MIT 2022 Summary

Update: Here is my SSR+Q website

The problem I was observing in my classroom of Year 9/10 students at the start of the year was they were disengaged readers; they struggled to answer questions about unseen text, and they were unmotivated readers. 

My initial hunch was that students were challenged by answering higher order questions; they didn’t understand what the questions were asking, therefore ākonga could not search for the answer. The reading results were surprising in that the students struggled to answer lower level questions like recalling who is the main character or describing the setting? This contradicted my hunch. Therefore, my new statement became: how might we use skimming and scanning to support students questioning of unseen text.

Throughout this design learning process I refined this project by getting feedback from a variety of sources. First of all I introduced the SSR+q process using a paper copy of the text to a small group of ākonga. We skimmed down the text to decide what genre the text was and then scanned across, using highlighters. At this point I realised that explicit teaching was needed around keywords and proper nouns. I created a Hāpara workspace and used rewindable learning to shared resources and relevant videos. Once ākonga identified the key words and proper nouns they then read through the text for meaning and finally read and answered the questions. We completed this phase as an open group discussion, which led to great reflection on the process and understanding of the text. Thank you to the small group of ākonga that made this first phase possible.

From the feedback that I received from this group of ākonga, my MIT colleagues and other kaiako I had talked to, changes were implemented and applied to a digital setting. What was created next was a Hāpara workspace reflecting the Learn|Ako - Create|Hanga - Share|Tohatroha pedagogy. The Highlight Tool found in Google Docs, extensions was utilised to enhance learning and student motivation, in the 21st century.  Within the Highlighter Library different sections can be created for different genre ie non-fiction section where students added the words proper nouns, key words and speech marks, to highlight within their text. At this stage we just focused on non-fiction text. Here is an example of this workspace:

Once the class was up and running with this process I loaded up a variety of relevant stories from KiwiKidsNews.  

Wananga Presentation - Waipuna 2023:

Where to next:

I would like to continue to develop this tool to help students synthesis and summarise text so that they can put it into their own words.  This can be done by adding a few more steps after the skim, scan, read and questions. Here is an example: 

Ngā Kupenga Raupī a Tāwhaki - The nurturing nets of Tāwhaki

 I recently attended a two day workshop presented by Te Papa Tongarewa and Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Matauranga. We were learning to connect to placed-based and local history, to support and deepen our understanding of weaving ANZ histories through our curriculum. Here are my highlights:

• M.A.T.E.S - Mutually Agreed Team Expectations;
• Whakawhanaungatanga - making connections to where you stand. What is your turangawaewae?
• Cultural native around our kura: "Cultural narratives can provide the big picture for schools committed to ongoing development as culturally responsive and culturally located spaces. They can guide schools' decisions about the culture and curriculum in the school, and shape their connections with the wider community."
• Visual thinking Strategies: was a new experience for me. I found this image from Puke Ariki that may work with this strategy:

What's going on in this image?

Integrating as many bigs ideas from the ANZ Histories was a key message from day one of this workshop. We looked at the MOE resources that was sent to schools; ANZH curriculum, Aotearoa NZ histories Part 1 & 2 and the cards that helped to support my knowledge of Understand, Know and Do. I like that you can see progressions across the age levels. This is relevant at my kura because we have students from Year 0 to Year 13.

Quick Questioning: SSR+Q Website

It was great to have the opportunity to present my MIT project to a large number of principals and Manaiakalani staff at the Waipuna Conference Centre.  I have been using Google Sites with my class since 2021 once I did the digital fluency intensive (DFI).  I have linked this website below.  

Currently I am working on finalising me Quick Questioning website.  I will share this link on this blog once it have been completed. 

Italian man changes tyre on moving car!

Here is another example of a fiction text.  I enjoy looking for interesting text that is up-to-date and catering for the diverse interests and needs of my target students.  This text came from KiwiKidNews.  

