Spiral of Inquiry T4

This term for our spiral of inquiry we have been looking at how to motivate our learners during iExperience, including provocations and team teaching strategies. Our original wonder was...

We wonder if using an open ended provocation questions and planning an iExperience collaboratively with different co-teaching strategies will improve learner engagement.

We had struggled with provocations that grabbed the attention of our learners and wanted to experiment with open ended questions and build it into our iExperience learning time. We had also struggled with feeling like our learners weren't as engaged in iExperience workshops as we would have liked them to be. So we refined what we wanted to explore...

How to create open ended questions that provide plenty of scope for learner choice and how to manage this in an organised but flexible way.  Be open to, and experiment with, different co-teaching strategies.

I felt that this experiment went really well.  The learner voice that we gathered at the very start was really interesting.  Many of the learners felt that they didn't get enough choice and wanted to do more hands on, active stuff like art and P.E.  The market day iExperience has turned out to be something that ticks many the boxes of what they wanted, they've been able to choose their groups and choose what they create, it's been creative, they've been able to collaborate.  I think this project has been super successful!  

I have really enjoyed this experiment.  I found it really confronting to start with because we had a starting point but no other planning however I quickly became comfortable with where we were headed and have enjoyed the process. 

Spiral of Inquiry iExplore doc

What I learned from this inquiry

* Kids are more invested in something when they have had a large part in creating it.  They do still need guidance though as they don't know what they don't know. 

* Even less able, or ELLs, can participate in taking responsibility for learning in a collective way when they have the support of others.

* Mixed groups work really well. 

* I think supportive teaching and team teaching work really well, I don't really think parallel teaching is a worthwhile method based on what we have done in our habitat this year. 

Maths Experiment

My maths focus experiment was to try and guide and support a group of learners through strategy and knowledge workshops.   I chose to do this as they were often self conscious and lacked confidence in their abilities, always relying on using algorithms and they had very little knowledge of other ways to solve problems.  The strategies I used for this group were used with the habitat as a whole and have led to some significant changes in attitude and abilities within our habitat.  

Firstly, we decided to organise our strategy workshops as a series of steps that followed learning progressions.  Each fortnight we have one strategy to focus on and three workshops that work at different levels with different sorts of numbers.  Workshop 1 focuses on the stage 4/5 level of the strategy, workshop 2 is the stage 5/6 level of the strategy and workshop 3 is the stage 6/7 level of the strategy.  During each session the learners are put into the workshop that best suits their learning (determined by a pretest) and half way through the session they have the choice to continue practising their capability in that level of the strategy or move to a different workshop to build on it.  This has given our learns a great deal of ownership over their learning and has made them a lot more self motivated.  The learners who started at workshop 3 are given the opportunity to practise their capability by teaching someone else.  

The other thing we have done is add more materials into our workshops and knowledge sessions.  In all workshops materials have been available, demonstrated and encouraged to support the learners in building new knowledge.  We have stressed the importance of using materials even at stage 6 and 7 of the curriculum and have encouraged different ways of using materials.  

Thirdly, we have used a lot of mixed grouping for problem solving and encouraged learners to teach and learn off each other.  

I'm am super dooper excited about this new way of structuring our maths learning because I can see the buzz it's creating amongst our learners and how much confidence it's giving them.

Teacher vs Learning Coach

I've been thinking lately about the difference between a teacher and a learning coach.  Reflecting on my experiences in education I wonder if it's that a teacher teaches content while a learning coach coaches learning.  Thinking about how our day is split up in LH3 I feel like I'm a learning coach during iExplore and iExperience and a teacher during iDevelop.

During reading, maths and writing (maybe a bit less so in writing) I feel like I'm just going through the motions of teaching content to the kids.  In reading I focus on comprehension skills like summarising and making connections and in maths we focus on teaching specific strategies and knowledge.

So, I've been wondering how to change from being a teacher during iDevelop to being a learning coach.  I think the easiest place for me to start figuring this out is in reading.  I'm not really sure where to begin but I need to figure out what my groups really need to learn about reading and how I can provide that learning opportunity for them.

