Reflecting on our Cross-curricula collaboration from term 2

At the beginning of this term, Jannie and I had been working with 9PKr's English teacher to collaborate on a shared unit around our community.  They had been reading a novel in their English class that had similiar links to Marae life and growing up in New Zealand.  We'd had a few meetings to design a programme and although they were productive, I feel the unit didn't get off the ground as productively as it could've.  On reflection, I wonder if the context had enough links across our curriculum areas to connect it better to each other or if it was just bad timing.  

In their mid-term exams, students are required to write an essay on our significant places in our community and to think about why it is important to know about our community.  13 boys sat the exam and 5 of them passed.  7 girls sat the exam and only 1 of them did not achieve.  Overall, I was disappointed with the results as I thought the context of learning about our community would've engaged them in their learning and motivated them to try harder. 

For my next steps, I want to utilise the strategies that I had learnt from Jannie in term one and focus on really 'energising their brains' to slow down the learning and focus on understanding and applying key concepts and terms.