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. 

PACT TOOL PD

 Tuesday 10th August, 2021

Working with Su Arrowsmith on learning how to break down the aspects and sets on the PACT tool. was a really informative workshop that got us preparing a mini lesson plan for reading.

Focus on WALT's and Success criteria.  and explanation as to why we are doing what we are doing. We also addressed having questions prepared prior to lessons. 

Example:

Learning Intention: Kei te ako matou ki te….

Why? TIB it helps us to understand what a text is about and to quickly see if it has the information we need to find for research or for pleasure, or to find exactly where the information is, saving us time when reading. 

Success criteria: WILF

1. I can find sentences or words that talk about things:

1. in the past

2. In the present

3. In the future

2. I can find dates that help me to work out when things happened

3. I can place events in the correct order

TASKS:

1. Round Robin  - words that give us clues to things happening in the past; present; future

2. Pairs - read and highlight 

3. Reciprocal reading (a - dates, b - past words, c - present words, d - future words)

4. Timeline (draw pics/ dates and words/ poem)

5. Individual practise

6. Peer assessment and feedback

Tulevai and the sea

Which things do you know will be happening in the future and how do you know this?

On page 4 what word tells you that the sea wants to do something to Tulevai in the future?

On page 12 how many words are there that show things happening in the past?

2019 Coaching and Inquiry

 Rob Coaching notes Oruaiti

2020

Wednesday 19 February

Teaching a new class, new year group, very different to yr4-5-6 set up (enthusiastic, young, but some independance) 

Finding I’m explaining stuff several times and not getting it and I’m getting grumpy.

So maybe quick turn around session.

Reporting

Managing syndicates

PaCT tool and overarching inquiry and making into examples and exemplars learning goals for kids.

Diane needs to tell us what is being reported on - levels/ stages/ aspects. I think that it’s not worth using leves as they are not student speak. Use the language in the levels so students know the skills they are working on. Teachers know the number, but students and parents don’t need to know these. 

Still looking at last years inquiry.  Currently still focusing on levels that are up from last year.  My hunch is that it’s too hard for the students to use efectively. Scanning is giving broad overview to whanau and students - moving from this column to this column, working through all this stuff to get there. 

Breaking down each goal/ criteria/ aspect in each of the stages, starting early, making it easy, giving them the answers. It is much easier for them to use the strategy and show their thinking/ working out. Then the exemplar is in their folder, not just on the wall. Makes it easier to describe their thinking. Then they have written their specific walt for them. So my hunch is they are getting it. Because they have differentiated learning goals, they are goal setting from day one, from a choice of three, so they are learning this from day one. 

Focusing on converting the exemplars into problem based imagery so that the students can see it a bit clearer. More illustrated/ pictorial than typed, as the kids are not reading it. Needs to be the best way for them to decode it. And using their work. 

ON WALL:

1. Written

2. Pictorial - from LPG/ PaCT book

3. Pictures instead of numbers - materials focused

4. Problems - reading problems

5. Less info - just stage 4 to 6

6. Their examples

7. 
   

WHY? Because students are writting their own reports this year, so they need to know what they are doing now, where there next step is and how to get there. To get greater student agency in terms of self-assessment. They can reflect on their work and articulate next steps.

Evidence - the students will be able to write their own reports. 

TODO:

Trial all of the above with one espect of maths first with whanau kauri and get feedback on what works best. MONDAY 24 Feb

Feedback - Tell me if it works for them, how it could work better, 

Start with counting on, and they co-construct the display and take a photo to go home with so it’s a clear display of what they are working on. 

I’m breaking up terms into aspects from LPF. 

T1 - Add-sub

T2 - Mut-Div

T3 - Fractions

T4 - Measurement & Stats

By next week I will have created a scaled down pictorial version of the PaCT aspects so that my students and whanau are able to see more clearly where they are at and what their next steps are

DATE: 14 May 2019

GOAL: How to get the students to articulate and explain what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they know they have been successful 

To have visible exemplars on the walls for students next steps for R, W, M

WHY? Data from RBL has shown that when we ask a cross section of students they aren’t able to answer that. In order for learning to be fully embedded they need to be able to articulate their answers and thinking. If they can do this then they can apply their knowledge and understanding to new situations. Building the motivation and skills for life-long learning and problem solving

REALITY:

At the moment they are reading it off the board

Can’t necessarily apply it to a new situation

Not transferring skills to Gloss test

Want on the back wall:

ADD/ SUB example of a problem the strategy the next steps all in a line across the wall.

E.g.

Stage 6 I have 112 sheep in a field, I add 126 sheep. How many sheep do I have altogether

Making tens

Making tidy numbers

Place value partitioning

Stage 7 Add/ subtract four digit numbers

So that after a test they can go to the wall and point to where they are at and therefore what their next steps are.

OPTIONS:

Change the task section on board to a why

Change ‘success criteria’ to ‘How’ 

Look for ideas for wall displays on pinterest to help students identify their next steps.

WHAT NEXT:

By the end of week four I will have researched different examples of classroom exemplars so that I can modify them to fit our school.

