PELP - Retelling the story in my first language

The book 'Locked Out' was a guided reading book the students had been working with previous to this lesson. The students were very familiar with the story. As this book was one of the titles available as dual language copies I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a play and explore using the dual language books with my students. The group of students I was working with were Tongan Samoan and Maori.

Day 1- The students were shown the Samoan, Tongan and English books and were asked what do you notice about the books. Is there anything different about them? Is there anything the same?
Students explored the books and after I read the title of each book to them they discovered that they were in different languages.
Students were each given a book in their first language and asked in small groups to retell (talk about what happens in the book) the story in language using the pictures.

Each group naturally started talking in their first language with parts of their dialogue in English the English parts being well-known phrases from knowing the English text. The older students naturally took the lead within the group (I teach a Year 1-3 class).

Day 2- We listened to the audio in Tongan and stopped it every now and then to talk about the story. The students told me what some of the words and phrases meant and I repeated them.

This was a beautiful session. All the students were engaged in listening to the text and were excited to be my teacher and correct my pronunciation. 

Day 3- The students listened/read along to the audio version of the story accessed through our class site as an independent reading activity. Then as a follow-up activity, they were given a sequence of pictures, and text, from the book that they had to put together and sequence.

Even though the students couldn't read the text in their first language they were looking carefully at the print to match it to the picture. The discussions they had around the retelling and sequencing of the story was brilliant and most of it done in their first language. They worked in groups with students with the same first language. I added that it was a competition to see who could get it correct which took it to another level of excitement.

Day 4- This book is now going home along with a set of pictures and matching text and a note to parents with ideas on how to use the book at home.

I'm excited to hear feedback from the parents.
My Maori students decided it wasn't fair that there was no book in Te Reo so connected with some of our older students to write their own Te Reo version using explain everything.

Getting Started With PELP

Excited to get started working multilingually with our students.
This week's reading site for our learners to explore during reading independent activities or at home with Whānau.
Our site will be able to be shared with families at our fono this week.

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. 

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- Testing Each Hypothesis and the Evidence That Will Support It

Developing Inquiry Hypotheses

The hypotheses were formed through a process of exploring possibilities into why the data looks as it does and possible changes of practice that could take place. Below I discuss the reading, discussions and learning opportunities that lead to the development of hypotheses.

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.

Collective capacity building to develop a common knowledge and skill base across the learning community is a powerful learning opportunity. Social capital, the quality of the group is more powerful than human capital, the qualifications of individuals (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Fullan & Quinn, 2016). This approach to professional development replaces fragmented traditional professional development programmes, workshops or presentations that aim to fix the individual. As collective capacity builds, it increases momentum involving more people and reinforces the strategy for change towards a collective purpose. However, it is important to be aware that a supportive climate is needed to ensure teachers feel safe to take risks and build capacity through learning from each other (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). As Hargreaves (1994) points out, in a collaborative culture teacher’s values and purposes, failures and doubts are shared, discussed and disagreed over. This exposure of vulnerabilities should take place in a supportive environment.

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. 

In order to find an appropriate tool to measure oral assessment, I sought out the help and expertise of Dr Jannie Van Hees. Jannie came and talked to the team about the use of the combilist and value of creating an intensive oral language literacy programme that focused around high-interest topics and experiences.

Hypothesis 3: Utilising the student's strengths in their first language, working in bilingual and multilingual ways, creating Talanoa, and working in partnership with families will help build students English language and literacy.

PELP focuses on working in partnership with Pasifika families, building on the strengths of the students first language, culture and identity through bilingual and multilingual teaching practices and the use of bilingual resources. Having the opportunity for our teachers to learn through participating in this project will embed cultural responsiveness within the inquiry.

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.

The CoL Hypothesis/Agreement; Getting in behind the problem

In this post, I want to discuss the CoL Hypothesis/Agreement and how this fits with Tamaki and Manaiakalani Data and in forming a related Inquiry.

CoL Hypothesis/Agreement

Getting in behind the problem

Language acquisition, development, sustaining & transfer

Learning Design including

• Formative practice
• Progressional understanding
• Effective planning for learning

Focusing on Language acquisition, development, sustaining and transfer will hopefully give us the biggest bang of our buck not only in raising student achievement in writing in the Junior years but across the curriculum. Not only this but it creates wonderings of the effects this will have on students achievement as they progress through their schooling, building on the foundations that have been acquired early on.

