlinked above.
Professional Discussions
When running a programme such as POGIL in a classroom it is important to consider what deliberate acts of teaching I am still doing as a teacher. Recently we were video observed and these were some of the deliberate acts that were discussed:
My focus now is to move away from questioning as the students have the tools and the experience to do that and move towards prompting as my key form of feedback - obviously all strategies are going to need to be applied at different times.
Reflections on Planning
My planning has changed nearly every week that I have been running a POGIL based programme in my classroom. The children contribute to the changes, telling me what they like and what they do not like - and what is beneficial to their learning and what is superfluous. Based on my most recent discussions with my Tutor teacher I will be changing three things:
Writing the learning intention for the week in the format of 'We are learning to... because...' so that students can see immediately what the relevance is and therefore be able to discuss this.
Recording the way that I frame the activity and the learning so that students are able to clearly identify the difference between the two. This is where students have been getting stuck when asked the questions identified earlier - whilst my top students are able to highlight the difference without any problem some of my lower students struggle to and this is the group that I need to be specifically targeting. An example of this is recorded below:
Giving students full control about what they learn and when based on appropriate data. An example of this: We are just beginning an algebra based unit. The students have all recently completed a pretest - the level of which was determined by me from looking at data against knowledge and strategies. The pretest has each page set out in the following format:
Each skill that the children need is recorded at the bottom of the page and once we have marked each page together they select 'not yet', 'kind of' or 'got it'. The students work with other children in their skill level and determine their learning for the next five weeks. They have decided to split their data up into two categories for them to focus on when they are with me: a revise category, based on the problems that they kind of understand, and a learn category based on the problems that they do not yet understand. An example of this is recorded below
This style of planning where students have such a high level of input develops feelings of responsibility, pride in what they have already achieved and a sense of direction and ownership in what they will achieve next. Obviously I still have to make judgements based on their self directed pathways - but planning this way and letting the children access and read their data is very much personalising both the planning and their learning journey.
Overall - when I reflect on the question of "How can I, as the teacher of a year six class, use strategies associated with POGIL to help my students develop independence and autonomy over their learning?" the following things come to mind:
What I have already done and need to continue to do:
- Continue to use POGIL sheets to structure students learning
- Continue to use question sheets
- Adapt my planning to meet the needs of my students
- Use the weebly to make learning interactive and engaging for students
- Allow students to direct their own learning
What I need to do next:
- Provide students the opportunities to have a real contribution to what they are learning
- Use their weebly as a place where all students have the opportunity to view similar problems (for want of a better word) to the ones that they will be working with when they are with the teacher.
- Move away from questioning and towards prompting
- Change how I structure the learning intentions for students - especially in writing and reading.
Up until now, our class weebly has been an interactive website run by myself that allows students to share their learning, allows parents to view what happens in our classroom and becomes a noticeboard.
Today, that all changed...
We have become a part of an Australian/New Zealand blogging group which has provided student with a real life context for which they are blogging.
The students have spent this afternoon learning how to transfer all of their learning onto the blog - whether it be text, photos, or videos that they have first had to upload to youtube and hyperlink in. The students are already seeing sharing as a key aspect of why they wish to complete their work to their best ability - so that they can share it with others and help them learn also. These children know how to use categories to search for their own work and share it with their parents. Since uploading the work this afternoon, these students have had four comments on their blogs in four hours - all providing some form of feedback. This provides students with feedback that their voices are being heard, well and truly.
As part of the NZ/Oz blogging group, the students rotate around the blogs and each class has a week where everyone focuses on commenting on that blog and sharing for that week. I look forward to seeing the spin-off effects for the children wish to continue sharing their blogging with this.
Learn, Create, Share, is one of the key ways that Manaiakalani run their programme - it underpins mostly everything that they do for both the students and their staff. One of the key benefits for Manaiakalani taking this on board is that it allows them to provide parents who aren't comfortable coming into school, usually their Maori and Pasifika parents, with a way to view their children's learning in real time. I hope for this to have a similar
I aim to run a similar programme that works alongside, and underpins, the POGIL learning that is currently occurring in my classroom. The way that they do this learn, create, share framework also allows students to assess each other and provide each other and myself with insight into their understanding of the task and their success criteria.
Take a look at the last few posts of the sharing page to see how the children are beginning to take control of their blogging...
