Term 3 - Update on Target Students

Isn't it great having a 3rd year student teacher who is on their last practicum and on 5 weeks of full control?? Well believe me when I say it is just BRILLIANT! Personally I wish all classes had 2 teachers in it.

My point is, now that my student teacher is on full control, I've had time to actually sit and work 1-1 with my 'target students' who were identified right at the start of the year. These were the students who were sitting just below the national standard and needed that extra support to get them there by the end of the year.

Take a look at my table below

By looking at this - mid 2017 data - it's actually hard to believe that all these students used to be in the same maths group at the start of the year. This term they are now spread out over 3 groups (indicated by colours).

This is a continuation of my previous posts: Make a plan and student voice.
Some of the changes I have made in my teaching are:

• Assigning homework each day (paper)
• Teaching using Maths Whizz links
• Sharing with students visual representations of all the stages and describing what the thinking/maths talk sounds like
• Using actions as prompts when teaching

While I was working 1-1, I also addressed and asked students why some of their results went back in GLOSS. Their replies gave me hope and confidence that they can make it to 'at' by the end of year. Some of their replies were "I'd forgotten how to do it... the wording of the question confused me... I just went blank Miss, I got confused with what to use - I kept using repeated addition and not my timetables..." 

One of my 'light bulb' moments was reading some of my student teachers observation notes of me during last term. She saw and recorded some of the things I did and said. It made me reflect on my teaching and think "oh wow -thats good that I'm actually really specific about that" and some points where I was also "Oh don't do that!" or "did I really say that?" and "oh that's why it worked/didn't work. 

It also worked the other way too where I'm observing her (my student teacher) and thinking "Hey that was a really good way of seeing if they understood - I'll try that next time too".

Keep an eye out for my next blog for an update on the rest of my maths class!

Teaching as Inquiry Framework

We are now half way through the year. In our first CoL meeting of Term 3, one of our first tasks was to take a look at our progress so far in terms of where we are in the teaching as inquiry framework. Here is what I used to organise my thoughts when I shared with my inquiry group.

Mid Year GLOSS outcomes

In preparations for our mid-year reports, the GLOSS test was done for all our students across the school. I quite like this time as it gives me 1-1 time with students and an insight into how they actually think without the influence of their peers. 

Target group outcome:

• 4/6 students made improvements - 67%
• 1 made significant movement - moving from 'below' 2016 to 'at' mid year 2017.
• 1 made no shifts in gloss stages
• 1 went back in stages

Whole class outcome:

• 18/28 - made a shift up in one or more area of the gloss test - 64%
• 5 students completed the whole test
• 8/28 students - went back in one or more areas of the gloss test - 29%
• Majority of those who went back were 'Above' standard in 2016

What did I get out of this?

• New groupings - special focus on extension students and those just below the standard.
• Sorting out my 'clean data' - Why the backwards shift? Lots of discussions with students why they think so - looking back at their last gloss test - generated good discussions.
• Identified small gaps that can be addressed using quick games rather than a whole class/whole week focus

Points of Interest:

• Parents interviews had parents questioning the transition to high school - areas of weakness for students moving from intermediate was the coverage of strand and science
• Focus of statistics in Term 2 - Maths vocabulary was an improvement. But no way of measuring how much they actually learnt 

 

Rotations and half time breaks

In response to student feedback about maths lessons being too long, I shared with my team and we discussed some of the things we had set in place in the beginning of this year. Having a look back on how my class has been set up for the last 5-6 weeks, I realised that some of the systems we had put in place weren't actually happening. Some things that have impacted this are GLOSS testing, 2nd year student teacher on full control and just the general busy schedule and change in timetable that comes with being in the senior block.

So to tackle this, I put back into place our rotations for maths groups. This ensured students are able experience different activities and not be stuck doing the same thing the entire maths block.

With maths being a 80-90minute block, each rotation would go for 20minutes and there would be a 10minute break in the middle for a quick maths game or quiz to break up the long block. In the 2 weeks we have been working with these rotations in place, I must say the classroom atmosphere has been more up-beat, more settled, and students actually looking forward to moving to different stations. 

