Daily 5

I first explored Daily 5 in 2012.  Loved the concept and it worked fabulously with the students I was working with (an older year 1 group).  I am looking into using Daily 5 in a more open plan learning environment next year and am in the process of doing a little research!

Digital Nomads
This post includes the role of the teacher as well as describing the components of Daily 5.  They are in an open plan environment.  Love the focus on blogging within the Daily 5.

The Contemporary Teacher
Interesting description of different open plan structures!

Virtual Learning Network
Some interesting comments and suggestions on this post!  Daily 5 in operation while teacher pulls out guided groups was one of the comments.  Data Literacy to inform teaching is something worth delving into - is this a key to successfully teaching in a collaborative environment?

Some Collaborative Planning Templates - could be useful!

Would love to know more about the Math Daily 3 but need to pay to join up a website to find out about it!

Audacity to Imagine

Sat down to do some planning...like to listen to TED talks when I do and came across this one:

What Adults Can Learn From Kids

Ended up listening too much to plan!

She starts with the idea of calling someone 'childish'.  Is this fair?  Perhaps we need more irrational thinking.  Adults come up with many reasons why not to do things, kids are allowed to think 'impossible' things.  "Audacity to imagine".

When expectations are low, kids will sink to them.  Scary.

A good 8minutes and 12 seconds.

Questioning the Learning Intention

First week of term 4.
I have been trialling the whole Learning Intention as a Question to elicit/ co-construct success criteria with students in our reading work.

I am enjoying this more than stating the learning intention.  This is about valuing what the student brings and is also giving me feedback on where the learning is strong, and where it is not, in turn, it is giving me feedback on my teaching.

An example of one from this week is:

How can we read a book with expression successfully?

• say the words the way they are written
• use the punctuation - " " means say it like the person talking, ? means say it like you are asking a question
• stop at the full stop not after every word.

Some of the challenges include taking longer to draw out the success criteria from students (this is getting quicker as the week progresses) and trying to reframe the learning intentions as questions, still trying to frame one on learning the long and short vowel sounds in word study...When developing our success criteria from a question with the whole class needs some re-working on my part.  More think-pair-share ways of working so that students aren't all sitting, waiting, listening to one contribution...not so great with students who have a 5 minute attention span!

I have loved capturing the child's voice in this way of structuring our learning focus for sessions in reading.   It is telling me what they know and by default, what they don't.  I have done it a little in writing and will work to ask questions for writing and maths in the next week.

it's all about the question

Back to school.  Writing reports last week and entering data.  Spent Monday and Tuesday working on a Photography Convention I am organising for 240 + people in 2016 and yesterday it was back to school for PL.  I think I need a holiday.  Some people say a change is as good as a holiday.  How does a question connect to this...well it's about new thinking, about change and a little bit about challenge.  Hattie.  Dweck.  Claxton.

The challenge has been set: to frame Learning Intentions as a question.  Then pause.  Students ideas form the teachers understanding of where they are at, tell us where to 'pitch' our guidance and starts the process of students stating the 'success criteria'.

Shifting from 'We are learning about fractions' to 'How do we use fractions successfully?'

By posing the LI as a question..

• 'how' makes it a question that focuses on a skill
• 'we' means we are part of a co-construction, a collaboration and is about the 'power of others'
• invites students to engage and share their prior knowledge
• the word successful is included so that the question is achievement focused and measure orientated - growth mindset - 'We are going to be successful!'
• questioning leaves it open for differentiated learning
• the answer means students have to think "how am I going to do it?".  This is about strategy.
• the teacher gets to know what a student already knows

So the question is asked.  Questions seek answers.  The answers can be shaped to form the success criteria.  The success criteria needs to be report ready.  There is a way SC are framed.

My mind is buzzing with the possibilities.  This thinking opens up possibilities and pathways.  This resonates with my early childhood and primary lenses.  It is child centred, a key aspect of my values as a teacher.  This isn't really new but rather things I have been mulling over in my mind this year with this group of learners.  Despite not having a holiday, the prospect of change is invigorating.

