Digital Passport - Change is coming....

During these school holidays I've been working my way through a digital passport (offered by MindLab). This year, there have been changes to the New Zealand Curriculum. Digital Technologies will be fully integrated into the curriculum from 2018 with teachers having to cover two key areas; computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes. 

So what does this mean for me and my practice?

While I am somewhat familiar with digital technologies, and have enjoyed the workshops offered by MindLab I am still considering how I can implement what I have learned in these modules into my new entrant class. 

The idea of computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes intrigues me. However, the implementation of this into my practice and with the young children I work with seems problematic, especially with my interest in the work of Gill Connell and Moving Smart work. The workshop suggests that I use Scratch with my young children. I have tried this with 5 year olds before and it doesn't seem to be as straight forward as suggested. So it may be more effective if I look at 'coding' offline. I found some examples here, here and here. I will most likely introduce coding through physical movement to ensure that children get the "bottom of the bucket" as outlined in Get Ready for School and computational thinking as outlined in the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

Routines in our New Entrant Class

I've just completed my first term of Primary Teaching. While it has been a steep learning curve I've enjoyed the opportunity to grow and learn as an educator. One of the main things I have learned is that 'reflecting and tweaking' is important. Before I even met my class I had clear in my mind what our morning routine would look like. I seem to have changed this every week since then, and have finally come up with a morning routine that works for the children in my class.

Our morning routines looks like this:

• Complete Daily Express before the bell goes at 8.50am
• Self-directed play till 9.20am
• Whānau time
• Karakia Whakamutunga
• Morning Moves
• Message of the Day (Role modelling writing)
• Shared Reading
• Brain Snack (Milk/Fruit)

What does your morning routine look like?

Spiral of Inquiry: Developing a hunch around Oral Language

Developing a hunch
How are we contributing to the situation? "Hunch" is an important word – hunches may not be totally accurate, but it is essential to get them all on the table because they guide the focusing. Sometimes they might be well-established routines of the school or the classroom, and be relevant to your own school. Hunches need testing.

What is my hunch about "What strategies are most effective when supporting WRS learners with reading?" 

Sub-question One:

How might a focus on Oral Language (e.g.Talk to Learn resource/process) support children with their reading progress?

My hunch:

It is widely known that oral language is fundamental for reading and writing. In order for children to develop a strong repertoire of vocabulary, they should be immersed in a range of meaningful, purposeful and lived experiences. My hope is by implementing a widely-used resource created specifically for primary children e.g. Talk to Learn, that I would have gifted children with opportunities to explore oral language in a meaningful way. In addition to this, I would also like to align our vocabulary work with possible field trips so that children's learning can be connected to lived experience.

The current themes in Talk to Learn are as follows:

• Actions
• Animals
• Beach
• Birds
• Birthdays
• Bubbles
• Clothing
• Cooking
• Families
• Fish
• Flight
• Food
• Houses
• Insec
• Kites
• Me
• Nursery Rhymes
• Supermarket
• Toys
• Transport

For each theme, a 30-minute lesson plan can be used daily to support children with specified vocabulary. My hope is to work through each theme over 2 weeks with a field trip (locally) to reinforce the concept.

Example of sequence picture activity

Spiral of Inquiry: Focusing

Focusing
Where will concentrating our energies make the most difference? Focusing well will lead to informed actions, and usually means selecting no more than one or two areas so that the inquiry is "focused and deep". The authors point out that a common focus generates the momentum to transform schools.

I've decided that my overarching inquiry will be as follows;

"What strategies are most effective when supporting WRS learners with reading?" 

After looking into the resource "Effective Literacy practices in Years 1-4" (more here) and attending the Guided Reading webinar (post here). It is well known that oral language is fundamental to reading and writing, this resources affirms this too. So with this in mind, here are my sub-questions aligned with the Teaching as Inquiry process here.

Sub question One:

How might a focus on Oral Language (e.g.Talk to Learn resource/process) support children with their reading progress?

Sub question Two:

Will regular guided reading sessions improve students progress through the Rainbow Wheel? 

