Inquiry Question 2 - Collaborate and Identify

Question 2

"Collaborate with your school’s leadership team and colleagues to identify areas where your inquiry will make a powerful contribution to wider school and cluster goals."

My Inquiry Idea

Will working at scholarship level for 4 students in my senior class lift the achievement of the rest of the class?

Feedback :-

Teacher from another department

• This will make a contribution as University Entrance is one of the school goals. 
• For the more able students it gives a better idea of the level of work they will need if they are wanting to go to university.
• This will possibly scare the less able students but it may build resiliency if they choose to meet the challenge.

Teacher who taught a scholarship class last year

• That was also their hope last year, that the overall level would be lifted.
• The outcome was not quite what was expected but the learning and the skills were all heightened.
• This did not come through in the final results.
• They want to focus less on the NCEA number crunching and more on the fun of learning and the experience - the experience of going through the scholarship process brought this home to them in a big way.
• They also had external help with the process.
• It has changed how they are approaching the Level 3 literacy programme this year and the focus is now on the learning and the wanting to read.
• They want the students to want to learn, to be curious and not tick boxes.

Teacher in the same department

• They think that this idea will raise the achievement of the rest of the class.
• They think the students will reach for the bar that is set for them.
• They think the students will have an advantage as they are profiting from the teaching to the four target students.
• The other students could step up and achieve where otherwise they might not (this was in reference to those students who are in the class because of the timetable structure, not through any deep love of the subject. These kinds of students at Level 3 DVC have not done very well in the past)

Head of Department for Technology

• Will this prove to be too big and too full on to be a whole class approach?
• They think it will fit into school goal number 1 as my class has some Year 12 students in it too who are going to be included.

Deputy Principals

• Students last year were moved up into Merit and Excellence from this approach last year in Maths, so their achievement was great even though they didn't get the Scholarship result.
• The school is looking at more mixed level and mixed year group classes due to numbers choosing options so it will be interesting to see how my practice can affect and support teachers in their planning for this.
• How would I get this across to others teachers at school? A tip of the week in briefing? The Google Plus staff community? Emails? The process is on my blog so this needs to be presented to staff so they can look if they want to.
• We are to present to staff as a CoL group, termly, about where we are up to with our inquiries so when it comes time for Bursts and Bubbles at the end of the year, they are more inclined to come and see the outcome of it all.
• The plan was seen as a good way to collaborate with and support the school with the ongoing differentiation planning, as this will be good for new students to a subject as well as their different abilities.
• Can I explain how I am supporting this? my class site / workspaces / online examples etc.
• How will this affect the following year? The Year 12 students who in the group this year will have a different way of working if they come back to DVC next year.
• How am I up-skilling myself to be able to approach this?