Literacy in Action

I was lucky today to visit Panmure Bridge School to watch +Robyn Anderson with her class. She very kindly offered to be teaching a maths class when I visited so I could watch how she approached literacy and vocabulary in a subject other than English.
I have just started working on literacy strategies in my inquiry as I have realised that this is holding them back in progressing in the SOLO levels and are unable to move onto analysis. I have been working with the English Department on some strategy ideas and was delighted to be invited to visit Robyn's Year 7 and 8 group to see what they do.




My key take outs from this session are ...

• Make the new vocabulary words the focus before they even know the meaning of them. Let them get used to what they look and sound like.
• Working in groups to encourage talking and sharing the new learning.
• Making the students use the word straight after researching the meaning, so they see it in context and are not worrying about writing and typing it up with a definition that they are copying and pasting.
• Short, fast paced activities that kept their interest and encouraged competition and group / team work.

Here are the notes I made at the time, during the lesson (unedited) :-

Key words are written up on the board

To recognise the different types of angles

They met angles for the first time a couple of days ago and are now going to learn some maths language to do with these angles.

New words are introduced

All angles have a name like the students do.

The correct name for elements is important.

Recap what they already know together - they all call out the words they know together when asked questions.

Challenge - working in teams - find out the names of angles.

Move to work in groups of 4.

This is a brand new topic to them today so there is a lot of teacher support at this point.

 Words are given to the class that are new. The teacher says the words to the class.

Class are given time to say the words to each other.

The vowels are taken out of the words and the class are to say the words to each other again.

The teacher then points to words on the list and the students say them all together.

Class to set an online timer.

See how long it takes for them to each say all of the words in the list - using the words with the vowels missing.

The class are mostly ESOL so this activity was a fun one to get them used to the new words. Seeing what they look like and sound like. They raced each other saying the words while timing get each other.

Next challenge is 15 minutes and they have to find what the words mean.

They then have to label the diagrams with the correct name. They have not been told what the new words mean yet.

The class are to put the new words on post it notes and stick them on the board next to where they think they are to go on the angle diagrams.

Working in small teams - they don’t all have to work on the same word at the same time.

The students do not have to write the definition anywhere for this activity, so they don’t have that pressure of writing or getting the wrong definition from the dictionary.

They have to talk in their groups and decide which word goes with which diagram.

The teacher physically takes herself away from the students so they are encouraged to talk together about the problem.

The students have also drawn the angles in their books and are adding labels to them there too so they have this to refer to afterwards. They go through the angle answers together at the end of the activity and the students label the drawings in their books with the correct names.

Definitions are written with the labels so the students are clear what each one is after their own research.

The teacher is encouraging the students to let all of the team join in.

The key words about line types at the start have been repeated about 6 times during the session with the teacher demonstrating different types of line with pens and rulers and getting the students to shout them out.

This is happening while they are learning the new words about angles.

The students then got out protractors and could see the angles and degrees for themselves and compared them to the definitions.

Summary exercise - in a set number of words summaries one of the angles they have learned about.

They can compare one with another one so they can see the difference.

25 summary to explain.

They were given research and preparation time.

Then given times to make the 25 word summary.

Students given options on how to present their summaries - online how they want, paper and pens - whatever they are more comfortable with to show what they have learned.

This is not pretty work - it is working notes so they don’t have to spend time making it look pretty - the content is the key.

Working together to create the summary means they have to talk and collaborate.

The class are paused while putting together the summary to emphasize the need to use the correct vocabulary and words. Use the new technical words they have used in context.

Lots of conversations about the best way to summarise what they have been learning.

The power of having student work on the wall

I have had a collection of student work on the back wall for a while now and the architect posters have been getting added to over the last couple of years. They now show achieved, merit and excellence which is good as I can point out different aspects to the Year 11 group. The students have looked at these quite regularly but I had not realised the impact that having the work on the wall has had on the students until today.
One of my level 1 students said to me today - " are our posters going to go on the back wall miss?"
"yes of course they can!... I will go and print them now" - we still had them online from uploading them to the Google Plus Community.
While i was putting them up... "can mine go in the middle so it is the first one seen?"
"can mine go next to the excellence poster miss, as mine is excellence too then they are both together?"

