Making learning rewindable through digital affordances

As my inquiry is coming towards our end of Term 1 check point, I have practiced using more digital affordances to support the "Learn, Create and Share" in maths. Initially my understanding of this was very narrow/ black and white and thought that it excluded using pen and paper for maths. I felt constrained to thinking only towards "Teaching above the line". This is referring back to Dr Reuben Puentedura's SAMR model shown below. Teaching above the line looked at the second picture shown below.

  

This lead me to have discussions with my peers. In this example of students in groups "learning, creating and sharing" you will see the use of hard materials to learn and share understanding. Digital affordances such as videos showing tutorials, and learning made rewindable through presentations are integral supports to our learn, create and share practice.

In guiding my students towards a learning goal together with trying to accelerate the rate in which they are learning, I have found that hard materials, captured digitally by students through photos and videos, shared digitally empowers the learner. It empowers them in that they can rewind and reflect on their learning well after small group work including hours outside 9am - 3pm.

So check out some of our learners in Room 5. Here are Tape Measures group mapping out their thinking using pen and paper. Now it's also part of their learning, made rewindable on our class site. The engagement levels and progress made were sky high!! 

Number knowledge framework - PD

Last weeks Maths PD by Jo Knox linked really well to what I am inquiring into in my CoL inquiry. To recap - my inquiry is looking into whether providing class time to learn and practice new knowledge will help students pick up/acquire the strategies faster. What I have tried to observe and look into while doing this inquiry is what barriers are preventing students from acquiring the necessary knowledge as they progress through their schooling years to reach us at Year 7&8.

Jo Knox clarified the progressive stages of development in number for our whole staff. This proved really useful especially when teachers are so used to just sticking to their area/stage they teach most of at their year level.

One of the main points I took out of the PD was clarity around stages 4, 5 and 6 and what it looks like. Jo presented this by showing a question and prompting us to think what would kids do if they were at stage 4, 5 & stage 6. What would it look like and what knowledge they need to know next in order to learn the next strategy.

Here are Jo Knox's slides which were very useful and can be used again and again to refresh and clarify what we are teaching our students.

CoL inquiry update - 3 weeks in...

The current vibe in my maths class at the moment is great! Students are eager to learn and looking around at other groups wondering when they'll get a chance to move up to the next activity. With our focus being on number knowledge, students are starting to pick up on the purpose for each activity they are taking part in. The realisation that the games are not just for fun but for the purpose of learning their place values or fractions.

After meeting with our CoL group last Thursday, I've managed to clarify in my head where I want my inquiry to go. Here is my slide I presented to my CoL group. 

Although my question is looking at measuring how much knowledge students do pick up, as a side note, I will also be observing and making notes on 'barriers'.
What barriers are preventing students from picking up the knowledge as they move through school. 
For the time being, I will be using my observations notes in class as a means of collecting data/evidence for this. This will help my address my actual inquiry question and finding new ways to accelerate learning for my priority students.

According to the Manaiakalani Teachers inquire into the CoL achievement challenges matrix, my inquiry question will be addressing: 'Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10, in maths, as measured against the National Standards and agreed targets.

So 3 weeks into the start of my inquiry, and I can already see students developing an awareness to the knowledge they need to have, in order to understand the strategies taught at the next level. My next steps will be measuring how effective it has been. Has there been any acceleration? how much? how do you know?

I look forward to what the next 3 weeks show up!

Inquiry Clarification

Inquiry focus: "Will devoting more time to number knowledge, accelerate the rate in which students pick up strategies and mathematical concepts?"

Reasons: My reasons for choosing this focus was based on students IKAN test results. Students end of 2016 reports put their GLOSS stages at sitting 'AT' the national standard (stages 6-7). But when students sat the IKAN test at the start of 2017, their results were coming out at stages 4-5. This put their number knowledge well below the standard. The 2 main areas across the Y7&8 block where they showed weakness was in place value and fractions.

Hypothesis: My hypothesis is, if I devote more class time to actually learning and practicing place value and fractions, the gaps students had in their learning will be filled and they would be able to make greater gains not only in number but also in understanding strategies and mathematical concepts.

Inquiry 2017 - Accelerating learning for our priority learners

Kicking off our inquiry for 2017, many of us teachers are eager to make a difference in shifting student data out of the below and well below category. But how? What can I as a teacher do to help? How can I change my teaching to cater for them? What is a priority learner? - How do I identify them? Where do we start?

Here is my starting point for my inquiry for 2017. Priority learners - Who are they? and what makes them a priority? I have identified my priority learners as that group of students who are sitting 'just' below the National Standard. I've identified these as my 'priority learners' because they have the best chance, with particular focus at filling the gaps, of achieving the standard. 

Having identified who my priority learners are, now I needed to decide what to do with them. Our school wide focus for inquiry is around mathematics. So looking at student data from 2016, I've identified a group of students who are 'AT' for addition/subtraction and multiplication/division, but are just below standard for ratio/proportions. My thinking is, if I target the learning needs of these students, the rest of the students who surround them in their groups (and will be getting the same targeted teaching/learning) will benefit from it too and therefore (hopefully) make a shift in their learning too!

Now I've reached the stage where I look at my own teaching, and inquiry into what approach I take with this group of learners that will accelerate their learning so they make more than a years progress within a normal schooling year. 

This is what I have come up with:

"Will devoting more time to number knowledge, accelerate the rate in which students pick up strategies and mathematical concepts?"

I have identified 2 areas already, based on the results from students IKAN test. Areas of concern are their place value knowledge and fractions. 

This year I have also picked up a new role as a CoL (Community of Learners) within schools. As part of my role along with "teaching as inquiry" I am also looking into what digital affordances we can provide for students which can't be done without chromebooks. 

So along with my inquiry into maths - targeting number knowledge, I also want to create activities which involve our "Learn, Create, Share" model rather than substituting activities which students can still do without the use of a chromebook.

It is no small feat what we are trying to do, but as I delve more into my inquiry and start putting things in place, I hope to update you with positive progress during this process. So watch this space!!

Teaching as Inquiry 2017

“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”

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

In 2017 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge: 

#4. Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10,  in maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets. My focus question is:

How can I accelerate students learning in maths through the teaching of number knowledge within a Learn, Create, Share pedagogy? 

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 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.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,

 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,

SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:

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

WHAKATAUKI - "Living local, learning global"

Manaiakalani Orientation Day 2017 - Learnt heaps more second time round and this would be my little gem (amongst many) that I really loved from today. "Living local, learning global" Anyone of our tamariki here in our cluster learning, creating and sharing their work around the world. How cool is that?! Great start to 2017!