Vision PLD with Jude Parkes - Developing Writing Skills

Today during PLD with Jude, we looked at the writing demands and shifts in expertise within the Literacy learning progressions for writing from Year 1-10.  In seeing and discussing the progressions and the 'why' behind the progression we had opportunity to identify how well the progressions are set within our classrooms.

When asked what writing looks like in our classrooms, teachers identified a range of things that apply in their room.  It was agreed that the process of writing looks similar across the school, but oracy, scaffolding and extension of ideas varies across the school. Vocabulary walls and clines were evident in classrooms as part of scaffolding.  It is important to have these in place, but every so often it's a good idea to take them away to allow for independence...and put them back later.

Approaches used within classrooms here were - clinics, reading/writing applications (when writing focus is reports, then teacher is reading reports during reading time).   It's important that writing approaches are varied and include - Modeled writing, shared writing, guided writing interactive writing, language experience, innovations in text, skills focused mini -lessons, paired writing, peered writing, collaborative writing, joint construction, writing projects, independent writing.  Approaches should provide challenge, difference and surprise.

Gradual release of responsibility - direct instruction (I do it), guided instruction (we do it), collaborative instruction (You do it together), independent practice (you do it independently).  This means that writing groups should change.

Modelled writing involves the use of exemplars and teachers read them out to ensure understanding.  think alouds are also important within this context.  Shared writing includes 'I write and You write' at the same time.  Sharing of the pen, ideas and taking turns leading and often teachers revert back to and between both shared and modeled writing throughout a lesson.

A conversation should be had across school about what the writing process looks in our classrooms.  This conversation needs to be revisited in our school due to changing staff and PLD focus over the past couple of years.  How effectively are we sharing learning intentions with our students during a lesson and do we revisit before, during and after lessons.  Asking plenary questions at the end of lessons or the end of the day gives teachers an opportunity to find out if the purpose behind the learning has been achieved.  Using visuals as scaffolds and prompts to support learners is important and needs to be reflected on during planning.

Opportunity for talk alouds and think alouds should be given to children during lessons.

Pobble 365 - a good resource for writing and can be used within Language experience - repetition with variety.

Leaders Influencing Teachers' High Expectations (LITHE)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently participating in a course called 'Leaders influencing Teachers' High Expectations', led by Christine Ruby-Davis and Richard Newton.  I am attending with our leadership team made up of myself, our Principal and three lead teachers.  We've had two sessions now, focusing on research, barriers and proven strategies that promote or inhibit teacher's high expectations.  As with any new learning, I connect discussion themes to my own knowledge and previous experiences and this learning has given me pause to reflect on how my own behaviours have impacted classrooms I have led.
Working with our staff on developing teachers high expectations, our new learning from the LITHE course was shared in a staff meeting workshop which I facilitated.  The discussion, questions and reflection that resulted was thoughtful, challenging and deeply reflective.  Staff were open to the ideas which challenged their educational values and beliefs and in some ways were confronted with their own ideas on pedagogical practice.  It was inspiring to listen to them share their experiences and reflect on the messages shared, making connections and relating them to their students and our community.
Below is the slide deck we prepared for the meeting workshop.  We began the meeting with a youtube Tedtalk by 'Rita Pearson' about championing our kids (it's 'Believing in our students' in red on the cover slide)....a wonderful start to encourage teachers to reflect on where they come from and the impact they have on their students.  We then move into research and questions around what "high expectations" teachers do to accelerate the learning in their room.  Check out the slide deck below:

Supporting staff with challenging students.

As a school leader, supporting and guiding teachers and students in developing purposeful working relationships can be a minefield.  We've all had those students throughout our career who have challenged our thinking,  tested our patience and made us doubt our ability to teach them.  When a

staff member has a student with special needs, learning needs or behaviour issues, it's my job as a leader to ensure that they are supported in their endeavours to develop the best programme necessary to meet the needs of that student.  This is not always easy and it is becoming a more and more common occurrence in main stream schooling.

    There is very much a tension between doing what is right for the individual student and doing what is right for the teacher and class when challenges arise.  Students come to school with the right to be safe and happy in an environment that offers learning that is engaging, challenging and fun.  Any teacher will tell you that it only takes one student to tip that environment on its head.

