All Categories - Learning Through Teaching

Watercare Services - Hands-on Science

8/5/2017

I wanted to make a shout out to Sally from Watercare services for her fantastic support. Her lesson was captivating in its content. At first she explained how the waste water was treated and where stormwater went along with why it is important to keep these two systems separate.

Then she moved the class outside for some hands-on experiments around water and geology. She had the students create landforms by arranging rocks and dropping them in plastic sheeting. Then they poured water on them from above to see how rivers and lakes formed and eventually flowed out to the sea. As a final challenge, the students needed to create a landform that could contain a lake of 6 litres of water with no spillage.

Thanks Sally and Watercare Services for a stand-up afternoon.

PTC 1 - establish and maintain eﬀective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga.

Six Traits of Writing

8/5/2017

This term our team discussed moving away from a genre focus and into a more integrated writing approach where writing of all genre types is covered in relation to student learning in reading and inquiry. At least that is the theory.

When discussing how to structure such an approach The Six Traits of Writing was mentioned. I happened to have several teacher books on the six traits and how to teach them. However, after exploring these resources I was disappointed in them. The lesson content was very weak and was teacher heavy. If the writing lesson took a full 40 minutes, 30 of it was teacher talk with some student discussion and almost NO WRITING. One of my fundamental assumptions of student learning is that students learn by doing. If I want them to be good writers they need to write.

Disappointed and a bit lost, I searched for other resources and then decided to make my own introductory posters. Beyond these introductory lessons I have really struggled to design mini lessons (workshops) based on these traits. The whole class writing program is developing well and the students are mostly quite motivated in their writing, but I was not happy with the quality of instruction in the group workshops. This is now where I am focussing my current inquiry - designing relevant and effective mini workshop lessons for focussed group instruction.

I am currently running 4 writing groups (Voice, Organization and Fluency and Content & Ideas) . These groups were initially self-selected and as students learning develops changes are made. I am only 2 weeks into the new term, but already I have been enjoying my writing workshops. They have been highly engaging and tight - done in 10 minutes, so the bulk of the time students still have to be getting on with the actual task of writing. I am making good use of the modeling books for these lessons and also documenting them through ccpensieve.com. I am really looking forward to seeing how these lesson develop and impact on student engagement and learning.

PTC 1 - engage in ethical, respectful, positive and collaborative professional relationships with akonga.
PTC 4 - initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.
- identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.
PTC 6 - conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
PTC 8 - demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.
PTC 9 - select teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning and assessment activities that are inclusive and
eﬀective for diverse ākonga
- modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga
PTC 12 - use critical inquiry and problem-solving eectively in their professional practice

Keeping Track with Flexible Grouping

8/5/2017

One of the big questions that arises when attempting a flexible grouping structure is how to keep track of students achievements and next steps. Several years ago I worked with ccpensieve.com from The Daily 5 site. This is an online record keeping programme for conference notes. My past experience was limited to individual conferencing of Reading. This year I am attempting to use it for individual conferencing in both reading and writing as well as group teaching sessions in reading and writing. My aim is to increase student agency of determining next steps and ownership of their learning process.

Above is my weekly calendar showing who I intend to conference with each day. Initially I added my groups in as well, but I have stopped this. It is enough to have them in my planning document.

Here is an example of writing conferences for an individual student. I complete the observations and Next Steps with the students.

Here is an example of a group conference. These were guided reading groups or reading workshops (whichever you like to call them.) They are with a mixed ability of students but with similar needs for reading strategies. This term, I am attempting to document my sessions more regularly AFTER I have taught them. This is separate from my planning. Planning is the intended curriculum, this here is a document of the actual taught curriculum. Hopefully they match up reasonably closely but this document reflects were I made changes in response to student needs revealed during the lesson.

PTC 1 - Engaging in ethical, respectful, positive and collaborative professional relationships with ākonga.
PTC 4 - Initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.
PTC 6 - articulate clearly the aims of their teaching, give sound professional reasons for adopting
these aims, and implement them in their practiceii.
- through their planning and teaching, demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of relevant content, disciplines and
curriculum documents.
PTC 8 - enable ākonga to make connections between their prior experiences and learning and their current learning activities
- provide opportunities and support for ākonga to engage with, practise and apply new learning to diﬀerent contexts
- encourage ākonga to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviouriv. assist ākonga to think critically about
information and ideas and to reect on their learning
PTC 9 - modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga.

Sharing my Inquiry Journey

8/5/2017

In the winter holiday, I was asked to present an aspect of my language programme to staff. The goal was to share something I was trialling or developing as part of my professional inquiry. I think it was hoped I would share on Oral language, as I have a unit on that, but at this point I am not yet ready. However, I have been working hard to develop and document quality learning conversations with my students through 1-1 conferencing. I shared an online tool I was using to keep anecdotal notes on student growth, needs and next steps.

I didn't feel the presentation went very well. I was nervous and stumbled a lot and yet I was approached by several staff afterwards who wanted to know more. We were able to have some very deep conversations around student agency and teacher accountability.

www.ccpensieve.com

PTC 4 - participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.
PTC 5 - actively contribute to the professional learning community.
PTC 12 - respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community.

Matariki Family Night

7/8/2017

This year we prepared for our second Matariki Family Night. It was a roaring success last year with over 600 people attending and engaging in a variety of cultural activities appropriate for Matariki.

This year we prepared for a similar if not larger turn out, but due to extremely stormy weather the turn out was very light. Still those families that did show enjoyed the evening and the students were all able to d many mare activities as they were not fighting the crowds.

