Haka

I have recently been helping the Year 5 and 6 boys practise the school Haka. The importance of the Haka to link the students to their school is very significant. It also allows the akonga to demonstrate their respect to the Maori heritage, language and culture.

The boys get great mana in performing the Haka during special events and it can leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up when it is performed correctly.

Video Reading Lesson

Reading Lesson

In term two there was a whole school audit on how we teach and I along with every other teacher in the school was videoed for a reading lesson. I was videoed and then I reviewed my video and had a meeting with the person that videoed me, in my case the principal Lorraine Taylor. I then completed a rubric with Lorraine outlining where I thought my teaching sat.

That video and feedback form is linked here

Feedback form
http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/blog-post_65.html

Lesson
http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/blog-post_17.html

This process has been carried out again in Term 3 same principle but with the hope that some of the questions raised in the first session will be answered and my feedback rubric will have moved forward.
Watching ones self back on video is a very informative and analytical process and definitely allows for thorough self analysis. My lesson went well and the things that I had looked to implement namely co-creation of success criteria were present which was pleasing. The full video and feedback forms I will post in my next blog and you see the steps forward that I have made and the steps that I still need to make.

Reading Plays

We have started plays in our reading unit and the students are highly engaged. The students are eager to take on the role. It also means that they are fully engaged with what we are learning to do in the lesson. On a topic like inference the students find it easier to infer the motivation of a character or the actions a character might make because because they are that character.
I have given the each group time to practise their plays together, generally outside, so that they form their character and decide the things that they want to add to the character. The group then performs the play to the whole class and then we have a feedback session outlining the positives and then adding anything we can work on for our next performance.
This active engagement has allowed for greater understanding of the plays and the WALT's in their respective lessons.
I have attached a link to a video of one of the groups performing and you can see some students even brought props from home to get further into character and setting.

Teacher Inquiry/Success Criteria

My teaching inquiry over the last couple of months has been "I want the children in my class to help me co-construct success criteria. How can I achieve this and what do I see as the benefits? How can I then use this to get them to create their own WALTs?"
The co-creation of success criteria has become a feature of most of my lessons. I have found that the students are very capable of helping with co-construction of criteria. This gives them a greater understanding and ownership of their learning on the ground floor. I feel for me I have to have a clear vision of what success is in the lesson or else the lesson can lose focus.
The benefits for the students is that they are less passive and more active in their own learning goals and they can see if they are reaching the expectations that they set themselves.
The co-creation of WALTs is still a work in progress I feel that I need to know where I want to go in the next three, four lessons so that I can leave breadcrumbs for them to create WALTs and that is where my shift of focus will go to. I think this requires a clear vision in my planning and a clear understanding of what my students needs are. 

I have attached a link from John Hattie on learning intentions and success criteria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGyvDvOegXE

Benefits of E-asttle

My tutor teacher recently gave me a run through on e-asttle I was very impressed with it. I see it as a great tool to assess where students are and to show where there may be gaps in the student learning and if the test is performed over a whole class the data that can be extrapolated can be a very clear and show patterns across the class. This can then be used to focus on what needs to be taught. The students can also see their results and it will show them clearly what they need to work on.
I see myself using e-asttle at the start of units, particularly in maths, so I can see clearly what the students know and what they need to work. The fact that my class is now a BYOD, bring your own device, class it means that this is also now more practical.

Intermediate

Term 3 has seen a proliferation of open days for intermediate schools as my Year 6 students have their eyes on the next big step in their educational journey. The large majority of my class (22 out of 27) are going to go to Mokoia Intermediate and we went on an open day to see what intermediate school is like. The students got to participate in a range of interesting activities from baking, sewing, Spanish, music and much more.
It gave them pause to think that their time as a primary school student is close to an end and that are growing up!
For me it gave me time to reflect on how quickly the school year has gone, with less than half the school year now remaining, it also showed me how much the class had grown and matured in seven brief months.
The class and I do however still have another term and a half to work together to learn more and to enjoy being the role models for the school for the remainder of the school year.