Here is the finished collection of work. It is a selection of the last couple of years and this year all together.
It is really nice that the students look at the work on the wall and it has had an affect on them and that they have pride in their work and want it to be displayed.

Building up the design analysis in stages.

My seniors (Year 11, 12 and 13) Design and Visual Communication students are at the point where they need to do written analysis of their own design work.
This is always the difficult part for us so I have made it the focus for my Manaiakalani Class OnAir work this term.
So far, we have done exercises together on the class Google Plus Communities of common products that they are familiar with - Link to lesson post here.
Our next step was to take photographs of the design development work that the class has been working on and put that up into the community and analyse each other's work. There is no lesson link to this at the time of writing as I am still putting it together for Class OnAir. I have been working with students using the Google Plus Communities since doing my year with the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher programme in 2014, where I focussed on blended learning. The students told me then that it was easier to analyse someone else's' work than their own.
This week, we are working on step three of this process where I am going to put up a product at the start of each lesson and we are going to verbally analyse it all together.
We had out first go at this today. I put up a simple product, a shape sorter, and we all sat round the front talking about the design decisions that has been made for that product. I wanted them to talk about it together so that the pressure of writing sentences about it was taken off them and they could concentrate on the analysis.
After the session, which was very short, 10 minutes maximum, they got back to their individual design development work. I wrote up what they said onto a shared Google Drawing and put it into the class communities for them to look back on if they needed to. My plan is to do this at the start of each lesson for the next couple of weeks so they get used analysing and hopefully increasing the depth of the analysis each time we do it.
I coloured their replies on the drawing in relation to the SOLO taxonomy posters we have in every class room at school.
I then spent the session talking to the students on an individual basis, helping them with their analysis work on their design by asking them questions that they had to answer themselves.

Here are their replies today :-



Here is the SOLO Poster information that it corresponds to :-

It's nice to have visitors ...

This week, one of my colleagues, +Georgia Dougherty asked of she could come and observe one of my lessons.  The only time we could match up was Thursday morning when I had one of my Intermediate classes for a double period.
It was really good seeing the reaction of the students as Georgia was going round talking to them. They had not met her before but they were really nice and open and sharing. I think this says a lot about our cluster of schools and the fact that there is a regular stream of visitors and the students are used to talking about what they are doing and the how and why of what they are doing.

What goes on in your own classroom becomes the "normal" for you and I am always impressed when I go into the rooms of others about how focussed and on to it the classes are. This seems to contrast a lot with my room sometimes, which seems like noisy chaos! This always seems to be more apparent when someone comes to visit or observe me. I was hyper aware during Georgia's visit about the noise, the mess, the movement round the room, the focus. We were doing a few different things, finishing work, checking it off on a class sheet, doing design work and cutting out design work on the laser cutter. There seemed to be kids and mess everywhere. This does not bother me at all normally but I found myself apologising for it when I had a visitor. I need to get over feeling like this as it is what goes on in any normal classroom, depending n what they are doing and we mange to "get stuff done" in amongst all the mess.

I think it is part of that fear we have as teachers that people are judging us harshly about what we are doing in our classes. NCEA pressure does not help this fear or the fear of trying new things.
This became an interesting topic on a PD day yesterday - EducampAKL. I was working in a group on the first session and the talk got round to why teachers don't share very much. One person in the group brought up that it was about the school board owning any work that teachers produce, so unless you have their say so, then you can't share it. This was a very fair point but I honestly think that fear is a big part of it too. I have worked for a few years now as a support person in school, helping teachers with their online work and I see this for myself.

As teachers, we need to get over all of this and share everything we do. Why sit for hours producing resources that someone already has? Why do we feel nervous when someone sees the reality of our classrooms? What goes on in a teacher's room and how they do it can really help someone else.
So I need to stop worrying so much when people come in.  We are working hard and mess cleans up.

