Learning About The Water Cycle

When asked the question where does rain come from the only answer my students could give me was that it came from God or "I don't know", with a shrug of their shoulders.

Their amazement during our first activity of simply painting water pictures on the concrete and watching the water evaporate showed that this was a new experience and something they hadn't thought of. Because previous to the experiment we had talked about the sun heating up water and evaporating it, this language transferred easily. 

"Look the water is evaporating...it's going up to the clouds!"

Such simple everyday phenomena brought such amazement and when given the words my students could put these words to an experience that although they had witnessed many times before had never contemplated or understood. 

The second activity we learned about condensation by making a water cycle in a bag. Here the students could see the condensation on the side of the bag as the water heated up and then turned to water vapour and then cooled. We made lots of connections to steam around their house and why the mirror was wet after a shower. We gifted and gifted and gifted more vocabulary!

The third activity was creating a cloud in a jar to show what happens when clouds become heavy with water droplets. This was incredibly exciting and a great way for the students to see what happens. Explaining what words mean is a norm within our classroom therefore if the students didn't know what a word I used meant they would ask. I would take my time to explain the word sometimes using pictures, diagrams as I talked or role play.

The last activity was creating a water filter to understand what happens to water as it runs off the land into our streams and lakes. They were then able to make connections to our drinking water and water conservation that we had touched on earlier on in the year. 

The discussions and writing that resulted from this topic were incredible. All students understood the basics of the water cycle and concepts of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. They loved using the terms and extremely easily explained how their water filters worked.

To collect comparative data I compared an EASTTle writing sample recounting doing one of the experiments to writing about something they did in the weekend. Nearly all the students in my class wrote better quality recounts about doing the experiments than their weekend experiences (bearing in mind it was Halloween). In particular, the organisation of their writing and ideas noticeably improved. I feel this is because they had a lot to say and their ideas flowed naturally in a clear sequence. 

Earlier in the year many of my students struggled to put anything onto paper so this change is huge.

I also believe that these concepts and experiences are now able to be built on throughout their schooling. When my students come across content related to water they will be able to draw on these experiences and have the foundational knowledge that can be built upon. We may not see the benefits of building oral language now but I believe that results will be seen further in their schooling.

Evidence of Student Achievement

In the water cycle, the sun heats the water to do evaporation. It goes up to the cloud to be condensation and if the cloud gets too much water it's going to rain. That's called precipitation. 

By Elijah

The Unit Plan

Learning Vocabulary Through Creating A Beebot World

Below is an example of the two-week topic that I used with my class. 

As I worked through the unit my focus was on vocabulary and giving multiple opportunities for students to use and reuse through hands-on experiences, and opportunities to talk with peers using that vocabulary. This is now always at the forefront of my mind as I teach. At the beginning of my inquiry, I found this was more of an effort....with practice it has now become automatic and something that has come through on observations of my practice. 

The result is that the students are talking more using the new vocab through multiple opportunities and the vocabulary and concepts attached to that vocabulary is coming through in their writing.

Changes To My Teaching Practice During Lockdown

Although I feel I effectively created online lessons that mirrored the intensive oral language programme I was delivering at school, Self-analysis of my teaching practice showed how easy it was to revert back to old teaching habits during difficult and busy times like during the last lockdown. I noticed how I reverting to how I used to teach before I gained a greater understanding of cultural responsiveness and the power of placing immense value on students heritage language and culture.

Looking back at my slides from the previous lockdown I observed

What Worked Well

I was using the learning I had gained from the intensive oral language programme to created online, digital versions of the types of oral language lessons I would have previously taught in class.

 

What Was Lacking in My Teaching Practice

A flip back to non-culturally responsive teaching was evident in the content I was delivering online. I wasn't harnessing the opportunities for students to learn at home in their first language with whānau. I wasn't providing them with the resources to do this or making the content culturally responsive.

The 2nd Lockdown

Going into Lockdown a second time has given me the opportunity to do things differently. I created learning activities that can be completed in the student's heritage language and that provide opportunities for whānau to share stories and culture. My hope is that having the reading resources in the student's heritage languages allows parents to help them with their learning during this time and allow for students to make connections between the languages they speak at home and English. It is my hypothesis that this will help their language acquisition in both their first language and English.  

