2022 Bursts and Bubbles Presentation

This week our COL teachers presented at our annual Burst and Bubbles event where we shared a snapshot and summary of our inquiries. 

Here is my speech (note: my students are still completing part of their project and will update my blog and reflections when it is done).

At the start of the year, the aspect of student learning my inquiry was focused on was how do I get my year 9 kids to engage and care about their local community so they would feel like they belonged and would want to look after it. 

I identified this as my focus when I noticed that kids didn’t know much about this place, the place where their feet stood on nor why it was important or who it was important to.  For example when I asked them what places were important to them they said school, church and Pak n Save.  When it came to writing about these places, the tasks my boys were supposed to complete was usually rushed or messy and they would say that they didn’t really think it was important to focus on. 

My boys told me they preferred pictures and images and wanted to verbalise their learning around these sources but when it came to writing they didn’t want to do it or started but didn’t finish.

So I decided to pause and pivot from the unit I was teaching and redesign a new one based on the concepts of identity and belonging.  I aimed to have more visuals and images and less of the other stuff.  I tried to link it more explicitly to places around our school in prep for our local curriculum Hikoi that we went on with Matua Harley.  On the trip the boys were so engaged and respectful it was a game changer.  My next challenge was to figure out how do I take that learning experience and support it from within inside the classroom.

I worked alongside Matua Harley in the classroom space which reinforced the learning and it worked for a time.  Kids were engaged and talking about their experiences and felt connected because they saw who it was important to, they could hear and take on Matua’s perspective and cared.  He was authentic and real for them.

One of the key pieces of literature that I drew on that helped me understand and make changes to my inquiry was Rose Hipkins report on weaving a coherent curriculum and how the capability of perspective taking is a key component to help our young people become actively engaged members of society’.  That coupled with the new histories curriculum and it’s resources helped guide my inquiry better.

Another turning point came from an opportunity to meet with a local artist in our area Gary Silipa who really wanted to connect with our kids.  He took us on a walking art tour of G.I where kids got to learn about the art pieces and the stories of how they got there.   From this trip kids got to say what they saw and what they didn’t see.  They didn’t see enough Maori or Pasifika art pieces or ones that they could relate to.  Through lots of discussion and planning Gary has agreed to help our kids design a huge visual piece outside our school cafe that will show what’s important to them with a planned future assignment out in G.I.  In class now, kids are focused on something real that they see themselves in.  

Student feedback has been mostly positive but now the expectation is that we need at least one or two trips for every unit and we need experts to take us.  

The most important learning that I’ve made about my inquiry is that authentic connections makes perspective-taking real and essentially helps our kids to care about what matters.  The most important learning I made about inquiry was that it’s ok to take opportunities as they come and that the profile of student learning that I thought was important at the start can and will change and that’s a good ok.

Faafetai lava and Go Toa Samoa!

Intervention: Purposeful Perspective Taking - the lesson.

In my previous blogpost, I discussed the planning behind a sequence of lessons based on critically thinking about images and the stories behind them in a hope that my learners will be able to engage more in their learning and care about the places around them.

The lesson was based around the historical street names of some of the places around Glen Innes and how and why they got their names.  Firstly, we looked carefully at the picture of the G.I train station and what the image was telling us.  I got students to think, pair and then share their thoughts.

We then looked at the train station today and discussed what they saw and why.  When I was showing them the different pictures, I needed to prompt some of the kids to really look carefully at what was in the photo, around the train station and why.  We took some time to unpack the two images and then I shared with them the compare and contrast tool with the images in the middle.  

I had to explain what each of the circles surrounding the centre pictures meant which surprised me.  I assumed students would know how to use this tool but I was able to explain that circles on the outside of each image were the differences where as the circles in the centre that were linked, represented similarities.  I have shared a completed copy above.  

Students then went into pairs to analyse a bird's eye view of our local area and to apply the tool to this new learning.  Most of the boys still found it difficult to understand.  

