2021 Inquiry Focus

 This year, I have stepping back into a year 3/4 classroom and I have decided to take another look into reading with my students. However, the focus this time around is centered primarily on working with my students in the Orange, Tourquiose and Gold groups (Reading at a Year 2/3 level). 

In speaking with another year 4 teacher at our school during the first Covid Lockdown of 2021, we realised that we both noticed our children reading across these three levels often struggled to express opinions and ideas or deepen their thinking about a text. Generally, these students have basic decoding ability but respond to conversation with one word or short answers. They also do not choose to read without prompting. This led us to believe that the students are not engaging in a meaningful way with the range of literature required to increase comprehension to working at or above their chronological age. 

We were prompted by Rebecca’s presentation during the Manaiakalani Data Staff meeting at the beginning of the year to think about how to increase students' responsibility to think critically about what they have read. This led us to wonder how changing teacher scaffolding from supporting literal engagement with the text to supporting more open provoking questions would we be able to move the responsibility for processing the text at a deep level from the teacher to the student. We also wondered if providing more texts of high interest to the students and creating choice in this process would increase movitivation to read longer novel texts. Lastly, if we were to teach our students to use Google apps to create and share their thoughts, opinions and connections to texts in meaningful ways would that increase critical engagement with texts and support students to think deeper about what they are reading and why they are reading it. 

Ultimately we decided that our Inquiry goals for 2021 are:

1. To increase students comprehension of novel texts

2. To increase motivation to read novel texts

3. to increase discussion and critical thinking across text types

Professional Reading #3

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFRC#7)

Professional Reading #3:
What's the Big Deal about Vocabulary?
By: Pamela J. Dunston and Andrew M. Tyminski

When reading this article, I found myself wondering what techniques I use to teach mathematical terminology to my students that allow the opportunity for them to expand their abstract reasoning and move beyond basic operational problem solving.

Some important points to note from the article are:

• Combining conceptual approach to mathematics vocabulary with research based literacy strategies can improve student maths learning. 
• The article provided three ELA approaches, and I have decided to give two of the approaches a chance in my class.
• It was once again reiterated that students and some teacher's see mathematical language as a completely foreign language (or second language) to learn. 

3 Approaches:

• FRAYER MODEL: Students use two topic lists to compare the qualities of the items being discussed. This model is one that I believe our students would have difficulty using on a daily basis.
• FOUR SQUARE: It is important for teachers to limit the number of new words students are working with to 5 or less.
• 1. Teacher provides the pronunciation and spelling of the new word.  It is written in the top left square of the document.
• 2. Teacher explains the meaning of the term, and students write their definition in the bottom left square
• 3. Students write their "lightbulb word" in the top right square. This is the word or phrase that students think of (or associate) the mathematical term with
• 4. Students draw a picture or figure to remind them of the definition (or they can write an equation/Illustration)
• FEATURE ANALYSIS: Illustrates relationships between terms/concepts.
• Features of the topic word are listed across the top of the page and concepts are found along the left side. 
• Allows students to form connective views of the characteristics and properties and make conjectures regarding the relationships between various definitions.

I really believe that I will attempt to use the Four Square and Feature Analysis approaches in the upcoming terms as we go back to our regular classroom learning circumstances. 

Professional Reading #2

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFRC#7)

Professional Reading #2:
Learning Mathematics Vocabulary: Potential Pitfalls and Instructional Strategies
By: Denisse R. Thompson and Rheta N. Rubenstein

While reading the introduction to this article, I found myself asking the question, "Do my students speak "Mathematic'?" 

