Digital Fluency Intensive #6

Our focus for our 6th DFI session was all about dealing with data. This was definitely the perfect timing to have this session as we near the end of year with all our data analysis for end of year testing. This will also help me to collate data and how best to show progress/achievement from my own inquiry as part of our CoL role.

My 2 interesting things I learnt was the use of Google My Maps and Pick a path option in Google Forms. My maps was great to see the potential it has when teaching maths or showing a classroom profile in terms of where students are from using the world map. Forms would definitely be an option to use in class more often - especially with the current quiz form I am currently composing - as students are really interested in being tested on current events.

Google Sheets - this great tool just got better as I learnt more things I can do on it. I use sheets daily for planning, student turn-in sheets, and for team data collection. Something new I've learnt how to do today and will be sharing with my team is analysing our students blog post numbers. Here is a graph I've created using sheets about Zaeeda's blog posts over the years. From here I could have some really good learning conversations with her about her blogging over the years and ask maybe why she has only blogged in Jan this year and last. It could be that she didn't take her chromebook home over the holidays? I will definitely be revisiting Robyn Anderson from Panmure Bridge's blog post to follow through on her statistics unit as part of our maths programme in Term 1. Thank you Robyn!

Digital Fluency Intensive #5

Enabling Access: Sites

This was our focus today for our first DFI back in Term 4. This was great timing as some of us are preparing already for 2020 and our new class/team sites.

In our Connecting with Manaiakalani session, Dorothy reiterated our Manaiakalani message that Connected Learners Share - Tohatoha. This is definitely true both online and in person. A great reminder to us as teacher to continue to keep this in mind as we start Term 4.

Our deep dive session dove into a heap of different sites and shared what we thought were visually appealing and if it was user friendly for learners. Following on from this each of us then presented our own class/team site and took the cohort on a tour of our site and where everything is. Our cohort were then given the opportunity to rate and give feedback about improvements we could make. This proved a very worthy activity as you become so used to your site because you use it daily, that if a third party comes along, are they able to find things so easily. Some key comments from peoples feedback were that some teachers hadn't shared access for everyone to view their students learning, and someone also made a comment about the class blog button not being easy to find which is true as this is not labelled but simply linked to each teachers name. I have already started working to make these improvements to our site.

Our last session was lead by Gerhard who took us through making buttons, and banners for our DFI sandpit site.

This was a great exercise and I can now confidently say that I know how to make buttons for my own inquiry sites in the future. During this time I also managed to have a go at the DFI google sites challenge. You had to complete the set of instructions in creating a site within 5 minutes. I took 8 minutes to complete mine so will definitely need to keep practising this at a later time.

Something I'd like to add to our current site is an image carousel as I know my learners would love seeing school wide events on display rather than hidden in a folder.
One cool tip I picked up today: Normally when taking photos of students learning or events, I take it on my phone, then upload 9 at a time to students blog photos folder which students have access to on our team 5 site. This takes a while and I normally get students to start writing their blog while I upload. Today, Shiralee and Rachelle shared that if we click into the folder first on our phones, press the plus button, click camera and WALLAH! You can take photos and this goes straight into the folder without adding to your gallery on your phone. I will definitely be using this tip from now on. Thank you ladies!

The story behind the data

Here is a break-down or analysis of each of my target students results

FM - Here is my previous blog post about his results

AV - Just over 1 year shift in reading age. This student is a second language learner of English and joined our school in 2017. She has moved a whopping 8 levels from Level 9 - Level 17. Her reading accuracy was 98% but she has struggled with comprehension. She normally takes a lot longer to get through a test than others in the group. At times she is able to verbalise what she is finding difficult. After her mid year testing at level 12, her level 13 test in August came out at 100% decoding and 100% comprehension. I felt it was far too easy for her so we skipped level 14 and instead tested her at level 15 (orange).

LL - 1 year shift in reading age. This student has full time hours and also gets additional learning support from Dev Charles for 1.5 hours a week. This has been reduced from 5 hours a week as LL was becoming difficult during the sessions with Dev and not much learning was going on. The 1.5 hours has been more beneficial and rewarding for LL in terms of willingness, attitude, and task completion. Dev is quite happy with this set up as well. Reading accuracy 97% and 100% comprehension. She didn't get to test again due to time restraints and a busy timetable.

SK - 1 and a half years shift in reading age. This student is very talkative and at times can interfere with others in the group by being overly helpful, so others don't get a chance to try out words for themselves. She is quite onto it, in terms of picking up reading strategies being taught. What I have come to realise through group observations is, a lot of her learning or retention is all dependent on how she is feeling. The more praise you give her, the more she thrives and strives to do more. This has been in my opinion one of the key elements to her making shifts this year. This has been confirmed by her comments the next day when she says, "Thank you for teaching me yesterday Miss, I feel better because I know new words and can read a bit faster now." Her test at level 19 came out at 99% decoding and 100% comprehension. Again, time restraints and our hectic timetable in our Y7&8 have meant we didn't get around to testing her up.

PT - 1 year shift in reading age. I've been talking to my in-class support worker (teacher aide) about student PT and we agreed that he is a very capable reader and is able to pronounce 3 syllable words quite confidently. He has a slight Tongan accent that sometimes sounds like he is mispronouncing the words. But having read with him for almost a year, we have picked up on the fact that he decodes perfectly and with a translator, is also able to answer comprehension question correctly. His use of expressions in his voice are another indicator for good understanding when reading a text. He has yet to fail a test but due to his reluctance to being tested 2 tests in a row, it is a slow progress testing him up twice a term to reach his full potential/true instructional reading level. Decoding came out at 98% and 100% for comprehension.

AT - 1 year shift in reading age. This student still has frequent absences throughout each term. However, when he is in class, he has shown interest in the topic books he has been reading about different animals. This has kept him engaged long enough to complete set tasks each day. His reading tests still start off with what has now become his standard comments of, "I'm dumb Miss. I'm not gonna pass this test". But once I show him the level in which he is reading at, and where he used to be before, we tend to set a goal (aim for purple) and this gives him a little bit of motivation to even give the test a go. He definitely looks to give a 'worst case scenario' before giving things a go just incase he does not pass. He has yet to fail a reading test. I have been careful in how far/hard I push him as I am fearful that when he does get to a point that he fails a level, it would confirm his statements as true and might effect his fragile motivation to learn. His last test was 97% for decoding and 100% in comprehension.

GW - 6 months shift in reading age.This student I still haven't quite seen or been able to pin point a pattern of behaviour or a pattern of learning for him. Each test has been different in terms of attitude, effort, behaviours, and also willingness to talk at times. However, it is great to see him make shift. He was very excited (in a shy way) about making any shift so we hope to keep working with him throughout this last term. It is nearing the end of week 1 of term 4 and student GW has yet to return to school so will wait and see. His last test at the end of Term 3 was 96% for decoding and 5 out of 6 question correct so that's 80% for comprehension.

RF - 1 and a half years shift in reading age. This student has gained confidence from moving groups and working in a group with more able readers. She has a positive attitude during testing and is always willing to give things a go. She has taken ownership of her own learning by asking for some short tasks she can do at home and this has added to excitement about reading. I cannot attribute much of my deliberate acts of teaching for this students achievements as her learning has taken off through self motivation and determination. RF got 98% decoding in her test and 70% for comprehension.