#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.

#6: Form hypotheses about teaching actions likely to accelerate student learning.

My thoughts after student feedback, talking to other staff and doing a little bit of research, here are some things I could do:

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.

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

• Find and use templates to enable structured perspective -taking
• Design lessons to allow students to engage with relevant perspectives
• Bring in guest speakers to provide authentic perspectives.

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.

• Design field trips to inspire learning and to connect with the community.
  

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

• Design ways to link the learning to the student and their sense of well-being and identity.

#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.