The next lesson looked closely at images focused on the history of our local area, starting with early Maori and what life was like for them living in Ukutoia.  

On a shared document, I provided a table with all the names of the different streets that I wanted them to think about whether they were named after a place or a person and whether they were English or Maori.  I then asked them to write a paragraph to explain what they noticed about the street names and why it was the way it was.  

Lastly, I wanted the students to create a google map showing all of the place names and where they were located.  

I knew that I needed to explain it carefully, so decided to venture out to where I haven't been before for a long time: rewindable learning.  I created a screen castify to explain to kids how to complete the mapping activity.  I needed to do this not just for my class, but also for the other year 9 classes completing this activity.  Here is the link for the video.

Reflection:

I found that students responded well to the unpacking of the images when we did it together.  By modelling it as a class, then asking them to do it in groups, pairs then individually, it gave them a chance to use questioning skills and critical thinking skills to look at the images with a different lense.  When asked idea that the many of the street names were named after places on the other side of the world surprised them and a handful of students identified that these names reflected the people who were in charge at the time.  

When it came to comparing and contrasting, a number of students did struggle but with modelling how to use it and explaining the importance of the compare and contrast tool, students were able to use it effectively.  From here, the tool guided their paragraph writing (although some did struggle to start).

The mapping exercise helped to break up the writing and further emphasised the stories of how they were formed and where they were placed.  I felt the video helped in slowing down the learning to suit the kids who needed the instructions and helped me to concentrate more on helping students who needed it.

Overall, I enjoyed teaching this series of lessons and I feel that kids got the most value out of it because it forced them to critically think of places around them reinforced by scaffolded tools and strategies.

Intervention: Purposeful Perspective Taking - the planning

Describe in detail the intervention you designed to address the student learning problem i.e. exactly what did you plan to change? Be specific about actions, timelines etc.

After redesigned my inquiry, I wanted to think about opportunities to look at perspective taking as way of getting my kids to think critically about their learning. 

I wanted to design a series of lessons on the English Street names of our local area based on a 2016 Jubilee booklet put out by the G.I Business association.  Some of these names were featured in one of the art works we saw in G.I on our art tour.  I wanted kids to use images and photos to unpack and tell a story of what, where, when, who and how in our local area. 

Planning for the teaching:

I studied Aotearoa Histories Using Historical Images site to make sure that I was planning for the lessons correctly.  There were 2 good videos on the site that shared how other schools used images to guide the learning.

I then needed some scaffolding tools that could build the understanding of the images for students to better understand what they were looking at. The Manaiakalani Cybersmart Tools and Organisers have some really cool ones that break down the learning better and I thought I'd focus on one or two as a starter.  

Google maps was also another way to explore where images or events take place so I refreshed my mapping skills by thinking about how to use google maps for students to share their learning.

From these different resources, I developed the sequence of lessons under the title 'Leading Local Change in our Community'.  In my next blogpost, I will detail the lesson itself and reflect on how it went.

Year 9 Social Class Local Art Walking Tour

Making connections with our local community is important to build my students’ knowledge of what is important and who it is important too.  Many of my kids live in Glen Innes and walk or drive through the town centre but have never noticed the art work on the walls.  My year 9 Social Studies class were fortunate enough to be led on a walking art tour around the town centre to hear about who designed and created the art work and the reasons behind them.  Here is a short video of the tour. 

The kids asked lots of good questions and were positive about the experience.  They were given an opportunity to reflect and think about what that saw and what they did not see and how they felt about it.  From the students’ feedback, we are going to think about how to incorporate their thinking into action.  

My Casual Chain

"A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect.  A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.  Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action."

Here is the link to my Casual Chain.

Restating my inquiry

At the start of my inquiry, I wanted to engage and empower my year 9 Social Studies class to ‘care’ about their local community and local curriculum because I believed it was important for them to know.   Many of the kids, although born and raised in Glen Innes, don't really know about the history of the place especially Mana Whenua history, even though they may go past these places every day.  