Quick Questioning SSR + Q

Today the target group of Year 9/10 students practised using the Highlight Tool in Google Docs.  Student Example:

SSR+Q Update

This term we have spilt the Year 9/10 students into two different groups of year 9/10's.  My English class consists of 12 students, from working at NZ Curriculum Level 2-3.  I teach seven English sessions over two weeks.   This term the students have started working on Core Power Up.  Along with this they have been practicing the SSR-Q with mainly current event articles.  I have started to introduce fiction texts; the areas being highlighting are characters. setting, plot, character, climax and conflict.  Here is an example of the article and non-fiction: 

Article:

Non-Fiction: 

Prototype testing - Part 1 Getting Started

Part 1 - Getting Started 

Firstly, I tested my prototype with a small group of students.  We ran through the process step by step.  I covered skim, scan, and read in this lesson.  In the next lesson with this group we recapped (skim, scan and read) and read and answered the questions.  Taking it slow was the go because I wanted the students to be successful and achieved the goal - with supported. 

For this very first trial I choose a Level 2 piece of text on Puanga.  The text was relevant to students in the group because one of the students had come from Hawera so he knew of the area and the others knew about Puanga because we celebrate it at school. The original text had a lot of visual information which I didn't want the students to see; this was not the focus.  I typed the text into a word document and shared this through Håpara Workspace - see the examples below. 

Before: 

After: 

Celebrating Puanga at Ramanui

Near the maunga (mountain) of Taranaki a small school is

celebrating a very special event. Every year, Ramanui School in

Hāwera honours the arrival of the star Puanga.  When Puanga

appears in the eastern sky just before dawn, it marks the start of

the Māori New Year in Taranaki. 

Puanga and Matariki 

In many parts of Aotearoa, people celebrate the Māori New Year

when Matariki (a group of stars also known as the Pleiades) appears. 

However, if you live in Taranaki, Matariki is hard to see because it’s

very low in the eastern sky.  Instead, the people of Taranaki look for

Punaga (also called Rigel).  Puanga is the very bright star that can be

seen above the three stars named Tautoru (or Orion’s Belt).

SSRQ:

Skim - down the text

Scan - across the text

Read  - the whole text 

Question - go back over the text to find the answer to the questions. 

Questions:

Where is this story set? 

Who is the story about?

When did the events take place?

What happened?

How do people of Ramanui celebrate Puanga?

Haratua Hui - KPMG # Rua

Living the corporate lifestyle for a day was a great opportunity of what working in an office space might look like for our tamariki.  The soundproof booth was a great addition to the workspace, I personally would benefit from a quiet breakout space during the day to reflect or connect. 

Listening to my MIT colleagues present where they were at gave me an opportunity to consider what I needed to do next and the steps to get there.  I still need to include student voice by interviewing individual students who want to share their understanding of how to answer questions.

Where am I at: 

• I need to do further investigation gaining student voice,
• Start using the digital tool - a google doc template, the highlighter tool and find tool.  
• Collect examples of written text from different curriculum subject areas to provide cross-curricula examples. 
• Connect with secondary staff who might be interested in trialing this digital tool in their space.
• Pull together/create/represent key points from the research I have read thus far. 

 

Thanks MIT team for a great hui.

Aotearoa NZ Histories

I learnt that the Aotearoa  NZ Histories curriculum document supports the Social Sciences curriculum and is similar to the Digital Technology Curriculum and Technology.  I learnt that there is a lot to cover however this document shows the progressions very clearly. I also learnt that looking at whose perspective articles/documents were written is important and also important to teacher Year 9/10 to be critical thinkers. Two things I found interesting was using the images to create discussion and the way the curriculum is has been split into Understand, Know and Do. One thing I would like to learn more about is my own family history.

Where to next...

