Poutama Pounamu Online Module

Module 1 Agentic Responses to the Fabric of NZ Society - Reflection

Kete 1: Conscious and unconscious prejudice  

Kete 2: Considering student voice  

Kete 3: Considering the teacher's role

What do you know about ‘unconscious prejudice’ and how it influences how you
respond and act? This is the first activity I have undertaken as part of a Ākonga
involved in ‘Poutama Pounamu’, an online learning environment.

I honestly thought that I was doing okay when it came to neutralising conscious
prejudices but when I was confronted with “The Choice” by Robyn Kahukiwa and
two cartoons that have been published in newspapers

Painting:

(From Poutama Pounamu, 2018)

I came to realise I wasn’t as ‘clean’ as I thought. I shared what I could see in
“The Choice” - the use of symbolism, colour, composition and how this suggested
the conflict the young Māori girl had between her Māori world and the pakeha world
that her family wanted her to be part of. However when I looked at the cartoons next,
it was brought to my attention that I had interpreted the subjects as Māori when on
closer inspection they were not of ‘brown’ but peach colouring.

Further conversation centred around relationships and how I thought we did better ‘job’
at primary level (pronouncing names correctly, using the correct vocab, exploring
protocols and processes in response to my Māori students). I was taken aback at my
unconscious prejudice and how I brought my preconceptions to the activity without realising
I was doing this. This led me to question if and how my unconscious prejudices influence
my teaching! However I have no real idea of what this looks like or how to find out,
hence the learning journey I am now on.

I am only just beginning to realise that being culturally responsive and inclusive goes
well beyond what we are doing presently. It is the whole process rather than a ‘thing’
that we do. I need to think about how I respond in a culturally responsive manner –
realising that what I know influences the way I build relationships and what I think is
appropriate may very well not be. I need to consider what is sitting under my response
and why I feel that way. My depth of knowledge and understanding needs to deepen.
I need to

·   Continue the conversations about equity, excellence and belonging with others.

·   Work with others to effect change in our learning environment.

·   Work to change my practice through research and experience.

It is a bloody uncomfortable place to be at present!

Reflection Questions

Question 1 -To what extent did you value the opportunity to engage in this group
activity?

I found the opportunity to engage in this group activity extremely valuable. I had not
considered that I had unconscious prejudices, bringing my preconceptions without
realising, through my choice of vocabulary. Being presented with thought-provoking
images and discussion points has led me to wonder how my unconscious prejudices
influence my teaching - what does this look like and how do I find out more? I need to
challenge myself to become more alert and aware of experiences that contribute to my
understanding of words, images, actions and language within the relationships I am
building with my Māori learners and their whānau. The group activity has definitely
sparked my curiosity to find out more.

Question 2 - To what extent will you do the following as a result of the group activity?

Question 3 - Two key ideas you are taking from this activity:

My first key idea is to read further - in particular, "Healing Our History, The Challenge of
the Treaty of Waitangi" by Robert Consedine and Joanna Consedine. Accessing more
research material available on the Poutama Pounamu site will also help me make sense
of how unconscious prejudice influences and impacts on schools. I need a deeper
understanding of what has come before and the impact it has on today and how Māori
see themselves.

My second key idea is become more open to how my unconscious prejudice influences
my teaching  - what this looks like in my everyday actions and how I might make small
changes. I'm not sure what this will look like and how I will do it but I feel that reading
"Healing Our History, The Challenge of the Treaty of Waitangi" by Robert Consedine and
Joanna Consedine will provide some insight for me to make sense of this.

Question 4 - Actions I and others intend to undertake as a result:

I would like to use the material shared with us to initiate staff discussion around our
unconscious prejudices and how we bring our preconceptions without realising. In
particular the use of visual resources such as "The Choice" by Robyn Kahukiwa. I felt
this was powerful way of beginning discussions around what we see, think and wonder -
each of us has a different way of seeing what is in front of us and being able to listen to
others thinking can often add to ours. We may not agree but we are still listening to others
(hopefully!).

Welcome to 2018 - what a beginning!

Year 4 & Beyond Play Based Learning

Firstly if you have the opportunity to attend any of these courses facilitated by Longworth Education - GO!

Our focus for our teaching spiral of Inquiry this year is to raise student engagement and academic outcomes for BOYS at NPS. In order for our academic outcomes for boys to improve, we need to engage our boys so that they do not realise they are learning. Moana Iti and Nui had previously been to a Play Based learning course and had made radical changes to their learning programmes. To be honest I was sceptical about what this would look like for us - weren't we supposed to be getting them ready for learning in the senior school? We had made changes to our learning but this would be challenging and require us to look deeply at what we are doing and why. We are doing things well but we can do better.

At the beginning of the day Year 4 & Beyond Play Based Learning, placing my dot on where I felt I sat was confronting and provoking - we talk about student agency but is that what is really happening in our learning environment? I placed myself between Level 5 and Level 6. See below the criteria.

