Week 5 Term 2 - Samoan Language Week: Fa’aāuāu le Folauga i le Va’a o Tautai - Continue the Voyage with Competent Wayfinders of the Ocean (May 30 - Jun 3)

Fa’aāuāu le Folauga i le Va’a o Tautai: Continue the Voyage with Competent Wayfinders of the Ocean

"As part of this year’s overarching theme of ‘Sustainability’, the Samoan community chose a theme that would reflect the journey of language revitalisation and maintenance as well as recognising the importance of having the right tools, good leadership skills, relationships and the correct medium (va’a) that is adaptable to faring the ocean and its elements" (Ministry of Pacific Peoples).  When the theme for Samoan Language Week was released this year I did not know how to interpret it (at the time). A week later, my understanding of the theme is a little more clearer based on my personal experiences over the last 2 weeks. 

A week ago, today, my Grandfather - the Rt Reverned Alapati Meatuai Tu'uga Stevenson, passed away surrounded by his family. As with any fa'alavelave (An event that is a disruption to your everyday life. The practice involves people contributing money to large occasions such as funerals, weddings and significant birthdays) I knew that my planning and preparation for Samoan Language Week had to be put on hold as my duty called - as as grandson and also as the son of the eldest son of my Grandfather. I had to put all of that aside and be with my family. In the two weeks that I have been in Brisbane to celebrate and honor the life of my Grandfather, I have had time to reflect on Samoan Language Week theme - Fa’aāuāu le Folauga i le Va’a o Tautai. This new voyage that my family and I have embrace and embarked on - a voyage tinged by grief and an overwhelming sense of gratitude and wanting to honor our patriarch's legacy - is one that requires a degree of resilience, focus, leadership and team work. I think about the voyage that my Grandfather journeyed - starting multiple churches in New Zealand (Auckland) and Australia (Sydney and Brisbane), his lifelong ministry along with his wife and family - that alone needed the right tools, good leadership skills that could help him adapt to the 'ocean' and it's elements. As a family, we all contributed our time and efforts in making sure that we honored our Grandfather. When one is involved on fa'alavelave - it is all hands on board and it is essential that everyone is involved (not just financially). The leadership in the voyage of a fa'alavelave is imperative - someone who is prepared, someone who knows and values the aganu'u, someone who can delegate, someone who knows the gagana Samoa - someone can lead with humility and dignity. No matter what the occassion is - whether it is a celebration or loss of a loved one - good leadership in any circumstance is needed.

 

At Tamaki College, the leadership team that organizes the Samoan Language Week celebrations includes Ms Dorothy Apelu and myself with the support of our new Samoan staff members (Mr Fiu Niko). Every year we celebrate Samoan Language Week at Tamaki College. This year's celebrations consisted of performances from our students and daily activities for our staff and whole school to participate in. In preparation for the event, I was in charge of getting our Samoan Group ready for a performance at KPMG for their Samoan Language Week Celebrations. Preparing a group for a performance is something that I do not take lightly and it is something that needs good leadership, patience and direction. I am very grateful to my colleagues - Ms Dorothy Apelu and Mr Fiu Niko - for adapting to changing 'ocean' and taking the lead with the team in my absence. As a school, we are finding ways to revitalize the Samoan Language through different mediums such as Polyfest, Samoan Language Week and the Samoan Speech Competitions. It is a journey and one that we have been on for over 10 years. There is so much beauty in the language and aganu'u and any chance that we get to embrace it, showcase it and learn it - we are all in. Much like the fa'alavelave that I was involved in for my Grandfather, our preparation for Samoan Language Week is one that needs the efforts of everyone at 100% and that we have good leadership that directs the entire process. 

Tamaki College Samoan Group 2022 @ KPMG SLW Performance May 30

Year 13 Totara House Prefect Maletina Niko @ ASB Samoan Speech Competition where she was placed 1st in the Year 13 Speech Category. 

