Testing out hypotheses

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

Here is a plan for how I will test out each hypothesis giving a before and after 'snapshot'.

Hypothesis 1: Vocab and Comprehension:
My evidence to best show this would be a combination of my teacher planning in the DATs section (Deliberate Acts of Teaching) and the reflection notes describing how the group discussions went around vocab. Also students follow-up tasks on their blog. If students are able to explain that their learning was about the vocab found in texts rather than what the story was about.

Hypothesis 2: Student Voice
Evidence for this would be collecting student voice surveys from each Term as the year goes on. I'll also be looking at my reflection notes to see who/how many students I get to see 1-1 each week.

Hypothesis 3: Being Test Ready (Scaffolding)
I've put scaffolding in brackets as I feel it is the taking away of the materials students are using in their learning which will give an indication as to how well they can cope with learning without all the gadgets. As I haven't done much prep work this time round for running records testing, I can compare behaviours during testing - without any preparation around what to expect when you get tested - to later on in the year and format lessons so students know what to expect.

Hypothesis 4: High Expectations
The best way to try this out would be from our goal setting at the start of each term. From the goals we set at the start of the term, I will test to see who has made shifts and who hasn't. From there I'll evaluate and reflect on whether the expectations were too high, and if so, what's a smaller step we can aim for that's not reading age related but maybe more towards vocabulary.

Most Test Worthy Hypotheses

Explain the hypotheses about teaching that you decided were MOST worth testing, and why.

'' For students truly to be able to take responsibility for their learning, both teacher and students need to be very clear about what is being learnt, and how they should go about it. When learning and the path towards it are clear, research shows that there are a number of important shifts for students. Their motivation improves, they stay on-task, their behaviour improves and they are able to take more responsibility for their learning. ''

Absolum, M. (2006). 'Clarity in the Classroom'.

“Effective teachers inquire into the relationship between what they do and what happens for students (outcomes). But effective teachers do more than simply inquire (or reflect) – they take action to improve the outcomes for students and continue to inquire into the value of these interventions.” 

(Aitken, 2010)

In delving deeper into this inquiry, I've realised there are so many factors and points I would like to cover in order to get my students into the right head space where they can take responsibility for their own learning, and my role in helping them get to that place. Here are a list of hypotheses I have decided (based on learning conversations around the school) are MOST test worthy and beneficial for my learners at the present time.

Hypothesis 1: Vocab vs Comprehension

Should I be focusing more on vocab rather than comprehension? Based on observation and testing so far, generating general conversation about a text has been difficult at times because the reading hasn't been fluent enough. Decoding is a bit of a stutter so the understanding of words hasn't been too clear. I believe although they are Year 7/8 students, a focus on vocabulary and letter sounds would more beneficial not just for their reading but also for writing. This hypotheses has come about through my observations with Helen Squires, specialised spelling test from Donna Ryan.

Hypothesis 2: Student voice

Am I checking in enough 1-1 with students? Am I listening to what they have to say about their learning? What I have found so far in my random 1-1 sessions is they become more switched on after their talks with me. They pay more attention and I guess they start to feel like they've been listened to. Doing more of this during a term would benefit students in my target group especially because they already have poor attendance and some have been identified as having behavioural issues. 

Hypothesis 3: Being 'Test' Ready (Scaffolding)

Am I setting students up to be 'test ready' in Year 7/8 standardised testing situations? With iPads and using voice typing, and all the specialised scaffolding students are needing in order understand what they are learning about. None of these are on hand to use during normal standardised testing. Am I setting them up to be test ready?

Hypothesis 4: High Expectations

Are my expectations of my target group high enough? Or is it too high? Keeping in mind that these students have been at school for 6-7 years already and are still reading at 5.9years - 7.5 years reading age. Is a jump from 6years to 6.5years in a term too high of an expectation? 

What I read & who I talked to...

The latest task in our inquiry process is to develop a set of hypotheses about patterns in my teaching that could be changed or more effectively address the student learning focus.

