Planning and assessment examples

Writing P.D 21/11/2017

"Great readers make great writers like good eaters make good chefs." Good readers often have a wider vocabulary.

What are some of the issues with students writing?
My response: When I think about my students' writing, I find that many of them have highly creative imaginations and are able to come up with interesting ideas to write about, however they struggle to put those ideas down in grammatically correct, coherent sentences. Sometimes they are lacking knowledge of how a sentence is supposed to be structured, i.e. subject, verb, object. Other times I believe students write in more of a stream-of-consciousness, and lack the revising and editing skills necessary to ensure it makes sense at the end. 

On the other hand, I also come across students who are highly capable of writing sophisticated, grammatically correct sentences, yet struggle to simply come up with enough things to say. I find these students require a lot more support in the early stages of writing, with brainstorming and planning their ideas. Supports such as a picture prompt or a story-starter can also make a huge difference for these students who struggle to get started. 

SSW - sustained silent writing - 10-15 minutes a day on any topic they want. (Quick writes)
Good writing includes:
Precision (it is to the point)
Clarity (not cleverness)
Focus (doesn't wander)
Fluency (easy to read)
Coherence (I can understand what the author is saying)

We need to be teaching students how to structure sentences. Different sentence styles video: Ian
'Writing a sentence is like a train...'
The bird.. Sat in a tree... Watching a delicious worm
How many ways can you organise the engine and the carriages.
Teach the skill on its own - content does not need to be linked to inquiry etc. Just use basic language, that won't confuse them.

20 words or less: GOOD SENTENCE.

How might I use these sentence ideas in my classroom?

• Have a play around with different orders for sentences (train and carriages)
• Give students opportunity to revisit a piece of writing and change some sentences - choose one type at a time, or focus on a range.
• Give excerpts from stories or journals for students to look for cool sentences.

Important: Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and success criteria:

Pick samples of writing apart: 'What makes this writing great?' 'What do you notice?'

What shouldn't we do? 

Co-constructing SC with students. 

Maths OTJ Moderation

Earlier this month we had a staff meeting on moderation. We each brought along some samples of work across different strands as evidence of that student being at a particular level. At the meeting we had to explain and justify how we'd made the OTJ using these samples. Some constructive conversations came out of it which got me to challenge my thinking. It was great to really get into the nuts and bolts of maths and how we can distinguish between level 3 and level 4.

Reflection on maths teaching video

Class Survey

I am thrilled with the results of this survey. It shows I have increased the amount of Te Reo I use which was a goal of mine from last year. I have taken note of the children who have mentioned the work being too easy as this is something I'm very conscious of, especially as I have so many high achievers this year. It is helpful to get this feedback nice and early so I can make some changes. It would be nice to know who the anomalies are in some cases so I could really make a difference for those kids.

Maths TAI 2016

STAR Reading test analysis

Modelling books in reading, writing and maths

For my daily lesson plans, I use modelling books. These include learning intentions (often framed as a question), sometimes success criteria, the date student group/individual names for tracking purposes. These books are there for the students to refer back to in following lessons and independent time.  I also use the book for formative assessment, leaving examples of students achieving the learning intention and other indicators such as traffic lights.

Maths Workshops

My maths has for the most part this year been structured in a student-driven workshop format. Students do a weekly or fortnightly pre-test (self-checker - pic 1) to see what they know already and what their next learning steps are. Students then put their name down on the workshop booking sheet (pic 2) to show they need to learn that particular skill/concept.

I use this as a guide for who I will be teaching on each particular day. If there are a lot of kids down for one workshop, I will split the group in two or sometimes even three, differentiating them (but to the students it is 'random')

Weekly planning

Weekly planning stems from unit plans for each curriculum area created in our staff groups. This planning is done weekly however is very fluid as lessons move around and plans change.

Maths Formal Observation and reflection

I feel that I have made good progress with using the 5 talk moves and it has become a normal part of maths that the students expect. I find myself using the moves without really knowing I am - telling me that it is starting to become a way of 'being' - more than just something I 'do'. The talk is still largely led by myself and I am making an effort to direct the students' talk back to each other and less back to me in the 'ping pong' style. I use lots of think, pair, share but I don't yet think the students are thinking deeply about each others' responses which is something that Jody picked up on in this Observation. I agree that my next step is having the students discussing more freely and having them lead it. Jody and discussed how this might be a challenge. We thought about explicitly teaching them to lead a discussion through modelling and 'role play' and using prompt cards. Deb also introduced me to the idea of a 'fishbowl', where half the group sit down and solve a problem and the other half observe on the outside and then ask questions for clarification. When I tried this, the questioning was very basic - only 'how did you work that out' etc, then there was little to no challenging or further questioning once they heard the explanation. This is something I would really like to work on as it is totally student to student conversation.

Tracking sheet in beginning stage

Data tracking of target students

Reflecting on my Maths Video

Working with target maths group

Here are some short video clips of me working with my target group in maths. We were placing different representations of fractions along a numberline. Fractions were a mix of simple, improper and mixed. I had been working on using the 5 talk moves to get more mathematical discourse happening. I think I'm using them pretty well, however I need to make sure I'm using all five, not just re-using the same two or three. Another next step for me will be to move towards the students initiating the discussion, rather than it being so teacher led.

   

Statistics Planning & post-lesson reflection

Achievement Objectives: Statistical investigation: • Plan and conduct investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle: – determining appropriate variables and data collection methods; – gathering, sorting, and displaying multivariate category, measurement, and time-series data to detect patterns, variations, relationships, and trends; – comparing distributions visually; – communicating findings, using appropriate displays. Statistical literacy: • Evaluate statements made by others about the findings of statistical investigations and probability activities. Probability: • Investigate situations that involve elements of chance by comparing experimental distributions with expectations from models of the possible outcomes, acknowledging variation and independence. • Use simple fractions and percentages to describe probabilities.
Week two: Looking at different types of data (quantitative and qualitative), multivariate, time series & measurement data - Discrete vs Continuous data. How to display these. Looking into what good questions are.
6	7	8	9	10
What are different types of data? How are they different? How do we display the different types? What is the difference between discrete data and continuous data? Discrete: counted Continuous: measured Quantitative: Qualitative: Times Series: Multivariate: Activity L.I: Reaching conclusions based on qualitative data	L.I: Recognising patterns in time series data Discuss what time series data is and the best way to graph it 2. F.I.O L3-4, p.2-3    Whole class activity: Students work with a buddy, go through activity step by step as a class.	L.I: Comparing related but different data sets Show a scatter plot that displays different sets of data to be compared. F.I.O L3-4, p.11 ‘Where’s my bus?’	L.I: Exploring the relationship between two variables (multivariate data) Looking at measurement data F.I.O L3-4, p.12-13 ‘Fish Figures’ Need: a computer spreadsheet or graphing program	L.I: Coming up with good investigative questions F.I.O: L4, p.4-4 ‘What’s the question?’ What makes a good question: Checklist Use data cards from NZ census to write investigative questions
Reflection: We covered numerical data: discrete and continuous and categorical data. Didn’t get on to ordinal data or that categorical data can be numerical	Instead of this lesson we did a follow up activity about data types and graph types. Did lesson on drawing a pie graph by hand, using percentages & protractor etc. Need to continue this - David, Luis, Sean		Used Google sheets for graphing but can only make basic pie, bar, line graphs etc. Need to find site for making histograms etc are they using the right type of graph for the task? Data & Answering the question