Plug students

A student in my Year 11 Geography class was identified in our recent "Plug" meeting as a "priority learner". This particular student had been sitting at 0 credits in my subject and had a similar number of credits in her other subjects. This was particularly concerning as this student is more that capable of achieving academically. However, for some reason was not managing to complete her assessments.

As a result of the "Plug" meeting the Year 11 dean had also noticed this student was not achieving across the board. After the meeting the dean sent out an inquiry to all the subject teachers of this student.

However, she had a re-sub scheduled in my subject. At the same time perhaps as a result of the recent "plug" meeting the Year 11 dean was also on the case of this particular student. Because of this I noticed a significant shift in this particular student. She began making an effort in class and catching up on missed credits. She also took responsibility for her own learning by asking for and then attending geography study classes to catch up on missed work.

Discussions with other teachers during PLUG meetings and taking time to look at the data for our students can help catch students from falling though the cracks as a lack of achievement is caught sooner rather than latter.

Jump start 2017 review and planning for 2018 – pros and cons

OCTOBER 17, 2017RENEEGORDONBLOGEDIT"JUMP START 2017 REVIEW AND PLANNING FOR 2018 – PROS AND CONS"

At Tamaki College we move our Year 9 students into Year 10 and Year 10 into Year 11 for the last 4 weeks on term 4. This is after junior exams and the seniors have left. The idea behind this is to increase engagement and to hopefully get some Level 1 credits providing a “jumpstart” into 2018.

At the end of 2016 I saw a similar strategy being employed with Year 10s going into Year 11 and the English class I was teaching began their “Static Image” assessment in week 5. This was positive for the new year 11s at Whangaparoa College and it kept students focused rather than starting their summer holidays early. Around this time I visited Tamaki College to do handover with the previous geography teacher. I came to his Year 11 jumpstart class and got to meet some of the Year 11 students I would be teaching next year (2017). I remember being amazed! The class was focused, on task and working on their first assessment (AS91009) – looking at sustainability and tourism in the Maldives.

At the end of the school year Caleb, the former geography teacher emailed me students work from this assessment with comments. He noted that students would need another week at the start of the year to finish up this assessment.

I began 2017 knowing the class had stuff to finish up on their first internal but this took much longer than expected. As the class had just had 6 weeks off their summer brains had forgotten a lot of the content they had covered the previous year. We ended up having to go over a lot and extend the deadline. In the end the class spend 2 weeks at the start of the year working on this first assessment (this meant the work took 6 weeks all up). What further complicated our “jumpstart” to 2017 was there were 4 new students who hadn’t been in the class at Year 10 (dec 2016). I then had to start them on the learning for this particular assessment while the rest of the class finished up – making the start of the year a little messier than I would have liked.

Nonetheless, we got through it and once the assessments were finally handed in I decided to start everyone on the next assessment and come back to AS91009 at the end of term 3 for the 4 or 5 students who hadn’t got a chance to start the assessment. I thought this was the best approach since those who had done jumpstart could potentially focus on exam revision during this part of the year while the other students completed their assessment.

Unfortunately, only 2 out of the 6 jumpstart students ended up gaining the 3 credits for this assessment. 2 students did not complete the work and 1 got not achieved. On a positive note, the space at the end of the year meant that the students that did not achieved or hadn’t completed had another opportunity to gain these lost credits. The non jumpstart students also had the time to complete the assessment. As one of the students who had completed the assessment during jumpstart was away sick this meant she wasn’t missing any assessment opportunities during her time away from school. This left one student in the class who had received excellence for this assessment during jumpstart. I decided to give her the option to prepare for exams or start a level 2 standard. She choose the level 2 standard and got 3 credits at level 2 to an excellence level! In this particular case jumpstart gave me the time to accelerate a high achieving student.

However, with the 4 weeks at the end of the year (2016), 2 weeks at the beginning of 2017 and the extra 4 weeks in term 3 the class spent a total of 10 weeks on one standard. I’m not sure this was necessarily the most effective use of class time.