The first part of this is:

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

Learning Conversations with Colleagues

One of the starting points for this process would definitely be the sharing time in our team meetings where we share our success stories and things that have been going well in class. We also share our struggles and areas in reading which we need help with. Being in a team with a wealth of knowledge is great as everyone has gems and pointers to try out in class to help cater to some of the struggles with our learners.

Conversations with CoL Across Schools Teachers

I've had really informative discussions with 2 across schools teachers each time I've booked in with them. Clarelle Caruthers has helped with iPad activities using Explain Everything. Donna Ryan has also been helpful with her knowledge of assessments for students who barely register a mark on standardised tests for Year 7/8 students. 

1-1 conversations with students in target group

Some of my release time on Thursdays have been used to have discussions with the learners in my target or focus group. The aim of these discussions is just to check in with them in regards to their whole well-being. Are they getting enough sleep, is there something we can do to help them get to school on time and everyday, do they need lunch, what are they struggling with in class (can be other classes) and share some of their success with things they've shared on their blog.

Teacher Observations: Agility with Sounds with Helen Squires

I was fortunate to be able to observe Helen take a group through Betsy Sewell's program 'Agility with Sounds'. Definitely made me see some of the gaps my learners have being catered to through this program. Here are some notes taken from that session. Thank you Hannah West for taking notes.

Professional Reading: Here are a few readings I've looked into in my 'delving deeper' phase of this inquiry. I have chosen these mainly from recommendations from others and colleagues directing me to where I could find more information about how to cater to my learners needs better. Also I wanted to find out about my own practice - am I being explicit enough, or pitching and planning work at the right level for my learners?

1. What every primary school teacher should know about vocabulary - Jannie van Hees and Paul Nation

2. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing - I. S. P. Nation

3. Clarity in the classroom - Michael Absolum

4. ESOL online - https://esolonline.tki.org.nz/

Manaiakalani 'Create' PD

Yesterday our cluster got to experience some create activities as part of our PD. There were many different create workshops from rocket making, to sign language and even line dancing!

I was needing fuel for a Monday so I chose the cooking workshop which was making Vietnamese spring rolls.

This workshop was taken by Akesa Tuipulotu who took us through the steps of making the Vietnamese spring roll, the ingredients and where things can be found on our benches. In the end we filled ourselves up with some prawn filled spring rolls and sizzling mince ones. A thoroughly satisfying workshop.

Preliminary findings - Part 2

This term I have continued my quest for collecting data and evidence (Preliminary findings - part 1) to show in clearer detail the nature or extent of the student challenge. 

One of the things I'd mentioned in the Tools, Measures and Approaches blog post was that I would seek help from CoL across schools teachers for more ideas on how I can get a clearer picture for what my target group CAN do. 

So in the holidays I booked a time with Donna Ryan from Sommerville Special School. I shared with her my struggles with pinpointing exactly what my students were struggling with in reading. One of the things she gave me was a spelling test which, when analysed, could give you a better idea if it is letter-sound problems, phonics or something else they are struggling with. Donna has also offered to come into my class in Week 2 this term to test these students and see if she can pick up any other learning behaviours I haven't been able to identify. 

The following are the spelling test for 7 out of 8 students. 1 of my students in this target group has been absent all week so far. This is a common pattern for him but I am still keen to keep him on as a target student.

The different stages for this Development Spelling Word List (Ferroli & Shanahan 1987)

are below:

                              

Upon analysing this, I have an almost overwhelming feeling of helplessness for these students. I can't even begin to imagine how hard things must be for them in class, especially during whole class teaching, when they struggle to make connections between letters and sounds. This then moves onto putting letters (and sounds) together to form actual words.

Despite my feelings about this, this target group of students are quite up-beat about their learning. They are definitely enjoying the activities and realisation that learning can be fun! 

My next steps will be to see how the testing with Donna goes next week and go from there. Running records will also be starting soon and I'll be reporting on how that goes in a few weeks time.