PD - Secondary Connect - Provoking extended discussion with secondary students to deepen understanding

Provoking extended discussion with secondary students to deepen understanding

PD - Effective Online Learning Environments

 

Inquiry 2022 - Feedback from Student Working from Home

 In my Year 11 class this year, I have one student who. has not been to school yet. She has been doing all of the interacting with the work that I am setting from home and she is just about up to date with everything so far. 

We have been using the class site, workspaces and email. Other students in the class have also been interacting with the work from home but i wanted to ask this particular student some questions to find out how she has been coping.

I have also sent some questions to this students other teachers to see where she is at with their subject and what differences there are in interaction and methods used.

These are the questions that I sent to the particular student, with her answers.

• How are you finding the work you need to do in DVC? Class site? Calendar invites? The workspace dashboard? Im finding it easy from home.

• How clear are the instructions? They are clear enough for me to understand

•  Are you able to understand what you have to do clearly enough? Yes

• Do you use the examples that I make to help you? Yes

• Do you watch the help videos that I make to help you? yes

• Are the examples and videos clear enough?Yes

• Are enough so you understand what to do? Yes

• What would you like included in the project planning to make it more supportive when you are not in the class room? More example slides of what to do how to do it exactly.

• Is the support and information that I give you different or the same as your other subjects? Different

• How is it different or the same? it’s different because we don’t learn graphics in the other classes.

• What are the best ways you feel supported with the work you have to do from any of your subjects? The best way i feel supported is using more communication about how to do the work your given like it could be on slides or docs just for an example.

I have since sent her this extra question to get more clarity, as I don't think my original question about this was clear enough.

"Can I just get you to think about how you are supported in other subjects. I know the content is different as your other subjects are not Graphics but how is the work given to you while you are at home? How is the METHOD the same or different to what I do."

These are the questions that I have sent to the teachers of this student .... (names and any link to a subject has been removed)

1 - Has "this student" engaged with the work you have set for her while she has been at home / not in school?

2 - How have you set the work mostly? - email / class site / workspaces / shared docs / other ....?

3 - What do you think the reason is that "this student" is engaging or not engaging with the work you are setting for her?

4 - Is "this student's" engagement with the work different to the rest of the class? How is it different?

5 - Have you taught "this student" prior to this year? If so, how do you think your relationship with her is impacting how she approaches the work outside of the class room?

Answers from teacher 1

1. She has engaged in the work in a very limited fashion I have noticed her on docs that I have put in student drives

2. I have mostly set the work, the main point was for her to follow along the digital resources and email if she had any questions.

3. I am not sure why she wouldnt be engaging she is generally a very self starting student, I have emailed a couple of times to no reply but I am sure being socially isolated must take a toll on anyone especially a teenager.

4. Her engagement was different in that it was done on her on schedule but it has dropped off over time.

5. I have taught her every year she has been at Tamaki, I think this lead to the initial positive effort.

Answers from teacher 2

1. In the past 8 weeks, no but she has opened the Assessment as of yesterday, which is due this week on Friday.

2. Much of my work is set onto the Workspace and Subject Site. I send Emails to remind students of work and it's also in the Calendar too (Google Meet links shared with students as well)

3. As she misses out on a lot of school, she misses vital info and content about the work and Assessments. 

4. She's capable of doing the work but she spends too much time on her phone or sleeping (Just going by what she was like last year as I've only seen her once this year - Weds 9th Feb)

5. Yes, I taught her when she was in Year 10. I think the relationship I have with her is a contributing factor to the minimal work she has done outside of the classroom. 

(More replies will be added as they come in both from the student and her teachers)

Inquiry 2022 - Feedback from relief teacher

 

I am at the information collecting part of my inquiry this year. I have been away from school for three weeks so I thought it would be useful to get some feedback from the relieving teacher that had my class during some of that time.

Here are the questions that I asked her ...

When you were relieving my classes when I was away, was the work easy to find?

Was the work easy to understand in terms of what the students were being expected to do?

What was the general feeling in the room while the classes were on? Did it seem like the students knew what to do? Were they confident with the instructions that were given to them?

How much support did you have to give the students so they were on task and clear about what to do?

Do you think any off task behaviour was because they did not know what to do?

How do you think I could have improved the planning to make it easier for you? Easier for the students?

Here is her reply ..