Prior to planning for Jumpstart 2017/2018 it was important for me to reflect on the benefits and shortcomings of offering credits at the end of the year. In summary:

Shortcomings:

• We ended up spending a lot of time on this one assessment (10 weeks)
• Revisiting the same standard 3 times may have been a bit tedious for the class
• Only 2 students passed the assessment initially
• 2 students didn’t complete the work and 1 didn’t pass (perhaps they were not ready to be assessed so early on
• The first few weeks of 2017 students were working on assessment potentially acting as a barrier for establishing a relationship with this new class.
• Students who missed jumpstart or enrolled late were at a disadvantage (messier start to the year)

Some benefits:

• There was time at the end for students to catch up/re-do assessments
• Extra time provided students opportunities to be accelerated
• Students were focused at the end of the year.

Taking these reflections into account I decided 4 weeks wasn’t enough time for me to get to know a new class, introduce them to a new subject (geography isn’t an option until year 11). Further, there wasn’t space to engage students and develop an interest in the subject. I also felt it was important to introduce students to the key concepts in geography and explore these ideas in more depth. Providing a solid foundation as these key concepts are used and need to be applied in all geography internals and externals at level 1, 2 and 3.

I decided for Jumpstart 2017/18 I would focus on the key concepts and plan this around the idea of “My significant place” using this as an opportunity to develop interest in the subject, get to know students and develop a subject specific vocabulary.

For further reading – Here is the link to my 2017/2018 jumpstart unit plan

Teaching as Inquiry: Literary in Geography - Term 1, 2017

Early into Term 1 of 2017 I noticed some issues with my the writing style of a number of students in my Year 12 Geography class. I was surprised to find that at Level 2 a number of students were writing their assessments using a bullet points. Generally, the writing seemed to lack comprehension, flow or logical a structure. Furthermore, a significant number of students in the class were not providing enough specific, detailed evidence required at Level 1 let alone Level 2.

At this point I wasn't exactly sure what was causing this issue with the classes writing but this initial assessment raised a few questions for further inquiry:

• Was this issue subject related? Did students think that literacy only mattered in English?
• Was it the format of the assessment - this particular assessment gave students a choice between working on a power point or a google doc. Did the power point mean that students felt that bullet points were acceptable?
• Had I not placed enough emphasis on the writing structure? Was I not sending the message that writing style matters?

Based on these initial questions I decided an obvious first step would be to place more of an emphasis on literacy with my Year 12 class. I decided to do this alongside introducing the next unit of work. We were beginning our research standard looking at "Where to build a coffee shop in Glen Innes center"?

I decided to take the opportunity to speak to the class directly about their essay writing - hoping this would reinforce the importance of literary in geography. I wanted the class to make links between what they were learning in their English class and in their Geography classes so I spoke to the HOD of English to see if their were any resources I could use in this lesson. Ms Thaver sent me a power point she used with her Year 13 class which I then adapted to make more relevant to Geography.

I felt this discussion with the class would demonstrate to the class that literary extends beyond English. Additionally, I hoped that this presentation would send the message that in Geography writing style matters.

Further, I wanted to provide some guidance around "How to write essays in Geography". I outlined several key steps; reading the question, planning your answer, researching your answer, writing your answer, topic sentences, explanation, example, evaluate and proof reading. I then asked students to "Have a go" at writing an essay so I could see where each student was at with their writing and have opportunities to provide feedback outside of the pressures of assessment.

Student tracking sheets and attendance

Attendance in my Year 12 Geography class in particular is a bit up and down. Students are away frequently for a variety of reasons including; trades, gateway courses, sickness and truancy. Students missing class regularly was becoming difficult for me to keep track of in terms of where students were at with both their assessments and the work they needed to complete in preparation for assessments.

In order to manage the disparity in attendance I wanted to come up with a way to know where students were at but also for a way for students to know what work they had missed and then could hopefully pick up where they left off in the last lesson. This was especially important for students with really low attendance because it felt like every time I saw them I was having to 'catch them up on work'.