I believe that the voyage to language preservation and the importance of maintaining the skillset and leadership in this journey - is one that we as a school are embracing every year. There is a willingness and desire there to not only preserve language but also celebrate it. In my own journey in this voyage to preserve the language and culture - the older I get, the more hungry I am to be a part of anything that is connected to my culture. At school I have the privilege to do this through working with the Samoan Group - which has been and will always be a highlight for me and something that I hold close to my heart. Personally, I am grateful that I have a family who are very much connected to the culture and language, I am grateful the leadership that I have in my family - in how they steer us all through whatever the 'ocean' and it's elements bring - I carry this with me in own family and in what I do at work. 

I dedicate this post to the love and life of my late Grandfather, the Rt Reverend Alapati Meatuai Tu'uga Stevenson. 

Week 4 Term 2 - TOD: Understanding 'Local Curriculum' (May 23 - 27)

LOCAL CURRICULUM: Local curriculum refers to determining your priorities and foci for learning according to your own context and shared values.

Understanding what local curriculum is was the other focus area for our department at our most recent TOD. Initially there was some understanding on what 'local curriculum' is and what it entails, there was a document that had questions that helped guide our department discussion on what it is, what practices we have in place that mirror a local curriculum and what our next steps are. Below I have inserted the questions and answers (feedback from the department) on 'local curriculum'. 

English Department 2022

What do you think is meant by the term ‘local curriculum’?

• Identifying local needs and creating pathways.
• A local curriculum is adapting the New Zealand Curriculum to your School and its Learners
• A curriculum that takes the needs of the community into consideration.
• A curriculum that is connected, relevant and mirrors the school community
• ‘Personalizing’ the curriculum to suit our place.
• Shares the values of the NZC.
• It refers to a curriculum that reflects the histories, experiences, cultures, languages, businesses, interests etc. of our community, whānau, ākonga, and mana whenua.
• Historical + cultural narratives that connect to place

What is in your local curriculum?

• Integrating and celebrating different cultures
• Mana whenua kōrero, past and present.
• East-side G.I.
• Adapting to our Learner’s, their backgrounds, experiences etc.
• Tereora Academy
• Project RISE
• SAS
• Police Academy
• TC Driving Academy
• Akomanga Kaihanga

In what ways does your local curriculum build on the strengths, needs, and interests of your people?

• Parent meetings
• Involving students' families through conversation (meetings, keeping them well informed via different platforms - Email, Text, Letters home, Facebook, Instagram etc.)

What does your school vision and supporting documents say about learning at your place?

• School vision: Tamaki College is a vibrant engaged learning community, accepting challenges in the wairua of excellence, integrity, resilience and respect. Together we weave our talents, strengths and values to harness opportunities with commitment and innovation.
• Engaging
• Vibrant
• Innovative

Consider the NZC vision statement and your school context. How does the NZC vision statement align with your own school vision?

• NZC Vision(The vision is for young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners).

What knowledge and experiences do your students come to school with?

• Cultural norms and traditional values and parental expectations of their children.
• Media cultural exposure and social media connections

How well do you know the aspirations of your students and whānau? What could you do to know them more deeply?

• I know some of their aspirations but not all - I do wonder if their family know what their aspirations are though, like do they talk about this with them at home

How can you provide rich opportunities for learning based on your students’ strengths, identities, and priorities?

• Allowing students to express themselves in their own language, beliefs, styles of doing things and questioning. Also by encouraging them to be creators of their own destinies and aspirations.

How is the Treaty of Waitangi curriculum principle reflected in your school’s vision and development of local curriculum?

• Making the bicultural foundations evident in the school policies and day-to-day undertakings and learning of our students’ everyday experiences.

What do you know about the history of your school community or local area?

• I do not know much or enough
• Besides living within the community and being an alumna, I probably should know more than I do, if that makes sense
• Tamaki College was planned to be a school for boys and girls once it reached the roll of 1400 students
• It is connected to the War and hence the road names of fallen soldiers… I think.
• It’s catchment area is from the primary schools around and about such that TC has become the ‘mother’ school.

How is the body of knowledge that sits within your Māori community acknowledged and represented in your school?

