What did I plan to do?
My aim going into lockdown was to create culturally responsive, online learning opportunities utilising student's heritage languages. It was also to continue with the intensive oral language programme through high-interest topics outside of their daily worlds, hands-on experiences and exposing students to new vocabulary and using, and reusing this vocabulary.
What did I actually do?
- Sent home dual language books, a writing book and a pen.
- Created culturally responsive online learning activities to go with the dual language books.
- Created videos that took students outside of their daily lockdown worlds, using topics that were high interest. I knew my students loved learning about nature and our native creatures. I used these videos to introduce new vocabulary in context. I hoped they would then use these words in their writing.
- Used hands-on activities related to the text we were reading, I was aware from the last lockdown of the limited resources that our students have available at home. So I tried to think of activities that they would have resources for. I was also aware that these activities really worked for some of our students last time.
- Used google hangouts as an opportunity to get the students writing.
- Used a facebook post to encourage whānau to help their child to write a story and read a book each day.
How did I monitor my implementation and student progress?
It was harder to monitor the implementation of changes of practice and to know whether it has had an impact on learning. for the main two factors.
- A third of my students came to hangouts and it was difficult to know if the other students were engaging with the learning activities at home. I will have a clearer picture of the home learning that has taken place once we are back to school next week.
- I was difficult to see student's work as most have yet to master uploading learning to google drive.
However, here is a description of what I have noticed from my observations.
Different activities and learning resources appeal and are used by different students. What works for one family doesn't necessarily work for another. Having a range of learning opportunities, resources and multimodel options allows all students to access their learning in different ways. Having a writing book, pen and ready to read reading books including dual language books, in a learning pack meant that all families were able to connect to learning at home. The uptake of this we will find out next week when back at school. More of the students that connected were reading and writing each day using these resources than the first lockdown. Was this because I clearly set the expectation this time using my facebook message, and were having writing sessions each day online?
The writing response and quality of writing from the videos I made were fantastic. All students were able to write facts. They were writing with fluency and were able to clearly articulate what they wanted to write and had lots to say. The vocabulary they used was directly from the videos. This showed uptake of the new language.
Having whānau helping was really effective and a great way to build that home/school partnership and whānau involvement in their learning. Some whānau that were not connecting during the last lockdown were joining in every day this time. I want to put out a survey for parents to find out whānau voice and how they experienced online learning.
Student voice told me the hands-on activities were a hit with some students. It will be interesting to see learning outcomes next week when back at school, as I currently don't have work samples of this.
Below is a sample of an on-line writing session. It shows Cohen sounding out his words and the increased amount of writing these students have been doing, and the engagement of the students.
It was hard to monitor the effect of culturally responsive activities and resources. Return to school next week will hopefully give me a clearer picture of the effectiveness of this change of practice.
Next Steps:
- Send out a survey for whanau to record their experiences with on-line learning and to gain whānau voice regarding the effectiveness of my change of practice and how it impacted student learning at home.
- Gather and assess work samples from students returning to school to gain a better understanding of the impact of the implementation of changes of practice during the lockdown.
