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.

CoL Teaching As Inquiry; Student Voice- Pre Intervention

Student Voice

This is the student voice collected from Year 1 students within my Target Group (Maori Pasifika Boys). Student 1 (S1) and Student 2 (S2) are Tongan, Student 3 (S3) is Samoan, Student 4 (S4) is Cook Island Maori/Maori.
Initially, I was going to use survey monkey to create a survey for students to answer, however, due to the fact that students have low oral language and can read yet I opted for students to answer questions through an informal discussion with a teacher.

I am good at reading/ writing - yes/sometimes/no?
S3- ”Sometimes I don’t do well because I'm tired.”
S1-” I’m good I write on the word.”
S4 - "I write my sister’s names.”
S1- “I can write it good, my pirate one. I could write so many words.”
S4- “I need the word card.”

When I can't do something it is easy to ask my teacher for help- yes/sometimes/no?
S1- “Ask 3 people before the teacher, ask your friend then you go ask the teacher.”
“Ask your friend (repeated by all 4)”

My teacher listens to my ideas - yes/sometimes/no?
S2- “Everyone always talking, she picks the people who are listening, who get to talking.”

Do you like talking about your ideas? Why or Why not?
S1-” Yes so you can get smarter.”
S3- “You know what the answer is and you put your hand up.”
S4- “I sit quietly because I want to listen.”
S2- “I want to sit nicely at mat time.”S1j- “I like reading so I can learn.”
S4- “I like reading cause it's my favourite.”

What makes learning hard/ easy at school?
S1- “People block. (Hard)”
S2- “I like writing the ABC.”
S3- “Maths and learning.”
S4- “Writing on ABC card.”
S1- “Word work games so I can learn my words.”

What makes learning hard/ easy at home?

S2- “I practice my word, I practice my sounds on my iPad.”
S4- “I write on my iPad.”
S3- “I use my letter card at home.”
S1- “I read my book.”

Do you feel okay to talk in your own language at school? Why or why not?

S2- “No I want to practice my language at home, I have to learn it from my mum. It is hard to write in Tongan. I would like to talk more in Tongan at school.”
S1-"No because people are Maori. People keep saying Maori to me.”
S3- “I speak Samoan with my friends.”

What do you want your teachers to know about you and how you learn best?
S2- “Tell my teacher about at writing, about pirates”
S4- “I like maths, soccer, cooking.”
S3- "Bikes”
S1- "I like to cut coconuts.”

First Thoughts After Listening To Student Voice

All the students say they help each other with their learning. They mentioned ‘See 3 before me’ which is a management strategy I use while taking guided reading groups. This could mean that they feel unable to ask the teacher for help which means I need to ensure there are opportunities for students to approach me for the help they need, or it could also mean that getting help from their peers helps them with their learning. If the later is the case ensuring that there is always opportunities for students to work together and talk about their learning is important. Also to me, Tuakana Teina and creating opportunities for students to learn from and with their peers within a shared learning space is important.

Students are aware of classroom resources that help them with their learning e.g. word cards, word work games.

I thought it was interesting that mat time was mentioned as a time when you sit and listen. Put your hand up if you know the answer and that people talk and the teacher picks people that are listening. How could mat time become a powerful opportunity for open conversations to take place? What culture needs to be built so ‘teacher talks and asks questions and students listen and answer with a hand up’ is replaced with student talk in abundance.

It is easy to assume that students do most of their learning at school, however, I was surprised by the clarity in which the students could talk about the learning they did at home and how this learning happens. All the students talked about how they learn literacy at home. This instantly made me consider the powerful influence strong home/school partnerships could have on student learning and the amazing possibilities that could happen if we share more openly with whanau, share resources and work together.

CoL Teaching as Inquiry: Tools, Measures and Approaches To Gain An Accurate Profile Of My Students Learning

To gain a more detailed and accurate profile of my our student's learning in relation to Learning Challenge 2; Lifting the achievement for boys' writing Years 1-10, I am using a range of tools, measures and approaches.


The Combilist- Dr Jannie Van Hees (2013)

For students entering school oral language is measured using JOST, in which our school data shows our students entering school with low levels of oral language. However, I wanted to a tool to delve deeper into the specifics of oral language development of students in Year 1-3, and that could also measure progress in the development of oral language to support my inquiry. The Combilist (2013) developed and used by Dr Jannie Van Hees measures significant factors involved in language development.

These include:

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

This tool can be used as a measure when taken prior to intervention, during the intervention and post-intervention.

All teachers across Years 1-3 will use the tool to measure individual students language development.


Pasifika Early Literacy Project (PELP) Assessment Data

Tamaki Primary is lucky enough to be participating in PELP. The PELP Project supports teachers to utilise dual language books and bilingual approaches in primary schools. It supports teachers working in bilingual and multilingual ways to open up the learning opportunities for our students.

A requirement of the project is to measure student progress to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching in linguistically and culturally responsive ways.

The data that is collected through the Pasifika Early Literacy Project (PELP) will also be useful indicators of the effectiveness of changed practice through Teaching as Inquiry. This data will add a deeper level.

PELP requires us to collect data through three methods:
Running Records (June and October)
Record of oral vocabulary- one on one, 2 minutes in English 2 minutes in the student's first language
Record of written vocabulary completed as a whole class, 5mins, per language.

Although PELP requires us to just assess Pasifika students, the assessment we will include Maori boys as they are target students within our inquiry.

Collecting Data Through Connecting With Whanau; 
Finding Out About Students Language, Culture and Identity.

Are the records we have at school a true representation of home language and culture. My hunch is that they are not. Far too often we use this data to inform our teaching without having conversations with whanau to better understand their cultures and identities. Genuinely connecting with the whanau, getting to know our families, as opposed to superficially, would give us a better understanding of how best to meet the needs of our students. The box on etap that indicates the students first language is filled in at school entry and may or may not be a true representation of the diversity of language used outside of school. Secondly, what other information other than the first language option indicated on etap records, do we need to teach in culturally diverse ways? Fono with families will help us to gain information about students language, culture and identity, the information vitally needed for linguistically and culturally responsive teaching practice to take place.

Student Voice

A sample group of students will be used to collect the student's voice. Who better to ask about students' learning than the students themselves. Gathering student voice will help me to build rich knowledge of the learner and an understanding of how to make learning accessible to them. It gives students a chance to say what school is like for them and will enable me to take their views into consideration when implementing change.

The questions/prompts asked will relate to students oral language, progress in literacy and student/teacher relationships

I am good at reading/ writing - yes/sometimes/no?

When I can't do something it is easy to ask my teacher for help- yes/sometimes/no?

My teacher makes it easy to understand things- yes/sometimes/no?

My teacher listens to my ideas - yes/sometimes/no?

Do you like talking about your ideas? Why or Why not?

What makes learning hard/ easy at school?

What makes learning hard/ easy at home?

Do you feel okay to talk in your own language at school? Why or why not?

What do you want your teachers to know about you and how you learn best?

These questions will hopefully give me valuable insight into students perspectives.