I have two reading groups, both reading at around 8-9.5 years old which is a bit concerning.  The year 5s and 6s should be reading between 10-12 and the year 7s should be between 12-14.  So my question to myself is - how do I help my learners achieve increased reading comprehension while coaching their learning rather than just teaching them content?  (So far literature circles is the only idea I have but I'm not sure how to run these in a way that achieves my goal).  I have some research to do!

Mini Olympics iExperience

This week we have held a mini olympics iExperience for three afternoons.  We have crossed it with measurement because we were finding it really hard to fit strand into our maths sessions so this seemed like a good idea!  Each afternoon the learners were broken into three groups which rotated around three different activities, participating in each for around 25 minutes.  The activities covered area, distance, calendars, time, capacity and mass.  The learners have really loved these short, sharp, hands on activities and have enjoyed experimenting with different 'olympic sports'.  

I found the design process interesting. When we were asked to collaboratively plan I found planning on the spot with no prior thinking time difficult.  I didn't actually get much written in that ELT session, going away to finish writing up my design later in the week after some thinking time. Because I found it so difficult I did appreciate having Lisa and Adele sharing their ideas on my design document, it helped me get started. I think we all found it tricky though as none of us got far in the ELT session!

Teaching all of the sessions with one group had two sides to it for me.  On one side it was great because I got to do a variety of different activities but on the other side it would have been nice to do the same activity three times and have the opportunity to make improvements after each one. I'm not sure if I prefer to work with just one group for three sessions or if I would have liked to have worked with all of the groups over the week. Even though we get to work with most of the learners during iDevelop and iExplore some learners really shine in 'topic' type curriculum areas so it might have been nice to be able to see that. 

iExperience Collaboration Extravaganza

* I've enjoyed having short sessions, 1hr from start to finish.  It keeps things moving and has been motivating for the learners.

* We have found that the key to successful iExperience in LH3 is to keep things interactive and with plenty of moving and group work so we have kept our activities as active as possible.  The learners are a lot more interested when there's moving involved.

* Our learners have enjoyed the artsy/creative aspect of the activities and it's been nice to watch them buzzing and engaged in what they're doing.  Great to see some independence and leadership coming through in some learners.

* I found the planning difficult at the start, possibly because the activity didn't stem from my own idea so I didn't have my head around how it should look.  Collaborating with Lisa and Adele really helped because they gave me some direction and ideas to begin the design process

* Great narrative opportunity!!  We have taken photos of the learners doing the different activities and will organise them so that we can each write some narratives for our groups.  Easy way to get them done!  There's so much to say about their learning!  Having smaller groups for three afternoons has made it really manageable.

Provoking Probe

Name: Lisa and Sarah

Description:

• Agency for independent experiences
• Opportunities to enter ZPD
• Ongoing reflection supported

First idea: What kind of provocation interests or connects the learner?  During weeks 7-9, learners will be focusing on the significance of Matariki.  This will be an opportunity for us to use a variety of provocations each day and notice the connections learners make, e.,g paper craft, images/word prompt, music.

Reimagined idea:  Does a question provoke our learners’ curiosity?

Write a provoking question related to the iExperience topic on a whiteboard and see what happens.

Indications of Success: Learners discuss the questions with each other, justify their ideas, change their thinking, listen to each other, come up with questions, make connections with the iExperience sessions.

Indications of Failure: Learners don’t discuss the question with each other or ask any questions.

Amplification: Use the same strategy of provoking questions to guide learners through their iExplore topics.

Dampening: Stop using questions

Learners Taking the Lead on Design

What?
Yesterday in LH3 we decided to trial having the learners design their own day.  We gave them a sheet of paper that was broken up into three sections, one for each block, then we went over the day's workshops.  The learners then had to schedule in the workshops they needed to attend and then work the weekly must do's around them.  I had tried this last week on Thursday when half of the habitat were out at NYLD and it had worked really well.  The learners who were here did a really good job of planning their time and sticking to it.  I found that they were really on task and motivated.

