How I will use the data

TAI 2020 WFRC #6: How I will use the data...

Explain how some of the data you have used to build a profile of the students’ learning will be used as baseline data at the end of the year.

In my data gathering process, the pieces of data which gave me greatest insight to student learning and behaviours around mathematics was the analysis of blog posts. Although it didn't give me precise levels in terms of data, it did leave a gap as to where all their learning for the term/year goes. The lack of blog posts followed up by the student survey as to why there were so few blogs about their maths learning revealed these things:

• Students did not feel the same expectation (flow, cycle of learning - Learn, Create, Share) that they felt in literacy. Therefore this resulted in maths work left sitting in their drive.
• Similar to this, students felt maths did not follow a certain routine everyday. Some days you had hands on learning with materials, some you worked independently on slides and some you were with the teacher a lot of the time doing group work on modelling paper. 

So how do I plan on using the data I've collected?

1. Analysing students PAT test scores will help target certain questions/areas in maths majority of students are getting wrong. 11 students from my target got less than 10 of the 41 questions in the PAT test. This can attended to looking at the common areas to focus teaching.

2. Student voice surveys keep me informed about the changes taking place and also how students feel about the learning and changes taking place. This is given anonymously so students feel more confident sharing their true feelings about maths.

3. Blog post analysis. This data has definitely been an eye opener for me as a teacher and will structure my maths program to allow time at the end to talk about and share their learning for the day/week. 

At the end of the year, it will be great to see if there is shift in the number of questions students are getting correct, therefore their scale scores and stanines will also increase. For our student voice surveys, what I'll be looking for is that students are becoming more aware of just what they are learning about in maths and also have an opinion/preference for the style of learning which will enable them to learn better. My hope is that this will come out in the student voice surveys carried out throughout the year. Blog posts should see a climb in the number of maths blog posts going up. From here, we can then focus on the quality of blog posts and the task description explaining their learning for the week.

Nature and Extent of Student Challenge Part 1

TAI 2020 WFRC #5: Nature and Extent of the Student Challenge...

Share your findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding.

The challenge for my students this year is to make accelerated progress in Maths. 

One of the ways I planned on keeping track of students was through their maths blog. Because of Covid-19 and lockdown, this messes up our data a bit so I feel the need to first off compare students blog posts data pre and post Covid. This looked at how often students posted their maths work up onto their blogs in Term 1 (Pre Covid) and Term 2 (Distance Learning). Along with this data, we also need to take into account the number of times students actually tuned in to distance learning by turning up to our Google Meets twice a day. That is at least 1 maths meet a day = 12 Google meets for the 5 weeks of distance learning. 

Here is the data comparing Term 1 Maths Blog Posts and Term 2 Maths Blog Posts.

This made me look closer at why students hadn't put as many maths work on their blogs. Whether it was time restraints or not doing the work. What this did point out for me, was that I wasn't seeing enough of my students completed work than I should. Group work was about as far as I got in terms checking in on students learning. When you crunch the numbers, theres are 10 weeks in a term. There is at least 1 set of slides which houses students learning tasks for each week. When they are working with the teacher, they normally have a modelling book they are working in. The expectation was that they are taking a photo of this and posting it on their blogs in order to explain what their learning was about for that day.
The above data clearly shows this was not happening before and after Covid.
Student P is a regular blogger and this is shown in the stats. However, Student A, E, K and V have no blog posts related to maths for the first half of this year. I am sitting here right now asking how can that be? what have they been doing in class each day? There is no record on their blogs of the learning which took place. A big eye opener and one I will be addressing straight away.

Although this wasn't the actual challenge my students faced, this is definitely a wake up call for myself and my students and make this change straight away.
I'll have another Part 2 to this post to address the 'challenge' part of this more.

Why is it catalytic?

Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year (In chemistry, a catalytic substance is one which increases the rate of reaction, but it also offers an alternate path for the reaction to follow).

My previous post shared anecdotal notes and levels from past years for my target students. I feel this gives insight into how 'stuck' these students have been throughout their years up to Years 7 & 8. This chart is a quick summary of where they are now in Term 1 of 2019.

Reading mileage and vocabulary acquisition through the scaffolding of different strategies such as the TESOL strategies. This is what I judge to be the most catalytic issue of learning for this group of students. There are 3 Y8 students and 5 Y7 students.

I believe that unlocking this catalytic issue would open learners capabilities towards accessing the wider curriculum. It would also set them up towards coping with learning in high school.

Why I've selected this challenge

Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning. Locate your inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.

My inquiry has been selected from the Woolf Fisher research findings shared with our Manaiakalani Cluster in February of this year.

