Inquiry Blog #7: My Causal Chain

"In this model, the intervention (a new teaching approach) does not lead DIRECTLY to the ultimate desired effect (improvement in reading overall).

Rather, the theory of action or proposed causal chain is that teaching improves the children’s ability to understanding reading text and that, in turn, leads to improved reading more generally.

A positive shift in asttle reading is a desired effect of the intervention and a intermediary outcome. In this model the intervention would only be partially successful if it led to improved reading but improved reading did not contribute to more generalised reading achievement".

Here is my causal chain.

Inquiry blog #6: My patterns of teaching

In March, I wrote a blog where I talked about what the most important and catalytic issue of learning was in my classroom.  I reread what I wrote and found that I hadn't actually identified what the issue was with the learning, but more of what the problem was with my approach to teaching. 

After identifying my preliminary findings and gathering important data and evidence, I've decided the biggest issue in learning for my students was that 'my students struggled to write a summary about a text that they have read to show their understanding of the text'.  To come to this point, I have had to unpack my findings, to develop a worthwhile hypothesis.  I want to explore likely barriers for these findings and identify what key teaching actions I could use to accelerated student achievement in reading.  

 

Link here

1.  Developing a set of hypotheses about patterns in my teaching that could be change to more effectively address the student learning focus.

My students are struggling to write a summary because I may not be:

• spending enough time ensuring students understand the text more deeply
• allowing them to verbalise and discuss their learning more deeply
• teaching enough skills and too much content
• focussing on essentials like vocabulary 
• skilled in supporting the lower/higher ability learners
• differentiating the reading and tasks
• focussed on the process
• showing them the end result

2.  The process for developing these hypotheses.

To come to this conclusion, I am taking into consideration the following:

• my observations of my students
• my conversations and lessons with Dr Jannie
• what my colleagues say about the students and their learning
• student voice surveys
• relevant research

3.  The hypothesis about teaching that I have decided in the MOST worth testing

Spending enough time ensuring my students understand texts more deeply by putting the lense of the language (reading, writing and oral).

4.  Testing my hypothesis and evidence I may use to support my hypothesis

• Practical theories/strategies
• Dr Jannie Van Hees, putting the lense on language and deep diving into text
• Literacy expert Marc Milford's reading plan
• Successful strategies from primary schools and previous junior classes
• Critical discussions with colleagues
• Collaboration across curriculum areas such as English
• Pockets of excellence teaching within our department
• Relevant research
• Best Evidence Synthesis in Social Sciences
• Key words: Asttle, reading, acceleration, ZPD
• Gathering evidence of tests overtime in asttle reading and writing 
• Student voice survey and learning discussions.

As I unpack the impact of my teaching on student learning, I am able to understand and formulate an intervention or set of interventions which will hopefully support the learners to achieve success.

Inquiry Blog #4: Collecting evidence and data

Begin to collect evidence and data and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence.

To ensure that we are 'identifying, checking, prioritising and investigating the nature of the student achievement issue', we need to develop a 'rich picture with a high degree of reliability and specificity'.  

The image above shows the evidence that I hope to collected.  I have already started to collect evidence below.

Data:

• PAT blog post - TBC (to be completed)
• Asttle results blog post here and one more to come
• STAR data blog post -TBC

Literacy Background:

• Strengths, weaknesses and gaps blogpost (looking more closely at the data)- TBC
• Different contexts - (discussions with other teachers and Marc) - TBC
• Outside the classroom (student voice survey) - TBC

Behaviours, Attitudes and beliefs

• Student voice survey - survey completed, data analysis needed - TBC
• Teacher observations - one blog post here and another TBC
• Class discussions - blog post TBC

Teacher observations

• Recordings of student interactions - one blog post here and another TBC
• Engagement - one blog post here (action vs inaction) and another TBC

Student voice

• Student voice surveys - completed, blog post TBC
• Focus groups - TBC

Things to remember:
Other data may / may not support standardised test results, particularly if results are surprising. Other sources include teacher homework, teacher observations, other tests, discussions with students. If other sources do not match, seek to understand why. E.g., students perform worse under timed test conditions, and need support in learning to work under time pressure

Meeting #5 with Dr Jannie Van Hees: Thinking about our reading

My year 9 social studies class often struggle to understand what they have read because they struggle with the language and making meaning from text.  Dr Jannie and I have been working on ways to dive deep into text so they have the ability to increase their language capabilities.