• It is not represented in our school currently, however there are conversations happening with Social Sciences and other departments in our kura with mana whenua spokesperson Matua Harley Wade about histories and kōrero, past and present.
• It isn’t sadly.
• First, we need to acknowledge that there is diversity in the ‘body of knowledge’ within our Māori community.

What Māori stories and histories relating to your school’s geographic location are shared?

• We have been sharing the pepeha of Tainui. Ngāti Pāoa have their own pepeha.
• Stories are different to histories

How could you develop a stronger place-based curriculum and what areas of the national curriculum might be developed through this focus?

• Have a change package where Maori people do not feel the shame imposed upon them.
• Make Maori more visible to the students and community.

What next steps can you and your staff take to strengthen your local curriculum?

• Let the students write about their experiences e.g celebrating a wedding, going to a Tangi, etc.
• Discerning the truth about the different ways of being Maori.
• Deal with the diversity of Maori people
• ‘Local’ is the students + community
• Understand the history of the mana whenua
• Respecting the genealogies, upbringing of our students
• o be invested in protecting the Maori stories and how we intend to portray them.

Who can help you get there?

• The stories have to come from the local community to make sense of Maori learning
• Encourage a sense of pride - people who understand the history of the Maori and other cultural groups
• The elders in the community

The discussions that we had as a department around local curriculum was both affirming but confronting at the same time. For our department, what we took away from the discussion is that a local curriculum is so much more than having a learning program that is relevant and reflective of our community. It is a curriculum that acknowledges, celebrates, values and honors the local iwi and their stories. It is a curriculum that is culturally and socially responsive to the people in the community. A curriculum that is shared across all learning areas with one goal in mind. We understand that it is a journey and the journey requires a complete mindset shift across the learning areas - the key stakeholders. 

Week 3 Term 2 - TOD: Looking at changes to NCEA/Literacy (May 16 - 20)

Teacher Only Day can either be a hit or a miss. Typically there is an onslaught of information that is shared and by the end of the day one could be left feeling overwhelmed and/or satisfied. At our recent TOD, middle leaders were given the task to take the shared presentation and discuss it with their respective departments. The shared presentation for the Accord Teacher Only Day covered the following areas: 

Changes to Literacy + NCEA

Local Curriculum

UDL - Universal Design for Learning

Accord Teacher Only Day Presentation - May 16 2022 (click on image to access the presentation)

Middle leaders were given the choice to choose which areas (or area) that they wanted to focus on with their team. I decided to focus on the Changes to Literacy/NCEA and Local Curriculum. For obvious reasons, in that literacy is the core of what we teach in the English curriculum and a collective desire to understand what local curriculum is in the context of Universal Design for Learning. I was a little overwhelmed with the presentation so I decided to take what I thought would add value or ignite rich discussion to the department. It was important to me for the department to talk about the focus points and questions rather than sit through a presentation. I wanted them to take something away from the TOD and my hope was that the group activities and whole group discussions would be the catalyst for this. This post is outline our discussions around the changes to NCEA and Literacy - we spent most of the day talking through this and there was a lot of good and rich feedback that came from our discussions. 

CHANGES TO NCEA

Significant changes to NCEA are going to be in full effect from 2023. These changes will impact both akonga and kaiako and it is important that kaiako understand what these changes are and what are the implications. We started with reviewing the changes to Literacy and NCEA - as it was a big focus to cover and I wanted to ensure that we understood the changes and discussed how we feel about it. For this section, the department was divided into two groups - Group A focused on reviewing the changes to NCEA and understanding the new literacy standards. Here is what Group A shared with the department. 

NCEA.Education: What changes are happening and how these impact different cohorts of learners?