As I gathered evidence through student voice, looking at student work, talking to other teachers and looking at their test results,  I could see that kids were still not really understanding the importance of our local history.  Much of what we did was still based in the classroom.  My beliefs about what was important to them, wasn't really matching to what I was expecting them to do.  Here, look at a map.  Can you see how far Mauninaina is?  Look at Maungarei, it's so high.  Yep, not enough.  I did some professional reading and developed some hunches and realised my inquiry needed to shift and change.What I found was that 'engaging' needed to be explored more than just taking part in or knowing.  It need to active and dynamic and authentic.  The concept of empowerment was also something that I needed to explore further.  What power were they gaining and who was it important to. 

I sat down and discussed my inquiry with 2 experts who helped me fine tune my inquiry to allow for a more specific and clear outcome.  I started with 'How will supporting students to authentically connect with their local area and community create a sense of pride and respect in their learning?' but realised that 'creating a sense of pride' was different for everyone and can't be measured.   So I've decided to rebrand my inquiry to look at: 

How will supporting students to authentically connect with their local community create a sense of belonging and provoke action for a sustainable future?

I am going to find more authentic stories/narratives to understand and share so that kids can hear a real person talk about a real place.  I am thinking about developing a short series of lessons on the local street names of streets in our areas as a start and utilise perspective taking to build critical thinking and learning for my kids.  Hopefully this would provoke action and help guide them in the future.

#7: Testing out my Hypothesis part 2

 If students were connected to their learning then they would not less be distracted and more engaged.

• Provide highly engaging relevant lessons with variety linked to what they know
• Create enough down time to do their own work.
• Let students select music which helps them to learn.
• Offer opportunities to do group work and peer work as well as one to one.
• Bring in experts who are engaging and relate to the learning.

Recently, one of our community activists and project based learning expert Karl Bailey came in to work with my year 9 class on design based thinking and learning.  My class has been one of the lucky few who were selected to help look at challenges facing young people in our community today and to think of ways to solve it.  

A few months ago, we started by getting the kids into groups and thinking about the challenge of attendance but we could see that kids weren't engaging with the context.  Karl and I brainstormed some ideas and discussed keeping it simple and engaging.  The class is made of mostly boys and asked them what they were interested in.  The majority said gaming, eating and sports.  So we decided to do a mini project whereby the kids in their groups had to design a new sport.  

Kids found it difficult to plan and figure out the pros and cons of the design.  They just wanted to get up and play it.  So it was interesting to see how kids responded and in the end, I could see they enjoyed the planning and process of the design and some of the ideas the kids had were really exciting.

#7: Testing out my Hypothesis part 1

If students were connected to their learning then they would not less be distracted and more engaged.

• Provide highly engaging relevant lessons with variety linked to what they know

• Create enough down time to do their own work.

• Let students select music which helps them to learn.

• Offer opportunities to do group work and peer work as well as one to one.

• Bring in experts who are engaging and relate to the learning.

We have started our new year 9 Social Studies on 'Understanding our Government' and the first lesson is called 'Survivor'.  This lesson involves students working in groups to survive on a deserted island with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.  They do all the activities on a big piece of A3 paper and have to work together to complete tasks.  I take them slide by slide through the powerpoint and allow them time to discuss and complete the tasks.  I did this during one of our double periods so as not to rush the teams.

It is interesting to see how each group works.  There are 1 or 2 with obvious leaders whereas others work equally together.  Students seem to enjoy the discussions and are forced to work together and get to an agreement.  At the end of the lesson, my year 9's agreed that it was a fun activity to do and they learnt about how and why working in groups can help their learning.

Year 9 Social Studies Ngāti Paoā Landscapes Tour

On the 29th July, we finally got one of my year 9 Social Studies classes out on our Ngāti Paoā Landscapes Tour led by Matua Harley.