   So how do school leaders support, monitor and minimise disruption through student behaviours? It's no easy task.  Teachers work extremely hard to design and implement engaging programmes and set high expectations of their students to make sound progress and achieve expected outcomes with the hope that they can go beyond even those.  They have a preconceived picture of what they want to happen and how it's going to work, that's what planning and preparation is about.  One hopes they cover all the bases and have anticipated any possible hiccups that may happen along the way, readying a plan B just in case.   When teaching in a class with more than one challenging student, sometimes having a plan C, D and E often still doesn't cover a lesson that goes to custard when unpredictable behaviours occur.

In leadership there are a number of ways to support teachers with challenging students.  First and foremost, establishing a relationship with the students whanau is a priority.  Opening lines of communication helps in establishing expectations, creating behaviour plans and sharing 'same' messages both at home and at school.  Through these relationships, schools can advise whanau of the extra support available in the community to assist with their child's development, such as community programmes in the arts, sports and other possible interests of the child.  There are also support services to support families financially and avenues for further guidance in health and cognitive development.

In school, supporting classes with challenging students is imperative to positive outcomes.  The tension between taking students out and leaving them in class to work is an ongoing debate.  One school survey of 118 students identified that the number one issue identified by students  was that they couldn't stay fully focused on their work because of classroom disruption.  The message for leadership through this survey was that a closer look at classroom and behaviour management was required.  In focusing on these things it was realised that programmes for challenging students needed to be implemented to offer those students an alternative learning avenue to the classroom, and at the same time gave teachers and students respite from disruption for parts of the day.  At the forefront to programme development is purposeful outcomes wholly established to progress student learning and achievement. 

     We are hoping that the development of 'makerspace', wellbeing programmes and tuakana teina programmes will go a long way to more settled classrooms, a feeling of value and engagement for students involved and less grey hair for  teachers.  Leadership will monitor progress through qualitative data from students, teachers and whanau.  We will measure against engagement, key competencies and identified outcomes. 

What if all teachers had high expectations for every student?

A day spent at the LITHE (Leaders Influencing Teacher's High Expectations) course at Auckland Uni.  Lots of food for thought.  Once again, conflicting thoughts, challenging thinking...watch this space!

Developing Math Inquiry Communities

Our Teacher Only Day during the holidays was dedicated to professional development on 'Developing Math Inquiry Communities' (DMIC).  Our hosts for the meeting were Gene, Don and Frank, facilitators of the culturally-tailored inquiry based maths approach developed by Roberta (Bobbie) Hunter from Massey University.  It was a full staff meeting approach, ensuring a 'shared understanding' of the ethos of the programme across the school. 

The greatest motivation or reason for this math focus is the recognition that maths is an area for development across our school.  Over the years, we have received PLD in maths with a variety of facilitators with a variety of messages.  The results of which have been underwhelming, almost disappointing. 
As a leader across the school I have pondered the effectiveness of the delivery of the PLD and also the response by staff involved.  In delivery I heard mixed messages, and confusion reigned over what to and what not to teach.  In response I sensed possible deficit thinking and frustration from some staff who believed our students were unable to cope with the change in lesson structure and application.  In this case I considered whether or not some staff could be reluctant to reflect on their own practice and resistant to changing their own pedagogy. 
 In addition to this it was imperative I personally reflect on how the leadership team supported the PLD facilitators and staff through the process and in conclusion to this I noted my own areas for thought.  Firstly, expectations on staff with consideration to overload.  We all know that teachers already have a lions share of paperwork to contend with in the name of accountability, but when PLD involves add-ons without anything taken away, it can be a cause anxiety and frustration for staff.  Consideration of added workload needs to be taken in advance of PLD on offer.  Secondly, leading from the front by being fully involved, acknowledging teachers opinions or concerns and working through them with respect to how they feel is important.  Having a staff who are reflective and pedagogically aware is a work in progress and each staff member is at a different place in their own development.  Building confidence in their abilities to make changes is key and ensuring they are on board with and have a shared understanding of what's involved is important.