So What?
The day went with varying success.  Some learners really enjoyed it and followed their plans down to the minute (they had to write their timing on it and make it really specific) while others used the time to talk with their friends and did not achieve anything.
I would really like to persist with this way of planning because I think it will prepare our learners for OJC and OSC well and because I really do believe that if they've had a hand in designing the work that they do they're more likely to do it and enjoy it.  I wonder if the types of activities on the must do's would change things also, are the tasks too specific and could they be broader to allow more space for diversity and creativity?

Now What?
I think for next week it would be a good idea to give more support to those learners who need it.  I think our inner circle (in our circle of independence) will need their day designed for them or with them, we could spend time doing that first thing on Monday morning.  The inbetweeners might need a small amount of guidance, for example the subject that they are doing but they can choose what they do for that subject (e.g. Literacy = read to self).  The outer circle are more than capable of planning their day on their own so they could do that before the day starts on Monday to allow them a greater amount of learning time.

My Thoughts
I'm still excited by this approach and I do think that it went well for the first time we've done it as a whole habitat. I wonder if it worked better on Thursday purely because there were smaller numbers of learners.  I would really love to be able to add Fridays into the mix and by term 4 have most of our learners in the outer circle planning their own day all of the time.  It's a lofty goal but I think it's totally possible!

Swimming - Experimenting with choice

I'm really enjoying the opportunities that swimming has brought us this term.  Some of the learners are really coming out of their shells in the pool and it's fantastic seeing them in an informal learning environment where they have such a high chance of success and they're getting so much enjoyment out of it.  I've been taking photos and videos with the intention of writing narratives for the learners in my group, I'm seeing such development from some learners so I'm excited to compare their skills at the start and at the end!

It's also a really useful way to experiment with allowing learners to pick and choose what they work on for part of the day (when learners come back form the pools they are allowed to work on whatever they'd like to work on).  It would be my ultimate goal to have learners making these sorts of choices all of the time and Lisa and I running mixed workshops throughout the day so it's a great way to experiment and see how the learners cope with such a high level of choice.  Some of them are really loving it, grabbing the opportunity with both hands and enjoying it while others are more off task.  I would say at the moment that the majority of learners are off task with a handful making positive learning choices, I'm interested to see if this changes over the next four weeks!

* I wonder how I can support the learners to decide what they need to work on and stay focused, perhaps they need to spend shorter periods of time on each thing they do, to stop their attention falling off so often.
* If we ended up running this type of model how would we keep track of learners and their finished work/work in progress?
* The circle of independence would really help us with this, how would we use it better to support those learners who need to stick close to a learning coach?
* Would it be okay to allow learners to make their own choices all day??

Safe to Fail Probes

Safe to Fail Probes

Provocations: We will keep our provocations the same as we had last term however we will have them out both before school and after lunch to see if there is a greater level of participation and discussion in one over the other. Wk 4 design  

Initially when we designed our safe to fail probe we changed quite a few things.  We shifted the timing from the morning to the afternoon, we provocations part of the learning experience so they went from voluntary to compulsory, we made them link more strongly to our iExperience topic (previously they were more random, designed to inspire and provoke curiosity for iExplore and iExperience).  In week one we found that there was a much higher level of participation, energy and discussion from the learners (wk 1 design).  Some learners who previously did not join in with activities were joining in and getting something out of the learning.  We asked a lot of questions as the learners participated to provoke their thinking, this worked differently to last term where our questions were less frequent and broad.  This questioning strategy meant that many of the learners had lightbulb moments (particularly during the screwed up paper activity).  

After our discussion with Chris and Leanne we discovered that we'd changed too much at once, meaning that we were unable to pinpoint what actually made the difference, if there was a difference. We have decided to stick with changing the timing only, we will go back to doing the types of provocations that we did last term only we will offer them in the morning and in the afternoon.  We'll be watching to see if there is any difference in participation (new Safe to fail probe).

At this point I can't really predict what is going to happen.  Either the learners will be just as unlikely to engage in provocations in the afternoon because the types of provocations just don't interest them or they don't see the point in them OR they will be more inclined to participate because the afternoon time slot isn't their time, it's learning time therefore they'll engage because they have nothing else to do.  It will be interesting to see who notices/participates and what sort of discussion comes out of it. I'm wondering if it will give us any useful information or not due to the afternoon time slot being learning time and the morning being the learners' own time.  

