Rewindable learning. Using digital technologies to teach writing.

Using a class site with Google slides where the students can visit the teaching point from home. This is absolutely valuable in the learning and teaching of writing. The slides are accessible at any time and this teaches the students while the teacher is not present for example from home.

Five principles in dialogic teaching

• Collective: Teachers and children address learning tasks together, either as a group or as a class. 
• Reciprocal: Teachers and children listen to each other, share ideas, and consider alternative viewpoints. 
• Supportive: Children articulate their ideas freely without fear of embarrassment over ‘wrong’ answers; children help each other reach common understandings. 
• Cumulative: Teachers and children build on their own and each other’s knowledge and experiences. 
• Purposeful: Teachers plan and facilitate dialogic teaching with particular educational goals.

Although the five principles were later reduced to three - collectivity, supportivity, and purposefulness, I am trialling the five in my classroom to encourage dialogical discussions.  

Reference: Alexander, R. (2006). Towards dialogic teaching (3rd ed.).

Research reading on dialogic discussions.

In my practice I have been working on encouraging the use of dialogic discussions in the classroom. In our classroom discussions there are always some students who are reluctant to question/challenge/ask or explore the thinking of others. 

Therefore I have decided I need to do more research into this notion of dialogic discussion. The more I am equipped with knowledge about dialogic discussions, the more I will be able to scaffold its use in my classroom. 

Here are some readings I have collected about the use of dialogic discussions. 

Bakker, Smit & Wegerif

• The term ‘‘dialogic teaching’’ is particularly associated with Alexander’s (2008) focus on talk between teachers and students in the classroom.
• Alexander grounds his approach to dialogue in Bakhtin often quoting the line ‘‘if an answer does not give rise to a new question from itself, it falls out of the dialogue’’ (Bakhtin, 1986, p. 168).
• Understanding of dialogue as a form of open ended shared inquiry.
• The aim of education is not only that the students will learn something that the teacher already knows but also that the students will learn how to ask open ques- tions and how to learn new things for themselves through engaging in dialogic inquiry.

LEHESVUORI, HÄHKIÖNIEMI, JOKIRANTA, NIEMINEN, HILTUNEN, VIIRI

• Dialogic argumentation requires that all participants have the opportunity to question, evaluate, and challenge ideas (Berland & McNeill, 2010, p. 781). This means that there should be space, both temporal and dialogical, in classroom discussions for students to bring forward their thoughts, ideas, and prior knowledge (Michaels, O’Connor, & Resnick, 2008). 
• In addition, the classroom’s dialogical culture should allow students to make mistakes without fear of being ridiculed or disregarded. 
• Fundamentally, dialogicity enables different and even diverging ideas to be welcomed into classroom discussions (Bakhtin, 1986).

The readings have provided me with the passion to pursue the research conducted into the use of dialogic discussions in the classroom. I will also use these readings to inform and strengthen my teaching practice and the use of dialogic discussions in Room 7. 

Student voice about their progress.

It is very important to collect the reflections of students in the process. The task was simply titled 'Me as a writer'. All but one student in the group was present for this activity. Reading through their response, I was filled with a lovely sense of pride for my group. They have all grown and progressed in so many ways. This growth was evident to me but I wondered if they too were aware of their growth.

Student 1	Being in the Ihimaera group I started to write more and being in that group has helped me make sense in my writing also in my confident by letting people read my writing. When people comment on my writing, it motivates me to write more.
Student 2	When I first moved to Ihimaera I was so happy to be in the group because I was with Mrs Tofa and I got more support from her. I learnt how to write more better than last year and how to use more vocabulary, similes and personification. I enjoy being in the group because it helps me work better and focus properly. Also being in the Ihimaera writing group it helped me build my confidence in writing and what I can do to make my writing more interesting for my audiences.
Student 3	When I was moved to Ihimaera I did more writing work and trying to achieve my goals. I have learnt heaps of things from my group. I learnt the words that I couldn’t say or understand. I learnt hard words and how to make it to have sense. I have learnt a lot from my group. Being in Ihimaera has helped me a lot by concentrating on work.
Student 4	I was put into Ihimaera I like doing my work. I've learnt more words from my group. Words I couldn't understand before. I get help from Mrs Tofa to teach me to be a confident writer.
Student 5	I perceive myself as a very confident writer. I believe that when I was put into Ihimaera writing group my achievement has moved up. Ihimaera is a strong group that gather heaps of learning. It seems like my audience are understanding the writing that I’m creating. I want my audience advice or feedback for my writing so I know what to do next time.
Student 6	I have gotten better in my writing since I was in IHIMAERA. I have improved in writing and getting more better at writing to an audience. I am getting good at writing more paragraphs.
Student 7	As a student  in the Ihimaera group I’ve learned so much about writing arguments, information reports and many more. I’m also getting better at trying to understand the meaning of the words. I am also good at writing more paragraphs including my sentences.  To me I sometimes enjoy writing on my own time and sometimes at school. What I want my audience to know is as soon as I share my work with them I want them to tell me what I’ve improved in my writing and what I did wrong.  I’m really proud of myself for trying hard in writing.