Spiral of Inquiry - Scanning

Scanning

What’s going on for learners? More emphasis is placed on teacher observations of students, in all circumstances. There are some difficult questions to ask, such as: Is it all right for some learners to experience challenging and engaging learning in one classroom while in the room next door the students are not? Scanning is not done overnight, can last two months, and may turn up surprises.

"What strategies are most effective when supporting WRS learners with reading?" 

I have tweaked this somewhat over the past few weeks as I am conflicted by the difference between "inquiry" questions outlined by Kath Murdoch here and questions outlined here by Dr. Noeline Wright. After further investigation, it seems the "inquiry" I am used to is where there is no pre-determined 'answer or goal' rather an 'inquiry process that helps learners find out more about what they need to DO and KNOW ABOUT in order to answer a big question'.

So with this in mind, I have decided to keep my 'big question/inquiry' and create some questions that align more with the Teaching as Inquiry process here.

Big question:

"What strategies are most effective when supporting WRS learners with reading?" 

What's going on for learners?

• I believe that oral language is the foundation to reading and writing, so have carried out JOST assessments with all of my students, areas that need attention are past tense and plurals.
• Given that Maori/Pasifika languages do not use 'plurals' as such e.g. we say ngā waka for boat(s) there should be some explicit instruction for these areas.
• Letter Identification and Sounds also need attention (children seem to know these through alphabetical order rather than out of context).

While test results and data systems provide information about achievement, we need to dig much deeper to find out what is happening for learners in other key areas of learning and engagement (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, 2014, p.9)

Strengths of students:

• Children are eager to learn and happy to engage in a range of learning experiences.
• Children are good at following instructions
• Happy to come to school
• Happy to play
• Responsible for their belongings e.g. lunch, hats and jumpers

Teacher to develop:

• Letter sounds
• Alphabet recognition
• Oral language
• Pre-reading

Spiral of Inquiry

Lynne recently introduced our team to the Spiral Inquiry through a paper entitled "A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry" In this paper, the notion of inquiry is visually more representative of a true inquiry, rather than a perfect cycle of steps, the visual shows a 'spiral' I believe inquiry to be more like a 'bowl of spaghetti'.  

The six parts of the spiral of inquiry are:

Scanning

What’s going on for learners? More emphasis is placed on teacher observations of students, in all circumstances. There are some difficult questions to ask, such as: Is it all right for some learners to experience challenging and engaging learning in one classroom while in the room next door the students are not? Scanning is not done overnight, can last two months, and may turn up surprises.

Focusing
Where will concentrating our energies make the most difference? Focusing well will lead to informed actions, and usually means selecting no more than one or two areas so that the inquiry is "focused and deep". The authors point out that a common focus generates the momentum to transform schools.

Developing a hunch
How are we contributing to the situation? "Hunch" is an important word – hunches may not be totally accurate, but it is essential to get them all on the table because they guide the focusing. Sometimes they might be well-established routines of the school or the classroom, and be relevant to your own school. Hunches need testing.

New learning  
How and where will we learn more about what we do? Teacher learning must be connected to identified learner needs. External expertise is important here and the school must make clear to externals what makes a difference to learners. We all need to know why new ways of doing things are better than what we did before.

Taking action
What can we do differently to make enough of a difference? "Genuine inquiry needs space to take risks, make mistakes, and try again – and again". Changing things can also feel risky for some learners who then resist change, and in turn bring concerned parents. We need to build understanding for all, right from the outset.

Checking  
Have we made enough of a difference? Checking doesn’t have to be formal, or at a set time. It can go on throughout the spiral. The importance of trust should be a recurring theme throughout the cycle, and it certainly is true of checking.

As I progress through the year, I'll be reporting more on each step and hyperlinking these posts back to this original post.

Most Likely to Suceed

Just stumbled across this video "Most Likely to Succeed" this afternoon, a groundbreaking documentary about education and curriculum reform in the 21st Century America. 

It is definitely worth watching in its entirety. You can find the full version here