DATE: Friday 30 August 2019

GOAL:To improve my RBL with Arlo, Cooper and Lyric

WHY? They are all very disruptive, at different times, Arlo most of the time, and I feel like I have reverted back to just negative behaviour management.

REALITY:

Student	Behaviour issues	What they do well
Arlo	Always doing the wrong thing unless you are working 1:1 with him Can’t manage himself. Infuriating - he never completes work. Ever Off task as soon as the teacher walks away Takes other students with him He has no filter He is always playing, chatting, disrupting everyone around him (Parents don’t help with supporting focuses, e.g. Arlo bringing check book back to school with comments “It’s mum’s job”)	Creative.  Loves reading and writing - above standard Insular stuff (Loves Minecraft, reading, computer games, Dr Who, ‘boy nerdy’ stuff)
Cooper	Having a wobble since the nose picking incident He is normally on to it, just recently has slipped back to historical behaviour patterns	He is on to it Made lots of friends Academic role model to others
Lyric	When I pull him up on something I lose him for an hour	Great energy Lovely kid Very kind

• I just need to get back to using positive reinforcement with all these guys and spending time with them in a positive way. 

• Meg is going to have Arlo, Peter, Xavier. and Cooper next year, as well as maybe Ngatoki, 

• I’m worried about how difficult this will be so want to put something in place soon regarding transition to get them behaving appropriately before they go to Megs class in conjunction with Meg.

What is the normal transition process at Oruaiti? (What, when, who, how, etc?)

• Towards the end of Term Four

• Previous reports are read by the new teachers if they choose to do so

• Chats with current teacher about target students

• IEP with new teacher and student if necessary

OPTIONS/ WHAT NEXT:

Talk to - Diane about the transition process regarding - timing

- information sharing (what and how)

- making the process as positively focused as possible

- including students and whanau for all transitions

- Angela about transitioning difficult students

When? By Monday week 8

Rob - “We need a review of everything that has happened this year to make sure we reflect in time to change and improve it all for next year”

(Susan shared that this is something that came up in Meg’s coaching conversation too and that Susan said she would discuss this with Diane, so Rob will do this on their behalf in the first instance.)

Things that need reviewing:

• Transitioning students

• What is the best way to do this and when should we start?

• Learning together/ Passion Fridays

• Review attendance data

• Do people value Learning Together?

• How could we change it next year? Student could opt in to something they pursue as a project through PBL

• We should survey staff, students and whanau to find out what their perceptions are of LT.

• Teaching as Inquiry 

• Kahui Ako focus

• Whanau Thursdays (Rob to share with Staff and BoT)

• Market day, pet day, art day

• What are the benefits to student outcomes? 

• Do we need isolated days to do the things we achieve through these days?

• Are they promoting effective, research based pedagogy, for example, getting students to produce six identical art pieces, 

• Business studies and enterprise learning should be woven throughout the whole year, not just on one day.

• Assemblies

• Why do we have them?

• What are the student outcomes being improved by assemblies? More than then being in class/ doing physical activity together, for example.

• Do they reinforce the behaviour we want to see?

• Do we need two/ week?

• School Council

• Why have we not had one this year? There are some great leaders not being given this opportunity to grow their leadership skills

• 4-day weeks

• What have been the advantages and disadvantages?

• Who wants to do this next year and can we make it work?

• What needs to change? Do we need to be more creative with how we use people coming in on the fifth day? E.g. Petrina when Kaiya back?

• Creatively keeping Petrina

• Technology @ Oruaiti

• What is the benefit to our students of sending them on a 40 minute journey to do ‘technology’ at KI?

• What would be the benefit of doing it at Oruaiti?

• Could we talk to Mangonui, Peria, Kaingaroa, Taipa about doing tech at Taipa to support Taipa trying to grow their role? Parents want to send kids there, so would help if they’d already had a good experience there. Could set up a meeting to discuss with Dave, Ari, Cathy, Doreen

• Could have each year level 6-8 going on different days from each school, so the kids are mixing with other local kids in the same year group

• What are they gaining by going to KI? Teachers are terrible and pick on students. Technology they do is really old fashioned and not future focused or relevant to the kids. It is taking about 2 hours out of their day just for the travelling component, so that’s a lot of lost learning time.

• PB4L

• Manaaiakalani

• Lesson Study

• Te Reo 

• Elwyn Richardson legacy 

• Bees

• Wetlands

• Ducks

• Outdoor learning spaces

OPTIONS/ WHAT NEXT:

• Send a survey out to teachers with a list of these things up for review and ask what they think about each - get opinions before discussing and then can determine which ones should have priority at the TOD?

• Survey whanau and students prior to TOD to get their input too.

• Susan could facilitate these surveys if you want?

• Susan could run the session in Sept-Oct holidays during ToD - could potentially take all day….

• Invite Jenny and Michelle so they can be part of the discussion and hear how some historical practises are perhaps not serving the needs of our students now.

• Talk to Dave  about Tech at Taipa if DIane OK