Our final Spark-MIT meeting for 2016

This week has seen the final Spark-MIT meeting for the year at Spark HQ - a time of sharing and reflection for our cohort of 11 teachers from within Manaiakalani and its outreach clusters. An updated video of my uLearn presentation shares my reflections.

So what have I achieved through my inquiry since August? Two more families have enjoyed whānau training with Manaiakalani's Whānau Learning Kaiarahi, Yayleen Hubbard. Whānau have begun to engage with blog commenting in response to student-created support resources and homework tasks! Year-end reading data has been collected and analyzed.

So what have I learnt from this data? 57% of the control group (currently 14) has made accelerated gains of 1.5 years in reading achievement since February 2016. Significantly, Alex’s new-found positive attitude to learning combined with whānau engagement and digital affordance caused a 1.5 year shift in reading. This model of engaging whānau with their child’s learning while striving to meet individual student needs will remain the central theme of my teaching practice.

And what next for my inquiry? Learners are excited about blogging through the summer holidays with the launch of the 2017 Summer Learning Journey. Further reading assessment in February 2017 will tell the final chapter of this inquiry’s story.

Spark-MIT: where to next?

The second half of Term 3 offered some challenges which impacted on life and learning in Room 10: five Year 5 learners joined the class from a neighbouring class in Week 4 and are in the process of buying personal Chromebooks; and we relocated to Tamaki Primary and then Ruapotaka’s library during Weeks 7, 8 and 9 due to asbestos risk.

However, these challenges were put aside during the school holidays with the excitement of attending my first uLearn conference. Sharing my Spark-MIT IGNITE presentation as part of the Spark-MIT 2016 cohort has been the highlight of this Manaiakalani inquiry to date, but there was so much more to learn about, reflect upon and take away from uLearn.

Listening to internationally-renowned keynote speakers as well as teachers from around New Zealand sharing innovative ideas and their best practice was a catalyst for wonderings and ponderings in relation to my learning context.  What can I learn from Larry Rosenstock’s philosophy at High Tech High in San Diego after watching the documentary Most Likely to Succeed?  Regular exhibitions of student learning engage whānau and community on a large scale.  Closer to home, the Ako Fakataha initiative at St Pius X within Manaiakalani is a striking example of teacher persistence in engaging and empowering whānau to connect with their children’s digital learning journey.

While learning how coding and robotics can be introduced into learning at school, I experienced my “aha” moment of uLearn: Knitting is coding!  To achieve success at knitting, learners have to follow instructions exactly and persist in carrying out an often repetitive activity.  Feedback is instant for self and peers: it is easy to spot if the pattern has varied unexpectedly or stitches have been dropped. Of course, the free coding and creating programme, Scratch, offers learners opportunities to code, create and animate digitally!

As Term 4 begins and we have returned to our usual place of learning in Room 10, what is the most important thing for me to do as we approach the final weeks of this school year?  It is time to hold my ideas lightly as we focus on creating further opportunities and resources to support whānau engage with their child’s learning.

Spark-MIT 2016: sharing at uLearn

As part of the Spark-MIT 2016 cohort, I am inquiring into raising reading achievement while enabling family and whānau to engage with and support their child's digital learning journey. Each of the Spark-MIT 2016 teachers was tasked with sharing key learning and reflections from these individual inquiries to date in a five minute IGNITE presentation at uLearn 2016. Here is my presentation:

IGNITE-ing those sparks!

It was a privilege to share the progress, successes and wonderings so far of my Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (Spark-MIT) inquiry at Manaiakalani's annual hui yesterday. After sharing my thoughts for a second time at uLearn in early October, along with all other Spark-MIT 2016 inquirers, I plan to share my presentation via this blog.

The Spark-MIT 2016 cohort was tasked with creating an IGNITE style presentation to share this journey at the hui. Quite a challenge to share all that has happened in five minutes using only 20 slides! Such a challenge focused the mind on the key ideas, the important milestones, expressed succinctly - to avoid having to speak at a hundred miles an hour. Thank you, Dorothy, for demanding this of us. It reminds me of those classroom learning conversations when teachers are inspiring learners to craft, recraft and reorganise their writing ideas to meet the writing purpose!

As well as a time to reflect upon my inquiry and its progress, yesterday was a wonderful opportunity to listen to the successes and wonderings of others - my fellow Spark-MIT teachers, student ambassadors and research experts from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre.

Spark-MIT 2016: a milestone for whānau

Yesterday, digital training to empower whānau within Manaiakalani was undertaken for the first time by a family at Ruapotaka. After much persistence on the part of the student, a one-on-one training session was organised between a parent and Yayleen, Manaiakalani's Whānau Learning Kaiarahi. Alexandra's mum spent an hour with Yayleen learning about kawa of care and setting up a personal email account.

It has been two months since our Chromebook hui, but this significant meeting is further evidence that whānau do want to engage with and support their child's learning. As well as being a milestone for whānau, it was a proud moment for Alexandra too. She is now able to take her Chromebook home more frequently: Training with Yayleen. Time will tell whether other learners follow Alexandra's model to facilitate such whānau meetings!

Spark-MIT 2016: Literature Circles

I am inquiring into how learners in my Year 6 class can make and sustain accelerated gain in reading. Based on my observations and conversations with learners, all fluent readers enjoy reading but do not always actively choose to engage with longer texts independently. Despite some barriers to these learners accessing a range of relevant and interesting books, there are also personal mindset barriers which impact which books learners choose to read and how learners attempt to sustain reading a longer chapter book.  

According to the Ministry of Education, a literature circle is an approach to teaching reading that encourages fluent readers to think about and discuss books, usually longer texts. In such a “book club” a small group read the same novel independently, coming together at certain times to share their opinions, feelings and thoughts with the rest of the group.

Within the context of this inquiry, one reading group has been introduced to literature circles this term to investigate if this teaching approach can foster independence and deeper connections with a longer text amongst fluent readers. The group has taken on different roles using literature circle resources devised by Sheena Cameron.

So far, the response has been positive: learners have worked together to clarify roles and provided support to others when preparing for their first meeting - at which they enjoyed rich discussions led by the Discussion Director.

The learners are creating and completing their designated tasks digitally, although this can only be described as substitution within the SAMR model at present. However, the visible co-operation, collaboration and purposeful talk are supporting the growth of actively-engaged learners who, it is hoped, will choose to persevere to become resilient independent readers over time.

As we look forward to new learning and new opportunities in Term 3, it is exciting to report that all learners in Room 10 @ Ruapotaka now have a personal Chromebook. Parent interviews at the end of Term 2 enabled me to catch up with those families/whānau who were unable to attend our whānau hui earlier in the term. This development affords every student the opportunity to learn at home using a personal digital device from now on.

Whānau will continue to have opportunities to find out more about their child's digital learning journey by training with Manaiakalani's Kaiarahi/Whānau Engagement Facilitator. Our whānau blog is supporting the connections between home and school too: A group of students recently shared their screencast to explain the basics of a Chromebook for whānau.

Despite the Chromebooks remaining at school during the holidays, three learners have been actively blogging about the Olympics as part of the Winter Learning Journey blogging programme run by Rachel Williams of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. 

In Term 3, while we learn about the challenges faced by Olympians going for gold, learners will be challenged to go for reading gold by taking the opportunities afforded by ubiquitous learning.

The future looks rosy - and golden!