• Ākonga must pass either a Te Reo Matatini standard or these two Literacy standards: US32403: Read written texts to understand ideas and information and US32405: Write texts to communicate ideas and information.
• The literacy and numeracy standards assessed are not included as part of the 60 credits of the NCEA Qualification.
• Reduce qualification from 80 credits to 60 credits.
• Big Ideas for English Literacy Standards
• Read to understand, read critically and for different purposes
• Write meaningful texts for different purposes and audiences,
• Use appropriate conventions and grammar in writing texts
• Endorsements req. 14 credits w at least 1 ext standard passed
• Lit & num achievable from Yr 9
• There is exciting scope for programming Yrs 9 & 10 towards ‘falling in love with texts’ - developing lifelong readers and writing - an intergenerational enabler. (Families that read - modeled and together, grow children that read.)
• Reducing teacher and student workload. Students should not be assessed twice on the same learning outcome, and teachers should not have to mark work towards the same learning outcome twice, with the notable exception of resubmissions.
• Critical literacy is a BIG responsibility and role for us to open the eyes and minds of our ākonga.
• A big picture view is that we grow the complex text capabilities of our ākonga - everyday texts - digital platform texts + media texts, etc.
• The NCEA Change Programme is a work programme led by the Ministry of Education to deliver the package of seven changes aimed at strengthening NCEA. 
• Equal status for mātauranga Māori in NCEA – develop new ways to recognise mātauranga Māori, build teacher capability, and improve resourcing and support for Māori learners and te ao Māori pathways.
• Strengthen literacy and numeracy requirements and assessments – ensure students with an NCEA have functional literacy and numeracy skills that will ready them to transition into tertiary education or the workplace.
• Fewer, larger standards – new achievement standards and resources will be developed to replace existing standards and ensure the qualification achieved credentials the most significant learning in a learning area or subject.
• Simplify NCEA's structure – credits can no longer be carried over to the next level and resubmissions will only be allowed where they take students from a ‘Not Achieved’ grade to an ‘Achieved’ grade. Sixty credits are required to pass each NCEA level.
• Clearer pathways to further education or work – develop a Vocational Entrance Award to clearly signal when a student is ready to transition into higher level vocational education and strengthen vocational pathways through NCEA.
• Keep NCEA Level 1 optional – ensure Level 1 provides students with the broad, foundational knowledge needed to support specialization at Levels 2 and 3.
• Students are able to start the Literacy and Numeracy standards at Year 9, and can complete it over the period of their time at school. However, students cannot receive their NCEA Qualification without achieving the Literacy and Numeracy credits.

Overall we are feeling somewhat optimistic about the changes to NCEA. There is an opportunity here to teach to 'learn' rather than teach to 'assess'. The current system is built in a way where the priority is the assessment and the number of credits and for many of the department members, we understand and appreciate the machine work of NCEA. However the opportunity to have less assessments means that we have more time to dig deep into texts, explore texts, student interests and have rich discussions. It was good to start with this review of NCEA as it is a big change and it is important that we know what it is. 

CHANGES TO LITERACY

How we teach, deliver and measure literacy will shift from 2023. This shift is one that will have a huge impact on our department as we see the teaching and nurturing of 'literacy' as something that we drive. Group B looked at three areas for 'Change to Literacy' which were - what are the changes to Literacy? What are the big ideas in the Literacy Learning Matrix? What are the effective Literacy practices? These focus questions are there to help us understand the changes that are going to happen and in a way, help us to reflect on how we see ourselves as teachers with the changes that going to take place. 

About Literacy : What are the changes to literacy?

• There are 2 literacy standards: US32403: Read written texts to understand ideas and information AND US32405: Write texts to communicate ideas and information.
• Standards have been reduced to 4 standards
• Two internals and two externals, 5 credits each
• Example of Standard
• 20 credits across all subjects, 60 altogether
• To pass an NCEA qualification, Learners have to pass a Te Reo Matatini Standard or two Literacy standards, one reading and one writing
• Achievement Criteria has changed
• No more NA, A, M or E. Changed to Below the Standard, At the Standard and Above the Standard
• We should design a resource based on Example of Standard and trial it in Term 3 or Term 4 with Y10.

Literacy Learning Matrix: What are the big ideas in the literacy learning matrix? What do they entail?

Reading

• Learners make sense of texts
• Learners read critically
• Learners read for different purposes

Writing

• Learners write meaningful texts for different purposes and audiences
• Learners use written language conventions appropriately to support communication

Effective Literacy Support: What are the effective literacy practices they have outlined that will support NCEA?

