TAI2020 Tools, Measures And Approaches Used In My Teaching As Inquiry

This blog post identifies the tools, measures and approaches used In my inquiry to gain a detailed profile of student achievement.

How am I going to get an accurate profile of students' learning in relation to the challenge?

I will be using the combi list developed by Dr Jannie Van Hees to measure language development factors of all students within my class and a focus group from the other 3 junior classes. This assessment tool measures factors important in language development using the scale of Yes/Sometimes/No.  
The tool measures

• Willingness to communicate
• Communication with teacher/adults
• Participation in discourse
• Contribution to the discussion or discourse
• Benefits from feedback

Initially, I was going to gather data at the end of Term 1 however, because of lockdown I will now collect data term two. this will give me data collection points evenly spaced out over the two years.

I will also use running record data to show student achievement in reading. This will also be taken in Term 2. running record data over time shows the rate of progress as well as shows oral reading accuracy, analysis of errors made and reading comprehension. However, for the purpose of this specific data gathering, I will focus on the rate of progress over time.

PELP data was helpful to see the growth in language development in both first language and English, although this is time-consuming to do across the whole school I will do it within my class and like the combi list, for the target students in the other junior classes. I will gain data in the number of words spoken in heritage language and English to see if teaching in culturally responsive ways has an impact on language development.

All the above assessments will have to be put on hold during the lockdown. Although initially disappointed that I am unable to collect this data at present during the lockdown. As mentioned above, collecting it Term 2 will show data collection at evenly spaced out intervals. Data points over the two year period will thereby be Term 2 2019, Term 4 2019, Term 2 2020 and Term 4 2020.

One source of data that I can collect from some students at present is student voice. Some of my students with low oral language levels are not connecting but I am going to take this opportunity to gain student voice from those students that are. It will also be a great opportunity to gain whanau voice as well.

Why do I choose these approaches?

I'm choosing these approaches to show patterns of achievement and effects of changes of practice over a period of two years. Consistency in data gathering will hopefully give me an understanding of the effectiveness of my change in practice, however, a change I want to make this year to my inquiry is sampling throughout Term 2 and 3 to see if desired change is happening. If it isn't then I can fail fast and change what I am doing.