Reflection on Teaching and Next Steps

Write a reflection in which you summarise your main learning about your teaching and next steps. This will prepare you to design an intervention next time. (WFRC #10)


The main learning about my teaching that I have made during this round of evaluation (as discussed in my blog post here) is that I am teaching my students how to have an academically based student-led discussion. It took some changing in my own teaching practise over the past few years to implement this change across the curriculum level, but I now know that I provide adequate think and respond time for my students instead of jumping in right away with the correct answer. My students know that they are allowed to have their voice and opinions heard. When it comes to maths, even my struggling students are not afraid to voice their opinions on how to properly solve a problem or identify what they believe the next step in a problem solving process should be.

My next step is to implement new vocabulary recognition strategies such as the Four Square and Feature Analysis approaches (as discussed here). I hope to provide my students with more opportunities to recognise the language of mathematical success. It is my intention to keep a record of mathematical terms students have used during a lesson (by providing opportunities for students to share their thinking in a Screencastify more often). 

Formative Information and Baseline Data

Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature. Inquiring into your teaching should give you:

1. Formative information about your current strengths and areas for development
2. Baseline information that you can use at the end of the year  to provide evidence of shifts in teaching

Use multiple tools such as self- or peer-observations, analysis of your class site, student voice. (WFRC #8)

As a Manaiakalani Class on Air teacher, I have the opportunity to routinely capture my teaching on camera. Part of the editing process for my Class on Air episodes requires me to analytically watch the footage that has been captured multiple times to find the best portions of student voice and teaching to share for each episode. Our episodes are also watched and feedback is provided by Anne Sinclair (University of Auckland and Manaiakalani) and other Pt England Class on Air and CoL teachers. 

One of the things that I know I have been working on over the past two or three years is providing more time for students to talk and lead the discussion during our maths sessions. I work hard to create problem solving stories that enable my students to connect with the problem and discuss what they understand before they move into their problem solving groups. Once there students wrestle with the problem, and I roam from group to group providing "nudges" to promote student thinking (How many 5s are there in 100?) and questions about their strategies (Why are you dividing by 5?). It is also very clear throughout the video that I provide adequate opportunities for students to ping pong the conversation from one to another and I only pop into the game when something needs to be clarified or redirected in hope of the students gaining more insight to the topic. When watching the video, it is clear that my students often revert to the more basic names for mathematical operations that they have picked up along the way instead of reaching for the actual name of the concept (ie plussing/adding, taking away/subtracting).

I hope to take a look at a video of a lesson (or have a peer observe) how many times my students use proper mathematical terms and alternative names during a problem solving session.  By adapting and trialing the Four Square and Feature Analysis approaches (as discussed here), I hope to provide my students with more opportunities to recognise the vocabulary of mathematical success. I would also be interested in having a record of the mathematical terms they used kept during the lesson (maybe another video) to see how many of the terms being used are actually terms that we discussed an recorded at some point during the year. 

The edited video from this lesson can be seen below. (click here to view the entire Class On Air episode). After watching the lesson, Anne Sinclair stated, "Loved the shots of the girls struggling with the problem and wrangling with the possible solutions. This is real stuff Angela and what we want to see. It is getting into the heads of the learners to see how they think." I think that's the big thing. Getting into the students' heads to see how they think. Do they have the correct terminology and vocabulary to adequately explain their thinking process. 

As part of this lesson, students also created a video describing their thinking to put on their blogs. Examples from these blog posts can be found here:

• Laolao
• Punaiuru
• Daniella
• Toni

This is another place that I will be able to evidence in shift of teaching, By providing students opportunities to share their thinking in a video on their blog, I will be able to compare the number of correct mathematical terms they are able to use in their descriptions.

Using Baseline Data at a Future Date

Explain how some of the data you have used to build a profile of the students’ learning will be used as baseline data at the end of the year. (WFRC #6)

Based on my previous blog post about preliminary findings, I am planning to use those results as baseline data at the end of the year in the following ways.

GLOSS Survey: The results from this survey will be collected at various times during the year to provide an ongoing assessment of student understanding and gaps for future instruction. By comparing the data each term, I will obtain a clearer picture of student understanding. 