The main thing I wish to get out of this PLD is an increase in my knowledge and understanding of oral language acquisition through maths inquiry and to develop skills around the facilitation of problem solving in maths.  I was excited by the modelling session we had with the facilitators.  Having been in the job for so many years, my role of as a teacher is ingrained in me, so seeing and listening to what we did on Friday both scared me and inspired me.  The shift in pedagogy for me is huge, stepping back, fully relinquishing control to students in their learning goes against the grain to a certain extent and there is still a lot of grey for me work through.  However, I'm hoping that through participating from the front with staff, I will gain skills in maths that will allow me to support and guide staff as well as accelerate student achievement across our school.

So what...next?  I would like to work with staff through observation, both of me and of them, to identify my areas of strength and areas of development.  I hope to utilize time in classrooms to work with students, practice talk moves and the 'assessment for learning' pedagogy that is prevalent through DMIC.  I will be self reflecting and seeking feedback from colleagues across the school, which is both exciting and daunting at the same time.  I realise that I will be opening myself up to criticism but am prepared to seek feedback as a professional leader and a learner within a learning community...which is what it really is all about!

SPRING into Professional Development - A learning process.

In term 4 last year, myself and four teacher aides embarked on training for the "SPRING into Maths" programme. After reflecting on our in-school remedial programmes with our TAs, we identified the need for further training and the tightening up of our STEPS (Literacy) and SPRING (Numeracy) programmes to improve the academic achievement of students who struggle in reading and maths. We unpacked the barriers impacting the programmes and among those identified were; attendance, consistency of application, lack of a shared understanding, an 'add on' attitude from teachers and a disconnect between the programmes and the classroom programme.

A decision was made to address the identified barriers through a variety of approaches. Focusing firstly on the SPRING into Maths programme, the TAs and myself (as the supporting staff/SENCO member) attended 3 SPRING training workshops at the RTLB hub in Royal Oak.   Prior to the commencement of Term 1, two RTLBs ran presentations on the purpose and expected outcomes  of STEPS and SPRING to our staff on teacher only day. The purpose for the workshop was to introduce the to staff the connections between how the programmes can work within their own in-class programmes. Providing not just an 'add on' but an integration of STEPS and SPRING within the context of our reading and maths curriculum.

We have been fortunate to make our learning into a 'project' with two very supportive RTLBs, one who lead the workshops we attended (Druinie Perera) and the other our RTLB liason person (Dianne Ley). Before we started, myself and the TAs had a day workshop ourselves, reviewing our learning from the previous RTLB training. We created documentation to identify barriers and ways we could nullify impact such as attendance checks lists, tracking catch-up sessions and looking ahead to events across the school which would cause interruption to the programme. We then went through the assessment tools and reviewed the administering of it. I modeled the tools on four students, with TAs observing closely, providing opportunity for on the spot questions and clarification. Following their observations of me, the TAs then paired up and carried out observations of each other, advising, questioning and supporting. Once assessment was complete we had a meeting with our RTLB SPRING team focusing on the data gleaned from the assessment and advising on next steps. Together we grouped students and planned the first three weeks of the programme with one group,

The process we have created ourselves to embed this programme across the schools through the learning and application of our Teacher Aides has been commended by the RTLBs working with us. According to them, we have gone 'next level' in the commitment to training and applying the SPRING programme with in our school.
The priorities for further development have been identified in two prongs;

1. Monitor TA programme practice across the school. Review through observation, reflection and continuing meetings giving guidance and support.
2. Ensure teachers are involved in the planning to provide contextual links and integration of SPRING into the classroom programme. 

We will complete the planning together with each group and are aiming to get the STEPS programme up and running by then end of Week 7 this term.  It's an 11 week term, so we will have 5 weeks to learn as we go and identify what is and isn't working in the programme.  Hopefully within that time, we can iron out any issues and begin term 2 knowing the programme, working it seamlessly, monitoring progress and making gains in our student achievement.
Our next steps in our development of across school programmes is to create a similar implementation programme for STEPS with our incredible group of TAs. 

Manaiakalani Lead Teachers PLG - T12018

If you haven't got language, then you haven't got context.

Every time I attend a Manaiakalani PLG, I walk away inspired, challenged and sometimes perplexed.  Today's meeting was no different.  Even before the day had begun, myself and a colleague were sitting together at a table with two other chairs and we were very happy when Dr Jannie van Hees joined us at our table. I had previously sat in a few lectures by Jannie and she was good...I was excited to hear what she was going to share with us today! Even better, she was sitting with us so we could pick her brains up close and milk her attention for all that we wanted to know! Winning!

