Literacy Observation and reflection: Writing sentences

Ashleigh’s 2017 LITERACY OBSERVATION

In the role as teacher

Aims:

1. To embark on peer observations as a tool for professional development and improving teaching practices and student performance.
2. To support each other achieve pedagogical goal(s) by opening up our practice and sharing instructional techniques and beliefs between and among teachers

Rationale:

An observed lesson is a shared resource where both teacher and coach take something of value from it

Prior to observation decide on observation focus and the way that the data will be collected.

Rules for the observation:

1. Describe what is seen or heard (the teacher will advise observers on what to focus on)
2. Report specifically and concretely on your focus area(s) only

Rules for feedback/discussion:

1. Comment on strengths
2. Talk specifically and concretely on your focus area(s) only
3. Ask clarifying questions if necessary (to gain more understanding of what was observed)
4. Have ONE probing question ready to ask the teacher

Pre-Observation Questions based on your reflections of your own teaching ...

2   What literacy teaching practice/s do you want me to look for/at specifically?       Developing clear success criteria for how to write better sentences and then using the criteria for students to check they’re on track. What process will the observer use?  Running record of what she observed. 3.    What should I know already about this (context)? We spent about 25 minutes on this yesterday so I’m following on from there. 5.    What are your expectations for the lesson?       Full participation. Should get the criteria together without too much difficulty as we started experimenting with writing good sentences the day before.

9.30am - Observation begins

The class has been introduced to the lesson using the trains and carriages for sentence construction example from staff PD and the class have been introduced terminology (adverbs, precise nouns etc)

They have co-constructed success criteria for a well written sentence.

The teacher is working with students on possible vocabulary for their sentences. Students are using a simple sentence to make more interesting. This is written on a template and has a couple of examples to work through in pairs or small groups. Students in pairs or small groups discussing the exercise. The teacher is roaming the room and working with students, checking in with each group. Students asking for clarification of some of the terminology -  for example verbs and adverbs. As students finish they share with teacher their constructed sentence and she redirects to the success criteria and asks them to consider if they have covered this and to proofread their work. The teacher gives a 1 minute alert before they buddy swap their work. This make students focus in on their work around the room as they know they will be sharing soon. The teacher continues to roam the room and asks for  what specific success criteria has been used - student replies - “I used an adverb and I used more detail and description by adding adjectives and then I added a new precise noun”. A fantastic answer - showing the students are coming to terms with the terminology and can identify and use this in their writing. The sentences are all more developed in the groups I can see around me.

After 7 minutes, the teacher counts down in te reo for attention. The whole class focuses up to the front of class. The teacher gives next step and asks “Have you successfully created one sentence according to the SC?” She tells the class that in a moment groups will  swap with a another group. They must read the sentence the group has been working on and identify which success criteria have they used. Teacher gives some framing questions to make it clear. “Have they used a precise noun?” and allows 3mins to do this. The group in front of me identifies the adjectives that have added detail and interest and the adverb and commas. The teacher roams the room the see how groups are going. She answers any questions students have and sits with groups if they need more assistance. She uses proximity for slightly off-task student. She does not answer the questions directly - she often starts by asking them a question to see if they can answer for themselves. The students obviously feel comfortable to ask questions and give their opinions or thoughts. Groups are returning the sheets back to the group who wrote it. They have written some recommendations on the sheets for the creating group. Creating groups are reading the feedback and then looking at their work to see if the agree. Good discussion are held between the groups about the recommendations.

Teacher calls for attention to close the activity. Praising “those who are managing themselves” instead of focussing on negative as class is ready to move on.

9.45pm Observation ends

A nice lesson to observe. The tone in your room is one of engagement, safety, learning and friendship. A wonderful mix and one that takes teacher craft and skill to create.

The structure and flow allowed student to learn co-operatively and with some noise. I could see students were engaged in their work and it was clear that the new terminology was being used and students were enjoying creating well written sentences.

It will be interesting to see if this transfers to written work during class time. As you have already recognised, sometimes students have to be exposed to the same teaching more than once. This lesson is similar to one you did at the start of the year and you have chosen to revisit this learning through this lesson.

Thank you for having me in your class.

Tanya August

28/11/2017

My reflection: I was quite happy with what the students were able to come up with in terms of success criteria. It was clear that most could see what changes had been made in the improved sentences but not all knew the correct term, i.e 'adverb'. We didn't go into the nitty gritty about subject, verb, object etc but we did talk about how a complex sentence has a main clause and one or more dependent clauses. They were able to see how a dependent clause doesn't make sense on its own as it was missing a subject.

I agree with Tanya that it will be interesting to see how this now translates into their independent writing. I intend to make a more permanent copy of the success criteria they created that we can refer back to. As far as I observed, even my below writers were able to tell when a sentence didn't make sense and needed a slight change of tense to a verb to make it work.

One thing that may need a bit more work is using commas correctly in these sentences. They seem to know when I ask but many leave them out when writing their own unless reminded.

Planning and assessment examples

Maths observation - TAI

Last week my team leader came in during maths time for an observation. The learning intention of the lesson was to order decimals to two d.p, and be able to put them on a numberline, knowing the difference between a tenth and a hundredth. The focus for my observation was around reflection at the end of the lesson. It is important to me that my class are reflecting on their learning, making links to the learning intention/goal. I also expect them to be able to identify if they're struggling and specifically what part of the learning they need to work on. I am using the resource given by the maths advisors and find that it works really well. 

What is not going so well is the written reflection. We often forget, so the interval bell will ring and we would have missed our reflecting time completely. Also, written reflections are still often about task completion, rather than actual learning. I think the next step in remedying this would be to get the kids to use the same reflection prompts that we use for verbal reflection, in their written reflections. Also need to set a timer each day! 

I've noticed in Riley and Ben, a real sense of ownership over their learning and they are spending their independent time on RELEVANT activities. They have even been bringing their evidence to me without my asking. The real proof if this is working will be when I see this learning demonstrated in a different context, totally independently. 

So overall, happy with the things I'm trying. I just need to be really consistent and ensure reflection is done well.

Lesson observation sheet from T.A.

Maths TAI 2016

Maths Workspace

To give my students choice and more opportunities to drive their own maths learning, I use workspaces. These are set-up to work alongside the maths workshops as the place to go to practise skills and do evidence tasks when they think they have mastered a learning intention. The workspace has a range of different activities for different learner's tastes - games, tutorial videos, rich tasks, practise activities from workbooks etc.

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

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.

   

Writing - early stages: Using exemplars and planning templates

Using exemplars to create Success Criteria & inform planning.

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