(Course notes - Longworth Education, 2018)

The ideal being the below criteria

(Course notes - Longworth Education, 2018)

I am dipping into both but at the back of my mind is the idea that we have to DO reading, writing and maths in a structured way - I don’t really know any other way. I can read everything under the sun about student inquiry, building curiosity, leadership styles, how best children learn, etc., but really letting go and trusting the learners to still learn is a tough ask when you know you have to present assessment data to show achievement. How do I navigate the gradual release of responsibility?

So what do I need to do to move onto the next stage?

• Have a deeper understanding of the what the Pre-Operational Cognitive Stage through to the Concrete Operational Cognitive Stage is and where our learners sit within this continuum. Is this learner developmentally ready for what I am trying to do?
• Be aware of the expectations - cognitively socially, and emotionally, and how these impact learning experiences.
• Understand the functional types of play - physical, language, exploratory, constructive, fantasy and social play (From ‘Free to Learn’, Peter Gray, 2013) and how to respond and include these within our programme.
• Know the NZ Curriculum inside and out, make links to what the learners are doing in their play and the AOs - using documented observation to inform next planning/response to play, planning for areas that do not naturally arise and how to inject knowledge (throwing the hook out and seeing who takes the bait - or not!)
• Investigate and develop an understanding of Narrative Assessment (learning stories) - what this looks like, how it can be used efficiently within our learning environment and the use of templates to scaffold my learning.

The first thing I did when I got home from the course was record what I value in our learning environment, my struggles and my ‘What ifs…’

Next, I meet with my team and share what I have scribbled down, provoking discussion and hard questions.

Exciting but scary at the same time, but it feels so right!

Did I make a difference?

What was going on for our students?

At the beginning of this year, we scanned through our data and decided to focus on student engagement, particularly in writing. Our hunch was that our students did not see themselves as writers. There was a need to create an environment and mindset where our students saw themselves as authors, readers, mathematicians, artists, musicians, etc. An environment where there was a clear focus on building a community of writers - expectations, authentic, real audience, making connections beyond the school environment where surface features impact on the audience.

Taking Action

• Changing mindset to “ I am a writer."
• Teaching targeted sessions where all aspects of writing are modelled (brainstorming, planning, proofreading, editing and sharing - feedback/feedforward).
• Slowing the whole writing process down, getting away from boring weekend recounts, taking away the pressure to write a new piece daily.
• Talking to and getting to know my students, encouraging oral storytelling, taking note of interests, etc to help them make connections and write when they are ‘stuck’.
• Sharing writing on an author’s chair; hearing other’s ideas, vocabulary choice and giving and receiving feedback.
• Accessing and using online resources such as The Literacy Shed and Pobble, with a clear purpose.
• Daily 5 reading programme (Reading to Someone, Read to Self, Work on Writing, Listening to Reading and Word Work).
• Having a large part of the school library in our learning environment that students access.
• Seek out online resources that allow students to create books from their writing in an easy to use format (Story Jumper).
• Contacting and utilising RT: Lit specialists.

Did this make a difference? ABSOLUTELY

Students are wanting to write and asking to write all day every day, especially the boys.

Students are actively seeking out writing buddies to collaborate and write with, even in ‘My Time”.

Writing levels have improved from the writing sample we did at the beginning of term 2. The evidence can be seen in students individual All About Me books (Writing and writing matrix).

Surface features have improved, there is more punctuation being used (capital letters, full stops), and other punctuation being used (speech marks). Students have an authentic audience and if they want them to understand what they are wanting to share they have to ensure that their writing meets the purpose.

There may not have been progress in levels (e.g. Level 1 iii to Early Level 2) at anniversary reporting dates but there has been significant progress made within the level. (Evidence in All About Me books). When assessing writing at the end of the year all students who were below their expected level are now achieving at.

Students are actively searching out books (picture and short novels) that reflect or support the themes or learning goals in writing.

Students are actively looking for ‘golden’ vocabulary in the text we are reading (both reading aloud and reading to) to use in their writing.

Students want to share their writing with each other and the whole team and produce books of their own (on paper at this stage mainly then moving onto Google docs and Story Jumper). ESOL student is writing and sharing, Elective mutes (2) are writing collaboratively, low achievers in writing are writing stories and reading aloud to the Whenua Team.

Once we had them hooked, collaborative writing empower students to co-construct knowledge, discuss themes, plots, outcomes - feed off one another to improve their writing. Use of google docs enables this, however it was vital that students could share their writing online and be at the level of Redefinition for SAMR Model, not substitution.

Our end of year data reflects the huge gains students have made in writing, in particular, our priority students who have all achieved Early Level 2 of the curriculum!

What now?

Students we will have as Year 4s have already indicated what writing and digital presentations they want to do in 2018 (Whenua News “Kids No. 1 News, Documentaries, Short Movies, animated stories) All of which require a strong writing foundation

Engage students with a dialogic journal where they write once a week - ‘talking, telling and sharing’ in a private and confidential format. It is important that I respond back with a comment, directly related to the content of their dialogue, so that they recognise that it is valued.