Here is Georgia's blog post about her visit.

Student Voice - End of Term 2

As it is the end of term 2, it is a good time to get some student voice so there is time to act on any problems before the start of term 3.
I have been reading  "Making Thinking Visible : How to Promote Engagement, Understanding and Independence for All Learners" - Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison. Link here to Kindle edition

There is a lot of discussion in the book about letting the students ask the questions rather than answering them.

"when students ask authentic questions, we know they are focussed on the learning and not just the completion of assignments"


"asking authentic questions - that is, questions to which the teacher does not already know the answer or to which there are not predetermined answers - is extremely powerful in creating a classroom culture that feels intellectually engaging"

I have not finished reading this book yet but this part about getting the students to be in charge of the questions is a really interesting one and something that I want to look into further next term as part of expanding the students level of thinking.

As a starting point for this, I thought it would be fun to flip the way I got feedback from the students this term. I have decided to get them to ask the questions.  Seeing as we have not done it this way before, I have not expected a huge amount from them and only want 3 questions based on the following things :-

• Think of one question you can ask about the projects that you have been doing so far this year.
• Think of one question you can ask about how the information is given to you about what you have to do when you come in the classroom.
• Think of one question you can ask about the atmosphere in the classroom.

These were the instructions at the top of the form....

Hello.... On this form I want you to read the focus and then think of one question that you want to ask about each of the three sections. I will not be giving you boxes to tick for this as I want you to really think of a question. Please think hard and try not to leave blank or put "i don't know".... thank you.

Here are some of the things they came up with ...

• Think of one question you can ask about the projects that you have been doing so far this year.

Will these techniques I've learnt help me in Year 12 VIS?
Will these shelter projects be useful for future reference?

These answers interest me a lot as they show that the students are thinking about the future and if what I getting them to do is going to be of any use. I need to to try and build into the planning overall, some kind of 3 year course flow so they can see where the skills take them from Level 1 through to Level 3 and then onto courses and jobs to do with design. I know I like to know the point of what it is that I am expected to do so it is the same for the students.

Is art deco reaching the high standard of where i want it to be
Have I done enough
Am I still on track?
I don't necessarily have to know how my speaker works right? like, the wires and stuff.

These questions make it clear that they are worrying about what they are dong and if it is enough or correct. I need to make more reference of the standard breakdowns (example here)

• Think of one question you can ask about how the information is given to you about what you have to do when you come in the classroom.

Is art deco still achieving at the high point?
Why online?
Sometimes I need extra help when i don't fully understand the task we are given
more fun drawing stuff?
Is there other ways to give us information without using google plus?
can we see visual instructions?

It is interesting that they want their instructions in different and visual ways. This appeals to me and will definitely look into doing this more.  I am wondering if the question about "why online?" has come from a student who has come from outside of our cluster of schools as we have been working this way for quite a number of years now and they are used to getting their instructions and information that way.

• Think of one question you can ask about the atmosphere in the classroom.

Is the atmosphere still going or going to stop
Why are the year 12's so loud?
The Atmosphere is fine and fun but productive working space
what do you mean by atmosphere?
Do you like the atmosphere? If not, what can we do to improve it.
why are there more boys than girls?

The boy / girl ratio in the class is often something I wonder about.  My class always seems to have more boys in it than girls.

I am happy that they think they can still work while having fun.

I do worry about the Year 11 students in with the Year 12 and how it is affecting their work rate, and it is interesting that has come up with the "why are the year 12's so loud?" question. 

This has been an interesting way to get feedback as I have more of an insight into how the students are thinking. It was our first time trying this, so I am aware that some of the feedback is not questions or is not very in depth, but I think it is an interesting start and I will definitely be building more of this student questioning into the lessons.

