Reconnaissance - student inquiry foci #2

1. From what you know already about your classes and your school’s profile and leadership goals for the year, share a possible inquiry focus.
   
2. Frame your focus as a desired change in student learning NOT a change in teaching (as yet!)

From what I know about my level 2 class, they are a strong mostly academic bunch who are quite focussed and articulate.  Many of them are in charge of their learning and some of them have strong personalities.  There are a number who are quiet achievers but there are also students who struggle with the literacy aspects of the course already and I can see that is a challenge.  

Our school goal number 3 focuses on improving literacy for different groups of students so that would support my inquiry focus so I am hoping to look at improving writing in my level 2 class as a focus as it will benefit them in their learning more.

A designed change I hope to see is a desire for my students to push themselves to write in depth and comprehensively at merit and excellence level's through engaging and meaningful contexts.

Reconnaissance - student inquiry foci #1

1. Collaborate with your school’s leadership team and colleagues to identify areas where your inquiry will make a powerful contribution to wider school and cluster goals.

For my initial inquiry around utilising the Tātaiako as my platform for teaching, I had talked to my principal Soana Pamaka about her thoughts on my inquiry focus.  She was happy with the focus and asked to ensure I discussed my inquiry with our Māori department who could offer me further support.  I made clear links to our school goal number 1, that discusses raising the cultural visibility and achievement of our Māori students.

I discussed my inquiry with Dr Jannie who shared the following:

• Everyone’s has their own pepeha and this is important.
• It would help support the kaupapa Maori to take leadership.
• Everyone has a map of who we are and it’s important to be ethnic specific as well as inclusive.
• Kids need to know themselves and the teacher needs to know the kids.
• This will be helpful in helping teachers understand the Tataiako and the need to nurture our students.

I have been having ongoing discussions with our Māori department staff Whaea Ruiha and Matua Harley.  They have been encouraging me to ask questions and to share any queries that I have with them.  They have invited me to work alongside them as I build my inquiry.

I am planning to share my inquiry with my senior students as I would like to collaborate with them strategies that will support their learning.  

After some discussion with my COL colleagues, I can see a need to focus on an aspect of student learning that needs to be front and centre and for me, writing is a challenge in my level 2 classroom.  This is something that has long been an issue in Social Studies and I hope that combined with my teaching as inquiry intention, it will be addressed.

COL Meeting #1 for 2023

 Today we had our first COL meeting at Pt England school for the year.  

Here are some of the key points I took from the meeting.

• Anxiety
• Successful survival
• Uncertainty
  

What do we need most in 2023 … in a year of greater certainty?  

• Then the floods happened
• We were lucky compared to other places.
• 1950’s state houses stood up well (Mangere built badly)

• Frustrated novice to a novice who could deliver an adaptive environment.
• Routine expert: boring fart. 
• It’s hard:  how do we do it so that it’s useful. 
• Leader requests from across COL, they need PCK.
• Teachers said they needed learner resources and PCK

What is my goal using the data?

John Hattie teaching to the north east (I am going to look this up further)

We have to move kids in a good direction.

Flooding video - adaptive and calm and example to all of us.  We live in a community of chaos.

How can i be an adaptive expert that give kids confidence that they are safe and can be the best that they can be.

A good inquiry is one that everyone can do at any school.

Be gut wrenchingly honest about the problem

At this meeting, there was an opportunity to connect with other COL teachers about inquiries that they were doing.  We got 20 minutes to meet and I connected with Robyn and Dianne from Panmure Bridge and Christine from Glen Taylor.  We were able to share what we thought could be a good inquiry and wanted to stay connected.  We did this through sharing an email later in the day.

2023: What's my Inquiry?

The purpose of this post is to briefly outline the inquiry that I am hoping will lead my 'Within school's COL' journey this year.  

The What:

The focus:

The problem I see at the moment with student learning in my level 2 class is linked to writing.  Last year, my level 2's struggling with the heavy emphasis on writing for their assessment and there are a number of reasons why.  I am really interesting in a link to whether cultural responsive practice in the classroom can support student achievement and in this case writing.  If the students saw themselves in the contexts but also in the way I approached them and their learning, will they be able to write and write well?