The above is our cluster data for the PAT Reading Mean Scale Score by Year levels and ethnicity. The 4th and 5th box relate to my Year 7 & 8 students and more specifically the Maori and Pasifika students who are my target group. (Yellow and light blue line)

A closer inspection would be this graph looking at our Pt England School data for reading.

To help me get to know my learners better, and get a picture of just how much (or little) progress they've made throughout their schooling years here at Pt England, I took a look through their black folders. Here are some of the things I found of interest and may help me in understanding exactly what in their learning these students are "stuck" with.

Of these 8 students, 3 are off to College next year. THIS is why I've selected this challenge. What can I do to help these students cope with the work load, general learning, and expectations of College. What skills, strategies can they take with them to help them be independent learners?

CoL inquiry - LEARN checklist

During our first CoL meeting for Term 2 we were introduced to a new Inquiry Framework. It followed our Learn, Create, Share pedagogy and so I have made a summary page for the 'Learn' part and matched it up with my inquiry posts in Term 1. This is focussing the inquiry - "What is important? (and therefore worth spending time on) given where my students are at?"

As you can see, one of the areas I need to work on is 'Scan' - what outside factors are contributing to students not being able to retain number knowledge well in their heads.

This term, I will looking at the 'Share' part of our framework.

Gather evidence	Student achievement data eg. standardised tests, OTJs, internals and externals Anecdotal evidence eg. observations, formative assessment tasks, student voice,  parent voice, previous teachers, surveys,  learning walks and reciprocal visits	Accelerating Learning for our priority learners CoL inquiry - 3 weeks in Making learning rewindable through digital affordances End of Term 1 - Inquiry Reflection
Scan	Wider perspective on learning not just aspects that are easily measured eg considering perspectives of our young people and their whānau. How engaged are they with learning? Can they describe what they are learning and why it is important?  (AfL) Links to Key Competencies
Identify Trends	Looking at all the evidence, thinking hard about its “shape”. Noticing where there are cohort trends that extend out beyond the class, to the team or department, maybe even for this school across schools in the CoL Clearly identifying the common learning challenges or problems. Looking for and identifying strategies that are known to have the greatest impact on on this/these challenges	Accelerating Learning for our priority learners CoL inquiry - 3 weeks in End of Term 1 - Inquiry Reflection
Hypothesise	Analysis and interpretation often take place in the mind of the teacher, who then uses the insights gained to shape their actions as they continue to work with their students. These theories for improvement should connect with the inquiries related to the Achievement Challenge of the Department/Team, the School and the CoL.	Accelerating Learning for our priority learners
Research	“This involves asking questions about how well current strategies are working and whether others might be more successful. Teachers search their own and their colleagues’ past practice for strategies that may be more effective, and they also look in the research literature to see what has worked in other contexts.”	Number Knowledge framework - PD Making learning rewindable through digital affordances
Reflect	“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry	End of Term 1 - Inquiry Reflection CoL Inquiry - Term 1 highlights

End of Term 1 - Inquiry reflection

Yesterdays staff meeting was really useful as we got to share and listen to each other reflect on our inquiry so far this term. Our talking points were to share what worked, what didn't work, and what changes will we make or where to next.


My presentation I shared with my group looked at how my focus question kept changing slightly as the term progressed as I realised my question could be answered with a yes or no. 

What I wanted to find out was by providing class time for number knowledge practice, will students be able to pick up strategies faster, and therefore accelerating their learning.

As my students carried this out in their rotations throughout the term I took note of what worked and what lessons didn't work. I had to ensure I had materials on hand for my lower groups to manipulate and record their learning as they talked about it. Scrap paper was also essential as students needed to map out their thinking when it came to fractions by drawing fractions using pictures and numbers and trying out different ways. 

Our main focus for number knowledge according to our IKAN data was our fractions and place values. So we conducted a post test to see if my priority students made any improvement from February. 

Data Analysis:
Fractions - Out of the 6 students (3 boys & 3 girls)

• 2 boys & 2 girls moved up a stage

• 1 boy & 1 girl stayed the same

• 4 students on stage 5, 2 on stage 4

Place Value - 

• 1 boy & 2 girls shifted up 1 stage

• 2 boys & 1 girl stayed the same

• most stuck at stage 5 for place value knowledge

• 4 students on stage 5, 2 on stage 4

Conclusion: Although I still had some students who stayed the same, I know for a fact from the way they talk about their learning that students have a much clearer understanding about what fractions and place value are and their knowledge around whole numbers and decimals has improved. 

The last slide of my presentation has more of my observations. One interesting point I did note was how we discussed place value in class - talking about place value columns and houses, but how they are presented to them on the IKAN test is slightly different. So we will aim to change the way we present these to students so they are using the same language and questions as testing situations.

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