PAT Mathematics Test: Term 1 test results will be compared to the student data from the test administered at the end of the year. Hopefully, I will also be able to look at the progress each student made during the 2019 school year and compare it to the progress made this year as well. 

e-Asstle Adapted Number Maths Test: This is an assessment that we (as a team) will administer periodically throughout the year to monitor gaps in student understanding before beginning a "Number Knowledge" strand focus and achievement at the end of each focus. This data will also be collected at the end of the year to comparatively show student acceleration in this particular strand throughout the school year. 

Once back at school (after the Covid-19 lockdown ends), I will also administer iKANN tests with my students and it is my hope that each student will take this test 1-2 times a term for the remainder of the year, to help provide students with a clear picture of their individual progress. 

Nature and Extent of Student Challenge

Share your findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding. (WFRC #5)

Earlier this year, during our before school professional development staff meetings, we discussed the accelerated shift of our students as a school. We also took some to explore student achievement from year level to the next. It was evident that our students were continuing to make accelerated progress in Writing but not in Reading and Mathematics. Due to this finding, we determined that within these two subject areas was the current challenge for our students.

Over the past few years, we have discussed the acquisition of vocabulary as a common thread for building self-efficacy and understanding for our students across the subject areas. When looking at my Year 7/8 Maths students, it is definitely a case of low self-efficacy holding them back. However, I don't believe that the struggle is always with the process of problem solving as much as it is with understanding of the question and the explicit explanation of their computational process.

They often think they know how to "show" you their mathematical thinking but they do not have the necessary age level vocabulary to explain their computational thinking step by step. For example, when describing how to solve a problem similar to 486 + 245= students commonly respond with something like "Oh! You're plussing" instead of explaining step by step how to use addition to add the two numbers together using place value. While this example is a basic one, it is important to realise that at some point students need to be exposed to and begin using the correct mathematical terms when problem solving.

Preliminary Findings

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. (WFRC #4)

Prior to the Covid Lockdown, I began to collect data to help formulate my preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenges. Unfortunately, this is only the first of my posts that will discuss this topic due to the timing of the lockdown and the inability to collect all the data that I would like to have at this time.

When looking at the 9 students in my direct focus group, it is important to note that 3 of the students are in Year 7, while the other 6 are in Year 8. They are listed on the graphs in no particular order.

Here are the results for a survey that we gave our intermediate students at the beginning of the year that was based on the GLOSS assessment. Based on this data, I can determine that all students tested (A, B, C, D, E and H) were able to obtain accurate answers on 7/21 questions. Unfortunately, due to consistent attendance issues students F, G and I were unable to take this assessment. Looking closely at the questions that these students missed allows me to alter their small group sessions to be sure that we focus on filling some of the gaps shown as a result of this assessment.

Students also took a PAT Maths test to help provide baseline data for the school year. On the graph below the red line indicates the mean scale score of 55 for a Year 8 student. This is the goal for these students by the end of this year. However, it is important to note that this focus group of students is made up of year 7 and year 8 students. Students A, B.G, and I are all around a score of 50, which is right around an end of year 7 score. 

Lastly, we also participated in an e-asTTle Maths Number assessment to provide us with baseline number data for the year. It also allowed us to see where to begin structuring our lessons for students when working strictly on number knowledge problems. It is important to note that we did not have the best success with this test this time around. The e-asTTle system crashed during our test and as a result, our students had to sit this test twice. We strongly believe that this caused some students to not do their best the second time around. 

It is my hope that once we are back at school, I will also be able to begin collecting data using the IKANN test multiple times throughout the year. I will also be conducting a student voice survey. 

The last piece of evidence that I collect is anecdotal notes for each student based on our experiences, trials, and mathematical successes during our in class learning sessions. 

Tools to Gain an Accurate Learner Profile

Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools. (WFRC? #4)

When thinking of my inquiry this year, I have considered the tools/measures/approaches that I plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of my students learning. These tools are:

1. Student Learning Survey: I plan to create a survey to help gain some student voice about their own understanding of their mathematical abilities. I'm interested to know what they like/dislike about maths, and their own understanding about their mathematical ability.

