Here is my final critical reflection on how I went with this goal!
This year my inquiry focus has been on increasing my knowledge and understanding of writing in order to accelerate progress in my Maori and Pasifika students. My motivation for this was that I wanted to increase my confidence in teaching writing by having a greater understanding of the ins and outs of the writing process and progressions. Through this inquiry I wanted to find out how different groupings in writing would affect student progress, how I used data to inform planning and what strategies I could use to help my students in writing.
The first step in this inquiry was to look at the data from previous years and analyse it to see if there was any potential gaps in their knowledge that I could start to work on. I did find some common gaps between my target students that I began to address in my planning. I also reflected critically on my own practice and considered my strengths and weaknesses. I identified areas of my practice that I wanted to work on during this inquiry.
The first important step I took to improve my practice, was to become more familiar with the literacy progressions and writing curriculum. I spent time looking at how I would analyse a piece of writing using the writing AsTTle rubric, which I found particularly helpful. In term two I was part of a literacy group which spoke to parents about the progressions in reading and writing. I enjoyed this presentation because it gave me a goal and made me accountable to my learning. I also found hearing the other teachers from the junior and senior school speak about their programs.
One major change I made to my practice was to change the way I taught writing from whole class to differentiated groupings. I had some struggles and some successes with this process. One thing that I found successful was that I was able to tailor my lessons to suit the needs of individual students better. I also found that I had more one on one time with each student through the rotation process. There was also challenges with this method, in particular finding suitable activities for the other students to continue on with while not working with me. I also found it difficult to finish a piece of writing within a suitable time frame as I would only see the group once a week. Often I would get the students to continue on with a piece of writing independently only to find the next session that they had not written what I had intended for them to write. Because of this I realised I needed to check in with each group more often, which due to time constraints was difficult.
A senior teacher, Sonya, also came into my class and modelled a lesson for me using Solo Taxonomy. I really enjoyed this lesson because she made look at writing in a new light. All my life I have always thought that writing was very multi-faceted and difficult to master. Writing has so many ways in which it can be correct and so many things you need to include. It can also be quite subjective. However watching Sonya teach writing through Solo Taxonomy, I had a sudden realisation that there is nothing mysterious or difficult about writing. There is certain criteria that makes a pieces of writing ‘good’ or not and Sonya had defiantly mastered it. Through Solo Taxonomy she had created a rubric for a good piece of writing, what type of words it needed to include and how many. She made writing accessible for everyone and made it seem simple. Though each rubric does not work for every writing genre universally, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
By the end of term three I had changed many different things in my writing program. I had also become more familiar with the writing curriculum and progressions. My confidence was steadily growing each day, lesson by lesson. The students had an E-AsTTle writing sample to complete and unfortunately the samples were not as good as I had hoped. One student’s mark was higher while the other target student’s marks were the same, if not lower. This was a massive disappointment to all the hard work me and the students had put in. It made me re-evaluate my learning and progression this year. I was disappointed but I also came to the realisation that this was just one piece of writing, not a definitive sample of their overall skill. Looking at their writing book, changes from the beginning of the year were easy to see. Some students had improved the length of their writing, the number of adjectives they use, the quality of their handwriting or just their overall attitude to writing.
I understand that this inquiry was just the beginning of a journey for me and so I identified what my next steps were. The first thing is to be more consistent with my evaluation of student writing. I can’t put so much weight on one piece of writing. Instead I need to evaluate more writing samples from their books throughout the year. I also noted that I could differentiate my writing lessons more by not just differentiating the writing groups but the learning intentions too. A more immediate goal of mine is to introduce students to sample pieces of writing from the literacy progressions in order for them to compare their writing to the sample and see what their next step in the writing progressions is. In combination with this, I think having better learning conversations and more frequent conversations about my student’s goals and their next steps will help make learning visible and help students to progress at an accelerated rate.
Solo Taxonomy is another area that I would like to look into and learn more about, particularly after Sonya’s writing lesson.
In conclusion, at the end of my inquiry I asked myself some simple questions. Did I achieve my goal? To what degree did I achieve it? And what does the data say now?
Looking at the data I have, I can say I did not achieve accelerated learning in writing with my target students. Students naturally progress overtime and so I’m not confident that they made the progress I was hoping for. However I do see that they have made progress. Looking at the other part of my goal, to grow my knowledge and practice, I think I can say that I did achieve that goal. My knowledge of the writing progressions and curriculum has grown dramatically as well as my confidence in the subject. This year’s inquiry has been a real challenge for me, but I am happy with the progress I have made and I am excited to continue on this learning journey.
Hannah (October, 2015)