Other important points from the article are:

• Students need to master the language if they are to read, understand and discuss mathematical ideas. 
• The language of mathematics is largely limited to school
• It is important to recognise that students think and learn in many ways, and we must propose a spectrum of approaches including oral, written, visual and kinaesthetic modes. 
• Vocabulary learning and mathematical understanding are intertwined
• Student can record the new terms and meanings with diagrams in a maths glossary (**HYPOTHESIS: If students keep a digital record created with a special template and label on student blogs of new vocabulary terms, would they gain a deeper understanding in the long run?)
• I thought that VOCABULARY WORD was___________. Now I know that VOCABULARY WORD is _______________.
• Language fluency requires intensive language use and working in groups allows students with opportunities to "talk mathematics"
• Provide visual tools/cartoons for vocabulary connections

Professional Reading #1

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. (WFRC#7)

Professional Reading #1: 
Understanding and Supporting Children's Mathematical Vocabulary Development
By: Rheta N. Rubenstein and Denisse R. Thompson

While reading this article, I there were a few points that stood out to me. They are:

• Becoming fluent with mathematical terms, phrases, and symbols is vital to children's mathematical learning
• Being more aware of issues of mathematical language acquisition and to be more creative and persistent in finding ways to support children't learning, teachers must first understand children't difficulties in making sense of mathematical language. 
• Use Language Arts Strategies:
• Keep a  "word wall"
• Have students write journal entries
• Draw cartoons
• Write mathematical stories, skits, raps or poetry
• Design bumper stickers
• Word origins (introduce the "words behind the words" the origins/prefixes/suffixes)

• Withhold the formal terminology and let students use materials to explore ideas, suggest their own terms and explain their rationale. (My wondering: At what point should formal vocabulary be used?)
• Use open-ended prompting that provides teachers information about student misconceptions 
• A major premise of any strategy is to connect new terms/phrases to ideas that children already know
• When terminology is used incorrectly, restate the sentence appropriately so that children hear the correct usage. 
• Use literature to introduce students to mathematical vocabulary
• Play "I have...Who has...?"

My Applications:

This article pointed out a number of applicable strategies for me to try with my maths students. I really liked the section about applying Language Arts strategies to maths. Why wouldn't we? We are taught so often to compartmentalise each subject area when in reality they should merge together at some point and vocabulary is vocabulary no matter what subject area you are focusing on. This was a great article to reinforce that some of the strategies that I have been trying this year are on the right track.

My 2020 CoL Inquiry Focus

My 2020 CoL Inquiry Focus:

“How can providing opportunities for mathematical vocabulary acquisition strengthen a student’s self-efficacy in maths?”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning.

In 2020 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge: 

Increase the achievement in Years 7-10, in Reading, Writing, and Maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

The teaching as inquiry framework I will continue to use in 2019 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.

The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

Throughout the year, I will be labelling my blog posts to reflect our Learn, Create, Share structure.

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect

PES PD: Equitable Outcomes in Maths

Did our shift in maths pedagogy create equitable outcomes?  What can we do to make it a more PES equitable experience?

Our students need tangible materials to help with their understanding of a problem (when needed). However, they also need to be TAUGHT how to use those materials.  We, as a school, need a little more structure and sequence with our teaching paths that will incorporate the concepts and teaching styles of DMIC. We will be unpacking this as a staff this week.

While we still we be structuring culturally relevant problems, our groups will be extremely fluid. Socially, academically, and structurally allowing for ability stretching are great ways to structure learning groups for different opportunities.

This was such a valuable PD session as a staff as we reflected on what worked well and what was successful for our students during our two years of DMIC roll out and mentoring. Although we gained a tremendous insight into culturally relevant problem solving and how that could look with our students while providing formative data, we also had to step back and realise the gaps that we were now missing in the content knowledge that could be measured formatively.

I am excited to explore this more this year as I begin my 2020 Inquiry into teaching.

Agility with Sound: Betsy Sewell

We had the opportunity to once again spend some time listening to Betsy Sewell at a session advertised through our RTLB office. After spending time at a session we had at our school earlier this year, (blog post here) I knew I immediately wanted to attend this session as well to refresh some of the things that were shares, and I took along a few more members of my school team. Wow! Was I amazed! Betsy is such a wealth of knowledge, and I found myself typing away the whole time a completely different set of amazing information. I was also excited to hear that Betsy's assessment tools were free to use on the agility with sound website and I look forward to giving it a go with some of my students soon.