• Promote a positive attitude to literacy
• Provide many opportunities for ākonga to read and write
• Connect reading and writing

Show how you read and write
Model five key reading strategies1:
activating background knowledge
questioning
Analyzing text structure
creating mental images
Summarizing.

• Support ākonga to read critically across texts
• Help ākonga build vocabulary knowledge
• Scaffold writing by focusing on text structure
• Scaffold writing by focusing on language
• Use a writer’s checklist
• Give feedback on writing 
• We do this already, but in our own way

REVIEW OF LITERACY PRACTICE

Here is our review of our literacy practices. The focus questions were derived from the presentation and we spent the time to talk through each question, the response from the department was great and I hope to do more of this as we progress into the term. 

Have a kōrero with other kaiako about more literacy or numeracy rich examples from your current practice that links to a literacy big idea/significant learning or a numeracy process/content idea.

Reading

• Learners make sense of texts
• Close analysis of scenes and written texts; discussion of word connotations, ideas...etc
• Learners read critically
• Attempts on our part to encourage the students to read critically (in preparation for externals)
• Part of our teaching
• @ a junior level - it is about looking at possibilities in a text
• Rich conversations can help students read/understand/interpret texts critically
• Vary the texts to capture students - newsfeed - talk about it. (Reading the news - print, audio, social media)
• How do we give voice to all the voices in the classroom? Provide a place for the students to voice their thoughts - either in a whole class discussion, small group discussions, one-on-one discussions
• Learners read for different purposes
• Level 1, 2 3 English extended text study - translates to Formal Writing, Derived Grade Assessment, Personal Responses, Connections

Writing

• Learners write meaningful texts for different purposes and audiences
• Formal Writing (across all year levels)
• Asttle Writing
• Creative Writing
• Personal Responses
• Connections (Level 1, 2 + 3)
• Writing Portfolio (Level 2 + Level 3)
• Learners use written language conventions appropriately to support communication

What can we do now/implement that will support the big ideas in the literacy learning matrix ?

• Publish work - Tamaki College Student Voice
• Jeremy Spruyt to create an English Department Writers Site (student who has made the most progress etc) as a hub and then print it out.
• Celebrating writing & making it visible around the school - eg. 10RLa’s poem with Jeremy.

Discuss with other kaiako where you are in your literacy and numeracy journey and how you are supporting the four shifts the video looks at.

Assessment focus TO curriculum/learning focus

• Our students are conditioned - they are always asking if ‘credits’ are attached - we need to shift the mindset
• Tapasa Etc talks about see our students holistically + Manaiakalani talks about students as a data point
• In our journey - we are always talking about ‘learning’ focused culture (our desire for it) We want our students to love texts for texts and not for assessments
• Our student voice collection of writing is our attempt/effort to work towards a curriculum/learning focus

English teachers are responsible for literacy TO All teachers are responsible for literacy

• We don’t know what the other subject areas are doing with literacy. We know what we are doing.
• We shouldn’t expect literacy experts to have linguistic expertise
• Subject areas outside of English want to help their students with literacy but they are wanting to know what works in the English Dept.
• Literacy Project (needs to roll out this Term with St, Vn H, Md)

Literacy is assessment in the context of content area assessment TO Literacy is assessed in “foundational” or everyday context

• We are looking forward to the ‘foundational’ way of assessment. Taking away the complexities in content and focus on foundational knowledge in literacy across texts.

Key ideas for pedagogy

• Every teacher needs to understand what NCEA Literacy + Numeracy might look like in their subject area
• Every teacher needs to be a teacher of literacy and numeracy in their subject: every teacher needs to know what they can do to support literacy + numeracy
• Even small shifts in practice can make a big difference
• Good practice for embedding literacy + numeracy can be planned or spontaneous

Activity: Take these six strategies (adding more if you can) and use them as the basis of a discussion. Rank them in terms of which could be implemented most easily. Identify the next step needed to implement each strategy within your school and draft an action plan.