My teaching inquiry will look at...utilising the competencies from the Tataiako to support and develop responsive practices for teaching our Māori students.  I will to fine tune my inquiry as I gather evidence and collect data to allow me to hone in on important learning outcomes.

The Why: 

I have explored Pasifika achievement in teaching and learning around the Tapasā and have enjoyed the challenges and the rewards it that it has bought. One area that I know I need and want to focus on is how to support my Māori students in utilising the equivalent of the Tapasā, the Tataiako to support my Māori learners and how to use aspects of the competencies in my practice.

The Who:

I started to think about which class would benefit the most and decided that I would focus on my year 10 Social Studies class.  But as I began to look at the aspects of the Tataiako more closely, there were a few aspects that made me wonder if my senior students would reflect and articulate their responses towards the competencies more clearly than my junior students.  I also have a really excitable year 12 class full of different personalities and abilities so I've decided to use my year 12 class and specifically my Māori students, as my inquiry group.  

Quick Reflection:

My next step is to talk to experts and colleagues who can give me advice around my inquiry.

COL thoughts for next year 2023

What achievement challenge am I considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in my WHY both evidence and my own passion/expertise

Achievement Challenge 1: 

1. Raise Māori student achievement through the development of cultural visibility and responsive practices across the pathway as measured against National Standards and agreed targets for reading Years 1-10 and NCEA years 11-13.

Since the start of term 3, I have been helping to lead Staff PLD at our school and one our key focuses has been on our supporting staff to unpack, understand and implement teaching and learning strategies related to our school goals..

And our first school goal is around raising Maori achievement and cultural visibility and I’ve become really CHALLENGED in a good way,  in how to better support our teachers which will filter down to our students because of the opportunities that we have now with refresh and new curriculum allows us to learn build our local curriculum and knowing and hearing mana whenua voices.  

The biggest student body in terms of ethnicity at T.C are our Maori students 32%, then our Tongans at 28%, then Samoan at 12% etc.  As an advocate for Pasifika education and our initiative running at our school, we have building the foundations for strong teacher capabilities in supporting our Pasifika learners.  I’m not too worried for now about them. 

It’s our Maori learners and slowly we are seeing a shift in cultural visibility around our school and this is gaining momentum.  

How does this understanding relate to me and my teaching?

As part of our inquiry this year, we had to identify any biases that we held and it was clear that my expectations of my Māori students was sadly different to my Pasifika students and want to challenge and change my mindset on expectations of my Māori students.  I had to get educated.

To do this, I needed to learn about how to approach Mana whenua, how to humble myself and work alongside staff who are the experts to run PLD, I need to understand the importance of our local curriculum and Mana Whenua and what it means to be Māori at Tamaki.  As a Pasifika teacher, I was hesitant cause I thought it’s not my place but I stepped out of my comfort and got know Matua and ask the tough questions.  Then support him to come to the forefront.  It’s a slow process.

Here are two examples of evidence where I see the need to support my kids in the classroom:

Cultural Responsiveness aspect:.  

I want to take on the challenge of supporting our Maori kids specifically as they struggle to tell me where they belong.  This year in my year 9 class, I have 7 students who identified as Maori and at the start of the year, I made them all do their pepeha.  Some were confident but most did not want to say theres.  When I asked them why, the ones who were confident did well and were well supported at home, the ones who weren’t confident were often our kids who shared more than one culture.  I wrote a unit on belonging and starting where their feet are to try and draw them in and I could see interest and some motivation.  Engaging them in reading and writing was still a struggle.

Problem of student learning that I am thinking about it reading:  

A lot of reading current events about our local area and newspaper articles important but rushed.  When I provide them with an article, they won’t read it or read it properly and when we deep dive into the article, I see that they are struggling with understanding things like inferencing and seeing the deeper meaning of the story.  A barrier that I know is in the way is whether kids care about they are reading and can see themselves in it.  And also how kids can be empathetic and think about perspectives.

And then I want to lead to kids being critical thinkers.  Our refresh will help with that, it’s not the literacy aspect.   

A key is also perspective taking is a key capability which I will talk more about later.

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.