Integration, Authenticity and Learner Outcomes

Arohamai, it seems to have been forever since my last blogpost. This year has been a whirlwind of exciting learning both for myself and the children in my hub. 

I was prompted however to write this post today after our PLD session this morning. This provoked us to think about, and discuss how we can accelerate learning. Well, that was the unconference workshop which I chose to opt into. 

During this we came up with the following possibilities for accelerating learner outcomes. 

What I enjoyed most about this conversation two-fold. Firstly as a teacher of 3 years experience I actually had a lot to contribute, and secondly, I was able to make connections to others contributitions also. I think that sometimes being surrounded by so many extremely talented and effective teachers I forget to give myself some of that same credit... 

Only an hour later I was back in the hub with my numeracy group. We were working on our 'stained glass window' designs. This activity combined one of the learners favourite pursuits, art, with strand: Measurement and Geometry. Plus, our recently built knowledge of fractions. What I enjoyed the most about this was not the learner's designs, but their ability to articulate and problem solve to describe their designs. 

Designing #stainedglasswindows #problemsolving to determine the #fractions #geometry + #measurement @StonefieldsSch pic.twitter.com/wJI6HRJVK7

— Stephanie Parker (@Sparketter) September 14, 2016

The benefits of integrating the curriculum was in fact one of the things that came up in our accelerating outcomes korero this morning. By doing so, learning would become richer and more authentic. This is exactly what I witnessed this morning with my learners as they worked together to not only create, but explain and justify their thinking around things like the fraction of the square which was yellow, or what fraction was made up of triangles. This activity meant we had to add fractions with different denominators, make equivalent fractions, consider the symmetry, rotation, and translation and apply all of this knowledge to our own drawings. A very proud teacher moment to see all of this learning coming into authentic action. 

Reflecting on this activity lead me to make some connections. The integrated learning I had created for these learners was enabling them to make connections and apply their understanding of mathematical concepts in an engaging and authentic context. 

It's moments like this that I realise why I love teaching, that I do make an impact, and that I cause learning to happen!

Take a look at some of the learner examples on our hub blog, and feel free to leave them a specific and positive comment.

 

Knowledge and transfer

Yesterday I was delighted to see that my students had grasped, retained and applied something they had learned a few weeks ago. Particularly because at the time I wasn't sure that they had really understood. 

The concept was figurative language, similes and metaphors. We had been reading a narrative and were discussing the similes and narratives within. The students had been asked to create their own metaphors afterwards with limited success. 

Yesterday I was reading a picture book after lunch and I came across a wonderful metaphor where the soldier lived in a grimy prison. When posing the question to the class, one of my boys who had struggled with concept earlier, confidently identified it as a metaphor. What followed was an awesome class discussion about figurative language, led by the learners. 

What a great way to end the week. 

Vocabulary is everything

During our EDPROFST700 lecture yesterday we were talking about struggling students that can decode and read effectively, but when asked had little or no comprehension of what they read. This is particularly common trend among English as second language students. 
Today, my class were exploring recreational fishing rules. We were reading Fishing Rules and creating charts to show the minimum size and maximum quantity we are allowed to catch. As part of the activity students were asked to do some research of their own to add more types of kaimoana to the chart. One of my students who is fluent in Tongan, was researching the Snapper legal size limits.
After she read the first paragraph of the article  

"Snapper bag limits in the country's most popular fishery will be reduced from nine to seven, and the minimum legal size increased from 27cms to 30cms from April 1 next year."

I then asked her what the legal size for snapper is. She replied, about 27 - 30 centimetres. I asked her to read the last part of the sentence again, then asked, "what does 'increased' mean"? She didn't know. I took for granted that this was language that she would have, and as a result, could not comprehend the article. We then uncovered the vocabulary in the paragraph, and then she was able to understand that increase meant more, reduce meant less, or decrease.

This scenario really honed in for me the professional discussion we had yesterday and the need for explicit and implicit teaching of vocabulary.
Without understanding the vocabulary being read, it is no wonder that students cannot correctly comprehend, as a teacher it is important that I use and expose students to more and more vocabulary, but also that in this exposure I implicitly describe the meaning of what is being said. Assume nothing.

Accelerating Learning and Developing Research Methods.

As a reflection from my learning today at the MDTA first lecture on research and practice today I have composed my thoughts and my many questions, which I intend to answer as the year progresses.

Accelerating Learning

Thinking about transforming how we teach not just substitute or augment existing practices. Adapting teaching practices to actually enhance learning rather than just replacing historic methods (pen and paper), with modern methods (digital), is what I want to achieve.   

This makes me consider the PPDAC Data Detective cycle that I have been using with my class.  

What is the problem? Where is the lag, and what are the needs of my tamariki?

Plan - How will I go about this, what are the steps I must take before implementing interventions.  

Data - what is the best way measure student achievement? asttle, Gloss, probe, PM, Peter’s Spelling, OTJ, etc. My reflection on research methods below questions the authenticity of test results as evidence of ability. What other ways can I gather data?  

Analyse it, and how can I know gains in achievement are results of my teaching?

Conclusion, was this successful?  Did my teaching practice directly enhance student achievement, have I solved/answered my problem from the beginning?

So then, what exactly is my problem? How do I accelerate the learning and development of my students, all students, not just my just belows. This is something that I need to consider this year. What exactly and how exactly do I focus my professional learning and refine my following teaching practice.  

Why consider ‘Research Methods’?

Results from laboratory testing versus real experiences. Context matters. People behave differently in artificial situations, therefore without authentic context findings cannot be generalised to anything but that artificial scenario. Therefore to make real conclusions about how we can accelerate our students learning we must analyse their work and learning in authentic classroom and learning environments.

This too raises the question I have over testing. How authentic is a ‘test’ as an indicator of a students ability? To me, a ‘test’ environment is a contrived environment and not natural to the usual learning experiences or their future work environments. Under real productive circumstances collaboration, discussion, feedback and feedforward are abundant, dynamic and  necessary elements. This is something that I need to take into consideration when planning my research.

As a beginning teacher I am somewhat of a blank slate in terms of current teaching practice, apart from those that I have modelled from over my practicum and observation experiences. I welcome your feedback should you have insight or answers to guide my questions.