My Teaching as Inquiry focus for 2022

As mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to focus on the HLP (High Leverage Practices) in mentoring my sample group for my TAI this year. However, I have been doing quite a bit of research and have decided that the Reading Planning Fala encompasses the HLPs as well as the digital affordances. Therefore, my hypothesise is:

Will working collaboratively with a group of teachers to plan a reading programme using the Reading Planning Fala, CHANGE the practice of these teachers and lead to acceleration in reading for their target students?

Manaiakalani Effective Reading Practices Survey (2022). Analysis of teacher responses by N. Rosedale (Literacy Facilitator) for the Reading Design Group.

"This model was developed this year bringing together elements of the Manaiakalani pedagogy, high leverage practises and digital affordances and has informed the observations, questionnaires and these recommendations" (Manaiakalani Wananga 2021).

This week, our staff are planning for learning for Term 3. It is a great time to kick start my TAI by looking at how we plan for our reading programme using the Reading Planning Fala. 

I have printed off copies of the fala for each group member to go over before we meet as a team. I believe the teachers in my sample group have not seen the Reading Planning fala before so a lot of talanoa will be done before we start to incorporate the fala in our planning.

In our team meetings, I have an allocated time to support our team with their TAI and also discuss what is happening with my own. I also do in class observations and in class support for teachers during their literacy programmes. There are many opportunities to give support but I know the planning aspect of the teaching must be done well and explicitly for the teaching to be effective. 

Therefore, my big focus for the rest of this term is to support my sample group with their planning using the Reading Planning Fala.

 I believe the key word is CHANGE. We hear time and time again that a TAI is where we look at changing an aspect of our teaching to see if it will accelerate the learning of our students. We can't expect change in the learning of our students unless we as teachers make a change. Often, we might be comfortable with what we are planning for learning for different reasons such as: we are used to this way of teaching, It has worked before, the resources are already in our drives so just re use...But the fact remains, reading is an area where our students are not accelerating. 

I am looking forward to this year's TAI. Term 3 will be the implementation term. I do hope by Term 4 we will see a shift in the reading data for the target students for my sample group of teachers.

Supporting our staff with Teaching as Inquiry

These slides were created to support our staff with their Teaching as Inquiry. It is a step by step process which our teachers can follow along with discussions with our professional leaders and team members. 

If you have any suggestions for me regarding these slides, please put them in the comments. I am also happy to share the presentation with you to use in your practice. (Hello blog viewer, I am referring to you).

The Teaching as Inquiry process represented here is from the Woolf Fisher Research Team (WFRC) and the work they do for The Manaiakalani Programme (TMP). 

Quote from here https://assessment.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-Inquiry/Teaching-as-Inquiry-examples-of-practice

If you would like to find some resources for Teaching as Inquiry from TKI you can find them on this link Teaching as Inquiry – practical tools for teachers

Manaiakalani Create Staff Meeting

Yesterday, I had the privilege of hosting a create workshop for our Manaiakalani Create Staff Meeting. My session was on Smartphone Photography. 

It was quite interesting to learn that in the 1970s, New Zealand was leading the world in literacy and that was a time when The Arts was heavily incorporated in the curriculum especially at primary school level. Just last week, I was sharing with my school team that the Create part of the Manaiakani kaupapa is often overlooked and not given a lot of attention to when planning for student learning. I shared that the Create should have sufficient time for students to plan and create to show what they have learnt in their learning. It is also a great opportunity for our talented students to showcase their confidence and creativity. Every year, we have the Manaiakalani Film Festival. It is an absolute testament of how confident and talented our students are. 

Going, through the shared photo album from yesterday's create meeting, I could see teachers taking part in different activities, getting their hands dirty, smiles on their faces and I even saw some posts on some of my colleague's social media pages of them showing off what they did yesterday. A colleague of mine who car pooled with me yesterday was also feeling sick and was reluctant to go but at the end of the two sessions she attended, she said she had quite a lot of fun and glad she went. 

NOW, bringing this into our practice. If our students are getting involved in being creative, collaborating with their peers they too would have the awesome feeling we had yesterday after our create meeting.  

Spoilt with resources

This blog post title as interesting as it is reflects how I feel after gathering materials for a presentation I presented to our teaching team today. 

I have been thinking of focussing my TAI on coaching/mentoring my sample group to plan reading programmes focussed on using the High Leverage Practices. However, in conversations with Naomi Rosedale, she shared that the Designing Learning with the End in Mind Model was created to incorporate the High Leverage Practices as well as the digital affordance. BINGO! I THINK I have found what I want to focus on, for my TAI. 

In searching through the resources shared from Manaiakalani PLGs, Wananga days and Data Sharing days, I am just so grateful for all the resources we have. I feel we are blessed with so much that we can use in our teaching. Accessibility at its finest. So many presentations with such valuable information. Well informed and presented information at that too. 

Designing Learning with the End in Mind Model

When looking at the model above, these are the aspects of a reading programme which I want to work on with my sample group. I believe the model above, will enable teachers to incorporate highly effective teaching practices while utilising the digital tools available to us.

I have yet to frame my question but at least I know the main focus of my inquiry now. Using the Designing Learning with the End in Mind Model to create a reading programme for my sample group.

Here are the resources I put together for my presentation today. Again highlighting the wealth of information, research, resources available to us in the Manaiakalani cluster. Aren't we so lucky?

Gathering information from the practice of the teachers in my sample group

I have started observing the teachers in my sample group. I used Manaiakalani observation tool for leaders and teachers to for my observations. After each observation, I met with the teachers to go over their lesson and identify areas of strength and focus areas where I can be of support. 

The observation tools looks at how the HLPs are implemented in the reading lessons. 

• Ambitious outcomes for all
• Eyes on text
• Language and vocabulary development {KC - language, texts and symbols}
• High-level discussions {KC - participating and contributing} 
• Transforming and transference of knowledge through creation
• Making thinking visible {KC - thinking}

In doing these observations, I am gathering information and evidence of the reading programmes in the classrooms, the teachers role in the lessons as well as the students. I feel it is very important to gather this information now as it will also serve as my baseline data before the implementation of my teaching as inquiry in working with my sample group.

The teachers in my target group have identified their target learners for their own Teaching as Inquiry. I will also collect student voice from these students as part of my Teaching as Inquiry. I believe student voice is vital to the Teaching as Inquiry as they are the recipients of what we are planning to change in our practice. 

With the two teachers I observed this week, I have identified that there are differences in how reading programmes as implemented in their classrooms. A next step for my sample group and I are to sit down together and identify what we believe should be in a reading programme from our knowledge, experience and also from research as well as the resources provided from the WFRC. 

There are so many aspects of my Teaching as Inquiry which I am working through at the moment. Being a part of the Reading Design Group, I am also working on materials for Reading Programme which will be launched in the Manaiakalani cluster and our Outreach Clusters. I will be implementing my learning and resources I am gathering from the Reading Design Group for my Teaching as Inquiry.

I currently feel like my Teaching as Inquiry is at so many places. I suppose it is part of the process as there are many aspects of this Teaching as Inquiry I want to look into. For the moment, my focus is on gathering my baseline data from the teachers in my sample group.