The day before taking them on the trip, our TIC of History Scott Mansell emailed a survey asking students the following questions and the results follow

How important do you think it is to learn about History

Do you think that the history of the local area is important

Do you think New Zealand History is boring

81% know it’s important to learn about our History and but when it comes to our local community 62% say yes whilst 38% say maybe. My thinking is that some are probably unsure as to the importance of the local curriculum.

When it comes to thinking about whether History is boring, just over half said no where just under half saying yes or maybe which I kind of expected.

So knowing this, it was important to get them out and listen to the histories that essentially were not written in text books and to have an authentic relevant perspective such as that of Mana Whenua. Matua Harley represents our local Iwi Ngāti Pāoa and had kindly offered to take our students on a local landscapes walking tour.

The feedback from students after the trip was really positive. I saw engagement and interest and at points they were so quiet, it was strange for me to see. When we talked about it back at school, 100% of the students surveyed believed it was such an important trip to engage in.

#5: Factors that might contribute to the problem of student learning.

#5. Describe the main hypotheses you developed about factors that might contribute to this problem of student learning (e.g. particular features of teaching or out of school practices that were not as effective as they might be).

Initially the biggest barrier to learning that I identified when surveying students, reading research and literature and talking to staff was that students were easily distracted.   

After digging deeper into why this could be I’ve identified one of the aspects that might impact these distractions could be the disconnectedness students have felt to their learning and to each other because of the pandemic.  This has been especially difficulty for our Maori and Pasifika students who have been ‘harder by the pandemic’ in education.  After two years of uncertainty kids are missing consistency and connectedness in the classroom.  Each child brings their own learning experiences and building a sense of belonging and unity has been difficult. 

When I have reflected on the opportunities that the Aotearoa Histories curriculum allows us, I am mindful of what students need to know at the end of year 8 through the learning progressions.  But I wonder if these need to shift or be modify to cater for the lost time in teaching and learning over the last 2 years.  These progressions are still important to measure success in some way. 

A barrier to learning for my year 9’s is understanding what a perspective is or essentially how to see something from another person or groups’ point of view.  When learning about how people feel about our land for example, kids find it hard to connect because they often don't see themselves in the context.  They also find it difficult to relate to something that has happen a long time ago.  The learnings in the resource 'Rich Learning Opportunities Tool Guidance' have suggested the need to teach essential capabilities such as perspective-taking which helps to 'understand complex issues in our world'.  

My initial hypothesis is: If students were connected to their learning then they would not less be distracted and more engaged.

Because of further research, the hypothesis has become:

If we develop student capability of perspective-taking then we will increase understanding about the relevance and importance of our local curriculum.

If we develop and improve access to local curriculum knowledge and learning then we will increase engagement and a sense of care for the community.

If we increase engagement and connectedness, then students will take action to take care of their community.

I think these are a starting point and may shift and change as I continue on their inquiry journey.

Professional Reading #4: Rich Learning Opportunities Tool Guide

 

"It's about everything that a child experiences".

When I am trying to understand how to build a connected curriculum for my year 9’s, the Ministry’s series of resources to support local curriculum are rich with tools and stories to help with implementation.  I love the visual and how it connects all important area of learning for our ākonga.  

“Rich opportunities to learn are carefully designed to increase the breadth, depth and complexity of the learning experiences with which ākonga engage as they progress along their learning pathways. They are designed to support ākonga to contribute to their communities in ways that build on and strengthen both community and ākonga capabilities” (Rich Learning Opportunities Tool Guide, pg 3).

An appendix to the tool guide is Dr Rosemary Hipkins report on 'Weaving the coherent curriculum: how the idea of ‘capabilities’ can help' (pg 29).  

A barrier to learning for my year 9’s is understanding what a perspective is or essentially how to see something from another person or groups’ point of view.  When learning about how people feel about our land for example, kids find it hard to connect.