In class we are currently doing a drama unit based on Maori Mythology. However, in addition to learning about the Maori Mythology the students are also learning about the elements, conventions and techniques of drama. At the end of this unit the students will be creating their own production to perform to their parents that includes using the conventions and techniques of drama to represent the creation story. I have attached some youtube videos of my students participating in improvisations during their first time exploring conventions and techniques.
I have found that the drama unit has really helped the students with working in a variety of groups, asking questions, seeking clarification, being open to other student's ideas and to experience more success with POGIL styled learning. As well as the improvisations that have been videod we have been solving real life problems using improvisations. During cycle safety, one of my students located $20 on the ground. He didn't know what to do with it as it was cash and so he brought it back to school and told me and the local policeman about it when he got to school. The policeman told him that he had done the right thing letting him know that he had found money, but that noone would go into the police to ask for a lost $20 and so he could keep it. This student asked if we could do drama improvisations around the topic so that he could apply others ideas to help him solve the situation. Essentially what he was doing - doing research before solving the problem aligned directly with POGIL and when this was pointed out to the students they were able to make great connections with their learning in drama and the learning style that they are exploring in other subjects. Many other students also shared stories of when similar things happened to them and so it was great to be able to use the vehicle of drama to make a real life problem into a teachable moment in many senses. Below is a photo of the students participating in cycle safety before hitting the road with Constable Neil.
I decided that the long weekend was the perfect time to do a reading (as well as go to the beach and see friends) and so I did some research to find readings that weren't POGIL related but focussed on similar themes! I came across a report by the NZCER titled 'Supporting future-oriented
learning and teaching – A New Zealand perspective' and thought that that sounded interesting. The following notes are insights that I gained from this reading that also connected with principles behind the POGIL style of teaching and the writing in italics is how this can, or already does, apply to my classroom.
Knowledge
·Need to
adopt a much more complex view of knowledge that incorporates knowing, doing
and being
·Knowledge –
currently our views are underpinned by two different epistemologies of what
counts as knowledge.These are:
knowledge as content, concepts and skills from the selected disciplines – and –
knowledge as creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find
solutions to challenges as they arise on a “just-in-time” basis
·A new view
of knowledge and the implications for schooling – We can no longer predict
exactly what content specific knowledge students will need as they move through
life in the
21st century.But
we do know that they need: opportunities to build their sense of self,
challenges that will develop them into becoming self-reliant, critical and
creative thinkers, the ability to use their initiative, the ability to become
team players and the drive to engage in ongoing learning throughout their lives
·In order
for students to remain engaged in the long term they must be able to actively
interact with knowledge rather than just reproduce it – they must be provided
with the opportunities and skills to understand, critique, manipulate, create
and transform it.
·21st
century learning literature argues that today’s students need to engage in
knowledge-generating activities in authentic contexts – we need to move away
from formal contemporary learning to the messiness of real world situations in
which the answers and outcomes are not known, or predetermined by the teacher,
but rather where teacher and student work alongside each other on a learning
journey.
In my classroom - knowledge is shifting from knowing to incorporating doing - I have not yet discovered how to get to the being stage with my students yet. I have found that with the students using POGIL styled activities they are working with activities that are much more engaging, hands on, and higher level thinking. With the two different epistemologies I think it is important that both play a place within my classroom - and this is evident through the way that I teach - students both understand knowledge in regards to content and skills and create their own knowledge in order to problem solve in a range of situations. Hugely within my reading and maths sessions students are provided with opportunities to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform knowledge thanks to the POGIL style of learning. Within reading at the moment students are completing challenges that at first made me uncomfortable largely due to the fact that they are higher order Blooms creative styled challenges - these children are going to be creating work where their answers cannot be predetermined because what they are doing is authentic knowledge building.
Learning
·Requires
that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning
·Focus in
future oriented learning needs to be on equipping people to do things with
knowledge
·What we
know about learning:
o
Learning
involves thinking
o
Experiences
are critical to learning
o
Learners
need to be encouraged not to search solely for the right answer but also for
the right approach to solving a problem
o
To learn,
people need to be actively engaged. They
need to be doing something, thinking something and or saying something that
requires them to actively process, interpret, and adapt an experience to a new
context or use.
o
Learners
have to want to learn the material – both in the short term and in the longer
term they need to see a purpose to learning it.
o
Learning
has to be personalized – they need to feel that they know what they are doing,
and that they can control the pace of their learning
o
Learning
often needs some kind of structure
o
Learning
involves interaction – testing out and trying ideas with others.