Today we had a planning meeting for a lesson that we will be team teaching this week.  We talked about how to gather evidence from the students around their thoughts on reading and language.  The survey will support my inquiry as well as help me gage what the students thinking was behind their attitudes to reading.  We talked about a student voice survey that had both multi-choice questions and open-ended ones.  We then looked at an example of a text that we could dive deep into.  The thinking is to give the kids multiple opportunities to dive deep, so that they could apply it, transfer it, teach it to others and be the expects of their own understanding of text and language.   My challenge is to ensure that I constantly remind students the 'why' behind everything eg. why I am doing a survey, why I want to find out about their reading etc.

Jannie will then dive deep into a current event article, focusing on the first paragraph only.  Here is our draft powerpoint below.

I always get excited when listening to Dr Jannie, because there are little pearls of wisdom that pop up randomly in our conversations that I have to record.  Here are a few from today's meeting:

• We want the kids to practice 'mindful reading'.
• We can live a thousand worlds through reading...we could be sailing on the Pacific Ocean, we could be on a camel in Egypt, we could be at the top of Mt Everest...we can understand others and the world around us better.

Meeting #4 with Dr Jannie Van Hees and Ms Feps: Collaborative planning

There's never enough time in the day to really dive deep into anything really, let alone text!  In our attempts to find the time for my year 9 social studies class to develop language, Dr Jannie and I came up with the idea to collaborate with their English teacher, Makerita (Ms Feps) to collaborate and design a course that will build a rich programme of language learning and making, to help support our students.

Our initial brainstorming planning meeting was held 15th March, where we were pitched the idea to my year 9 classes English teacher Makerita.  We talked about themes and how it could look to both subjects and ways we could collaborate on the teaching and learning of texts.  After the meeting we went away to think about what we needed to have done individually with our separate achievement objectives and also ways to connect with each other. 

Today we had a google hangout session where we focussed on the plan itself.  We started with brainstorming, then talked about ideas for creating and sharing of the student learning.  I discussed the problems students had in connecting with their community and we unpacked what the reality was and how we could develop it further.  Here is a brainstorm plan that I developed from our meeting.

The blue circles underneath fit under each area of people, place and community so I didn't try to link them together.   We will discuss this further at our next meeting this Friday.

Jannie, Makerite and me on our google hangout (I'm sick by the way lol)

Inquiry Blog #3: The most important and catalytic issue of learning to me

(3) Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year (In chemistry, a catalytic substance one  which increases the speed of a chemical reaction).

To help me understand how I got to my inquiry challenge, I've had peel away layers and layers of what I'm going to call technical 'bull crap' and get to the crux of what has been annoying me (if you want to call it a flash word, I'd say I have been metacognitive - thinking about my thinking).  It just dawned on me as I've scribbled down countless brainstorms, read numerous academic research and rummaged through top teachers' blogposts - I have to make the main thing, the main thing.  What is happening and not happening, in my classroom for my learners and what have I done to contribute to it?

I could go on all day about all of the great student learnings that I believe is happening in my classroom, and show you all of the great kids work.  I could also pinpoint one or two things that I think I have done to get those kids to produce great work. Hell, I even got my kids to stand up and introduce themselves to our new student teacher and share with her what their favourite subject was at school because I was so confident that my kids were succeeding in my class because social studies was their favourite and I was their favourite teacher!!...

(And the buzzer goes off)...ehhh, wrong.

In reality, most of the class said social studies was one of about three other subjects they liked and then they proceeded to muck around and distract themselves and each other for the rest of the period and there was very little real work done and I ended up keeping half the class in for doing nothing.

