Saturday, October 19, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
CoL: Checking In - How is our collaborative approach to teaching as inquiry going? Is our shared vision clear?
One of the key aspects of my with CoL Inquiry was to take a collaborative approach. Instead of inquiring solely my own change of practice I wanted to take this further by hopefully creating effective change across the whole of our Junior school. I have therefore been taking my team with me on the journey of inquiry, together we have been implementing new pedagogy learned from working with the PELP (Pasifika early Literacy Programme) and Jannie Van Hees to develop an intensive oral language acquisition programme.
It is easy to make assumptions that everyone is on the same page and we all have a shared understanding but is that really the case? Also what changes can we make so that we are effectively working together to create change that will best develop our student's oral language?
I created a Google Form to gain a better understanding of how we are going.
Here are the responses:
What is your understanding of the 'why' behind our PELP project? Why are we doing this?
To use heritage languages as a tool to accelerate learning. Realising first languages are a powerful tool - an advantage rather than a hindrance.
The school has encouraged us to take part in this programme. The workshops and whanau meetings that we have already had have definitely proved the significance of recognition of the children's family first language in their learning. Coming from a culture and language other than English myself, I know how valuable it is to be able to communicate in more than one language both verbally and in writing. Though we are still fresh in this learning process and just trying it out, I can see how significantly it is increasing children's confidence in their learning. It is giving them a sense of belonging, courage and joy as well as leadership in leading others including their own teacher.
My understanding of PELP is that it will increase the engagement of students with their own language in school.
To utilise students first language and culture within the classroom and encouraging parents to share stories language and culture with their children at home. We are doing this to raise Pasifika student achievement through teaching in culturally responsive practices.
What is your understanding of the 'why' behind our Intensive Oral Language Acquisition project? Why are we doing this?
To aid literacy and vocabulary development.
Oral language or speaking is the main key to read and write. It has been identified in our school that students are making slower progress than expected in reading and writing. We know how important the early years are in building the foundation for learning in any curriculum areas. So I believe that our students in the first couple of years at school need to be exposed to a very rich oral language and vocabularies to support them in expressing themselves orally first and then gaining fluency in reading and writing. However, it is quite challenging to implement a fully intensive oral language approach considering our ratio as well as other curriculum requirements to be met. Yet, it is very valuable if we can manage to implement it holistically across all our teaching blocks.
Our students will benefit with more oral language being introduced into the classroom. This will, in turn, help them with their writing and reading.
To build our students oral language through creating an intensive oral language programme. Our students come to school with extremely low oral language.
What changes could we make to our collaborative approach to teaching as inquiry so we are effectively working together towards a shared vision of raising student's oral language?
None - all is well
May be to set a goal as a team to implement some specific teaching ideas and strategies within a set timeframe; share ideas and plan, seek for help from one another, share our attempts, celebrations and challenges and give feedback.
By incorporating more intensive oral language into all subject areas we will enhance the children's abilities. A collaborative approach to this in the subject areas e.g. topic - living/non-living, will enable us to work together to help our children develop in all areas.
Sharing our inquiry with the whole school.
I normally find it hard to refer back to our Teaching as Inquiry doc to add onto it. I'm sure we all take part in implementing the ideas we have discussed. However, it is challenging to manage time to update the notes and findings on the doc. Yet, I am very happy that we are doing this together as a team as it motivates us to keep going.
Reflection: So what does this tell me? And how can I tweak what I'm doing to make our collaborative approach to teaching as inquiry more effective?
It is easy to make assumptions that everyone is on the same page and we all have a shared understanding but is that really the case? Also what changes can we make so that we are effectively working together to create change that will best develop our student's oral language?
I created a Google Form to gain a better understanding of how we are going.
Here are the responses:
What is your understanding of the 'why' behind our PELP project? Why are we doing this?
To use heritage languages as a tool to accelerate learning. Realising first languages are a powerful tool - an advantage rather than a hindrance.
The school has encouraged us to take part in this programme. The workshops and whanau meetings that we have already had have definitely proved the significance of recognition of the children's family first language in their learning. Coming from a culture and language other than English myself, I know how valuable it is to be able to communicate in more than one language both verbally and in writing. Though we are still fresh in this learning process and just trying it out, I can see how significantly it is increasing children's confidence in their learning. It is giving them a sense of belonging, courage and joy as well as leadership in leading others including their own teacher.
My understanding of PELP is that it will increase the engagement of students with their own language in school.
To utilise students first language and culture within the classroom and encouraging parents to share stories language and culture with their children at home. We are doing this to raise Pasifika student achievement through teaching in culturally responsive practices.
What is your understanding of the 'why' behind our Intensive Oral Language Acquisition project? Why are we doing this?
To aid literacy and vocabulary development.
Oral language or speaking is the main key to read and write. It has been identified in our school that students are making slower progress than expected in reading and writing. We know how important the early years are in building the foundation for learning in any curriculum areas. So I believe that our students in the first couple of years at school need to be exposed to a very rich oral language and vocabularies to support them in expressing themselves orally first and then gaining fluency in reading and writing. However, it is quite challenging to implement a fully intensive oral language approach considering our ratio as well as other curriculum requirements to be met. Yet, it is very valuable if we can manage to implement it holistically across all our teaching blocks.
Our students will benefit with more oral language being introduced into the classroom. This will, in turn, help them with their writing and reading.
To build our students oral language through creating an intensive oral language programme. Our students come to school with extremely low oral language.
What changes could we make to our collaborative approach to teaching as inquiry so we are effectively working together towards a shared vision of raising student's oral language?
None - all is well
May be to set a goal as a team to implement some specific teaching ideas and strategies within a set timeframe; share ideas and plan, seek for help from one another, share our attempts, celebrations and challenges and give feedback.
By incorporating more intensive oral language into all subject areas we will enhance the children's abilities. A collaborative approach to this in the subject areas e.g. topic - living/non-living, will enable us to work together to help our children develop in all areas.
Sharing our inquiry with the whole school.
I normally find it hard to refer back to our Teaching as Inquiry doc to add onto it. I'm sure we all take part in implementing the ideas we have discussed. However, it is challenging to manage time to update the notes and findings on the doc. Yet, I am very happy that we are doing this together as a team as it motivates us to keep going.
Reflection: So what does this tell me? And how can I tweak what I'm doing to make our collaborative approach to teaching as inquiry more effective?
- The team has a clear understanding of the 'why' behind the new pedagogy. They see the vision and feel it is important. This is exciting!
- Acting on this response 'set a goal as a team to implement some specific teaching ideas and strategies within a set timeframe; share ideas and plan, seek for help from one another, share our attempts, celebrations and challenges and give feedback.' Making this more specific, we should be talking the walk. I love this response as it challenged my assumptions that this is something we were already doing.
- We can share what we have been doing with the rest of the school through a staff meeting.
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