2. PAT Scores: This is a great way to obtain baseline and end of the year data across my class, team and our cluster.

3. Easstle Scores: As a team, we have decided to administer e-asstle pre- and post-tests to our students at the beginning and the end of each designated topic of the curriculum.

4. Teacher observations: During our small group interactions, I am able to monitor student understanding, which allows me to identify individual gaps in student understanding and provides time to help fill in those gaps. I am also able to see how far I can stretch student understanding and raise the roof on their mathematical ability.

5. GLOSS tests: I intend to administer the Gloss test to help gain a deeper understanding of where my students are. I would like to do this (especially for my focus group) just before our Term 2 report and our Term 4 report.

6. IKANN: This is another great tool that I would like to use during terms 2, 3, and 4 to provide students with a clearer understanding of their mathematical ability and growth

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

Preliminary Findings

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. (WFRC #5)

Earlier this year, I conducted a student voice survey in an effort to understand my literacy students a little bit better and to gain a deeper understanding of their reading likes/dislikes.  When looking over the survey I was pleasantly surprised to learn that of the 28 students who took the survey only 2-3 said they didn't enjoy reading and just over half of the students also put something in their answers about how they enjoy reading even more when they are able to relax and not be distracted by others.  Students indicated that they enjoy reading most in silence.

When creating the survey, I was curious how the students saw themselves as readers. So I asked the question:

 

I was happy to see that only 21.4% of the students in my literacy class considered themselves to be slow readers and when digging deeper I was exceptionally surprised to learn that some of those students were actually some of the more able readers in my literacy class.

Students were also asked (in short answer form) what they wanted to improve on the most in reading this year and the most common response was that they wanted to be able to read and understand "big words" the first time.  I found it very interesting that this is something that our students indicate as something they would like to work on and it is also something that we have flagged as an important area of focus for the students in our cluster. 

I have also collected and created a spreadsheet for my students that shows their test scores from Running Records, PAT, and STAR as well as their Curriculum level from the end of 2018.  I have included the data for the students in my focus group below as compared to the national scale score average.

Another piece of evidential data that I am collecting are student reading ages based on the results of the PMBenchmark Running Record kit which I will be administering during the next few weeks.  This will be compared to the data from the end of the 2018 school year to see what the student's shift in reading age is over the past 6 months.

The last piece of data I have is found in my anecdotal teacher notes where I indicate observations that I have when reading aloud with students from my literacy class.

Building an Accurate Student Learning Profile

Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools. (WFRC #4)

When thinking about my inquiry this year, the tools/measures/approaches that I plan to use to help portray and accurate profile of student learning in relation to vocabulary acquisition strengthening reading comprehension and promoting student led dialogic conversations are:

1.  Student survey: My hope is that by asking my students to help paint a reading profile of themselves, (likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, etc) I will be able to hopefully plan the best reading tasks/genres/topics and have an idea of where to focus my lessons to help build student interest in a topic

2. PAT Scores: This paints a very quick picture for me as the teacher (and for my students when we go over the results together, which I hope to do early in Term 2) of a student's strengths and weaknesses. It also allows for a clear picture of student achievement at the end of of the year when combined with other data collection.

3. STAR Test Scores: This test allows for a picture of current vocabulary usage to be made for each student. Combined with the PAT test at the end of the year, it contributes to the clear picture of student achievement as well. 

4. BURT Word Recognition Test: After administering this test last year, I realised what an easy tool it is to administer and how it also contributes to that picture of student achievement.  Going through this with the students and allowing them to see what they were able to achieve now and at the end of the year is a quick indicator for them of the daily words they are able to recognise while reading.

5. Running Records: By administering Running Record tests, I am able to see firsthand what an individual's issues are when decoding/comprehending a text.

6. Teacher Observation/Group Interactions: I try to keep adequate anecdotal notes when working with my reading groups. I have begun to keep an "oral reading" log where I quickly note things I notice during our reading sessions in addition to my normal teacher plan reflections. 

My 2019 CoL Inquiry Focus:

“Promoting vocabulary acquisition to strengthen reading comprehension and stimulate student led dialogic conversations.”

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

In 2019 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