The work you left for all your classes were well set up and structured. It is easy to find. The instructions are clear, easy to understand and follow. The exemplars and templates that the students can copy made their work easier. Also a big help is your "If you get stuck" videos. The Year 7/8s were doing online learning and always had a teacher with them (also virtual) who helped explain and monitor student behaviour. There was no misbehaviour anyway. The students knew what to do and didn't hesitate to ask for help and or clarification either by talking or via "chat"
You couldn't have made your student work any better. If the students have not been able to meet your deadlines it's simply because they didn't have the self motivation to do it, not because it's hard to do or to understand

Inquiry 2022 - Feedback from Teach First Teacher

 

The technology department has been blessed to have a Teach First teacher working with us. She started last year and has been mostly teaching Design and Visual Communication. This has meant that she has connected with my way of planning a lot since she started teaching and is adapting her own methods.

This seemed like an ideal time to ask her what she thought as she is into the second year now and has seen a wide variety of in school, lock down, hybrid situations now. 

I emailed the questions to her and these are her replies.

• When you were at Teach First before you started at Tamaki College, was there an expectation of how to do project planning/lesson planning/presentation of work to students? 

No not at all, we spent very little time on the practical side of teaching and learning. We have one week which we planned a junior unit just through trial and error and that was it.

Did they show you examples? Did they discuss that with you at all?

We saw a few broad examples, non-related specifically to technology or graphics planning 

• Are you aware of how the other teach first teachers on your course go about their planning? 

Not unless I ask them specifically to see their planning, we don't have any shared resources or spaces/times to share planning. It was great though living with my friend who also taught graphics at a different school because we would discuss planning and share resources

• How is it different to how you do it?

It seems to be quite different, although I haven't actually seen many people's planning from what I have heard from other schools lots of people aren't given the autonomy to do their own planning, it tends to be a preset department plan that they should follow. 

• What are the main elements from how I plan have you taken on board with your own?

Definitely, the standard breakdown as the first part of the planning, starting on paper with big brainstorms and filling relevant information into each of the sections so that you are not only working to the assessment but teaching key skills also. The online video heaps of accessible information side of the planning has been super helpful too. 

• What was is about these planning elements that appealed to you the most?

The intuitiveness of them, the planning lays the project out so that each section leads really well into the next. The hybrid learning planning has been amazing too, I have always felt able to support students online and in-person with your great digital resource planning. 

• What parts of my planning did you not want to try / use?

I honestly don't think there was anything specific I didn't want to use, I really didn't have any other planning styles of experiences so I was always happy to try a new planning style. I think it took me a while to get into the workspace and website planning just because they seemed like doubling up initially 

• What was it about these elements that was not appealing to you?

Just having to over plan, or have very similar things in multiple places. But I have learnt that different students access information in different ways and that having it readily available across multiple platforms

• How have you adjusted your planning so it is more personal to you?

I really need to have daily/weekly planning for my junior students as opposed to just a broad project plan. I don't think I know my project well enough to work just off the project planning, I prefer writing a plan for how each session will work, especially with the double periods so I can keep the pace and engagement up.

 

• What have you not tried yet that you fancy having a go with?

Really individualising my planning so that students have lots of relevant options and room to express themselves in the project. Have broad planning that meets the needs of all students. 

Also adding more literacy scaffolding into my projects 

• What have you tried, hated and decided not to use again?

I don't think daily or weekly planning works well for my senior students, I tried it initially but it becomes really prescribed and limited for students who are ready to move on or a bit behind. senior classes need to be more fluid 

• Is there anything else about this topic that you would like to add?

No thanks 

Inquiry 2022 - Thinking about where the main problem is

 I am thinking about what I can do for my inquiry topic this year. I have done a variety of things over the last few years as my main focus, so to start with, I drew a Diagram for myself. I tried to think of a few wide options.

The next step was to have a conversation with Fiona. We discussed the options I had included on my diagram and then we focussed in on engagement snd connecting with the planning and how this might be researched through a variety of means.

I have a number of senior students in the class so I can ask them while they are in front of me.

I have one student in particular who is working from home and has been all term so far. She is completely up to date with my work.

I have one relief teacher who worked with my classes while I was away for three weeks.

I have a Teach First teacher who started last year who I have been working with in DVC.

My next step is to ask this range of people how they have been connecting with my planning and what has worked / not worked so that I can work out a direction to go forwards.

Inquiry 2022 - Know your students - Ethnicity

 My inquiry this year will focus on my two senior classes> Year 11 and Year 13 DVC.