Exploring sustainable online tools and how we can further engage our writers- E.g. Story Jumper

Engage learners with more real-world problem-solving tasks that enable innovation through the use of ICT that require students to organise thinking, share ideas, collate and collaborate - not be passive recipients of knowledge.

Resources I have found invaluable

Online

• The Literacy Shed
• Pobble
• Story Jumper

Blog

• Literacy for Pleasure
• twowritingteachers

Text

• Writing Essentials      Regie Routman, 2005
• Passionate Readers      Pernille Ripp, 2018
• Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration    Pernille Ripp, 2017
• Writing Voice - Creating Communities of Writers    Teresa Cremin & Debra Myhill,  2012
• Read and Retell    Hazel Brown & Brian Cambourne, 1990

Reflective Practice & Changes in Practice

WOW is the word to describe my learning journey through the whole postgraduate MIndlab programme. At times I found it very challenging and had to draw on our NPS Learning Powers of Resilience and Being Me to keep me going, especially when the demands of daily school life threatened to take over completely. The new learning was extremely valuable and supporting this was my co teacher (Suzanne) who was also on this journey. Together we had the opportunity to make changes within our learning programme and environment which in turn has had a positive impact on our learners progress and achievement outcomes. This was further enriched by the connections made within our Mindlab Hamilton group where we were able to share, question, discuss, clarify, challenge and support one another - knowing I was not alone made the programme all the more enjoyable and beneficial.

Practicing Teacher Criteria -  

Criterion 1: Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga.

Criterion 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice

Key Changes

There have been some key ideas, theories and research that have stood out for me as having a positive impact on my teaching practice. Our actions were informed and I now understand why I need to be using research based practices to develop 21st Century skills in our learners. These include using

https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research (2011)

And the

http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Teacher-inquiry/SAMR-model

where we as class teachers (Suzanne & I) constantly asked ourselves where each task/activity sat, using Agile classroom tools such as Kanban, and the power of building a strong team spirit, grouping arrangements and teaching by example (Murdoch & Wilson, 2008).

Microsoft ITL 21st Century Learning Design

We were introduced to the Microsoft ITL 21st Century Learning Design (2011) rubrics as part of our learning in the MindLab in-class task in week two. I had never seen these before and this concerned me as we promote ourselves as innovators not bound by “traditional classroom routines” and where we respond creatively to challenges in a digital ILE. The Microsoft ITL 21st Century Learning Design (2011) rubrics provided the opportunity for critical reflection of my practice and the impact on our main stakeholders - our learners!

Initially, we were focusing on

But quickly realised that in order to do this effectively we needed to build a collaborative and inclusive environment. If our students were not able to collaborate how could we expect them to then use ICT for learning?

Our decision to focus on collaboration first has paid huge dividends in all other areas of our learning programmes - it does not matter with whom our learners work with, they are becoming so much more responsive, sensitive to difference, able to listen, share and communicate. Building an inclusive learning environment that encourages our learners to collaborate will be at the forefront of our teaching and learning programme in 2018.

Practicing Teacher Criteria -  

Criterion 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

SAMR Model

I, alongside Suzanne, wanted to use the SMAR model as outlined in ‘enabling eLearning’ on TKI, - using technology for creating, to critique our learning tasks and experiences against. This is becoming embedded in our teaching and learning pedagogy, ensuring that we don’t slip back into the comfortable past - me especially! Using this example helped me make sense of SAMR and I continue to refer to it when I unsure.  

Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Practicing Teacher Criteria -  

Criterion 8 : Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.

What next?

Osterman and Kottkamp (1993) define being a reflective practitioner as “on one hand, the actor in the drama and, on the other hand, the critic who sits in the audience watching and analyzing the entire performance.” (p. 2) and this is exactly how it feels! What is also scary is that it almost becomes addictive - my awareness becomes so enhanced that I am continuously searching out new learning and research that will have a positive and sustainable impact on my teaching practice and pedagogy. I will continue to use (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, 2014) model to improve, not just to prove my practice.

At the moment I am looking at several options for Professional Learning in 2018 -

• Culturally Inclusive Practice with Marian Pearce and Dr Mark Dashper (School PLD)
• Level 4 Te Reo Maori course through Te Wānaga o Aotearoa
• CORE Ed - Innovative Learning Curriculum
• CORE Ed - Innovative Learning Practice

Practicing Teacher Criteria -  

Criterion 3: Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Criterion 10: Work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa NZ.

References

Microsoft in Education (2011a). 21st Century Learning Design Rubrics. (pp. 1-44). [PDF]. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

Ministry of Education.Enabling eLearning. (2017). Elearning.tki.org.nz. Retrieved 4 November 2017, from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Teacher-inquiry/SAMR-model

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

Murdoch, K. (2015). The power of inquiry. Northcote, Victoria, Australia: Seastar Education.

Murdoch, K., & Wilson, J. (2008). Creating a learner-centred primary classroom. Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files.