Thinking about inquiry - Breaking it down

As we move into next year and our whole staff having to be public with their inquiries, I have been thinking about how to simplify things about inquiry so I can help in a more structured way.
I like using an app called Mind Node to get thoughts down, so this is my first attempt at simplifying things down to the basic steps that can be fleshed out as confidence grows.

Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Lesson 16 - Illustrated Design Words

See the whole Class OnAir team here

Direct Instruction

The start of the lesson is the students sat at the front for about 10 minutes of the double period (100 minutes). They are listening to the teacher go over the activity that they will be doing for the double period so they are clear what they have to do.

The activity involves them choosing 6 of the provided design terms and illustrating them visually.
They can either illustrate with a found image or they can draw their own illustrations.

Direct Instruction video
The students are round one table listening to the instructions for the first part of the lesson.
It is just the teacher talking with not a lot of interaction between the students for about 10 minutes. The interaction came during the lesson as they were getting on with their work and discussions were had between each other and the teacher.

This video shows a speeded up version of the ongoing lesson. Here you can see the students getting on with their work and interacting with the teacher as they move around the room offering support where needed.

Here are some of the students explaining their work as they do it.

This is the presentation that was shared with the students in the class community so they have an example of each word to look at.
These are the images used for the explanation at the start.

Level 1 Google Plus Community

Lesson Topic :- Design Word Illustration
Year Group :-  Year 11 (Jump Start )
Learning Outcome	The students will understand the meaning of a set selection of design words. They will be able to illustrate these design words so they can see their meanings in a visual way.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract Illustrate 2 or 3 design words from the list with images sourced online. These images identify the main meaning of the word. Illustrate all of the design words from the list with image that describes the meaning of the words in a design sense. Illustrate all of the design words on the list with images that are found or drawn. These images clearly explain how the word is used in a design sense and how it can be used to compare the design element in a design. Illustrate all of the design words with drawn images that they have created themselves. The work shows that the student can use the word in context when reflecting on a design.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	NCEA Level 1 - Curriculum Level 6 Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes.
Key Competencies	Thinking - decide how they want to illustrate the selected words so the meaning is visually clear. Using language, symbols, and texts - understand the meaning of a word and represent that meaning visually. Managing self - Staying on task and thinking of own ideas to illustrate the words. Participating and contributing - joining in the group chat with ideas. Relating to others - helping others out with ideas where needed. Respecting each other’s different ideas.
Prior knowledge	The students have analysed movie posters using a set of design words. The students have drawn where some basic design elements are in their chosen architects work.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline The students will look at a presentation of examples of illustrated design words. They will then make their own presentation using the same design words but finding their own illustrations or drawing their own and scanning them. Student Activity Teacher Activity Sit around the front table and listen to brief introduction. Look through the presentation that has been shared on the class community with ideas for illustrations for each word. Listen to each other as they give verbal suggestions as a whole class as to what could be used to illustrate each word. Facilitate discussion around the front table about the example presentation and what images the class think could illustrate each word. Oversee the work as it progresses, help where students are stuck, give ideas and suggestions. Provide materials where needed if students want to draw their own illustrations. Scan any drawings the students produce and share them into the community for them to access - go over with them briefly how to do this as we have not done this yet. Facilitate discussion and decisions regarding choice of illustrations. Print off the chosen ones and present on the back wall for the class to refer to. Make a presentation of their own with each one of the design words on a separate page. They can find an image online using Google Image search to illustrate the word or they can draw what they think it looks like - if they draw it, their drawing will need to be scanned. Share their presentations into the class community Look at everyone else’s presentation. Discuss and decide as a class which illustration fits each word the best - it could be more than one if they like.
Resources	Link to instructions and resources on the class site Chromebooks - access to internet and Google Drive Paper, pencils and colours Scanner
Next Steps	Print selected illustrations ready to present on the classroom wall.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. Allowing the students the choice of how to present the work was interesting as it is producing some really varied and personal outcomes. The problem with letting them draw their own is that it is taking a lot of time but the results are really interesting. There was a good understanding shown of the meanings of the words and the visual illustrations are going to be useful on the wall in the future. There was plenty of time during the lesson as the whole class got on with the task for me to move around the room and have conversations with individuals and give help with understanding where it was needed. It was good listening to the students explain their drawings to me verbally, as it really showed their understanding. This did not come out SO well in the video of their work as they were shy on the camera. (it is only the second class on air recording for this new group) What still needs work. Everything always seems to take WAY longer than you originally think it is going to. We are going to have to spend some more lesson time after this double period to finish this activity, but I think it is important to finish it to a good standard as they are going to use this work to refer to later. Although I did speak to the students for about 10 minutes at the start of the lesson, I feel it was important to set the tone and make sure they understood the task and took it seriously enough. It was only 10% of the overall lesson time. The students only had to pick 6 of the words, but getting some of them to pick one and make a start was a bit of a mission. Maybe if I had specified the first one just to get them going it would have been a cleaner start, and they could have had the choice after that of the next 5.