E Asttle assessment analysis

Data collection is vital as it is a measure of the progress of students. Our school conducts E Asttle writing assessments three times a year. The assessment helps with our teacher judgements as to where the students are with their writing levels. Other information we use for our teacher judgements are the writing work the students do in class as well as their understanding from group discussions. 

I have collected the assessment data from the Term 1 and Term 2 E Asttle assessments. I will analyse this information to plan for future teaching. I will look at the scores and identify if they have increased or decreased and reflect on why. The vital part of assessments is the teacher's use of the information. 

June student survey

The second survey shows a shift in student understanding about their audience and the the purpose of their writing. Through group discussions we have discussed the genre and the purpose of each genre. We have also discussed who our target audience is for every genre and they write.

It is pleasing to see a shift in their thinking. I feel there is still a long way to go in understanding the purpose of each genre and who their audiences are. There is also the issue of getting responses from their target audiences.

Moving forward:

• More discussions on the purpose of writing genre
• Identifying target audience
• Receiving feedback from audience

The three points above were gathered from my analysis of the second survey.

Poetry in motion

We have been writing poems and it has been a lot of excitement and frustrations for some of our writers. It is wonderful to hear the students in my target group questioning each other about the use of figurative devices in poetry such as similes, metaphors, personification and so forth. Words which they did not know much about before the start of this poetry unit. 

In trying to identify which language devices they are using in their poetry writing, we have started to use colour coding. It is a great way to annotate their poems and also challenge their thinking and re-crafting in writing. 

Below is a poem written by Student 3 which he has not completed yet but is looking very promising. His poem is about Planet Earth. 

Checkpoint. Taking a step back and thinking about where I am heading with my inquiry.

Reflect and ponder drawing

Critical thinking about our authentic audience.

I created a document where the students record who their target audience is and the rationale for choosing that audience. The document also has links to their writing for that particular genre. 

Reading the comments by the students highlighted the lack of authenticity for choosing their target audiences. I reflected on whether the writing tasks themselves are authentic enough for students to feel there should be a specific audience and a purpose to their writing. I am also reflecting on how I can make the writing tasks more interactive and fun for the students. 

Screen shot of what the document looks like.

Target audience rationale document

Response and feeling hopeful.

The student who sent their argument writing to the Prime Minister received an automated reply. Although it was an automated reply it still brought hope that there is the possibility the letter will be read by the Prime Minister herself. This is what its all about. Our group focus, my teaching as inquiry. Responses from our authentic audience. Watch this space!

Argument writing about the Fenchurch Liquor Store

After discussions all the students in the group identified who they were addressing their argument writing to. One of the students decided to send her argument writing to the Prime Minister of New Zealand RT Honourable Jacida Adern. When asked about the rationale behind the choice of audience the student replied they would like to hear the views of the government about the issue.

Here is the letter which was sent to the Prime Minister.

RT Honorable Jacinda Adern

New Zealand Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

My name is ____. I am from Glenbrae School which is a small school in Glen Innes. Our community is a small community. We have kindergartens, primary schools and colleges in our area. We have been writing argument writing and have decided to focus on an issue which is in our community. The issue is the liquor store which is very close to our school.

Liquor store sells and advertise alcohol. When we walk past the liquor store everyday, we see the signs advertising alcohol and some inappropriate images sometimes. It is not good for little children to be exposed to alcohol signs everyday. We also often find bottles in the footpath and sometimes bottles are smashed on our playground when we come to school after the weekend.

