COL - Responses to my Hunches

During one of our COL meetings, we were asked to share our hunches with our colleagues and take note of some of the feedback provided. I also added some of my findings and thoughts regarding my hunches.

Hunch One: If I find or create texts to help older students who struggle with reading, it will motivate them to read more

It is difficult to find texts suitable for older students who struggle with reading. Some of the online websites that do provide texts that may be suitable require a subscription and fee. I tried to find free online reading programmes that are suitable for older students, but they cost money (e.g. Reading Doctor online, Story Shares, High Noon books etc). Instead I will utilise free access at school to Literacy Planet which has good reviews and Read Theory (another free online reading programme). Possibly try some comic books and other types of genres that are of high interest.

Hunch Two: If I create an interesting literacy programme/activities, then it will keep students motivated and on task when they are not with me

When students are easily distracted it is hard for them to stay on task. I may need to provide rewards or ask the students what they want to learn about. I need to provide opportunities for more ‘choice’ for students. What will this look like? How to keep them motivated and engaged? Look at the literature around student engagement. Review the current literacy programme and make changes e.g. class layout, and decide who sits with who.

Hunch Three: If I can find a way to motivate students, then they will read more often (mileage)

I need to ask the students what motivates them to read. I need to find ways to encourage more reading mileage e.g. buddy reading or rewards. Other ways could include involving parents, creating an attractive reading corner, sending books home to read etc.

Hunch Four: If I can focus on improving behavioural and cognitive engagement, my students will improve their ability to focus and improve their reading skills.

I need to identify exactly how many students are off task or focused and how often. I need to identify which students are able to articulate their thinking. Strategies are needed to focus on improving student engagement in class. Strategies are also needed to improve student’s higher order thinking skills and communication skills.

COL - Developing a Hunch

Here were some of the issues that I had identified with my literacy class through surveys and observations:

1. Students were wasting a lot of class time when they were not with the teacher
2. There was not enough reading mileage happening for students
3. The reading programme needed to be used more effectively to enhance writing
4. Students needed strategies to deal with distractions
5. It was difficult to find suitable texts to motivate older students who struggled with reading

An important stage when undertaking an inquiry is developing a hunch. The idea is that a hypothesis is a tentative answer to our research question that has not yet been tested.

How to formulate? The simplest way is to use this form: if...then…
For example: “If I encourage my students to write for real reasons, then they will be motivated to write.”

Before arriving at our next COL meeting we had to generate at least 3 hunches to share with our colleagues.

Hunch One: If I find or create texts to help older students who struggle with reading, it will motivate them to read more

I find that it is not very engaging or interesting for older students to read books targeted for younger readers. Unfortunately, when older students are well behind with their reading levels, then generally the texts are quite basic and do not really appeal to older students.

Hunch Two: If I create an interesting literacy programme/activities, then it will keep students motivated and on task when they are not with me

I have noticed that when students are with me during guided reading sessions, most are quite engaged and focused on reading. However, I have noticed that many of the other students in the class tend to be off task and do not complete enough of their learning tasks on time.

Hunch Three: If I can find a way to motivate students, then they will read more often (mileage)

One of the results from the student survey showed that students were not spending enough time reading. Much of the focused reading for students seemed to occur during guided reading sessions with the teacher.

Hunch Four: If I can focus on improving behavioural and cognitive engagement, my students will improve their ability to focus and improve their reading skills.

Student engagement is a big issue in my classroom, especially among many of the boys in my class. I think that if they were provided with strategies to improve their levels of engagement, then it will help them to stay more focused in class.

NZEI Pasifika Teachers Fono 2024 - Day 1

 During the first week of the school holidays, I had the privilege of attending the NZEI Pasifika Teachers Fono. It was held over two days at Waipuna Conference Centre in Mt Wellington. This is a slideshow sharing some of my highlights during the first day. I attended with Ms Va'afusuaga, Mrs Ilaoa, Ms Teleso, and Mrs Sio. Mrs Tele'a also attended. I am very grateful to our school and Board of Trustees for helping to subsidise the cost of the conference. 

COL - Spiral of Inquiry

 

Spiral of Inquiry Model

This is an image of the spiral of inquiry model developed by Timperley, Kaser and Halbert (2014). It is a framework for improving teaching and learning, and is based on the idea of continuous inquiry. Educators gather evidence, analyse it, and make informed decisions. There are six main stages: scanning, focusing, developing a hunch, learning, taking action and checking.

I will be using this model to help develop and implement an intervention to improve reading outcomes for my students.

Professor Graeme Aitken wrote an article titled ‘How to undertake Teaching as Inquiry’(Education Hub). He states that ‘teaching as Inquiry is one of the most powerful forms of teacher learning and is a vital strategy to improve student learning.’ I am at the ‘developing a hunch’ stage at the moment.

COL - Profiling

A crucial first step in any inquiry is understanding students' individual learning strengths and needs. This process, often referred to as profiling, helps to tailor instruction effectively. Effective profiling was discussed during one of our Manaiakalani COL sessions. Our principal Russell Burt talked about using EdPotential which is available to all teachers in Manaiakalani. This is an effective resource which is used to track student learning, whether individually, in classrooms or across schools in our cluster. 

To gain insights into my students' literacy abilities and requirements, I employed the following strategies:

1) Spent time during Term 1 getting to know my students e.g. through discussion and via tasks e.g. writing (‘All About Me’) and personal mihi and pepeha.

2) Gathering data and information from their 2023 and Term 1 2024 results e.g. PAT Reading and STAR data, Running Records or Probe.

3) Collecting data from EdPotential - tracking achievement for individual students in reading, writing and maths - to get a sense of their overall performance in these areas.

4) Student survey in reading - to gain insights into their reading habits, interests and strengths in reading.

COL - Analysing STAR data

 After analysing the results from my students Term 1 STAR Tests, I have noted down some of the key areas that I need to work on when planning for literacy in Term 2.

Teaching and Planning Strategies:

• Vocabulary:
  • Varied activities (image matching, writing definitions) based on reading and topics.
  • Build a word wall and hold regular quizzes (e.g., Kahoot!)
• Sentence Comprehension:
  • Focus on inference, vocabulary, and diverse texts.
  • Practice cloze activities, multiple choice, and writing for mechanics (e.g. proper grammar and punctuation) and clarity (e.g. sentence structure to ensure their writing is easy to understand).
• Paragraph Comprehension:
  • Teach strategies: skimming, summarising, identifying key words, and testing logical flow.
• Vocabulary Expansion:
  • Explore synonyms, antonyms, and word families.
• Decoding Advertising:
  • Discuss persuasive language techniques used to influence consumers.
• Writing for Audience:
  • Analyze titles, identify audience, and understand formal/informal styles through diverse writing exercises (fairy tales, news, job applications etc.).

COL - School Leaders Discussion

I initially decided to focus on tracking only one reading group for my COL inquiry. There are eight students in this group who are all reading at 9 years old. However, after some discussion with our Acting Principal Toni Nua regarding the recent Reading PAT and STAR test results, I will now focus on two of my reading groups. The second group are reading between 8 and 8.5 years old.

In total, there will be 16 students in my target group for my inquiry. This will allow for a larger sample size for my inquiry and hopefully better data collection. The discussion with Toni Nua was very valuable as she has a great wealth of knowledge and experience around teaching Year 7 & 8 students (She was the Intermediate School Team Leader years ago) as well as expertise in the literacy curriculum.

The next step will be to analyse the data from the PAT Reading and STAR test to identify where the student strengths and weaknesses are.