·In order
for captivating learning to occur there is the idea that the learner ought to
be transformed in some way through their learning and the idea that the world
can be transformed by the learner – that what they are learning can impact
their world almost immediately.
I like the idea that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning. I know that through my own professional and personal learning I develop as teacher every day and that if I was the same person that I was at the start of the year even, and if I taught in the exact same way then the learning of my students would not be enhanced. Future oriented learning does indeed need to be focussed on equipping people to do things with knowledge. With knowledge being so easily accessibly through the internet these days it does not become so much the content of the knowledge that will drive the future of our students so much as what they do with this knowledge - how they manipulate it and use it to enhance the lives of people around them. Within my current reading programme at the moment students are experiencing a variety of experiences that involve them relating what they are reading about directly to the world that they live in - with this, the activities that they are doing do not have a single right answer, but rather a variety of correct answers and what matters is the way that they get there - I would like to further incorporate this idea within my maths programme also.
Key Competencies
·Learning
that is future oriented is closely linked and connected with the Key
Competencies. This article states that
‘deep learning’ involves self managing, being creative and critical thinkers
and learning with others.
·The Key
Competencies are so important to how we teach – when we have developed the
understanding and application of these effectively in students is when students
are able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they are learning about to
whatever context they find themselves in.
Whilst my WALTs may not match directly with the key competencies the students are required to fill out an evaluation at the end of each task that is directly related to their key competencies - there is a focus on each of the key competencies but these are written in student speak. When the students arrive to teacher time with me we discuss what they need to work on next time and through this discussion we focus on what is important for allowing them to learn and grow effectively. It would possibly be effective for me to discuss these evaluations in the terminology of the Key Competencies and this is something I may explore doing.
Diversity/Authentic Learning
·Diversity is key for learning that supports children in the world that they will be a part of tomorrow – this calls for greater engagement of learners in co-shaping their education to address their needs, strengths, interests and aspirations
·Diversity encapsulates the current focus on developing strategies to ensure learners from all backgrounds can achieve success in ways that are meaningful to them.
·The goal
with education today is not simply to find better ways to raise every person’s
achievement to an identical view or standard – which is a tricky concept with
national standards saying the opposite – but rather to support each individual
to reach their full potential.
·Deep
expressions of the practice of personalizing learning occur as listed below:
o
Learners
have genuine input into shaping what happens in their learning, not only how
they learn but also what sorts of learning activities occur within their class.
o
Learners
(not just their teachers) believe that students have input into how things
happen in their classroom or school.
o
Learners
can link their schooling to other aspects of their lives, or see connections
with their goals or aspirations for their lives beyond school
·In regards
to authentic learning opportunities – it is not enough for the learning to seem
as though it is relevant, engaging and connected to student interests. Rather,
we as educators, need to provide opportunities and strategies that support
students themselves to feel engaged with, connected to and invested in the work
that they are doing.
I believe that developing authentic learning within a classroom is an ongoing thing that changes continually with what you are teaching and how you are teaching it. Developing an attitude and practice that allows students to engage quickly with authentic learning is a different thing. This is something that I am working on in both my reading and maths programmes at the moment. In writing we have set genres that we have to cover at certain times, however students get input into what they write about. In reading - on a Friday afternoon, students are provided with journals that have articles in them that may capture their interest about the current topic of study. Each group usually has about three or four choices each week. From here, the students are able to decide what they want to learn about within this topic and choose a verb from the three higher levels of BLOOMs taxonomy that relate to what they are wanting to learn. Within Maths the students sit a eAsttle test that provides them with next steps within their current subtopic and from their they direct where they want their learning to go based on both needs and interests.
Roles of teacher and student
·The idea of
personalizing learning call for reversing the logic of education systems so
that the system is built around the learner rather than the learner being
required to fit in with the system
·We need to
rethink the role of the teacher and students – as it is no longer the teacher’s
job simply to transmit knowledge and the student no longer has the main purpose
of absorbing and storing up knowledge to use in the future. We need to consider about how we are
structuring roles and relationships in way that draw on the knowledge and
strengths of both teacher and student in order to best support learning.
·Classrooms
need to not be labeled as student centered or teacher driven whilst these terms
are still being loosely thrown around but rather should involve teachers and
students working together in a knowledge building environment,
·Students
are most engaged with, and get the most out of, learning that allows them a
degree of choice, flexibility, motivation and self direction in their learning.