I started to use a "tracking sheet" to keep tabs on students work, where they were at and what they had completed.

Level 2 Geography Tracking Sheet

Initially I used the tracking sheet so I knew where students were at with their work. Orange showed students were away and green meant students had completed the task. This meant when a student arrived in class after missing a few lessons I could easily look at the task sheet and see what they needed to be doing.

However, after a discussion in my department meeting we decided to also use a similar system to track where students were with their assessments - a useful tool to flag students who were falling behind in their work.

We decided to use an department wide colour code to track students progress.

Social Sciences tracking sheet colour code

After this meeting I decided it was a useful tool to use in all of my classes not just for me but for students to see clearly where they were at and what they needed to completed and when. This could be made available to students on the class site and they could then use this at home if they were away from school regularly. 

After explaining this system to my Year 13 Geography class they wanted this to be made visible for them to keep track of where they were at. I was at this point a little concerned that making it public might have a bit of a "shaming" effect but the class reassured me this was not how they perceived it. 

After this positive response I began using this as a tool for keeping tabs on where absent students were at but also for assessments to ensure work was getting done on time in all of my senior classes and sharing this by projecting it on the whiteboard during class time.

Tracking Sheet for Level 2 Assessments

Using student choice and student voice

In Week 5 of Term 1, 2017 I had been having a challenging time with my Year 9 Social Studies class on Wednesday afternoons during period 5 in particular. As this class was right after lunch students would scatter in 5-10 minutes after the bell really unsettled. The unsettled nature of the class was particularly problematic as it would take 2 or 3 attempts to get the majority of the class to even come into the class quietly. Once I finally got the class in and seated it would take another few minutes to give instructions for the "Do Now" task I had set. Giving instructions and getting the class into their learning for the lesson was becoming a major battle. Each week that went by my frustration was growing - a 50 minute lesson had been reduced to 20 minutes of actual learning time. I had to change what I was doing.

I discussed the issue with my HOD and explained this was only really happening during the Wednesday period 5 lesson. The other 2 lessons I had with 9tgn were in the mornings on Mondays and Fridays and the class was relatively productive during this time. Together we decided it might be worth accepting the lesson was disruptive and taking time out from the unit plan during this lesson.

From a previous lesson on identity and culture  I knew this class responded well to having an element of choice with their work. I decided to try giving them options that were related to Social Studies and the content they were learning but potentially a little more engaging.

The next lesson I had with the class I decided to use student voice to plan the next Wednesday period 5 lesson. I explained to the class I wanted to give them a choice at the same time as developing the required skills in Social Studies. I asked students to write down suggestions for activities we could do during Wednesday's lesson that they would enjoy.

While the majority of the suggestions were for things like; play video games and 'do P.E'. There were a number of suggestions I could incorporate into the lesson such as; drawing and listening to music.

I decided to give the class 4 different options some of which were related to the learning we had been doing in class - students were working in groups undertaking an inquiry into a social issue. Student's could blog about their topic, continue working on their inquiry, explain the issue by drawing a cartoon, writing a song or a rap or lastly, students could look at a social issue.

Options given to 9tgn

The options provided allowed students to consider their social studies inquiry in a different way. And providing the option of drawing a cartoon allowed me to include students suggestions. I also got the class to create a playlist with their choice of music which we listened to during the Wednesday Period 5 lesson. 

Current Issue resource

In this first lesson the majority of the class choose to blog or write a song about their social issue. However, a small group of students opted to continue on with their projects. I noticed students were much more engaged than in the previous lessons and settling the class was a whole lot easier. 

After the lesson I asked the class how they felt about the lesson and they explained that having choice and listening to music was a big motivator for them. 

In conclusion, providing 9tgn with choice and flexibility is a useful strategy to motivate students and increase engagement. As I continued provided the class with similar options during the Wednesday lessons I found more often than not students would just simply continue on with their projects but enjoyed the relaxed learning environment provided by listening to music.   

