MPI Day #9

It's with a pinch of sadness that I head into this last MPI session. I have really loved knowing that I've had the best access to best practices and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, roughly every three weeks, for these first three terms of the year. The opportunity to have open and frank discussions about curriculum and pedagogy is something that I always relish. I also love that I can take ideas back into my kura with the clout of the Manaiakalani bandwagon on my side. Being a part of driving the kaupapa and pedagogy within our cluster is something I have been really passionate about since we joined the journey a decade ago. In recent times, my opportunity and ability to be a part of the conversation has drastically dwindled, for which I am both saddened and frustrated by.

Last Dorothy chat

Dorothy emphasised the point of intentionally carving out time for Learn, Create and Share. For many of our learners, this is where the real understanding happens. 20 years of evidence-based practice tells us that the formula works. A year's teaching should equate to a year's progress... but if we get it right, by ensuring we tap into all three aspects, we know that we can make accelerated progress and do better than one year's progress.

In my opinion, there has been so much focus on intentionally including Curriculum, Knowledge and Practice, Learning Intentions and Success Criteria... all the bread-and-butter things that we focused on in the dark ages at Teachers College.

Is the focus on structured, scripted lessons turning our teachers AND students into mere consumers?

All of these are available to our learners. How familiar are all the learners with them? Could we have a class Google Summit to get learners teaching their peers how to use some of these tools, so it's not just the teacher directing?

Communication in the NZC and LCS

Learners become really empowered when they start feeling confident in using the vocabulary to explain what they are learning.

As teachers, we need to be intentional in modelling what symbols represent. 

By going over and over this (repetition), it cements it in the learners' brains, as well as giving less confident learners a chance to voice the vocabulary for themselves.

I haven't used 3 Act tasks before... I don't think? Or have I? (& not realised there was a name for it).

Create in Math

This is where the rubber meets the road with students being content creators and not mere content consumers.

Rich tasks and analytical processes bring this to fruition, as well as critical thinking. I wonder what this will look like next time around?

It's been a minute since I've heard mention of the SAMR model, but it is as relevant as ever. It appears there's a shift back to Substitution, but it may also reflect limited teacher awareness or confidence.

This is what needs to be intentionally built into the lesson design.  It should be deliberate and explicit. It can be anywhere within the lesson, so long as it relates to the Learning Intention and Success Criteria.  If they are completing a worsheet, it is practice... however if they take that and record a video to explain their individual thinking, then it becomes a create task.

By considering these things within your planning, it can really amplify the task.

It's vital that the learners understand the math learning behind the learning task they are undertaking when combining art.

We need to invest the time in teaching the students to use the tools in order to create. There are huge amounts of ideas in the archived toolkits! Well worth going back and looking through them.

Share in Math

Share needs to be deliberately and intentionally planned for so that it actually happens. How can I effectively track this?

Why do we need to share?

Because we know that the research shows that it is effective!

This is an area that has dropped off in our learning spaces, as the pressure has gone on, to address core curriculum areas. Making time to intentionally comment on each others blogs has really dropped off. We no longer have "bloggers of the week". It's important to remember that this is in the reading and writing curriculum. 

I love the idea of scaffolding feedback by getting learners to use the success criteria to base their feedback (comment) on. It makes them an integral part of the learning, rather than something that just sits on top, without being really addressed.

How can I fit this within my existing timetable, but have it intentionally planned for, even when I'm not in the classroom?

 

I could be sending a brief message out to whanau to let them know what we're learning about, rather than just when we have formal conferences.

This is great for evidence towards progress markers at the end of the year.

Create & Share Stocktake

Students need to have agency over what they create and share. 

I created this Place Value Quest as it is an area that my learners really struggle with. While it has been made to align with the old Level Three curriculum, aspects of it align with both Year 5 and Year 6 of the new curriculum. I would be really interested to know how accurate the Te Reo Māori incorporated is.

So... what
next?

• I need to show my class the video of the learner sharing his learning... and ensure that they are defaulting to creating something to share their learning.
  
• Join the weekly Cybersmart Challenge mail-out.
• Amplify... what a fantastic resource for not only reinforcing the language but utilising for Formative Assessment! Great for Rich Tasks too. I really want to use this in my classroom.
• Math Riddles - Learners could explore and share on their blogs, then share on their blogs, before commenting responses and creating a bloggersation.