Swivl DAT

My deliberate act of teaching was a reading group who were focusing on Self Monitoring.  We had worked on this comprehension strategy for a couple of weeks and were doing the last, refresher session on it before the holidays.

What Went Well
The learners had their self monitoring bookmarks they'd been given and they were able to refer to them confidently.  There were a couple of learners who were very confident with answering the questions that I had put up for discussion and could talk about self monitoring skills easily.  Over the previous weeks the group had understood what self monitoring means, the importance of it and the different ways to do it

What I Would Change
Next time I would set the swivl up at the back of the group so that the learners are in the video.  It would have been helpful for me to see their interaction so that I can better plan for sessions and to allow me to write narrative assessments on specific learners.
In the future I need to ensure that I move around a wee bit instead of standing or sitting in one spot, I think this would make the session a lot more interesting for the learners and would allow me to connect with more of the group (I follow a special needs teacher on Facebook and he uses this strategy to keep things interesting and keep the attention of his learners).
I need to use strategies for getting the whole group participating in the learning.  More often than not it's a handful of learners who answer all of the questions and do all of the thinking, perhaps because the others are shy, or worried about being wrong or language is a problem.  I think if I had them discussing, writing, mind mapping or doing some other activity in pairs or threes it would be a non confronting way for all learners to participate and access the learning.  This is my main goal moving forward.
I think I also need to think about the structure of the session and really plan it out a bit more deliberately so that I can get the learning I want out of it but keep the session short and sharp.

End of T1 Reflection

T1 reflection - what’s not going well

iExplore 

• Most learners are not following the learning model document and do not understand that it is more than creating a presentation. 
• Those who have done bake sales have needed significant intervention by Lisa and I.  They haven’t understood the process they needed to go through to get from the idea to the end product (finding a recipe, making a list of ingredients, doing a budget etc).  
• There is more of a language issue than I originally thought there was and I think many learners need ESOL support when doing their iExplores.
• I forgot to give the Sharks group the web quest that we created for them.

iDevelop

• Some learners aren’t getting enough instructional sessions on strategies and are not remembering how to use them. 
• Learners don’t automatically go to the slideshows on our Google site and do the capability tasks.
• When maths workshops are quite large I have found it very challenging to reach all learners and use materials with them
• Most learners aren’t updating their reader’s notebook.
• There doesn’t seem to ever be enough time for each subject area (reading, writing, maths)
• I don’t think we have enough maths games and language games out for learners to use to practise their capabilities

iExperience

• I have found it difficult to have enough time for visual arts on Tuesdays
• It has been difficult to offer workshops with only two learning coaches
• Many learners need language support with independent activities

Home learning

• Half of our learners are not doing mathletics at home.
• We haven’t got a way of checking that the learners are doing home reading

Other

• Provocations that are not on YouTube don’t seem to grab our learners.
• Many activities in all areas are not getting done
• Many learners sit with their friends and are very distracted during independent learning time
• They are very slow at getting organised when transitioning into a different learning area

End of Term 1 Maths

Assessment
Every second Friday we have been doing a pre-test.  This includes ten questions from various maths stages, all of the questions come from the planning sheets on NZmaths.  After the pre-test Lisa and myself mark them and put the learners into workshop groups based on what their gaps are.  Over the two weeks we run workshops that focus on the strategies in the pre-test and each workshop has a slideshow that accompanies it.  The slideshows are uploaded to the class Google site for learners to access for capability practise and to support their further learning after the workshops.

Daily 3: maths with someone, maths on my own, maths writing
We have been encouraging daily 3 with our learners and have a display on the wall to support the language of daily 3.  We have found though, that many of the learners spend all of their maths time playing card games or on Mathletics.  The card games they are playing are often snap or last card so they are not gaining much or practising their capabilities.  Following

Mathletics & Digital Tools
Learners are required to earn 2000 points each week on Mathletics (this number was decided on by the learners).  Activities are set for them that align with the workshops they have been, or will be attending.  They have been given time in class to work on Mathletics however we are finding that many of them are only doing Mathletics and nothing else so at the moment we have limited it.  We are also finding that around half of our learners are not doing Mathletics at home.

