Impact Story - What effect did my inquiry have on my learners?

Accelerate achievements in maths for Years 7&8 by providing more opportunities to ‘create’ learning through movement and materials.

What happened for the learners & What evidence do I have for this?

1. Engaged and Interested!

Learners in my class (based on observations) showed greater engagement in tasks set. You could tell by the learning conversations taking place that they were interested and invested in the activities and stayed on task for majority of the lessons. The following student voice survey is evidence that student approved and enjoyed maths more based on the changes made to the class structure and how lessons were delivered.

Student vote on changes made in class based on last student voice survey
Who enjoyed taking home maths homework?	12/22
Who enjoyed weekly maths assignments on maths whizz?	19/22
Who enjoyed the change in structure? Eg. Maths rotations?	13/22

Overall 16/22 students enjoyed maths. Some of the reasons they gave for enjoying maths were:

• Learning new stuff about geometry
• The activities - specifically: using materials and not just doing word problems
• The things we did (different perspectives using cube links) is stuff we can use in college like drawing buildings and stuff

2. Accelerated progress in GLOSS and PAT

Unfortunately my 6th target student has not made it to school to complete any of her end of year tests so for the sake of comparing data and showing shifts, I've left her out. Overall everyone has made shifts with 3/5 students making accelerated progress in different areas. The following is evidence of GLOSS test results.

TARGET STUDENTS GLOSS RESULTS
STUDENTS		MID 2017				END 2017				KEY
Y8 Male		E6	E6	5		E7	6	6		Increased (1 year)
Y7 Male		E6	E6	E6		6	6	6		Increased (>1 year)
Y8 Female		6	E7	E6		7	E8	E8		Stayed the same
Y7 Male		6	6	5		7	E7	6
Y8 Female		7	7	E7		7	E8	7
Y8 Female		7	7	E7		N/A	N/A	N/A

TARGET STUDENTS GLOSS RESULTS
STUDENTS		COMMENTS
Y8 Male		Mid Year: Says "oh yeah I get it now"... but still doesn't get it. Spends more time trying to cover up the fact that he doesn't know rather than telling me exactly what it is he finds difficult.
		End of Year: Still has many gaps in basic number knowledge, but has utilised the knowledge he does have effectively to make it so far in the GLOSS test. He even surprised himself! Made accelerated shifts in addition/subtraction and ratio/proportion.
Y7 Male		Mid Year: Expressed how he feels like he has missed out on a bit due to being out for sports a lot. Willing to try and manage both as he still enjoys maths and wants to do well on and off the field.
		End of Year: Really struggled through the GLOSS test. Uses more steps to solve most questions, ie. Instead of 5 x 40 he will do 5 x 10 four times. He still acts very surprised/amazed when he sees the connections after I've explained some points to him.
Y8 Female		Mid Year: Lacking motivation - still shy. Even talking to me she was very reluctant to think aloud or communicate how I can help her enjoy maths more.
		End of Year: I was very surprised at her results. Our discussion after the test revealed she actually has a lot more knowledge of strategies and what we do in class but has admitted to being too lazy to complete tasks and contribute to group work. We both agreed she would've done a whole lot better in the PAT test if she'd done the GLOSS test first and seen what she was capable of. Made accelerated shifts across the GLOSS test with 3 years acceleration for ratio and proportion. She was (low key) really excited about her GLOSS results!
Y7 Male		Mid Year: Very eager and excited about maths. BUT. Most times his excitement gets ahead of him and he skips the scaffolded stages of learning, wanting to be able to solve things once he gets the gist of it.
		End of Year: Student has made sure to take his time and even double checked most of his answers before giving them. He definitely showed patience and thought about questions and strategies carefully rather that jumping straight into it like before. Made accelerated shifts in addition/subtraction and ratio/proportion.
Y8 Female		Mid Year: Quiet achiever - trying to teach herself things she finds difficult. Asks people around her for help and uses the maths posters on the wall. Enjoys maths and especially when she sees she has made progress.
		End of Year: Stayed the same for addition/subtraction because that was the end of the test. Has done consistently well in completing tasks throughout the year and still has a positive attitude towards maths.
Y8 Female		Mid Year: I asked her how this year was different to her struggles from last year - She simply said, "things have clicked into place". She enjoys maths more because she is understanding more of what is being taught. Asking more questions in class too.
		End of Year: Unfortunately this student has not been back to school to complete any of her testing in Term 4. She was tracking really well but I have no end of year data to compare with.

The following is an analysis of the PAT data, in particular, the Geometry and Measurement section because this was where the majority of 'create' activities were based upon. 



As you can see, only 3/5 students made significant shifts in their geometry and measurement section of the PAT test. I've highlighted this section because the majority of the hands on, create activities, and movement sessions were based on this strand. Read more about it in these blog posts: It's the little things that matter and Hands on Geometry.

Unfortunately 2 students went backwards and looking back at my comments and observations I had made on these 2, I can see how 'outside' factors have affected their end of year scores.

Here is an overall look at the PAT scale scores comparing mid year to end of year tests.

What did I do to make this happen

• Provide activities which require movement and materials: Going off the feedback from students, they preferred to have activities which involved moving around the classroom and manipulating materials. This worked perfectly for geometry - transformations in which they used their bodies to show how to rotate, reflect and translate what their buddy was doing. Students remembered this activity well and were able to use this knowledge to answer questions correctly in class and in their PAT test.

• Change classroom structure and delivery based on student voice: After our initial classroom survey, I made it good practice to keep having plenary sessions at the end of each week. We discussed things they enjoyed and things they found difficult and what we can keep doing for the up coming week. This empowered students as they could actually see that they had a say in how they got to learn.

• Constant Reflection on my practise: LReflect CReflect SReflect - Our weekly release time for CoL allowed me to reflect WEEKLY on how my inquiry was going. A weekly blog post also required me to be accountable for how my students were progressing. I was constantly thinking, "ok that didn't work, what else can I try?" or "Who can I talk to, who should I go and observe?". It was a healthy practice (reflection time) and allowed me to really get to know my learners and plan for them accordingly.

Wonderings about what next?

• How can I create the same atmosphere and movement when teaching number knowledge and strategies? I shared in one of my previous posts that this worked well for geometry but I was reminded that strand only makes up a small part of overall cover for maths standard. Apart from using materials, how else can I utilise the use of DLO (digital learning objects - animations) and movement to help students retain number knowledge and strategies?

• What can we do to help students retain knowledge over the summer holidays? To help prevent the 'summer effect' or summer slump, how can we help smooth the transition of students from years 8 to 9 and still remain at their same levels they finished off the previous year with.