Calling home - Student Achievement Conferences

In week 9 of Term 1, 2017 Tamaki College held their first Student Achievement Conferences for the year. The week prior to the conferences I spent time contacting the homes of students in my Year 9 tutor class in order to confirm conference times.

Parents and caregivers had been sent letters home informing them of the "Teacher Only Day's" and a time had been given for them to come in and meet with the tutor teachers of their children. In order to ensure as many parents and students turned up as possible I began making contact with home.

Of the 23 students in my tutor class I managed to get hold of 14 parents. This process was beneficial as it acted as a reminder to parents but it also notified a number of parents who for whatever reason had not received the letter notifying them of the time.

Furthermore, this second round of calls home allowed me the opportunity to continue to engage with parents, whanau and caregivers of students in my Year 9 tutor class. One particularly positive interaction that is worth noting was with one mother who took the opportunity to explain to me why her son's attendance had been low lately. She explained that she was unable to afford a netbook for her son which meant that he often felt uncomfortable coming to school as he was unable to complete work. After this phone call I managed to talk to one of the DP's about arranging for this student to borrow and old netbook from the school so he could have the correct equipment in class and hopefully would begin attending school more frequently.

After the conferences I realised the value of calling home prior to the interviews. ALL of the students whose parents or caregivers I had phoned prior to the conferences turned up to their time slot. However, only 2 students who I was unable to contact turned up on the day. While calling home in advance seems time consuming especially during the time leading up to the conferences with reports to write etc. The results show it is well worth taking the time to 1) continue building these relationships and 2) to ensure a better turn out on conference day!

Identity and culture

In my Year 9 Social Studies class as part of our unit on sustainability we are looking at culture and identity. As this lesson was being taught early into Term 1 - I am still getting to know the students in my class. The Year 9 unit plan included a particular lesson where students looked at their own identity by creating a "Code of Arms."

As culture and identity is something I see as closely related I felt that a "Code of Arms" was a particularly euro-centric approach to learning about identity. This I felt was particularly problematic approach to take with a class of students who were mostly from Māori and Pasifika backgrounds. Especially considering within this particular unit of work we were attempting to demonstrate the value in sustaining cultures. I decided this was a useful opportunity to give students some choice in which task they would like to use to consider their own identities.  

I initially thought giving 9tgn the option creating a pepeha to consider their identity was a good idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, producing a pepeha fitted nicely with the LO's for this lesson of considering identity but was also a way I could use te reo Māori and tikanga in my classroom in a way that was relevant. I also felt this was an opportunity to include the cultural background of my Māori students in the classroom environment.

However, I knew that 9tgn were also doing their pepeha's in their Te reo Māori class. For this reason I went to see their Te reo teacher to collaborate on this particular lesson. I didn't want to teach students to do their pepeha in a different way nor did I want to interfere with what they were learning in another subject. Their Te reo teacher was supportive of me introducing a pepeha into the social studies lesson but also suggested that I could give the option of producing a pattern as a way to express identity.  She explained this was something that had been learning and using this in Social Studies could then further reinforce this learning. We also discussed how the pattern could be something that my Pasifika students could relate to aswell.

I decided to give 9tgn three different options to express their identity; a pepeha, a code of arms or a koru pattern.

Option 1: Pepeha template

Option 2: Code of Arms

Option 3: Koru Pattern

I found this lesson to be particularly positive for a number of reasons. Firstly, it seemed students in 9tgn really appreciated having choice. This was expressed through student voice at the end of the lesson. I realised this was particularly important to provide this for 9tgn whenever possible as I noted that students were significantly more engaged in the task when they were given an element of choice. Prior to this lesson I had noticed that work completion was a bit of an issue with this class in particular. However, the majority of the class were committed to finishing their pattern, pepeha or code of arms during the double period. Those that hadn't finished seemed to be sending completed work to me after school and so were obviously committed to finishing off the work for homework. To me this is a positive indication that providing student choice and options that were culturally responsive to learners in my classroom was worth the effort as students were far more engaged in the learning process.