The liquor store is also close to the local college. Some of the college students are already 18 and can buy alcohol. While it is legal for them to buy alcohol, they should not be drinking while they are suppose to be focusing on school work. Some under 18 can even ask adults to buy alcohol for them which is not good.

Alcohol causes a lot of issues in the community such as fights, loud noises, car accidents and many more. The police will have to come and sort problems out with drunk people. Alcohol is not good for a community who are trying to live in peace and safety.

The alcohol store is also serving a lot of parents who would rather drink alcohol than buy food for their children. This is reality for many families in our community. The store is open to very late and the parents buy alcohol and would go and buy more when they run out because the store is so close to home.

Prime Minister would the government be able to help with this issue in our community? Some of our group members are writing to the owner himself to relocate his shop or turn the liquor store into another shop.

I hope you can offer some advice about this issue.

Kindest regards

Group teaching

As we are a Manaiakalani school our teaching approach involves the use of digital devices such as netbooks, Ipads and computers.  All students in Room 7 have netbooks. In my target group six of the students have a netbook of their own which they use while two use the class computer for their work. 

I use Google slides to upload student work. The students can access the slides from the class site. The use of the class site is valuable as the students are able to access their work from home or anywhere where they have access to the internet. 

Below is the slides for the Ihimaera group which displays the genres they  have been writing and what we have been discussing as a group in our group discussions. 

Inquiry focus

One of the points which was discussed in our first meetings with Mary was the response from students that no one other than their classroom teachers read their writing. I started to think and realised this is mainly true. The students have blogs where they post their work and writing but they seldom have viewers leaving comments. I also started to reflect on how I would feel as a writer if no one was reading my writing.

During my discussion with Mary to plan my teaching as inquiry, I shared with her my hunch which was 'the students will be motivated to write if there is an authentic audience and purpose to their writing'.

Therefor here is my focus question - Will students identifying an authentic audience engage them more in their writing?

There are several success criteria for my inquiry:

• One, the students will be motivated to write when there are people who will read their writing and give them feedback
• Two, there is a real purpose for their writing
• Three, they will be able to be receptive to feedback from others
• Four, they will enjoy writing and not view writing as a task they have to complete

Tapping into their thinking about Writing.

This is the first survey which the student filled about their understanding about the purpose of why they write, who they write for and who they would like to read their writing. It was interesting to see they only see the classroom teacher as the person who reads their writing. Another finding was their uncertainty about the purpose of writing. This survey identifies what I need to work on with the students. The main focus will be on identifying who their audiences are for their writing and also why they are writing.

Analysing Writing Achievement from 2017

What are factors which affect the writing of students? What accelerates writing achievements? What hinders writing achievements? Below is an analysis I filled out for Writing for the year 2017. I had identified in 2017 that one of the factors which hinders the writing achievement of students is the the reluctance of boys to write. This is one of the rationale for why I have a group which consists of mainly boys. 

Collaboration between the students and teachers is vital in the learning of students in any curriculum area. As we are a Manaiakalani school we are able to use technology to collaborate even when out of the classroom. One of my foci will be the ongoing giving of feedback and feedforward not only for myself but also for the students to each other. 

Teaching as Inquiry approach

This Teaching as Inquiry approach is what I will be using for my inquiry. It is more structured and gives more direction as I am needing support in starting my inquiry. I have selected my student group which is a mixed ability group. The writing abilities of the students are different. In this inquiry my goal is for every student to accelerate in their writing achievement. The group of eight consists of seven boys and one girl. My first task is to collect information about my learners. This will be done in a survey. Knowing the learner is a vital aspect of teaching. Knowing the students' goals and aspirations will influence the teacher to strive for success. 

What I have done so far:

Chosen my target group

Next step:

Gather information about the students.

Embarking on a learning journey.

As a teacher one is always reflective of one's practice. Putting theory into practice and implementing changes after gathering evidence from observations and student work samples. This year our staff are focussing on Writing for our Teaching as Inquiry. We are working with our facilitator Mary Wootton to identify how we can accelerate student writing.

The Manaiakalani process of teaching as inquiry is in the image attached to this post. We will gather evidence, identify trends, hypothesise and use research to justify our actions. We will also use research to conduct professional learning discussions.

As I embark on this journey I am excited and eager inquire into my practice, record and share my findings with my colleagues and students.