These meetings always provide opportunity for the cluster to look at itself though the data and research findings from the year before.  Today we drilled into the discoveries through the lens in our own autonomy, through the Tamaki Primary lens.  It was in some ways confronting, creating a 'data narrative', unpacking the things which negatively impacted the success of our students last year.  But, it was also gratifying identifying the things we put in place or are in the process of putting in place to lesson or nullify those impacts.  Dorothy Burt lead the first part of the PD and never fails to challenge our thinking, never letting complacency settle on the drive behind the goals of the cluster.

Inspiration started with Russel Burt talking about the importance of language and the worrying trends noticed across our communities relating to the language acquisition of our young learners.  He spoke of how students coming to school with insufficient language skills can have difficulties throughout their young lives expressing their thoughts, feelings and opinions.  Often students when found in situations where they have difficulty expressing themselves, resort to aggression and violence to show their frustration.  The Manaiakalani cluster of schools is looking for ways to tell the truth without blaming, without judging, without making people feel dumb, without being deficit, without harming anyone.   Today's Lead Teachers PLG focused on language acquisition, an area identified through data, observation and discourse across the cluster as our highest need. 
Russel's eloquent introduction to the day's learning was an appropriate segue to our main speaker of the day, 'Jannie van Hees', the specialist educator in applied linguistics and pedagogy who just happened to be sitting at our table.

The focus of Jannie's learning message was around 'Language in abundance'.  She reflected on research on children from birth to 18 and the importance of language development across that time.  Much of the time, listening to Jannie's messages, anecdotes, questions, challenges, suggestions and research...I was connecting, reflecting, consolidating, questioning and challenging her ideas and my own regarding the topic. My take-aways from the discussion largely focused on the the TRIO; Explicit attention to language, optimising environmental conditions and attention to co-contributors.  As an educator it's important to have an awareness of students 'receiving' - being available, noticed and involved...and 'producing', ensuring students have the opportunities to try out.  Below are my notes for the day...pearls of wisdom I peeled from the day. 

Language in abundance - Jannie van Hees
Its all about language...Without language we are disempowered.
From birth, it's the environment that children are born into that effects a child's gain as they grow.
Major sources for language in abundance - first 1000 days are critical learning time, using complex language and not dumbing it down (the Goldilocks zone), providing a safe supportive environment to use language, create a thirst for print, whanau conversation quality, community conversation,
What can we do to develop language within our schools? - Meaningful quality matters, quantity matters.
Most important - the TRIO - Explicit attention to language, optimising environmental conditions (exciting contexts, relevant contexts - learners deeply involved), Attention to co-contributors.
What matters, why and how? - FLOURISHING - Cognition (brain development, thinking, percieving, system and logic), concepts-knowledge (realisations and knowing understandings and enquiry), Attitude/Awareness - when I feel language empowered, I am empowered (self esteem)
FLOURISHING LEARNING - attention to and noticing, Effortful and purposeful engagement and interaction, triggering the known and connect to the new, stretching ones current language repertoire, Multiple encounters, context relevant, Facilitated through engaging mediating tools - persons, tasks, activities, sources.
PRIME SCAFFOLDERS - Co-Contributors to learning occurring.
Children talking among themselves doesn't always mean learning is taking place.  Children have to scaffold themselves, contributing to the group. Key scaffolders in English language growth - TEACHER, SELF, PRINT, VISUAL, AUDIO RESOURCES...Is the time frame within think/peer/share long enough to have depth of thought in answers/discussion taking place.
Well prepared context and delivery of learning.

• Brainstorm words - teacher front loads if language is not flowing from group
• watch a video
• Transfer video content into print - e.g podcasts translated to print.
• talk about what we've learned - taking support away - say it our own words.

Quantity matters - singular words don't always stick.  Better to deliver the concepts - knowledge through unpacking from source.
If there is not language in abundance in the resource, the teacher must provide it and build on it.  Multi-modal learning.
How do we develop teacher's ability to consistently look for language in abundance through opportunities to optimise language learning conditions?

IS IT PIFFLE...OR IS IT POWERFUL?