My Inquiry for 2019

The Achievement Challenge that I am focusing on in my inquiry for 2019 is 

Achievement Challenge 1:  Raising Maori student achievement through the development of cultural visibility and responsive practices across the pathway as measured against agreed targets for reading Years 1-10. 

The group I will be inquiring into is my year 9 social studies class, with a focus on how I can lift the achievement in reading for the Maori students in my class.  

Thinking about my inquiry

When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to inquire into, my passion is in the Talanoa.  I feel drawn towards oratory and the power of 'talk' and the connections people make when they hear someone speak. To me, the ability to verbalise learning shows an added depth of understanding that elevates learning for our kids.  The key to this learning is language.  Part of what students need to do show to show understanding. 

My hunch
There is a fear for some of my kids that speaking or presenting in front of their peers isn't a cool thing.  I have found that in year 9 especially, our kids have lost that spark and confidence that they had in year 8.  They have come from environments that encourage them to stand in front of a camera and create wonderful presentations on a regular basis, to one where 80% of the time, they are confined to reading and writing and hiding behind their netbooks.  Sadly, I am guilty of enabling this and I want to look at embracing the confidence kids once had at primary school.

When I think of our Maori and Pacifica kids, the words 'seen and not heard' resonate with me.  They come from a culture that quite often does not encourage them to speak up, or stand up and be confident about who they are.  This is the environment I grew up in and I often empathise with students who find it hard to talk.

Our vision for learning in the New Zealand curriculum is to develop learners who are 'confident, connected, actively involved and lifelong learners', the key word there for me is confident.  What does confident mean?  For our culturally diverse learners, what does confident mean?  How could we develop a students' confidence in class and link this to achievement?  Is there a link?

Reading as a focus
For the last two years, my focus has been on writing and I have enjoyed the process in learning ways to support our learners.  This year, I've decided that I want to explore the challenges around reading and finds ways to support my learners in the classroom.  My next blog will talk about reading more.