What I was essentially doing and have been doing for a long time, was cover up my inequities by pretending that everything was beautiful when in reality, my inquiries focussed on sharing successes about students who were achieving well because of what I thought were my actions as their teacher, when I should have been looking equally as much at students who were not achieving well because of my actions as their teacher.

But there is hope... because we all want what is best for our learners and damned if I'm gonna give up trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work!  This is not just a job, it is a vocation (cue the violins... ah to be honest, I do actually believe this).  All jokes aside, I have come to realise that what starts with me, ends with me and that these are kids who are in my care and they deserve to have the best educational experience ever. 

Working backwards to figure out my inquiry
At school we always talk about the Ideal student.  What does the ideal Tamaki graduate look like when they leave school? What is it that I want my kids to have achieved when they leave Tamaki College?  Is it success based on outcomes eg. NCEA or producing people who are informed, confident members of society? Or is it both?

Graduating seems so far away for our students...which is why I want to start with the year 9's!  Plant the seeds now, then watch it grow, blossom and bloom (with lots of water, sun and all the other stuff that plants need to grow!).  In my next post, I will be summarise the challenge of student learning that I plan to focus on in this inquiry.

Inquiry Blog #2: The how and why of my challenge.

(2) Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning. Locate your inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.

The challenge of student learning that I have found is that many students in my year 9 class, struggle to explain to me, whether verbally or in written form, what they have learnt which often leads to incomplete work, disengagement and a lack of overall achievement.  

I have selected this challenge because students are expected to develop critical thinking skills by the end of year 10 to be prepared for NCEA but unfortunately I have found that they are lacking the basic skills to discuss their learning.  

The more I explore the 'why' of this challenge, the more I have found that I need to start with unpacking what I expect my students to know and in the time frame that they need to know it.  I have found that I have overloaded my kids with 'stuff' and not slowed down the learning so that it becomes deeper and wider rather then surface and narrow.  

When I wonder about where my inquiry sits in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani I feel it relates most to achievement challenge number 1: Raise Maori student achievement through the development of cultural visibility and responsive practices across the pathway as measured against agreed targets for readings Years 1-10 and NCEA years 11-13.  

The reasons why I believe it lies here is that it relates to pedagogy around cultural visibility and building language capacity through developing interventions that support the learners identity and cultures.  As I develop a better understanding of the who my learners are and what my beliefs are as a teacher, I hope to find, develop and implement strategies that work for the diverse learners in my classroom.  I also hope to develop my teacher practices further to enhance student success in social studies. 

My kids writing down a 'get to know me' story.

Inquiry Blog #1: The challenge of student learning.

1. Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to focus on in this inquiry. Be as clear and specific as you can about the evidence you have about this to date.

My inquiry question take #1:  Could an effective change in teaching practice and pedagogy, by putting the lense on language and diving deep into text, develop critical thinkers, readers and writers? (TBC)

Summary of the challenge:
My year 9's often struggle to tell me (either verbally or in written form) what it is they have learnt at the end of a lesson and I am trying to figure out whether the way I am teaching them and what I am teaching them is too hard (or too easy) and whether this is leading to them not achieving personal or classroom success.  My hunch is that part of this lack of achievement is because I have become too complacent in my teaching and am not setting high enough expectations for each learner in my care.  Another hunch is that students need more scaffolding and work that is suitable for their level in the curriculum and that they find the work difficult.  

I need the students to be critical thinkers which is an important social science skill to have but also important for the big wide world awaiting our kids when they leave school.  Unfortunately, the reality for the majority of my year 9 kids right now is that they struggle to get one task completed during our class time.  This is leading to a lack of engagement by the less able students and a lack of motivation by the more able.  By 're-configuring' my pedagogy and forcing the lense on language, I could support my learners to become critical thinkers.

The light bulb moments of figuring out my challenge: My evidence to date!