School wide Unit Plan

Yesterday, during teacher only day, we were given an introduction to the new school wide unit plan.
Part of this introduction was why we were doing it :-

Aim of the Unit Plan

To create a unit plan that is consistent across all departments at Tamaki College

Purpose of the Unit Plan

• Clarity of information
• Quality teaching and learning
• Teaching and learning information is visible and explicit
• Links all of the Tamaki College initiatives into teaching and learning programs

We focussed on the first part of the plan today with the target being the unit that will be taught in term 4 as part of the Jump Start course for the Year 10 students who are starting NCEA Level 1.
Here is the blank template for the unit plan

The unit I concentrated on completing is AS91069 - Promote an organised body of design work to an audience using visual communication techniques.
This is the first thing we do at NCEA Level 1 and I have planned 8 weeks for this project (it is worth 4 credits so needs approx 40 hours of time, so I have allotted 48 lessons - 50 mins x 48 lessons = 40 hours). We get 4 weeks doing the Jump Start course so this is half the time planned for this standard. This means we get to finish it off when we start back in the new year and 4 credits will go in for the students really early on in Term 1.

Here is the plan that I put together for this standard. The time during Jump Start should take us to the thumbnail sketching, ready to learn some Illustrator and Photoshop skills when they come back in the new year so they can do their design developments.

Section One

Unit Plan Overview
Introduction:	The students will be designing a presentation poster to promote the work of an architect.
Topic/Context/Genre:	Designing a poster
Achievement Objectives:	Level 6 - Outcome Development and Evaluation Critically analyse their own and other’s outcomes to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes. Undertake ongoing experimentation and functional modelling. Use the information gained to select, justify and develop a final outcome.
Key Competencies:	Thinking - using appropriate research skills and showing understanding of design elements Using language, symbols and texts - showing understanding of layout techniques to give a visual effect Managing self - keeping up to date and finishing work on time. Using research to back up and support own work. Relating to others - giving feedback to others about their design work that is helpful, supportive and meaningful Participating and contributing - sharing work in the community for others to see and learn from
Level: 1	Class: DVC Level 1 (Year 11)	Timeframe: 8 weeks  (4 weeks of jumpstart)
Standard Number: AS91069	Internal or External: Internal	Credit Value:       4                  ( Lit:  4  )
Standard Title:	Promote an organised body of design work to an audience using visual communication techniques.
Internal/External moderation:	Form F from 2015 External Moderation Blog post re external moderation report

