Monday 19 May 2014

Knowledge Data Reflection from Term 1

How did our students go?  Most students are working below expectation in knowledge.
Yr 8

  • 9 students at or above
  • 17 students 1 stage below
  • 5 students 2 stages below
  • 1 student 3 stages below
Yr 7
  • 3 Students at
  • 9 students 1 stage below
  • 10 students 2 stages below
  • 1 students 3 stages below
How do these results contribute to my overall understanding of my students needs?
These are highlighting the need to build knowledge within my students.  It is obvious when working with students the gaps in knowledge but also the lack of understanding the maths language. 

What are the implications for further teaching? 
Dedicate 10min each maths session to hotspot teaching of knowledge.  Refer to links within the unit plan so students connect to what we are teaching. 

What are the implication on the data for feedback to students?  
Students to set learning goals on what they need to learn in order to move to the next stage.  Highlight key areas of assessment for improvement.  

Reflection on Teacher Inquiry

What have I tried? This last fortnight I have been introducing the writing and the structure. I have started running workshops on features and strategies for writers. I also introduced a writing reflection time.
What has worked? The writing reflection was really successful I found students were able to identify what they wanted help in. Workshops are working however, I find students will not opt into these I need to tell them.
What hasn’t worked? My modelling of the writing reflection. I think I need to model how to write this against my modeled piece.
Where to from here? I am going to carry on with the writing reflection. I need to use this to form the workshops that I am running as this will give students ownership over the planning.

Thursday 8 May 2014

Effective Writing Instruction Chapter 1

After changing my focus to working on my pedagogy of writing I have been reading Alison Davis book. The one thing that I have taken from the first chapter is the need for students to be self regulated writers. This term 'self regulation' is not new to me. However, I have struggled with the how?? To create it in my classroom. Alison has lead to prompting questions for students to reflect on to develop self regulation. These are:

  1. Why am I writing this? Who am I writing this for? What kind of writing is this?
  2. What information do I need to be able to write?  How will I plan to use this information effectively?
  3. Why have I made this decision? Why have I chosen this word/phrase/ form of sentence? What are the alternatives?
  4. What have I learned about my writing?  What have I learned from my writing? Why was this difficult? What did I do well?  What are my future targets?  What will help me reach these?  

I am going to work with number 4's set of questions this term and introduce it in on a Thursday before we head off to tech.  At this point my students have usually blogged their piece and are ready to reflect.

Thursday 1 May 2014

Keynote Speaker - Dr Roberta Hunter Developing Mathematical Inquiry in a Learning Community

Maths is like a cobweb.  Not one strategy but lots of pieces that come together to learn maths. As a teacher your job is to sit outside on the edge of the cobweb not in the centre.

Word problems or problematic tasks are always used.  Plan for all the possible strategies that could come out to discuss it.  

Let the children read the problem.  Then let them facilitate the conversation. 

Explore the incorrect solutions the mistakes are leading towards the new ideas.

How often have we taught active listening? 
This could be where I am going wrong.  I haven't explicitly taught them how to active listen.  Next term I need to teach how to active listen and how to have the discussion.


Talk moves look into how to teach these.

Come up with a discussions criteria for success.  How do we work together in maths.  What counts as evidence? 

Celebrate when kids get it wrong because they took a risk.   3 levels of the same problem differenatited problems.  


Launch the problem correctly use the visualising strategy.  

Don't underline key words in maths.  It confuses the maths problem.