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.
On the first Monday of the holidays I attended a Leading Change workshop run by Te Toi Tupu. This was a really interesting day and it was brilliant having the four of us who are working in the leadership team there. This allowed us to think critically about where we were at as a school and engage in critical reflection. I have copied in the notes that I made about the things that I viewed as important learning that we went through and they are a very interesting read. Lots of models that allow us to view the change that we are going through as a school in a new light.
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.
Halfway through the year the students take a moment to reflect on their time in Room 16 - why they like being part of the class and what their favourite part of the year has been.
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.
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...
We have a plaque in my house that says 'Write your hurts in the sand, carve your blessings in stone'. The only problem with this plaque is that this is a lot easier said than done, especially in regards to my career.
Over the past couple of weeks I have had two parents come in to see me about issues in the playground, however I initially took both of these parental visits as attacks on my teaching. After thinking these through I could see them for what they were - simply parents concerned about their child and their social interactions, and nothing to do with my classroom, let alone how I teach.
In contrast to this, I have also had some very positive feedback from my tutor teacher and my assistant principal. Both of these people have provided feedback that is extremely encouraging about my practice - messages that I initially brushed off as positive feedback for feedbacks sake but have since come to take as a true commendation about the hard work that I put in each and every day.
I find it interesting how, as humans, we are so critical of ourselves - especially where we would not be of others. Words of praise are often brushed aside and words of criticism (not in a constructive way) are often taken to heart. It is especially important for us as educators to consider this - as not only do we react this way but our students do also.
My challenge for myself for the next fortnight is to indeed carve my blessings in stone - and to believe in myself as I would believe in a friend. This is a challenge that I am setting for my students also. Tomorrow, during cross country block, we are doing art based on the idea of what makes each of us a superstar? I will post this art once students have completed it.
Student self esteem is huge - and greatly impacts the way that students work. I am hoping that by encouraging my students to see themselves in a positive light they will in turn be encouraged to believe that they can indeed achieve anything they set their mind to.
In response to my question of why we take feedback the way we do - who knows? Not me... but I do know that my students will leave my class with a backbone of self belief that cannot be crushed by the words or actions of others - and I know that I help the students contribute to this each and every day - whether it is through small comments and gestures or whether it is through an activity such as the one above. Each student in my class is a shooting star with huge potential, and I will do everything I can to make sure they believe it!
One of my goals for next term is to be having my students working in a much more student directed/led manner. Obviously after numerous years schooling where the traditional model is followed of the teacher directing learning this is a skill that needs to be taught. At the moment there are processes in place whereby the students are working towards this and I am acting as a facilitator. After some discussion with my tutor teacher about how we could further enhance this practice in my classroom we stumbled across POGIL. It looked very similar to what we had been discussing and so I decided to research it. After reading a 40 odd page document I am hooked and very excited to try this within my classroom - however also very aware that it may not work and may require a lot of work for it to look how I want it to look. I have decided that taking it step by step is the easiest way to get around this and so doing the reading POGIL guide and introducing the concept of learning to my class are the two steps for this week.
The reading was related more to secondary schools and so I have taken from it what I believe to be applicable to my classroom. Whilst there are many points made these were the ones that stood out for me:
- Students working in learning teams (organised in a very similar way to a sports team). Whilst my students are currently in learning groups and they areal working on the same content and having discussions it is still very individualised.
- Having the students apply the notion of the learning cycle of the 4Es to each piece of work - and to evaluate themselves and each other against this at the end of each session - thereby giving themselves feedback with which to begin the next session.
- Ensuring that relevant focus is placed upon both content and process - the process relating to how the children apply the content - and ideally the higher up Blooms taxonomy the better
- The importance of connecting prior learning, visualising concepts, interacting with others and taking on a variety of roles and assessing themselves
- Ensuring that tasks set for the students require them to apply their knowledge within directed, convergent and divergent discovery settings
- The use of graphic organisers to allow students to extend on their working memory
- For the success of one, all have to achieve individual and group success - the notion that responsibilities in a team are both to ensure you are able to be successful and that others are also able to be successful. Interdependence between the team whilst still maintaining individual accountability.
- That the learning process may be flipped and twisted - it does not have to always follow a linear model and in some cases it is not most beneficial to do so.
Obviously however I cannot provide the students with this list and tell them to get to work in a POGIL styled classroom. Therefore the second step for me is how I am going to introduce this learning style to my classroom. As I have decided this is extremely influential in how my students might learn and how much they benefit from being in my class I have dedicated tomorrow morning to exploring this concept in a fun manner - so that the students can identify what is needed for them to achieve success in child speak.
As a class we are going to watch the videos on the children's class weebly Learning Teams and discuss teamwork and collaboration before carrying out fun activities that require them to put into practice what they have observed in videos. After this the students will think, pair, share what they found to be effective in working as a team - and record their ideas for the classroom. The children will mark themselves on how "strong" their team was based on the following table How strong is your team? before being introduced to their 'Four E' cards that they will begin using from Monday.
Hoping the children buy into this and become as excited as it as I am!
I am currently a fourth year student at the University of Waikato studying a conjoint degree in a Bachelor of Primary Teaching and a Bachelor of Sport and Leisure Studies. I chose to study teaching as I love children and the joy and passion with which they live their lives. I find the enthusiasm that children have infectious and I love working with them to bring this enthusiasm to their learning and spread it across all aspects of their lives! Personally, a few of my favourite things include sports (gymnastics), the dramatic arts, being outdoors, the beach, and most importantly spending quality time with my family and friends. Why do I blog? I am hoping to move from being a teaching student into the role of becoming a beginning teacher next year. I have decided that the best way to keep a track of my progress, inspiration, professional learning, and gems from inside the classroom is through blogging. Through sharing reflections, insights, resources, and sparks of inspiration I hope to both learn and grow from my own experiences and allow others to also! Feedback I would love to receive any contributions that you have about what I am posting! I am a true believer in life long learning and this is one way that I can ensure that I will be continually learning about how to be an effective teacher.