Inquiring Into Specific Aspects Of My Current Teaching Practice

Main Learning About My Teaching and My Next Steps

To be reflective is uncomfortable. I'm a firm believer in those aspects of your teaching that you become defensive about are probably the aspects that most need changing.

I have observed three aspects relating to my teaching where that uncomfortable feeling rose from my gut. Indicating an area that I need to reflect on. Below is a description of those moments and what it has meant to me in regards to areas I can make changes to my practices.

Situation 1

During an observation of behaviours of students within my class, my DP observed two students rushing through their writing. We had a great reflective discussion regarding the possible expectations I have of these students. 

Some questions I reflected on:

Do I have lower expectations of these boys who find it difficult to stay focused and complete tasks to the same level as other students? Thinking back to lockdown these were the boys who refused to do online learning when their parents asked them too. What is causing this divergence? If I up my expectation of these students will they persevere more with their learning?  One of these boys is a fidgeter and struggles writing his letters in sequence. Does observing these tendencies lower my expectation of writing output? What would happen if I lifted the bar? How can I motivate them to write more, for longer periods? How can I use self-directed learning and student agency to accelerate progress with these students?

Situation 2

Every now and then we come across a difficult situation that takes us by surprise and makes us evaluate how we see the world. My second reflection on my teaching practice is not actually directly related to my teaching. It was a cultural misunderstanding by me that made me reflect on the value of Whanaungatanga and my understanding of what this means. 

My instant reaction to a conflicting situation that arose was to stand my ground in what I believed in, but I was wrong to do this. I needed instead to look at how others see the situation to truly learn from the experience. The situation that arose (without going into details) could easily put down to miscommunication, however, I believe the real problem was my own lack of knowledge of Māori culture, values, and the Tikanga of Whanaungatanga. I am on a personal journey to grow my understanding of Te Ao Māori and this highlighted important new learning for me.

The situation made me reflect on how I have been brought up. I have grown up in an English family who are insular in our ways. We are not part of a large community, we don't go to church or have large family gatherings, I didn't play team sports and although I will do anything to help I often need to be told what to do. Whanaungatanga is something I am having to learn.

How much do my Pakeha beliefs and values come into my daily teaching practice that I am not even aware of? Of course, they are going to, but I truly believe I need to acknowledge my culture and put it to one-side and embrace Māori and Pasifika culture, to teach Māori as Māori and Pasifika as Pasifika in culturally responsive ways. I'm sure I will not be successful all the time and I will make cultural mistakes (as indicated above) but if we are putting students in the centre of teaching and learning, then expecting them to assimilate to Pakeha culture is not the way, it is putting us in the centre instead.

Situation 3

The third learning about my teaching is how easy it is to revert back to the comfortable, the well-established ways of teaching. Looking at my learning site during lockdown is an example of this...

There were great things I was doing on my site to engage learners, make learning accessible for those students that were working independently without adult help and continuing with ways to accelerate language acquisition through our work with Dr Jannie Van Hees. However, the one thing that slipped away was culturally responsive teaching. This tells me that that I have a long way still to go until culturally responsive teaching practice is a natural way of teaching and a part of all that I do. When the hugeness of lockdown happened and we had to change how we taught and students learned in many ways. That is the one thing that dropped off. This tells me that there is so much more work, learning, changes to my everyday practice that I need to make to ensure culturally responsive teaching is at the forefront of my practice.

Summary

• High expectations for all students. Student agency and self-directed learning to engage, motivate and encourage perseverance amongst the boys in my class.
• Acknowledgement of my own culture and putting my culture perspectives aside to truly learn about and experience Te Ao Māori and increase my cultural responsiveness.
• Keep the changes I am making to my practice in terms of PELP and culturally responsive practice at the forefront, even when times are challenging and you feel yourself reverting back to past ways of teaching.

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. 

COL - Teaching Chunks Of Words

Articles, determiners and quantifies precede and modify nouns and pronouns replace nouns.  These are often used incorrectly or omitted in my Student's oral language which of course is then reflected in their writing.

What have I learned from the Pacific Early Literacy Project (PELP) and My Work With Dr Jannie Van Hees regarding the use of structural words?