Our Google meet clarified for my the next steps: 

• Assess student's attitude to answering questions via a Google Form.
• Ask students  - what strategies, 3 steps they use to find the answer to a question?
• Prototyping this term - whole class example, small groups, and then individual.  
• Giving students the opportunity to learn to read online - digital copy as opposed to paper copy.  
• QuickFire using CRTL F to find words ie during the reading comprehension test, investigate what other shortcuts are available to students? 
• Triangulate data:

Reflection - where am I at?

It was great meeting up in the City of Sails at a super venue, the KPMG buildings.  From student data I felt I needed to take a step back to consider how lower order questioning helps students gain a basic entry level for understanding the text.  The challenge has been changing my mindset from engaging with higher order thinking skills, to inference and/or lower order skills.  I feel I am still not there yet on the concept I want to tackle with my Year 9/10 learners.  I decided to research into bringing all my ideas together to analyse what might be happening.  Heres what I found out:  

When I analysed  The Pedagogy Wheel V5 against Sheena Cameron's Reading Comprehension Strategies (2009), most of these reading strategies sit at the lower level of Bloom's taxonomy:  remember and understand:

Where to next:  I feel I need to do further investigating, researching, synthesising of information into predict, synthesis and visualise to decide what reading strategy I will focus on.  Here is a brief overview of them:

• Predicting - can set the purpose for reading;
• Visualising  - can support self-monitoring (meta cognition); and 
• Synthesising - can create ownership of thinking.

Prototyping: going through the experience of prototyping was very beneficial for me.  I found working with other professionals who are also focused on raising student achievement was helpful. This experience may have to recreated with my new challenge statement.

Data Collection

 What data have you collected in Term 1, how did you collect it?

I have collected data from the PAT Reading Comprehension Results for Years 9 and 10 students at my kura.  I will also be considering if this data is reflected in the Data from EdPortal for my regional and national evidence from the Manaiakalani Research Team.  I have also completed some Probe reading tests. 

Empathise - how does the students feel?

 We continued with another role play to demonstrate what it is like for a child in the classroom who has my problem.  We worked in pairs,  I was acting out questioning a students using lower order questions and then higher order questions.  The student, could answer the lower order questions but shrugged their shoulders and grunted with the higher order question.  Here is the image of my Empathise Poster: 

How might we...

The How Might We... turned the problem into a solution, which was a fantastic way of reframing the problem.  I had already recorded some ideas of how to reframe the problem like how are teachers preparing students to become critical thinkers?  How will students recognise that they are being taught different concepts/higher order thinking (H.O.T) skills?   People at the hui contributed to each other's How Might We... by writing a prompt or question.  Here is my poster: 

The Who?

We then continued to discuss the Who... who would be able to support this project?  I included teachers that I currently have contact with and one teacher who in the past has supported our school.  The Manaiakalani Research team, and our facilitators Meryn and Fiona would also be great support. 

Manaiakalani Innovator Teachers 2022

Ideate the Crazy 8's

Ideate - Crazy 8's was a great exercise to complete.  Funnily enough I added the last one as a crazy idea, but have always thought of creating a YouTube channel and/or videos to support student learning.  This happened to be the most popular idea from the other teachers.  Here is my poster: 

Recounting Kuaotunu Hui

We landed in Auckland ready to pick up the rental car. Anna and I had been on a number of digital technology courses before so we were busily catching up when we missed our turn off, out of Auckland.  Once we arrived in the beautiful coastal town of Kuaotunu I knew this was going to be a special place to be able to take the time to think and reflect, and it was.

I was attending along with four other colleagues from around NZ the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher initial hui in Kuaotunu, 24 - 26th February 2022. 

We started the Saturday with Dorothy (Board Chair)  and Jenny (the Principal) acting out our identified problems, we took on different roles representing the parent community.  This helped to clarify how different people viewed our individual problem.  For me I realised I was too critical of teachers and reframed my problem from the point of view of the students. 

This hui at Kuaotunu was a fantastic way to learn, create, share, connect, and reflect.