My work as a teacher, has been to monitor what students actually get completed at each station. This has involved: 

• Showing their maths progress for maths whizz after every second day 
• Changing their topics for maths whiz each week
• Going onto their blogs to comment on completed slides
• Allowing time to show off progress stages for DLO
• Find engaging maths games (whole class games) to play during the break 

Refocusing my Inquiry

As inquiries go, it's an ongoing cycle/process. So this is the next phase of my CoL inquiry brought about by the changes and happenings in my class.

"What effect does 'student voice' have on accelerating student learning?"

This came about from my previous post about Student Voice. My thinking or hypothesis is that allowing students to have a voice empowers the learners. This in effect will boost their confidence or willingness to participate and engage in maths activities in class.

I will delve into more readings around student voice and report back.

Student Voice - What do they really think of maths?

Setting the scene: It's that time of year where reports are due and testing is coming to an end. As I sat there awaiting a response from my students Gloss test, I start pondering about what I can do with the new information. Where to next for my learners? As I discuss with each student how they did at the end of the test and what they can work on in class, I also start wondering - DO YOU EVEN LIKE MATHS?

So I thought back to my Achievement Challenge #4. Why is it that students make steady upward progress in maths from years 1 - 6 but when they get to Years 7 & 8, they tend to plateau or go backwards. Some of the theories that have been thrown around is the 'summer effect', but when you are half way through the year and students are still not showing progress you have to ask yourself why.

Right then and there I wrote down some of my own theories or hunches as to why students in Years 7&8 don't make as much progress as earlier on in their schooling years. I came up with 2 main hunches:

1. No Homework/ Home Learning  - I don't get the sense much school work is being done at home for students who take netbooks home.
2. Too hard - by the time they get to Years 7&8 the level of number knowledge needed increases along with the workload and if students were already behind, the gap widens and students lose interest because the work is just too hard.

Keeping this in mind I called my class to the mat 10minutes early. I had 3 questions for them and here are my findings.

Room 5 Maths Class - Student Responses - 24 Students - 9 Girls - 15 Boys
QUESTION	TOTAL		GIRLS	BOYS
1.Who enjoys maths?	14/24		7	7
2. Who does homework/home learning?	11/24		5	6

My last question was 'Why don't you like maths?' - Here are the responses from students:

• Too hard
• Boring
• Too long
• More sports programmes in senior block (busy schedules)
• Don't listen
• Not interesting

From this we managed to break it down to the 3 most popular ones and the whole class voted for which one suited them best.

      1. Too hard - 1 student

      2. Boring - 7 students (3 girls, 4 boys)

      3. Too long - 16 students

WOW! This was an eye opener for me because I quite like the long block in the middle for maths. It means we get more work done and I get to work with each group. But if this is how students are feeling, it's no wonder why they get sick of maths. I will definitely take this up with my team to see how their students feel and what 'we' as a team of teachers can do to change this mindset so students start enjoying maths more - and hopefully make progress!

Anne's A - Team!

Thursday evening we had our 2nd CoL meeting for the term. Our focus was on: Focussing Inquiry and Teaching Inquiry.

Anne Sinclair facilitated our discussion group and here are the points we had to share about.

Learn (Focusing Inquiry)

Share a brief reflection in response to your Focusing Inquiry

• What information, strategies, tools did you use to determine what your students have already learned and what they need to learn next? (3min)

As you share reference your blog and highlight how you have organised your evidence so that it is visible and accessible to your colleagues.

Create (Teaching Inquiry)

• Based on this evidence what are you planning to do differently as a teacher? What might you need help with? (3min)

It was awesome listening to others share about their inquiries because although we had a different focus (eg: accelerating levels in maths), we could still identify with others and their inquiry into reading difficulties for students because we had the same things happening in our own classes. 

Our "A-Team" came from what we shared for part B - what are we planning to do differently as a teacher. We had words such as Actor, Analyse, and Amalgamate.

My word was Auditory - I needed to listen more to students needs. Listen to them when they say why they don't want to do something and prompt students to share what would make them work better in maths. 

My next steps now would be to watch Dr Graeme Aitkins presentation to school leaders and see how I can implement some of this with the students in my class.