We have not started using Studyladder yet however I think next term we should look into this.  Some of the stage 5 activities on Mathletics don't align with the strategies we are teaching them (lots of algorithms which they shouldn't really be doing at stage 5) so it would be good to use Studyladder to fill this gap.

Moving Forward
It'd be good to find a way to keep our workshops going but make them smaller, less learners in each one so that we can use materials more easily.  Also I'm keen to build in a bit more repetition for those learners who find maths difficult and need to repeat the same skills many times in different ways.

First iExplore

The last two weeks we have been doing an iExplore around deaf culture, the Treaty of Waitangi and Chinese New Year.  The learners have been in three groups and we've run a rotation through the three topics.  The first two groups were really engaged in my topic (Chinese New Year) and most of the learners shared some really great thoughts from what they had learnt.  Today's group were the most engaged of all the groups.  I was a little concerned about how I was going to reach the deaf learners but they seemed to be really interested in the topic and were excited about finding out about the dragons and the mythical monster who terrorised a village.

I realised after the first group that I needed to get the learners to record something about their learning of Chinese New Year customs and traditions so I got the second and third groups to create their own slides on my slideshow and write something that stuck with them.  I absolutely loved what some of them created, a couple linked videos that they'd found and pictures of different things and enjoyed getting up and sharing their slides with the group.

After the second group I went in and left feedback on each slide.  This time around I kept it brief and positive and thanked them for sharing, I felt that at this point of the year I want to create a positive feeling around feedback so didn't give any feed forward this time.

Going forward I need to remember to get evidence of learning every time we do something.  I also need to work on making my planning more thorough and link the correct things to it.  I need to think about what sort of feedback and feed forward I want to give on this sort of activity where it's a shared document, in terms of privacy do I want to be critical in public or keep it positive.

Attach the slideshow when it's finished. 

#Oresome Challenge

Team Collaborative

1. This week has been an overwhelming cascade of information. 
2. We have learnt about the learning model and how they relate to the seven principles of learning.
3. We learnt about the importance of the space between and how we can utilise this space to create collective intelligence. 
4. This week half of us began the journey of learning NZSL. 
5. For us, this week's learning has had a real 'wow' factor because there has been so much learning about deaf culture, and we've collaborated a lot.
6. Today we have had the opportunity to go into our space and imagine how it might work with the furniture and the different areas of the room. 
7. We discovered that poo can go into a worm farm.
8. PB4L was interesting and we're excited to implement it in our habitat.
9. Over the week we have learnt to decipher the induction timetable and the many acronyms have become clear. 
10. As this space is rubbish free we will have to learn how to manage our rubbish as well as encouraging the learners to do the same. 

 

Induction - Day Four

Throughout the day I have gained a lot more confidence and the pieces have started to fall into place a lot more in terms of how things will work in LH3.  The discussion we had this morning with the LH1 learning coaches was very useful and clarified a few things for me, such has what our focus might be for the term/year and how hapu groups will work.  It also made me feel a lot more comfortable with the level of freedom we have with topics.  I still have a long way to go before we're ready for learners to come in next week but I now have a clearer direction for what things we'd like to cover and the ideas and opportunities that came out of the discussion seem endless.  

We also discussed provocations which is something I've thought about before but never done.  I love the idea of generating interest and motivation in this way and leaving the ball more in the learners' court, this seems like the start of real inquiry and real thinking.  I found an amazing video clip this morning for Hit Record (https://www.hitrecord.org/) which could be extremely motivating for some learners who are more creative or who want to be creative but aren't sure how. The Hit Record idea encompasses the four Cs and the key competencies while allowing learners to go in a number of different directions (or not if they're not into it). I think it would allow learners who aren't naturally creative to experiment with the support of their peers through group learning. It would be exciting to introduce Hit Record to the learners at some point and see where it takes them (I imagine it could lead to amazing iExplore topics!!).