Agility with Sound

Betsy Sewell

Reading has traditionally been taught using a constructionist model, using multiple cues to figure out the word. Unfortunately, this is no longer working for a lot of our kids. There is nothing instinctive about learning to read. In order to accommodate reading, the brain has to adapt. 

When looking at Chinese characters they are units of meaning. Many struggling students also think this way. For example, they look at the shape of a word to help determine its meaning.  However, the way English works, our students often struggle due to the changes in pronunciation over the centuries, the number of language origins that make up the language, the sheer size of the language (four times larger than French) and an alphabetical language which represents the way a word sounds.  If you start writing rules for the language, you end up writing endless exceptions to the rules. 

Good readers learn in 4 stages:

1. Pre-alphabetic: the look of words

2. Partial alphabetic: uses some letters mostly consonants (reading 6-6.5 when 10)

sh**t

cr*sh**

ag**n

A c*t

pr*****s

Students reading at this level do not read the endings or the letters in the middle of the word (thinking visually)

3. Full alphabetic: process of all letters

4. Consolidated: recognise and process chunks

Competent and struggling readers behave differently. Competent readers overwhelming process words as speech, using S&L areas of the brain. Struggling readers overwhelmingly process words as shapes, with limited activity in the S&L areas of the brain. Good readers and writers process words differently.  This applies to all struggling kids, whether they are or are not dyslexic, and many of these students are well behind by the time they reach years 5/6.

A sight word is a word that is instantly recognised as a spelling pattern. It is stored in language areas of the brain. Spelling pattern, pronunciation and meaning are linked: one instantly relates to the others. Mapping. Children who read like this can decode and encode unconsciously. 

How a student spells and writes is a function of how s/he reads.

Competent, fluent readers:

1. Give their full attention to comprehension
2. Notice the structure and spelling patterns of words as they encounter them
3. Hear the rhythm and flow of a good sentence
4. Notice how punctuation instructs the reader
5. Notice how writers structure text
6. Are constantly encountering and absorbing new vocabulary

In order to work with students who are struggling, we need to teach them how to think how good readers think. For many of these students, they need to learn how to think differently than they have previously.

There are 7 different decoding skills that these students need to think about differently.  Most students are able to get to the point that they can achieve skills 1-5. Skills 6 and 7 are a bit more difficult to achieve.

1. Identify, and think in the compound sounds (how do the sounds feel)
2. Distinguish between the sounds
3. Recognise how those sounds are represented in print
4. Recognise the repeating chunks and patterns of language
5. Hold those chunks in memory
6. Substitute phonemes within chunks or whole chunks within words
7. Blend those sounds or chunks of sound rapidly and unconsciously

When looking at letter sounds, exaggerate them so kids can hear the difference and then slowly bring them back to the sound of normal speech.  This is great for recognising letters and blends that are confused as the same thing (ie, p/b and ch/sh).

Struggling students need explicit, structured and cumulative instruction in how words work. Students also needs to work from simple to complex, common to uncommon beginning with what the child already knows. The overall aim is to build the thinking skills of competent readers. 

Struggling kids must have 80-100 hours of practice thinking of the sounds of words, blending strategies, and practice...lots of it. They also need reading material they can read and want to read, that meets their learning needs, and explicit vocabulary, comprehension and writing instruction. These students do not require anything else in order to be successful in reading.  When working with them it is best to use text without illustrations, and possibly have the students add the illustrations themselves to show what they understand that page is about. 

Testing Hypotheses

Explain the hypotheses about teaching that you decided were MOST worth testing, and why. (WFRC #8)

For each of your hypotheses, explain how you will test it and what evidence would support (or refute) that hypothesis. (WFRC #9)

Scaffolding:
Am I scaffolding too much and at the same time, am I removing the scaffold too soon? It is such a delicate back and forth that we must do, especially in a class setting with students working across three curriculum levels?

WHY: Many students in my class, are so used to being able to do things in a step by step process as described and monitored by teachers in the past. Students are not used to self-monitoring their own progress.