So, going into Term 4...an example of a LI as a question:
How can we present our artwork successfully?

How to get the SC?  students in groups of 4 - share back their ideas, pull out the common language and together put this into the correct 'framing' of SC - report ready SC!

Wonderings.  Ideas.  Ways Forward.

• PLODs as a way of planning - just in time planning
• The Questioning of Learning Intentions
• Stop Writing the Objectives on the Board

Paper Planes

I watched the movie 'Paper Planes' with my daughter.  The trailer intrigued me, with my teacher hat on, as it talked about a child with a passion for paper planes.  I'm all about students having 'passions' for things.  The learning and engagement that goes on when we are passionate about something is more meaningful, more intense, more focussed and so much more 'real' than the scenarios I often prepare to 'hook' my students in.

A student teacher came to the school and had the kids make paper planes.  I love this about student teachers, they are fresh, they come with different ideas than what the usual classroom teacher brings and they see students with new ideas. I enjoy the variety that other teachers bring to a group of students and enjoy working with Student Teachers for these reasons (and more).

The boy found he was good at something, despite  a bully trying to pull him down (they later become friends) and he is encouraged to enter state championships in paper plan throwing.  The boy demonstrates a growth mindset as he works through many barriers including a father who is pining for his wife who died in a car accident a year earlier and is unable to get off the couch.  Then there's the cost of getting to Japan for the International Competition.  Next, he sprains his wrist and has to get over his fear of needles as acupuncture is the only way he can be ready to launch his plane.

He found himself in the 'pit' as he tried to 'fold' the perfect plane and the advice given was a little random yet connected in the same way.  His father showed him a video (yes video) of an Americas cup race where the shape of the keel revolutionised sailing.  When asking what he was to do with that he was told to 'find out'.  His teacher and grandfather had said similar when saying 'you have to work it out'.  None of these people gave him an answer, they may have had some ideas, but they didn't know and it is in this finding out and discovering that the learning process happens and he scrambles his way out of the pit.

He didn't 'google' how to make paper planes.  He studied things that fly. He studied flight in nature. He recorded his ideas, drawings, words, pictures in an exercise book.  The process was clear.  Yes he won. His father made it to see the final and he won the girl but despite the 'happy ending' it was seeing the learning process when you are passionate about something that has stuck with me and causing me to reflect on where I allow/ encourage student passions to drive the learning in the class I teach.

SOLO and Key Competencies on the Learning Wall

With some behaviour challenges affecting the learning opportunities and the way in which students learn and work together in the class there has been a need to focus on the kinds of behaviours we want all students to demonstrate.  I have been working on a couple of things in the class to negotiate a positive way forward for all of the creative and curious learners.  One of these is having a weekly Key Competency Focus and using a SOLO rubric that students use to work out where they are at on their journey with this KC focus.  It's not quite as simple as that but I will share some details later on. The other component of our programme is to increase the connections between the Early Learning Environments that these students have recently come from and to give more choice to all students - we talk about this as our 'Learning Wall'.  Both of these Teacher Inquiries have been influenced by what I saw on the Inspire Tour and what teachers shared following their visits to schools I didn't visit.

SOLO
I had always thought that SOLO was too complicated for Little Trekker/ Year 1 Students but I could see some possibilities when having professional dialogue with another Junior teacher.  This was timely as I had been grappling with ways to forefront the Key Competencies and expected behaviours of learners in a class of 22 students who are relatively new to school.

The 'Learning Wall'
Or, what I'm doing when I'm not with the teacher has come about to give students more choice in their school day.  There are a series of options that they put their name to (maximum of 6 students at any one thing) and that is where they work until they decide to finish up and move onto another choice.  At this stage they take their name and move it to another area of 'work' on the learning wall.