• Instead of teaching bilingual learners individual words, teach words in meaningful chunks by teaching the words within the other words surrounding it. Bilingual students may understand lexical words but don't know the structural words that go with them such as pronouns and articles. Therefore, build these structural words into oracy programmes. Instead of using nouns in mind maps and think pair share activities build both the nouns and the articles that proceed them. Display the words within meaningful chunks for students to see and revisit.
• Insisting students use correct sentences through listening, thinking about what they are going to say, copying and repeating is a way of practising using the structural words surrounding new vocabulary e.g. say and do- "I am placing the tuatara on top of the log." "I am tieing an apron around his waist." 

What am I doing differently in my practice?

• I'm insisting on the correct use of pronouns and articles, I am doing this through modelling and gifting correct use and I give them multiple opportunities to practice. This can be done through hands-on 'say and do' activities like exploring floating and sinking I am picking up the stick and placing it on top of the water."  or "These objects float and those objects sink.
• Using mind maps that include the pronouns and articles that go with nouns.

How is it going?

It sure isn't easy for the students to use these words and this can seem laborious, but students amaze me with their perseverance working hard at correct speech. We talk a lot about how talking and listening are helping our brains grow.  One thing that I have noticed is the children finding it difficult to calm their bodies and minds down so that they are able to listen to others talking including me modelling the correct speech.  

What am I noticing?

The four students I'm tracking are all using correct sentence structure after repeating these correct structures a few times. They are using words such as they, that, these more often and when asked to think about what they are going to say are able to use a greater amount of words. However, they still all revert to short word-groups or one or two-word responses when they are talking naturally. I feel that significant changes to their everyday speech patterns may take time and that the hard work students are putting into their speech in the above learning situations will eventually transfer into their day to day speech. The challenge of students gaining the self-regulation needed to calm themselves down enough to listen during oral language work is something I need to look into further as I feel that this is a barrier at the moment.

COL- Teaching as Inquiry New Learning From Jannie Van Hees

Hypothesis 2: Developing oral language through short high-interest topics and real-life experiences, with a focus on intensive oral language acquisition, will create an environment of language in abundance.

Our Junior Team has been fortunate enough to enlist the help of Dr Jannie van Hees to help us develop an effective intensive oral language programme throughout our Junior School. 

Our Goal: For our children to have a large vocabulary and to be able to express their ideas in detail fluently.

Jannie has delivered both an initial theory session and workshop to train teachers and teacher-aides to conduct a hands-on language experience session which will become the basis for a three-day oral language intensive programme. The programme is designed to be used in small groups of 6-8 children.

Key Points from Dr Jannie van Hees Sessions which we will implement within our oral language programme:

• Tell the children why we are doing this and what it's about. Create a culture of talking in the classroom so that children understand that in our classroom we use lots of words.

Example:

“Our brain needs to be used, your voice and brain need to talk with each other - In our safe place, we push ourselves to talk because talking is your job. We need to push ourselves to use our brain and talk and to value that of others." -Jannie

"You have a clever brain. You need to think and think but there is something else you need to do and that's talking." - Jannie

• Give the meaning of new vocabulary.

Example:

"You are gardeners. Gardeners are people that grow and care for plants."

• Repetition! Students repeat new phrases and vocabulary multiple times over multiple days. This is the uptake. They need to hear it multiple times and use it multiple times for uptake to happen. Students are doing something with the new vocabulary pushing them to extend their language. Repetition and recycling of new words and phrases pushing them to the edge using complex language that they don't hear at home.

• Do it and say it. Children use new phrases and language in a hands-on context. Foster and encourage self-talk. Self-talk is a safe place to try out the language.

Example: 

The children put on each other's gardening aprons to get ready to do gardening explaining what they are doing as they are doing it. The teacher models "Here is your apron. I'm going to put it over your head. I'm going to flatten out the front and tie it at the back" The children then copy the teacher 'doing it and say it' to their partner. The teacher insists that they talk as they do it.

• Insist on connected speech. Many of our students don't use connected speech. They don't have the word groups (also illustrated through our work with PELP), students are used to using cryptic talk. Supporting them to use connected speech through gifting, modelling then insisting they use complete sentences is really important. They are used to using a few words then letting us complete their sentence. If we don't insist on them using connected speech they will continue to get away with broken speech patterns. This may feel extremely uncomfortable for the student and the teacher as it doesn't feel natural. 