PTC 1 - engage in ethical, respectful, positive and collaborative professional relationships with whānau and other carers of
ākonga.
PTC 3 - demonstrate respect for the heritages, languages and cultures of both partners to the Treaty of Waitangi

Read to Someone

6/29/2017

As part of our DAILY 5 students are expected to read aloud to a friend every literacy block. The behavior and expectations for successful Read to Someone are very explicit. Here we see two students showing a perfect example of sitting EEKK elbow to elbow, knee to knee.

I feel very much on the back foot with establishing and fixing these basic behavior patterns. Missing term 1 (due to maternity leave), has meant that I had to hit the floor running in term 2 and didn't have the luxury of time to help the students develop the right muscle memory.

This is an area I need to improve on in future and to find ways to help the current students revisit and practice correct expectations.

PTC 6 - conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
PTC 8 - demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.
PTC 9 - select teaching approaches that are inclusive and eﬀective for diverse ākonga

Extending Vocabulary

6/26/2017

In term 2, we focussed on understanding the water cycle. This is a system that is easy enough for a 4 year old to learn and yet complex enough that doctoral professors spend their entire careers researching different aspects of the water cycle. As I am teaching year 5 I was determined to push their understanding and their vocabulary past the simplistic terms shown in many diagrams of the water cycle. Together through art we collaborated to design the diagram of the water cycle. All students with a water cycle related word (no matter how it was connected) were responsible to make sure their term was clearly illustrated in the diagram. Once it was all painted, those same word experts need to come up with an explanation label that used their word in combination with other vocabulary words. These vocabulary words are all shown in red.

PTC 4 - initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.
- identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.
PTC 6 - conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
PTC 8 - demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.
PTC 9 - select teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning and assessment activities that are inclusive and
eﬀective for diverse ākonga
- modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga
PTC 12 - use critical inquiry and problem-solving eectively in their professional practice

Student-led Conferences

6/26/2017

In week 8 of this term we had my favourite day of the school year, student-led conferences. In the past I have done these with students from 4 years of age to 10 years of age, and they never fail to be a success. The students love being in complete charge, leading their parents through their learning journey and explaining how their school day is structured. Parents always leave beaming and proud.

It has been a good 3 years since I have had a class do student-led conferences, as the only senior classes here do them. However, they had that same familiar feel of student ownership, engagement, and parental pride. It was fantastic to see these wonderful parents supporting and encouraging their young learners.

Above a student explains the evidence of his achievement in his writing book. Then he took his mum over to our differentiated maths groups and explained to her how he can choose his own level of challenge. This particular student started the year scoring very much at norm or slightly under on e-Asstle assessments and GLOSS. However, he wasn't focussed on that, instead he proudly pointed out his peg on the Black square where work is set at challenge, a curriculum level above. This is his choice, and he has consistently worked at Black over the month, pushing himself, even if occasionally he needs to come and seek extra help.

Left, a student explains the Hydrologic cycle in its complexity with sophisticated vocabulary to his mum.

PTC 8 - encourage ākonga to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviour.
PTC 9 - select teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning and assessment activities that are inclusive and
eﬀective for diverse ākonga.
PTC 11 - foster involvement of whānau in the collection and use of information about the learning of ākonga.

Accelerating Oral Language

6/9/2017

This year, I have been given a unit to research and implement programmes to accelerate oral language development. At this point, I am only at the beginning phases of the research and I am trialling different methods in my class. For now, I have a set of 36 high vocabulary words to introduce to the students each term as core vocabulary. As our school inquiry is about water with a focus on scientific processes, I have been focussing my vocabulary list around water and science. Below is the vocab wall developed by the students in term 2. Each student is the expert of 1 or 2 words. They have researched its use and meaning, then through a donut sharing have taught it repeatedly to different classmates.

PTC 4 - initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.
- identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.
PTC 6 - conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
PTC 8 - demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.
PTC 9 - select teaching approaches, learning and assessment activities that are inclusive and eﬀective for diverse ākonga
PTC 12 - use critical inquiry and problem-solving eectively in their professional practice

Learning to Inquire

5/29/2017

Having just started in a new position as a Year 5 classroom teacher, I was attempting to set the scene for our class Inquiry. We had already done collaborative brainstorms of what they already knew and looked collectively at the provocative question. However, before we delved further into the topic, I wanted to introduce the students to some different methods of inquiry. I told them different inquiry questions are best suited to different inquiry methodology. For instance, "What types of inquiries would best fit Ask an Expert and which might be best solved by Designing an Experiment?"

Initially I gave a group of 2-3 students a poster of an inquiry method (I have 10 posters), and asked them to brainstorm the types of inquiries that might suit that methodology. They found this extremely hard. They tended to ignore the method altogether and just collect facts about water to share with the class. I kept struggling to move past this. I wanted to students to understand that inquiry was not a product. It was not the answer. Rather that it was process that is centered around a question. They were having so much trouble just articulating questions, that after 2 weeks of inquiry lessons that were going nowhere, I finally removed the method posters. Instead I asked the simple question, "What do you want to know about water or about anything related to water?"

With a collection of questions I then collated these to match the posters and then added a bunch of inquiry questions of my own so that we had a large pool of 80 inquiry questions, spread out among the methods. Finally I returned the method posters. As we all sat in a circle with the posters evenly spaced, I read out each inquiry question. Students claimed the question for their poster if they believed it fit their method. If more than one student claimed it, they needed to justify their reasoning and the best justification won it. The students began to truly understand how different each method was and they became quite possessive of inquiries suited to their particular methodology.

PTC 6 - conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
PTC 8 - demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.
PTC 9 - modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga
PTC 12 - use critical inquiry and problem-solving eectively in their professional practice