These two components are working hand in hand as I forefront a Key Competency each week - introducing and unpacking this on a Monday and reflecting on it at different times of the day as well as the students suggesting what they have enjoyed or what they would like to have as choices next week.

Isn't it Ironic? Don't you think?

I am on reflective mode as I think about what is happening in the class I teach and the possibilities. TED talks are great reflective prompts!

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk  'How to Escape Education's Death Valley' in 2013 starts with the idea of irony in the statement/ policy: "No Child Left Behind" as it's not working. He cites the numbers of students dropping out of high school.

For humans to prosper:

• Individuality - kids prosper best with a broad curriculum that celebrates their various talents. 10% of kids are being diagnosed as having ADHD, if we make kids to low grade clerical work - don't be surprised if they start to fidget.  Really they are suffering from 'childhood'.  Am I giving the students I teach a 'broad curriculum' or a 'bored curriculum'?

• Curiosity - if you can light the spark, they will learn without further assistance.  Teaching is a creative profession.  We mentor, stimulate, evoke and engage.  If students are not learning, then we are not teaching. What sparks have I lit this week?  When have I facilitated curiosity or let curiosity drive our curriculum?

• Creativity - human life is inherently creative.  Finland comes out on top with reading, writing and maths.  They don't obsess about disciplines but have a broad approach to curriculum.  Minimal standardised testing.  No drop out rate. What opportunities for creativity are in my class and programme?  

Creating a Climate of Possibility.

Three types of people, those who are:

1. immoveable
2. moveable - can see need for change
3. people who move and make things happen

Daily Practise Makes a Difference

The creative and curious students I am working with on their learning expeditions this year love the Activboard!

Over the last few years of doing NumPA within School Entry Assessments I have noticed that many students struggle with the 'before' and 'after' concept of numbers.  I'm not sure if this is more of a 'comprehension' (e.g. knowing automatically that 'before' is the number 1 less or 1 smaller) issue or lack of experience with numbers.  The number before seems particularly tricky.

With this 'gap' in mind I put together a morning flip chart that we could work through each day.  From students being able to drag their names onto our learning trail the next page looks at the days of the week in English and Te Reo Maori, we drag the days into the correct place and then discuss  what day it was yesterday and what day it will be tomorrow.

Ko te aha te ra inanahi?
Ko te aha te ra apopo?

Next, we talk about the weather.

The next page of our flip chart is where we explore our numbers.  The number is the day of the month e.g. 24 if it's the 24th of July.

I have been blown away by how many children have used this page as a springboard to not only think about and contribute to the numbers before and after but who have also taken this home and discussed it before school, talking with families what the date is and talking about the numbers that come 'just before' or  'just after'.

When we don't get our flip chart done (Activboard not keen on waking up, Skiing days or Friday's where CRT has been first thing) the students miss it and comment that they haven't done their 'numbers'!

Learning Assistants who worked in the class over Term 2 loved how simple this was and were also amazed at how the students who from one week to the next, through repitition of this activity each day, came to understand the terms before and after and who, one week, couldn't say the number before to the next week where they could easily identify the number just before.  

Amazing how a seemingly simple and possibly 'boring' activity can encourage learning in Mathematics for students when explored on a daily basis.  I think we might need to find a way of learning our basic facts, sight words and letter sounds this way too!

After 5 weeks at school when I go through JAM with students, they are more confident at saying the number before or after up to 10 and give it a good go up to 20!  A big part of this is daily practise but also about making the Language of Mathematics more explicit as is identified in THIS aspect of ALiM although this refers to other mathematical terms than 'before' and 'after'.

The language of mathematics is also one of the...

Ten principles of effective teaching of mathematics:

1. An ethic of care
2. Arranging for learning
3. Building on students’ thinking
4. Worthwhile mathematical tasks
5. Making connections
6. Assessment for learning
7. Mathematical communication
8. Mathematical language
9. Tools and representations
10. Teacher knowledge

The 'flip chart' also ties into many other principles of effective Mathematics teaching.