"Perspective-taking has been shown to be essential to understanding complex issues in our

world.  Again, doing so contributes to building and strengthening the key competency of

participating and contributing. It supports the New Zealand Curriculum vision of educating

our young people to be and become actively engaged members of society" (pg 31) 

I really want to engage Mana Whenua in understanding deeper their narratives but I need to be sensitive in how to approach this.  My approach is to talk to Matua Harley, our school expert and develop a relationship of trust and understanding to ensure that my learners can hear their stories.  I have enjoyed reading about some of the strategies suggested and I hope to create a unit and/or curriculum that is rich in local experiences and knowledge. 

Professional Reading #3: Local Curriculum Design and the Aotearoa Histories Curriculum

Challenge:  Students don’t have the subject specific skills or capabilities to succeed in my subject area and I assume that they should know the basics.  When I am reviewing my course, I need to take into account their learning progressions and tailor our programme to gather data and plan accordingly so that the teaching and planning falls into the 'goldilocks zone'.

Research and reading: 

I have been given the role Professional Development Co-ordinator which is role where I organise and support staff around PLD.  I have been researching how to support stuff in Local Curriculum design and I have found some interesting information which in turn supports my inquiry.

I needed to get my head around how to implement a relevant programme that related to our strategic school focus and decided to figure out where to start by talking to a few people like Viv Hall from CORE education and our across school COL teacher Scott Mansell.  We all agreed that the new Aotearoa Histories (AH)was the best place to start.

The new histories curriculum provides opportunities for schools to own their own stories by providing rich contexts specific to our own communities.  As a SOS teacher, I was excited to hear about the opportunity to about Mana Whenua histories and the perspectives of Maori of our area.

The AH website offers lots of new resources and one of them is the coherent pathways resource.  Here is the blurb:

Further on in the toolkit, it offers a focus for important transition points and year levels as well as capabilities that students should be able to do.  It is like a learning progressions chart.  The cool thing with this particular one is that it shows the stages of knowing, understanding and doing across all subject areas not just Social Studies. 

I think it’s important to know what students at the end of year 8 should know and be able to do as it provides a starting point for our year 9’s.  If I could redesign my objectives, it would be to test or measure whether students can do these things right at the start of the year and the data will be more purposeful and related to real outcomes.  What I will do in the meantime is to identify what we do specifically in year 9 which may help me see where the gaps are so that I can plan a potential intervention around what I know a year 9 student should know.

Professional Reading #2: Impact of Covid on Māori and Pacific learners

In my last blogpost on a research paper, it was clear that the impact of covid created a disconnect for learners from people and place.  As the majority of my students are Māori and Pasifika, I wanted to deep dive into specific impacts to them as learners at home.  I found two pieces of research that link to knowing my learners and the barriers of student learning.

Report ONE

The first report is School led learning at home: Voices of Maori and Pasifika students report:  Experiences of parents of Māori and Pasifika students in the 2020 COVID19 Alert Level 4 lockdown.  This paper reports on a survey that sought the views of parents of Māori and Pasifika students on their experiences of the first week of school-led learning at home. 134 parents responded to the survey.  In the survey, parents were asked about the benefits and challenges they had experienced, and also to provide suggestions for improving school-led learning at home. There were 100 responses by parents of Māori learners detailing their concerns about school-led learning at home during week 1 of term 2, 2020.  

“A significant number of parents were concerned that school-led learning at home did not provide the opportunity for social interaction between children. This lack of connection was identified as having a negative impact on the āhua and wairua of the children. This concern was contributed to by a lack of support from peers when students were undertaking work online.  Parents noted that they did not receive the usual support and assurance they would have received if working in groups or alongside their peers:  Not able to socialise with other children outside the whānau, my children learn from social interaction too and it's great for their mental health and they don't have peers for motivation (pg 20). 

Connecting with peers, whanau and friends is an important aspect for students and parents in ensuring the well-being of everyone is taken care of.

Report TWO

A recent report released by ERO suggested Pacific students' education hit harder by pandemic, but schools addressing issue - ERO (RNZ article 12th May).

After reading the RNZ article, I wanted to read the report discussed on the Impact of Covid on Pacific learners in more detail to see if I could find links to support my hypothesis. 