Example: 

Teacher models: We need the...(bean seed)...to put in the ...(soil)...so the seed can grow into a ...(little bean plant).

Students: Each student has a turn in saying the sentence. They repeat it with help until they are able to say it fluently.

• No questions from the teacher, no hands up. 

Example: 

Students choose equipment to use for planting seeds.

Teacher: "We are all going to pick something and say what it is and say why it is important."

Teacher models: "I'm going to pick a pair of scissors because we may need to cut something."

"We are going to give it a go and if you don't have the words we will help each other."

"Ben you go first."

How and why will this changed practice impact the specific learning outcome?

It is believed that this intervention will give our students the vocabulary and sentence structures that will allow them to express their ideas in detail fluently. We hope that this will transfer into reading and written language.  

What is different from what we were doing before?

Personally, although I have always tried to explain the meaning of new vocabulary and given them hands-on activities to connect new language to, I have not insisted on them using connected speech. I have modelled how complete sentences would sound but not insisted that they repeat it back or use it multiple times. As a teacher you are always in a rush to move on, slowing it down and taking the time to get students to talk in complex sentences is going to mean letting go of the rushing. Finishing students sentences or accepting broken speech is also something I need to let go of and accept that it is going to feel uncomfortable 'discomforting' the students through pushing them to extend their language instead of jumping in to save them. 

Tasks are going to have to be thought out ahead of time and well planned. Instead of giving children a hands-on activity to explore away from the teacher, with the notion that students will share their ideas, knowledge and vocab with each other, activities will need to be done with a teacher and expected vocabulary and prepositional noun groups will have to be anticipated, planned for and modelled. This is far more teacher-directed than the 'play-based learning' approach I have used in the passed.

How will we monitor the effects of our changed practice?

Each teacher will take notes anecdotally on the oral language uptake of their students. The combi list and ELLP forms will be a way of recording progress made by students and teachers will reflect on their own teaching of this programme in terms of what is working and what needs tweaking. These aspects will be shared at team meetings.

CoL Teaching As Inquiry; The importance of a shared vision focusing on change

Hypothesis 1: A collaborative inquiry across the junior school (Years 1-3) will grow professional capital across the school. The shared inquiry will allow all students across the junior school to benefit from the effectiveness of changed practice and allow teachers to learn from and with each other. It will hopefully also enable an effective changed practice to become sustainable.

The importance of a shared vision focusing on change

One of my first questions is how do I get our Junior team to paddle this waka with me so that all our students benefit from changed practice, change is sustainable and effective practice is shared?

Teachers need a desire to change their practice (Hargreaves, 1994), desire being "the basis of creativity, change, commitment and engagement (Hargreaves, 1994, p12)". A desire to change connects teachers to their practice. This desire drives 'exceptional and creative teachers' towards excellence in their practice and strong relationships with students. Pink (2009) talks about being able to see the purpose underpinning the learning and giving value to it in order to surpass the bare minimum of what is required. Hattie (2012) acknowledges that expert teachers are passionately engaged in teaching and learning, both inspired by student learning and inspiring students to learn. Teachers need to be intrinsically motivated through autonomy, mastery and purpose to change their pedagogical ideas.

In order for cohesive change to occur all participants, including families and students, need to be connected and committed to a shared moral purpose. Teachers need to align their beliefs with a shared vision, building capacity through working together in a purposeful doing, within a supportive change climate. (Fullan & Quinn, 2016).

Therefore, teachers need to understand the need to change. Assessment information highlights this need along with the data gathered from Welcome To School: A Study of Conditions of Disadvantage on Entry to School in the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako (2017). It is important that we look at this data together during the 'Learn Stage' of the inquiry to understand the status quo and to release the need to change our practice to accelerate student learning. 

Teachers need to see and value the purpose underpinning the learning in order to be intrinsically motivated to change their pedagogical practice. The 'Why' behind the change becomes incredibly important. Teachers need to understand and value the theory and 'why' behind pedagogical interventions to see the purpose underpinning the learning. If this doesn't happen will teachers being intrinsically motivated to change their practice? 

For the cohesive change to occur we need to be paddling the same waka. Successfully conducting a collaborate inquiry will mean aligning our beliefs with a shared vision, having a shared understanding of pedagogical interventions and working together in purposeful doing supporting each other along the way.