Integrated Curriculum Intro

 

Pedagogy behind project based inquiry

Things to consider for the enviro class

If it is true curriculum integration. Each theme is driven by student choice based on a shared problem. Therefore termly units struggle to fit this model. True curriculum integration poses questions for each theme. So intead of maths the theme or question would be the focus and the learning that came from it would have a maths component embedded in it. Quite a shift from where I am at currently. What I currently do sits in the middle of mainstream delivery and curriculum integration.

Enviro Class

Guy Claxton James Beane Ken Robinson Env Day Student Run Parent Evening class planning model Differentiation Academic rigour coconstruct curriculum Students decide what we do

Curriculum Integration

After talking to Diane about the scope of the sand dune restoration we agreed that there was a really good case for a class dedicated to project based learning and integrating the curriculum into the delivery of the content. After quite a lot of thinking about this we decided to take it to the board and teachers for further discussion. Most of the feedback was positive and constructive moving forward. So now we are going to send a info letter to parents to organise a meeting early in Term 4 to pitch the case for a class of around 20 students.

Community Engagement

 Our next steps from the Enviroschool's Green/Gold reflection day were to engage in more community based projects outside of the school environment and to embrace te reo in all aspects of our learning. All teachers are now signed up to take part in pd to improve our te reo next year. 

We have been approached by a number of organisations in Taupo Bay to run a student led project to research, cultivate and restore the sand dunes with native grasses starting in 2022. I have had early discussions with Jon Urlich and Troy from the Doteeril protection group about how this may look. I have also spoken to Morag at Enviro schools about funding opprtunities.

The scale of this project means a shift in thinking around how we approach it from an enviro group perspective. I hink that we have gone as far as we can with fortnightly activity days. While these will still continue I feel to do the sand dune restoration project properly we need to think about a student led inquiry that has a greater emphasis on curriculum integration.

Pact Tool PLD

 We explored how to make teacher judgements today using the PaCT tool. Reviewing what we have already covered reminded us that we need to remember to look at what we are taking away from each lesson.

Take aways:

1. It is important to view the illustrations provided to get a really good idea of what the big ideas really mean for each set/ signpost.

2. If you think a student(s) is displaying evidence at one signpost then read the descriptions above and below to double check the level of sophistication fits.

3. The illustrations are also really great ideas for teaching a big idea.

4. You don’t need to review each student for each set. You would group students to think about where they are to decide your deliberate acts of teaching for the next steps, one aspect at a time.

5. We will rotate our specific focus each term on reading this year as we familiarise ourselves with these learning progressions. It would be impossible to be thinking about all the aspects for R, W and M constantly!

6. As always we would use OTJ from a number of evidence sources to decide where students are.

7. The focus should be less about where students are in terms of giving them a ‘level’ and more about “What do I need to teach, and them to learn next”. 

We took a sample of students work and then looked at each aspect and used the blurb and the illustrations to help us place a student on a sign post. 

A good discussion happened at the end of the hui regarding E-asttle v's PACT tool for end of year assessments. Below are some of the things we took away from this lesson. 

We have noticed ...

...with practice I will get faster at this and more confident with making judgements

…need to change year levels of some students, classes have been set up with names to use now, look at notifications

… writing LPF is good to use. Want to use instead of asstle this year as doubling up. Maybe can for yr1-2??

...… would be really valuable to go to experts on staff to moderate with my tricky judgements

… PaCT tool - taken lots away. Talking with others about what our kids are doing at different levels, useful to collaborate

… Feel confident with it and I want to finish putting them in

… just get it in! You know more than you think you do with your first sense.  Calm the farm a bit - you can’t teach it all

… after so long thinking about it, procrastinating and not doing it. Getting stuff in has been beneficial. SO many opportunities to double check and triple check, so it’s robust and thorough.