Our next steps with numbers before and after is to move onto numbers up to 100.

Inspire Tour 2015

A few weeks ago our entire teaching team (Year 0 - 8) had teacher only days to visit some schools in Auckland.  Our lenses were focussing on aspects of Visible Learning, Maori and Mathematics.  The schools who opened their doors and classes to us were much appreciated, just being in other learning spaces opens up wonderings and challenges our own practice as professionals.  Thank you.

A few key findings/ wonderings for me include:

• the use of visuals for younger students in tracking learning, showing shift and for them to talk about what they can do and what they are learning next 
• the development of a more open planning structure e.g. Project Based Learning (PBL) and what this can look like with younger students and alongside this, younger students planning their day
• wondeirngs about SOLO and if there are suitable applications in junior classes?
• making my planning (aspects of it) public for parents/ whanau to see the learning focus for their students
• the 'Learning Environment' as the 'Third Teacher' is very much a Reggio Emilia philosophy and is commonplace in many ECE settings in New Zealand...for good transitions to school, can I keep some of this in the classroom I work in?

Some confirmations:

• 'Daily Five' - this is something I have been exploring and experimenting with in the last couple of years and have seen students grow in their love of reading - seeing aspects of this programme in some classes/ schools was a confirmation that there is value to this way of teaching reading - where students learn to read by reading - not doing busy work!
• Picture Books are a fantastic tool for developing and growing understandings in younger students e.g. 'The Dot', 'Ish', 'A Beautiful Mess', 'Gerald the Giraffe'.  I will continue to use books as a springboard to encourage student thinking, reflections and to unpack ideas like 'growth mindset' and 'mistakes are learning opportunities'.
• The physical learning environment does effect the type of programme you can have in place e.g. traditional single cell classroom or a MLE.  Being both Primary (Year 0 - 8) and Early Childhood trained and experienced the MLE and more open learning resonates with how I see learning growing - also fits with Hatties research where 'Piagetian programs' are ranked second to self reported grades/ student expectations based on Effect Size calculations.

Show Me

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

― Benjamin Franklin

Last night I was working alongside 'Mr I'll be 12 next week' as he looked rather desparagingly at his maths homework sheet.  He was looking at 'Adjusting' where he was asked to 'Adjust by one.  Do the last four in your head.' with sums like 428 + 69 = 428 + 70 - 1 =....  Just having 3 digits totally lost him and it seems like he had a block to how numbers actually work.

There were a couple of other challenges here for him too.  The sheet was white with black numbers.  Mr almost 12 is waiting on Irlens Lenses and has Dyslexia.  I'll be copying the sheet onto some pastel paper ASAP to minimise these barriers.

We googled it and found a teacher at Silverstream who had a page of tutorials and support set up with a link to some videos on how to do this 'adjusting' with 2 digit numbers - he had used a whiteboard type app to record the process.  

Why am I mentioning this on my teaching blog?  Well, there are a few 'lessons' for me in this too and some reflective questions to build into my practice.

Lessons for me:

• make better use of my class page for tutorials and support for students and parents - record tutorials relevant to the learning needs of students and load these on my class page.
• ensure homework that goes home with students is not 'foreign' to them and that they have an understanding of what to do with it, perhaps use the point above to support this learning at home.
• check that learning I send home is relevant for the student and that it's necessary to be done at home - kids need down time.
• Make use of 'Show Me' or 'Educreations' Apps on my personal iPad to record lessons, tutorials etc. for future reference for students and their families, share these to benefit other learners as the teacher from Silverstream School had done.

Reflective questions:

• Is the 'homework' necessary?
• Have I made the learning accessible?
• Can students and families re-visit the teaching and learning?
• Do students know 'why'?
• Am I creating barriers to learning with too much black & white photocopying?
• Have I 'involved' the students in their learning (see Benjamin's quote above)?