TESTING/EVIDENCE: The most immediate way to test this is by observation of independent student work. By providing students with assignments that have the scaffolding in place as a pre-observation and then removing it for a later assignment will provide the easiest way to visualise and assess student achievement. Once it is observed that a task of that nature can be completed without the scaffolding, then move on to the next task type.  I also believe that the effectiveness of this will be seen when analysing student running record results. Many of our learning tasks are created in a way that will allow students to think about a text in a way that is required for the higher level running record tests.  If students are able to make that connection from their assignment to the test question then growth is evident.

Collaborative Sharing Time:
Do I provide my students with time to learn from each other? We spend so much time in class reading about similar topics, but what can I do to provide opportunities for groups to grow wider with their understanding of a learning topic by learning from their peers in other reading groups.

TESTING/EVIDENCE:
Evidence of .this would occur by careful planning on my part and the development of tasks for students to work in across their reading groups. This could provide students with a common language about a subject but depending on which text they have been exposed to they would have different levels of understanding. Students working together collaboratively like this has the potential to create cross-group creative tasks for students to shine with those from higher/lower reading levels.

Process of Hypothesis Development

Describe your process for developing hypotheses (what you read, who you talked with). (WFRC #6)

Conversations with:

Woolf Fisher Research Centre
-Students across our cluster are making some achievement, however, they still remain below the national norm for their age group.
-Wider and Deeper Reading Models
-Increased Reading Mileage 

Russell Burt-Principal 
-Ongoing Staff meeting discussions about our school reading data and next steps

PES Staff Inquiry Meetings
-Twice a term, we have staff meetings designated to discussing with and gaining feedback from our staff in regards to our 
Team 5 Colleagues
-As a team, our team wide focus in on reading and as a result we have ongoing conversations during our team meetings (Both formal and informal)

2017-2018 COL Bursts and Bubbles
-Listening to the presentations from the CoL Teachers from across Manaiakalani

Professional Development/Reading:

Betsy Sewell (blog post here)

By the time students reach years 6,7, and 8 they have so many gaps that have been created by the inability to know HOW to apply specific reading skills like letter combinations, sounds and words.  What can we do to change the way they are learning? Betsy offers many new strategies that we are implementing at lower levels around the school.

Dr. Janni van Hees (Blog thread here)

During the past few years, I have been able to have multiple sessions with Dr van Hees across the grade levels due to the different classes I have taught. Her messages are always the same (students need to talk more and be talked to using high level vocabulary), but she continually brings new strategies to consider and trial in class. 

What Every Primary School Teacher Should Know about Vocabulary?-Jannie van Hees and Paul Nation

COL PD: Words Have Power

As part of our second COL meeting this term, we spent some time with Dr. Janni van Hees exploring the power that words have and considering ways that we can optimise the words on the page to increase student understanding.

Dr. Janni van Hees

What’s on your mind? One of the strong issues arising are our language meaning making strategies.

Growing our Language Capabilities

Vocabulary through Written and Oral Print

Our Manaiakalani Key Focus: Languaging Learning (2019) from Lanugage Abundance (2018)
-Learning is carried on a sea of language
-Discovering the common language
-Ultimately allowing students to be empowered

Optimising Learning Conditions: Allows for the uptake of the language available. These are things that the students need to do and be aware of when in their learning groups.

-Focus and notice
-Put in the effort
-Take part (participate) fully
-Push myself to the edge
-Dig deep for what I already know
-Notice and focus (Learn from others)
-I share (others learn from me)
-Think and talk, think and need
-Wondering and Asking

This is very similar to the DMIC approach of setting up Class Norms for students to adhere to in order to be successful

Are our students reading deeply enough while being extended enough?-What can we put the lens on?
-Only some learners speak in my classroom when we are learning together
-Question: What is the environment that I have created for responding to the text/question/situation? (What is the culture? Hands??thinking and sharing???)

Point to Ponder: If we across the CoL, have Deep Diving, we are providing quantities of quality texts while increasing noticing of vocabulary and knowledge basis will we be able to see the increase in student achievement. We must provide ways to scaffold understanding so that they drip with understanding.