Teaching and Learning - Link to site
Activity Sequence	Learning Intention (Students will be able to)	Learning Activity	Success Criteria (Students can/will:)	Resources	Activity Timeframe
1	To be able to choose what style of architect they like the best from a selection.	Choose an architect to focus on	Students will have looked at the selection of architects and have made a decision which one they will focus on. They will make a post on the Google Plus Community about which architect they have chosen to research.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 1
2	To be able to understand how to use a Google Plus community in a respectful way.	Join the class Google Plus Community	All students will have access to Google Plus and have joined the class community.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 1
3	To be able to use research skills to collect relevant resources online.	Collect images to do with their chosen	Have folder in their drive that is full of images of work by their chosen architect. This folder must be shared publically.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 1
4	To be able to use research skills to collect relevant information online and be able to cite where they got that information from.	Collect information about their chosen architect	The information collection sheet will be full of information about the architect, their life, and some of the more famous buildings that they designed. The links from the websites that were used in this information search are to be included on the sheet.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 1 / Week 2
5	To be able to scan read collected texts and pull out the important pieces of information.	Highlight important information about the architect from the collected information	Using the highlighting function on Google Docs, what students decide is the most important information will be highlighted on the information collection sheet.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 2
6	To be able to understand the key design points in the architect's work and what effect they have.	Analysis of chosen architect	A completed Google Drawing using the template provided, that shows the key design elements of the architects’ work.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 2
7	To be able to show their understanding of their architect in their own words.	Write up about chosen architect	A Google Doc with the information typed up that will be used on the final poster design. This will be in the student's’ own words and  will be based on all of their research to date.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 2
8	To understand how design elements have been used on existing poster designs to create a desired effect.	Analysis of existing poster designs	The students will post an example of a film poster in the Google Plus Community and write a brief analysis based on the structure / guidelines given.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 3
9	To be able to use their knowledge of design elements in creating their own layout experiments	Layout exercises	The students will use the layout template given and use this to design 3 different layouts. The students will save Image files of these layouts and post them into the class community for the whole class to see.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 3
10	To be able to give useful feedback to others about their design work.	Team analysis of layout exercises	Under each of the layout exercises in the class community, the students will give brief feedback to each other based on one positive comment and one constructive criticism,with reasons why they say what they do.	Project on class site Chromebooks	Week 3
11	To understand why and how to use thumbnail sketches and the different views that can be used.	Thumbnail exercises	The students will draw a sheet of thumbnail sketches based on what they see around them - this may be in the classroom or outside, depending on the weather.	Project on class site Chromebooks Sketchbooks Pencils	Week 3
12	To be able to use their thumbnail sketching skills on their own design work.	Thumbnail sketch designs for poster layouts	The students will produce a sheet or two in the sketchbooks of thumbnail sketches showing the main elements they will include in their poster design - title, image position, placing of information text. They will use simplified versions of these to show where they would go. (lines for text, boxes for images simple text for the title)	Project on class site Chromebooks Sketchbooks Pencils	Week 3 / Week 4
13	To be able to use their knowledge of design elements to analyse the layouts they have drawn in their thumbnail sketches.	Analysing thumbnail sketch layout designs	Notes will be written either into the sketchbooks or typed onto a Google Doc that analyse the thumbnail sketches. The analysis notes will follow the guidelines  given on the class site.	Project on class site Chromebooks Sketchbooks Pencils Scanner	Week 3 / Week 4
14	To be able to use their knowledge of layout and design elements to develop ideas that are influenced by the style of their architect.	Design Developments	Students will use their choice of media to produce 3 design developments. They can choose from Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Google Drawing, PicMonkey, Pixlr, Lucid Press .. or any other online design tool that they wish to use. They will use placeholder text instead of the real written information but will use the real images that they want to use. These developments do not need to be bigger than A3. They will save out their design developments as image files and load them onto the class Google Plus Communities for everyone to see.	Project on class site Chromebooks Photoshop / Illustrator	Week 4 / 5 / 6
15	To understand design elements and use this knowledge to give meaningful feedback to others about their work.	Team analysis of design developments in the class Google Plus Community	Under everyone else’s design development in the class community, the students will give feedback for each one. They will state a positive for each design and an idea for what could be improved and and the reasons why.	Project on class site Chromebooks Photoshop / Illustrator	Week 4 / 5 / 6
16	To understand the feedback of others and use this and the knowledge of design elements, layout and the style of their chosen architect to analyse their design developments.	Design Developments - written analysis	The students will write their own analysis of the design developments that they have produced. This will be on a Google Doc. They will collate together the feedback from the rest of the group and use this to write their own analysis. Use the support document / sentence starters to help them to do their write up.	Project on class site Chromebooks Photoshop / Illustrator	Week 4 / 5 / 6
17	To use design elements, layout skills and the understanding of the style of their chosen architect to produce a final design.	Final poster design	Students will produce their final poster design on media of their choice. This poster will be the full size required. It will contain all of the actual images, written information and styling that is needed on the final design. This poster will be saved out as an image file. (jpg or png)	Project on class site Chromebooks Photoshop / Illustrator	Week 7
18	To use this knowledge of design elements, layout and the style of their chosen architect to analyse their final design.	Final evaluation	Use the SOLO structured support document to write an evaluation of the final poster design.	Project on class site Chromebooks Photoshop / Illustrator	Week 7 / 8

Assessment : (Support resources:  Every Teacher's’ Guide to Assessment : NCEA Myths : NZQA Assessment and Moderation)
Prior Knowledge/Prior Assessment	Formative Assessment	Summative Assessment
Any Graphics work that they have completed during Year 9 and 10. Asstle and PAT scores from Year 10.	All work is shared in the community along the way and is seen and given feedback on by the teacher and the rest of the class.	NCEA assessment sheet