“Pacific learners largely preferred face-to-face learning.  For many Pacific learners, online learning had not been as successful as face-to-face learning. Learning online lacked the connectedness of being in front of a teacher with their friends. We also heard that Pacific learners missed the practical approach to learning usually achieved when physically at school. They also missed the ability to get feedback as communicating with teachers wasn’t as easy outside of the classroom (pg 24) 

I enjoyed reading this report as it did not just identify barriers that were common with our Māori learners but also offered solutions to show what people/groups/schools did to support their learners.  At school, students and staff have shared the same sentiments and how coming back to school was an adjustment and this has been seen in the disengagement and disconnectedness of our kids on their learning.

Professional Reading #1: Learning in a Covid-19 World

What we know is that covid caused a lack of connection to learning and being able to connect with people and place.

One of the key factors that I consider a barrier to student learning is the lack of connections students can make to the local community.  A factor that is highly likely to have contributed to this barrier has been covid.  With lockdowns over the last two years limiting the connections to happen, I wanted to see how big an impact of Covid was on a students learning then and now.  I read through Life during Lockdown - Findings from the Growing Up in New Zealand COVID-19 Wellbeing Survey and found interesting information that supported my theories. 

Two key points that were evident in the survey when it came to learning from home:

“School satisfaction Students’ feelings about school and schoolwork are inextricably linked to their engagement and attention. Positive feelings towards school are key for promoting academic success and buffering against disengagement from learning “ (pg 18)

“Social connections are an essential aspect of child and youth wellbeing.  Concern has been raised as to the impact of COVID-19 social restrictions for children given most were isolated from friends and family. Although shared experiences of the pandemic may have brought some households together, there was also the potential for COVID-19 restrictions to make it more difficult for children to find meaningful and supportive connection.  Limited social contact has potential to reduce perceived closeness and belonging and increase loneliness and feelings of isolation (Pg 19).

When I think about how to this relates to my hypothesis, I am conscious of the fact that every child experienced Covid differently and when I come to plan my intervention, how can I be sensitive to this fact. 

#4. Summarise your key findings about the nature and extent of the student problem

#4. Summarise your key findings about the nature and extent of the student problem i.e. present your baseline student data and evidence.

The problem that I thought was a key problem is that students feel disconnected to their community because they don’t see themselves in it or belonging to it.  I found that a key reason could be a lack of focus and distractions away from their learning which has a big impact but also the lack of enjoyment in the learning is a factor. 

Distractions:

As part of our Tapasā surveys conducted at the end of last year, we asked 100 Pasifika students what did they think were the barriers to their learning and among other things the biggest result was ‘Distractions’ with 35%.  

When broken down further, the majority of distractions occurred externally from forces outside the learners control.

I did a similar survey with my year 9 students and asked them ‘Are there any barriers to your learning in my classroom’ and although the majority said ‘No’, 24% of them said the biggest barrier was ‘Distractions’.  

When thinking about my inquiry, how can I limit distractions in my classroom as it is a major barrier to learning?  

Whanau discussions:

As my Social Studies class is also my mentoring class, I have called and discussed student lack of engagement with parents as we look to support their child.  I’ve had a number of conversations where parents welcome the support and understand the difficulties in the classroom.  My learnings from having these conversations and seeing the students the next day, is that they change in their behaviour, always for the positive. I need to ensure that I am keeping the connections up and focus on sharing good news as well. 

Connecting with other teachers.

I have on-going discussions with all of the teachers of my kids to develop personalised learning plans with our more boisterous students but also shared good practice.  With one of my students in particular, I expected similar experiences with that student in the class but a their English teacher shared a strategy that I had not tried before.  We then had an in-depth conversation about how they came to use the strategy and I also visited their classroom to have a look at their learning environment.  I decided that I would like to replicate aspects of their learning environment too as I wanted to break down a barrier that says we don't share good practice across the school.

I will continue to share my findings as I continue to work through the nature and extent of the student problem.