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Inquiry 2019

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Will culturally responsive practises improve writing motivation and in turn increase achievement in standardised writing test? As I reflect on the year and my writing achievement, I am so happy with the confidence and direction I now have towards writing in the junior school.  Reflecting on their eASTTLE testing, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of writing, especially with their structure and language, thanks to Jannie!  Target students  (unable to write independently or apply letter sound knowledge) : As I reflect on my writing programme from last year, when it came to the test I had students who did not know how to start a sentence as they were constantly prompted in daily lessons. This was when I made the decision I needed to inquire into my teaching practice in writing. This year, I have had a big focus on getting every student writing independently. With the use of the iPad, this has been hugely beneficial for these students,
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Inquiry - Term 3

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Team 2 were very lucky to have Jannie van Hees come and speak to us this term around literacy in our learning space, particularly focusing on writing, knowing how to cater/implement this into all ability levels. Jannie echoed it isn't all about extracting language from the children when this is a huge struggle which is seen in their writing so where are we going to put our lens? I have 11 out of my 21 learners who are ESOL learners, where some struggle to simply voice their opinions in the classroom. It is very important for us as teachers to have ongoing conversations with the students giving them many opportunities to improve their oral language, not just written.  Allowing the students to participate in meaningful encounters and engagement with other learners, continually gifting the vocabulary to optimise the students learning and to help support the language is sticking to the learner.   Once the 2 sentences had been written, Jannie says a word, kid identifies the word an
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Halfway through the year!

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Will culturally responsive practises improve writing motivation and in turn increase achievement in standardised writing testing The students writing test takes place next term and the kids will not have access to their iPads. My inquiry states 'Increase achievement in standardised writing testing.'   This leaves me questioning what to do and how to do it effectively. I am having to slowly eliminate the iPad throughout the term while still hopefully getting the students to write what they were previously capable of  without  the iPad. After discussing this with teachers in my Inquiry Group and teachers around the school, I received a number of great ideas to slowly take away these scaffolds such as: - Talk talk talk - Gift  some  words to the students with the removal of the iPad - Memory games! Talk talk talk... I have actively used this tool throughout the year during writing but I plan to try and extend on this, allowing students to generate it
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How am I getting on?

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A hugely rewarding aspect of my inquiry would have to be students choosing to complete a piece of writing during 'Free Choice.'  These students were incapable of writing a simple sentence at the beginning of the year and dreaded 'writing time'. Once I praised a boy on an excellent choice of activity, I asked him why he decided to pick writing, with his response 'Because I'm getting good at it.' He has grown in confidence and become intrinsically motivated to strive to succeed. Below he is represented as #3 of the progression images. #1 in the images is a student who struggles to speak a sentence correctly. At the beginning of the year, she would sit at the back of the class and rarely share her ideas with a peer. As my inquiry has a heavy focus on culturally responsive practices, before the students head away to write we have a discussion on the mat in small groups, followed by expanding this where the floor is open for anyone to share their ideas. This al
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Inquiry Update Term 1 Week 9

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Will culturally responsive practises improve writing motivation and in turn increase achievement in standardised writing testing? As I reflect on the last month, I am beginning to see changes with my students ability to write simple sentences. I am creating follow up activities on the iPad around alphabet sounds to support the students who are currently solidating this. Some days they do not write and do this as their writing task instead. These students are struggling to record 1 clear simple sentence on their iPad and the sentence is usually far too challenging when they have recorded it themselves. We have been working on writing 'I like to ___ ' & 'I went to the ____' where the students know they can find these words on their helper cards around the room, identify the correct word and write it. I plan to start recording the sentence for them to copy and hopefully build words into their vocabulary throughout the year. My students who are identified as b
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Inquiry 2019

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Manaiakalani COL Achievement: Raise Māori student achievement through the development of cultural visibility and responsive practices across the pathway as measured against National Standards and agreed targets for reading Years 1-10 and NCEA years 11-13 Inquiry question: Will culturally responsive practises improve writing motivation and in turn increase achievement in standardised writing testing This year I have decided to base my inquiry around writing. As I collated the 2018 data and reflected on the learners lack of motivation throughout the year in 2018, I decided to focus my inquiry around writing.  Within the first 4 weeks of the school term, I have identified 10 learners who specify themselves as cook island/maori (4) or maori (6).  Reflecting on last year, I found a pattern within the attitude towards writing and my learners, beginning to plateau and show little interest of completing their writing. I have identified these 10 learners to focus on
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