Term 3/4 Inquiry- Writing

 

SCANNING: WHAT IS GOING ON FOR MY LEARNERS?

At my mid year data I can see that I have a considerable number of students who are not writing at expectation. This is also reflected in school wide data. What I believe is contributing to this:

- some students have corresponding reading and writing levels below expectation which has been the case for over a year.

-some students are reluctant writers, I think they have the ability but are not willing to focus on writing tasks and complete them to the standard that they are capable of. These writers are at/above in reading. Predominately boys in this group.

-as I was learning BSLA and focusing on accreditation the planning was focused on reading. Literacy time has been focused on reading and PHOM. Small group reading has been a main focus for me and a non negotiable. There has not been a focus on whole class writing lessons.

-students are making pleasing progress in PHOM teaching and picking up spelling patterns, there is not a lot of evidence of students transitioning this into their writing.

FOCUSING: WHERE DO I THINK CONCENTRATING MY ENERGY WILL MAKE THE MOST DIFFERENCE?

• I am going to focus on the reluctant writers in my class. These students are sitting at 1P and I would like to move them to 1A/2B by the end of the year. This is a group of ten boys.
• I am going to change my weekly timetable to allocate 2 whole class writing sessions, Jorja will teach a third on Wednesdays, as well as writing activities to work on independently during reading time.
• I will need to develop ideas that engage these learners. It will have a positive impact on the rest of the class as well.

DEVELOPING A HUNCH.

These learners will need good models of writing and a clear understanding of what success looks like.

They will need scaffolds and incentives and clear feedback.

They will need engaging prompts and motivations for writing.

Notes from discussion with Ange:

Different writing ideas for class.

- timed writing sessions, cant stop "Freedom writing"

-being "authors" recording stories rather than writing them.

I will try to incorporate these different types of activities into the weekly programme.

PACT PD Staff Meeting with Su. 14/9/21

 We explored how to make teacher judgements today using the PaCT tool. Reviewing what we have already covered reminded us that we need to remember to look at what we are taking away from each lesson.

Take aways:

1. It is important to view the illustrations provided to get a really good idea of what the big ideas really mean for each set/ signpost.

2. If you think a student(s) is displaying evidence at one signpost then read the descriptions above and below to double check the level of sophistication fits.

3. The illustrations are also really great ideas for teaching a big idea.

4. You don’t need to review each student for each set. You would group students to think about where they are to decide your deliberate acts of teaching for the next steps, one aspect at a time.

5. We will rotate our specific focus each term on reading this year as we familiarise ourselves with these learning progressions. It would be impossible to be thinking about all the aspects for R, W and M constantly!

6. As always we would use OTJ from a number of evidence sources to decide where students are.

7. The focus should be less about where students are in terms of giving them a ‘level’ and more about “What do I need to teach, and them to learn next”. 

We took a sample of students work and then looked at each aspect and used the blurb and the illustrations to help us place a student on a sign post. 

A good discussion happened at the end of the hui regarding E-asttle v's PACT tool for end of year assessments. Below are some of the things we took away from this lesson. 

We have noticed ...

...with practice I will get faster at this and more confident with making judgements

…need to change year levels of some students, classes have been set up with names to use now, look at notifications

… writing LPF is good to use. Want to use instead of asstle this year as doubling up. Maybe can for yr1-2??

...… would be really valuable to go to experts on staff to moderate with my tricky judgements

… PaCT tool - taken lots away. Talking with others about what our kids are doing at different levels, useful to collaborate

… Feel confident with it and I want to finish putting them in

… just get it in! You know more than you think you do with your first sense.  Calm the farm a bit - you can’t teach it all

… after so long thinking about it, procrastinating and not doing it. Getting stuff in has been beneficial. SO many opportunities to double check and triple check, so it’s robust and thorough.