1. Action vs Inaction
Recently, I taught a double period lesson for our year 9's to help them start their inquiry assessments. Basically it was 15 minutes of me emphasising the importance of the assessment, then explaining each aspect in a hope that they understood what was required of them. I then set them the challenge to complete two of the tasks which was to find at least 3 parts of background information and complete a map task.

Of the 21 students present, this is what I noticed:

• About 4-5 students went ahead to start. They were a mix of abilities. They worked individually and sat away from the majority of the class.
• A group of less able boys choose to work together although I needed to constantly remind them to focus.
• Another group of highly able boys, mucked around and had to be separated.
• A group of girls (who were my top students) refused to do the work stating they were being distracted and wanted to complete the work at home.

At the end of the lesson, less then half of the class had completed the two tasks. When I asked them what the issue was, most of them said they had been distracted. I found this really frustrating. Was it because they didn't understand the requirements? Was it too much or too little? I need to understand this more and figure out what was happening between my teaching and the students learning to cause this?

My wonderings:

• Is it the culture of my classroom? Are groups too distracting?
• Do I have low expectations of my kids (ie. you can do what you can, all good)?
• Is it the work? Have I set them up to fail?
• Is it the way I taught the lesson?
• Am I spending equal amounts of support time with all students or only with the ones I think need it?

2. Time vs no time
I co-taught a lesson with Dr Jannie Van Hees recently and I learnt alot about myself and what I thought was important for the kids to know (here is a blogpost about the lesson).

I had always thought that if kids could tell you at least 2 things they'd learnt in the lesson and showed it in a summary, then it has been a success. I realised after co-teaching with Jannie, that it was not about what they'd learnt there and then, it was more about what they could transfer to the next lesson and whether they understood the purpose of their learnings and where it fit in the big scheme of things. On reflection, this was one of the most engaging lessons that I have seen the kids take part in so far this year.

My key takeout from the lesson with Jannie is that if we rush the learning, we set kids up to fail. If we can slow the process of learning and put the lense on language, we can build the students' capacities to make meaning from their learning and apply these learnings across texts and contexts. I also found that not enough time is being spent on the learning language to understand text deeply and we very rarely share this learning through oral dialogue and verbal conversations, something that I am passionate about.

My wonderings:

• If I slow down the learning, will the kids miss out on other things they need to know?
• Can I teach myself to be patient? Am I really open to the change?
• What about my higher ability students, what are they supposed to do when we slow down the learning?

3. The damn data

In a blogpost recently, I introduced my students and shared data about their learning needs. The class is mixed from ESOL students to high level 6 of the curriculum readers and writers. This data supports my thinking that low ability readers are also very low ability writers. Is what I am doing in my teaching practice now helping or hindering student achievement? I need to find this out!

4. A taste of writing and reading

To understand how much they could read and write in these early days, I set the students a challenge. I called the activity a 'learning post'. They had to write a summary about Tokelau in 25 words or less and use 6 key words that they'd identified as important (this is a writing strategy they I had borrowed from the awesome Robyn Anderson a few years ago). I then asked them to record themselves reading their passage to me. The reason for the writing was to see if they could follow the instructions and to get a sense of how well they wrote and the reason for reading was to see if they could read with fluency and if this could possibly be an extra barrier to learning (blogpost to come).

What I found was that with the writing, a few (2 -3) students could write well and these same students articulated their writing in a good clear voice when reading their summaries. The majority of my class found it a struggle to understand the writing task which therefore made them feel pressure to spend less time on the reading of the summary. Most of them refused to have their faces shown, instead choosing to point the camera at a blank wall or at their computer screens and only have their voices recorded. One student though, choose to learn the reading off by heart and insisted I filmed him in my office away from his friends. This really surprised me and I have to give him credit for his efforts (short clip below).

My expectations were totally thrown off and the reality has reshaped my approach to my 'normalised' versions of teaching and learning. I will continue to collect evidence to support my inquiry because it is important to develop a holistic picture of what is happening for my learners and the impact of my teaching on their progress. In my next blog, I will describe how and why I have selected this challenge and I will attempt to locate my inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.