Welcome To School: A Study of Conditions of Disadvantage on Entry to School in the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako (2017) shows

"Most children in Tamaki start school at a developmental level of 3-4 years: i.e. without the developmental and communication skills needed to achieve at expected levels. This is reflected in the achievement data for this community from school entry and beyond. The gap between expected and actual achievement expands as children progress throughout school" (Burt & Leversha, 2017)

This is evident in our Junior classrooms as students struggle to communicate their ideas. Students use silence, one, two word utterances, gestures, lack understanding of plurals and prepositions and understanding of syntax and semantics. Sentences are often short and tangled and consist of simple vocabulary.

When trying to verbalise your ideas is difficult, writing can then be even harder.

For me, addressing Achievement Challenge 2: Lifting the achievement for boys' writing Years 1-10, and getting in behind the problem at a Junior Level means focusing my teaching practice intensively on oral language acquisition. If we can raise achievement in this area, transference into writing will not only be seen but also transference across the curriculum where communication is equally important. 

Manaiakalani Achievement Challenge #2

Manaiakalani Achievement Challenge #2 

Lifting the achievement for boys' writing Years 1-10.

At the end of 2018 after 2 years at school, 80% of our Male students were working within beginning level 1 in Writing. This is lower than the "At Level 1' expected after 2 Years at school.

Furthermore, when you look at the data collected by Manaiakalani you can see the disparity between girls achievement and boys. 

Graph 1 and Graph 2

There is a large disparity between Year 2 Female Students who are progressing at a comparable rate to the norm and at a higher level than the norm, and Year 2 Male Students progressing at a slower rate and at a level well below the norm. Why is there such disparity? What has been working for girls within their first two years of schooling and not working for boys?

The second graph breaks down this data further into ethnic groupings.

This shows a large disparity between Year 2 Maori and Asian Students progressing at a comparable rate to the norm and at a slightly higher level and Year 2 Pasifika Students who are progressing at a slower rate at a level well below the norm.

Manaiakalani across school data also shows that Male Students are achieving at a lower level than expected. However, our school data is significantly lower than the across school data.

This is why I have chosen to focus on Lifting The Achievement For Boys' Writing In Years 1-10. With the specific focus on lifting the achievement of boys' writing in Years 1-3. 

The Beginning of Te Waipuna ō Tamaki

Te Waipuna ō Tamaki

As a teacher that has experienced working in both single cell classrooms and shared learning spaces, and conducting research on working within newly opened ILEs, I can acknowledge both the affordances and challenges of both learning environments for teachers and students.

It is with an open mind and awareness of the need to adapt our practice to meet the needs of our learners, that my wonderful colleague Laadan Jalili and I negotiate our way in our exciting new shared learning space Te Waipuna ō Tamaki.

Honesty and a fail fast approach have already begun to guide us through our first term as we quickly find out what works and what doesn't, changing things as we go.

This blog is a space to share the journey with others interested in or working within a shared space. It is not a 'how to' as anyone working within a shared space will now that what may work for one set of learners and teachers may very well not work for another. But it may provide ideas that can be adapted or a sharing of experiences others can relate to or offer advice on.

So far this is what has worked for us establishing our shared learning space:

• Acknowledgement of each other's strengths, allowing each other to take the lead in these areas whether it be in the organisation of resources, the teaching of a specific area of the curriculum, or sharing of ideas.
• The flexibility of changing what isn't working. This has been on a near daily basis in the form of groupings of students, routines that haven't worked or needed adapting, and timetabling. 
• Learning from each other as we watch each other teach.
• Developing a respectful and honest working relationship.
• Constant discussions regarding students needs and learning.

Current challenges we are facing are:

• Students attempting and succeeding in gaining attention from each other through inappropriate behaviour within a larger audience. This can quickly escalate and management of behaviour takes teaching time away from other students. To manage this we have decided to separate the students into two mixed level groups for the afternoon which is when this behaviour is mostly happening, give student choice through Daily Five to motivate them to stay on task and focus on praising these students when they are doing the right thing giving attention to positive behaviour.
• Everything on mass including paperwork. We need to ensure the workload is spread evenly and that we support each other so we don't feel overloaded.

Any advice and ideas would be appreciated.