Rewind to Remind

After analysing the internal NCEA Design and Visual Communication results this year, I realised that the main problem for the "not achieved" results was not the quality of the student work but the fact that it is unfinished. I know there are lots of reasons for students not coming to school but the problem still remains for them to complete their work.
I thought I would start to try and address this in some way right from the start, during these 4 weeks of Jump Start. All of the new NCEA Level 1 class have joined the class Google Plus Community. I have made a new section in this community called "Rewind to Remind" and I have started putting videos of the lesson instruction sections of the lessons. I have got used to recording myself over the year due to being part of the 2017 Manaiakalanai Class OnAir team, so thought it would be no biggie to have the camera out all the time, and hook it up to record at the "instruction" parts of the lessons. These videos can be uploaded to YouTube and shared through to the class community with no editing required. The students can then look at these if they need to if thy can't remember the class instruction or if they were not there that day.

Link to Level 1 Community
Link to Rewind to Remind filter in the Community

I will keep this going for a while and then get some feedback from the students to see what they think about how helpful it is or isn't.

Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Lesson 15 - Analysis of Movie Posters using Design Words

See the whole Class OnAir team here

Direct Instruction

The students are to work in pairs or small teams to analyse movie posters. They will be given a set of design words that they have to discuss between them and decide where to apply the words on the poster. They will stick these word labels onto the most relevant place on their movie poster.
They will then find the meanings of the words using dictionary.com and discuss if they think the definitions that they find are able to be applied to how the word is being used on their poster.
They will then write their own definitions to go with the labels on their posters.

Here is some of the ongoing discussion that was happening during the lesson.

Here is the direct instruction for finding the definitions of the design words using Dictionary.com.

Here is the end of the lesson, summing up what we have learned today and discussing the definitions.

Lesson Topic :- Analysis of Movie Posters
Year Group :-  Year 11 (Jump Start )
Learning Outcome	To be able to understand and use some basic design terms related to poster design.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract To identify where one or two of the design words are used in the supplied movie poster. To be able to describe where most of the design words are used on the movie poster to each other in their teams. To explain how the design words apply to different parts of a poster design and relate how they can be used to describe more than one area. To understand and apply the design words to the movie poster designs. To be able to use the words in new contexts and understand the meanings and different uses.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	NCEA Level 1 - Curriculum Level 6 Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes.
Key Competencies	Thinking - deciding where the words go on the posters to describe the various elements. Using language, symbols, and texts - understanding what the different areas of a layout design are. Managing self - working productively in small teams and staying on task. Participating and contributing - making sure they contribute to the team decisions. Relating to others - listening to the opinions of others that might not be the same as their own.
Prior knowledge	The class have done some graphics work in Year 9 and Year 10.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline The class will work in pairs or small groups to analyse movie posters using a set collection of chosen design words. Student Activity Teacher Activity Listen to teacher instructions about what the activity is about. Discuss and decide within their pairs / small teams which words go where on the posters. Share out the design words and blue tac between the teams. Make sure each team has access to one of the movie posters. No input will be given as to the meanings of the words before the activity starts. Facilitate whole class discussion of the decisions made by each team and suggestions of any changes that could be made as to where the labels need to go. Photograph the layouts and labels in place and upload them to the class Google Plus Community for the whole class to see them all. Supply description labels and pens for students to add to their posters. Listen to the definitions found and guide discussions about the appropriateness of the description to the task. Put the completed posters / words / definitions on the classroom wall for future reference. Use blue tac to stick the words onto the movie posters in the places where they have decided they will go. Look at the layout / posters / labels of the other teams. Discuss as a whole class each one and decide / suggest any changes that might need to be done, with reasons for their suggestion. Choose one of the words from the labels and look it up on dictionary.com. Discuss in their team if the definition matches how the word is used in the activity. Make a description label to go with their poster for the word they chose. Add the description to the poster layout ready to put up on the classroom wall.
Resources	Link to resources on class site Coloured pens Definition labels - cut up coloured paper.
Next Steps	The design terms that they have been using and applying today will be used in their own design work when they get to poster layout design.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. The students worked quite well in their pairs and small teams considering this was their first time doing this in the lesson. I was pleased with the level of communication between them when they were deciding where to put the design word labels. They had a really good try with everything I asked them to do in this session and we got through a lot of work today. Some of them were willing to speak their ideas to the whole group. They had a go with all of the word labels they were given, even the more difficult ones. I am pleased I decided to do this activity over a double period as it gave us lots of time and not rush through any element. What still needs work. As this was our first lesson doing literacy, I was over controlling and talked FAR TOO MUCH.  As I get more confident myself in doing this kind of work, I hope I am able to let go more and let the students lead. There was  little bit of slacking off in the pairs, with a couple of them letting their partner do most of the work.

Level 1 Labelled posters

Level 1 Definitions

Bursts and Bubbles - Whole CoL Presentation

It was a great evening listening to all of out Manaiakalani CoL Teachers talk about impact stories from their inquiries this year. We all had 3 minutes to tell our stories and even though we teach different things, in different schools to different age groups, it was fascinating listening to similar problems and "aha" moments.

Here is my presentation ...

Burst and Bubbles

The entire CoL is getting together this afternoon to talk about where we are up to in our inquiries.

Here are the main points from my presentation, which also includes information from the previous 2 blog posts,

Visible Learning Accelerates Shift PD Session

NCEA Internal Results Analysis for DVC 2017