I really enjoyed the session on NZSL this afternoon. I knew the fingerspelling alphabet from uni but it was useful to get a refresher and to learn some basic words and phrases. I feel a lot more confident meeting the deaf learners next week, now I can introduce myself! I'm really excited to have the opportunity to learn more throughout the year. It was also really useful to learn some things about deaf culture so that I can make sure I'm doing the right thing for the deaf learners in LH3. There were some things I hadn't thought of prior to today, such as appropriate attention getters, the clothing that I wear and not standing in the sun. I'm keen to talk with the deaf learners and make sure they know that they can tell me what they need and let me know what I'm doing right and what I need to change!

Induction - Day Three

My three feeling words from this morning's discussion of the 3rd space were frustrated (when I was thinking about 'cookie cutter' education), curious (when talking about connections I wondered how this relates to us as educators) and overwhelmed (when wondering how on Earth I will achieve it).

On reflection these feelings haven't changed all that much.  I still feel frustrated at the traditional sense of 'one size fits all' education (incl. standardised testing, reporting styles, curriculum and expectations in education).  On the other side of the coin it's very exciting to think that here at Ormiston Primary we are challenging traditions and reconstructing teaching and learning in an authentic and effective way and that I will become part of that journey. 

During the discussion I realised that the connections relate to me as an educator and a learner because I will be responsible for facilitating the learners' connections with each other and their world and I will also be forming my own connections with colleagues, ideas and information. I still feel curious about this as I'm keen to see how this will look and where it will take us.  

I feel overwhelmed by the ideas presented today as it seems like a long journey to take, and will possibly be difficult to measure and keep track of.  I feel like as an educator I need to fully prepare children for their today and for their future and I want them to be well rounded, collaborative, creative, forward thinking, innovative citizens.  This seems like a huge mountain to climb but I think it will be hugely satisfying and exciting. 

Update

This afternoon I came home feeling quite overwhelmed but after taking some time to digest the information presented I'm now really excited to get stuck in.  I feel very inspired by the general philosophy of the school and the ideas presented today and know that they will provide a much richer learning experience for myself and for the learners. 

Induction - Day Two

What?  

After the session on the model of learning this morning I feel like I have more of a handle on how to plan and which direction to take the learning in LH3.  I really like the framework of the four Cs (and the pairs of words that go with each one) and think it will give us some solid direction for us and our learners.  

I was also reminded of the key competencies as we learnt about learning stories as assessment.  It will be really good to keep these in mind as we learn, plan and reflect. 

Ref: NZCD

So what?

It's going to be important that I remember the four elements of the learning model to guide the learners in LH3 to build on their knowledge.  I'll also need to remember that different learners will start with different parts of the model depending on what they're doing, what their prior knowledge is and their learning style.  It was pointed out today that sometimes there will need to be more structure to a learning experience and Lisa and myself will have to guide this ourselves.  Some learning might go on too long or become too broad without our scaffolding so we'll need to keep that in mind. 

Now what?

My first step is to learn the four elements and the pairs of words that go with each one.  I'll also need to create some sort of display in the habitat to use as a guide.  It would be good to have something that the learners can interact with, the one we used today had velcro which allowed us to move the word pairs around depending on what we were talking about.  As LH3 has new learners, and new learning coaches, we'll need to go through it, discuss it and model it over the first few weeks (we'll need to figure out how to do that!).  

Induction - Day One

What?   

The need to challenge my own thinking, beliefs and assumptions from time to time to develop new ideas about how to meet the needs of the learners (developing a hunch: Spirals of Inquiry).  I think I'm going to have to put my current knowledge aside at times and really think outside the box which is something I'm not really used to but am excited to have the opportunity to do.  

I also learnt ways to document my learning through my Google site and my blog.  I'm excited to start doing this because I think it will help me to challenge my thinking and notice how it is changing.  

So What?  

This matters because in this environment (OrmPS) the learner is truly at the centre of everything we do. They are our focus, ahead of everything else, and I will need to make sure I am providing the best opportunities for learners to develop their skills and knowledge. 

Now What?  

My next steps are to set up my blog and Google site and have a think over the next few weeks about how I'm going to use them.