3. Recognising the potential challenges that many Year 9 students face as they transition to secondary school.

• Recognise + develop an ACTION PLAN
• Student goal setting guide: Reading

5. Sharing monitoring and assessment data across subjects and learning areas.

• There needs to be descriptors on what the data implicates to teachers

1. Creating a special position for a person responsible for literacy in your school.

• Take away one position and create a cross curriculum literacy specialist group

2. Establishing links with feeder schools to connect literacy and numeracy strategies and approaches to pedagogy.

• Too many barriers with this principle. They/We share diagnostic information about each of the students.

6. Promoting the ongoing importance of literacy and numeracy beyond the NCEA corequisites, i.e. The ongoing development of disciplinary literacy over the entire school lifetime.

English Department: Next steps:

• We could send out a survey to the Year 8 students to get more formative information from the teachers.
• Varied class activities - Google Classroom
• Interview student/families - to get to know the student/families and to see if they are fit for the school
• Subject areas to work with Marc to understand the data

The take away from our review of the changes to Literacy and NCEA is that we are ready for the change. We are excited about the opportunities that this change brings - an opportunity to focus on what we teach rather than what we assess. The real inspiration and excitement happened when we were talking about how we could implement the big ideas from the literacy learning matrix into our program this year. The student magazine/website idea where we collate our student voice through their writing (whether it is an essay or their experiences or creative writing) is exciting for us. We are looking forward to seeing how this progresses. 

In my next post, I will discuss the findings from our discussions around 'local curriculum'. 

Week 2 Term 2 - Totara House: Set the tone (May 9 - 13)

SET THE TONE (of/for something): create or establish a general feeling or atmosphere among a group of people

The beginning of this year has been a little anti climatic. In terms of getting things off the ground at school, Term 1 saw many of our students and staff affected by COVID 19 so kick starting anything from house events to sport teams was put on pause. This term, things are a different and we finally have the opportunity to get back to some sense of 'normality'. As a Whanau Dean it is important to connect with your team - the staff and more importantly the students, the akonga. For the later part of 2021 and beginning of 2022, this connection was predominantly online and whilst we have, I have, become accustomed to it I also understand how effective and impactful a physical connection and presence has with akonga. 

The student leadership team for Totara House is made up of 7 students. I know that I cannot lead Whanau House on my own and that there is a group of capable and enthusiastic leaders who want to help and who want to lead. In setting the tone, I know that is imperative that the leadership team are on board and understand their place and my expectations of them. I met with the student leadership in Week 1 to talk about leadership (what does it look like and what type of leader they think are) and what they want Totara House to represent. I posed the same questions to the 2021 Totara House leadership team and it helped them to reflect on themselves and understand what they can bring to the team and to also get them to understand what is it that they want for their Whanau House. 

Totara House Student Leadership Team 2022

I met with the student leadership team to discuss the three focus questions, so that I could get an understanding of what they think leadership is and what their hope is for the house. This information would help me in how I work with them as a team. Ultimately this exercise is something that I want the leaders to do with the students in our House when they start working with them this term. I figured that I would get their buy in by getting them to do it first. Here is the feedback from the leadership team below:

What does leadership look like?

• Falakika: Planning, team work, communication, leading assembly
• Maletina: Leadership is setting good examples and being a role model to people. Leading a group of people who want to learn something new in any aspect of life. Help, support and reach out to someone who needs help.
• Miracle: Leadership looks like guiding people the right way. To help build them till they're steady and stable enough to ground themselves.
• Lakai: Taking charge, lead either from the back or front.
• Lisia: Being able to work with others towards a common goal. Enforcing the rules and motivating others, being open minded.
• Siale: Leadership is a person who shows confidence and presents themselves well.
• David: Leadership looks like helping the students + helping them to build their confidence

What type of leadership style do you think you have?

• Falakika: Supporting + plan
• Maletina: The type of leadership I have is that I make sure the roles and responsibilities given to me should be done.
• Miracle: I think I have cooperative leadership because I like to work with people and use their ideas and not just my own.
• Lakai: Supportive leadership - I would share my opinions but I wouldn’t like to be the speaker. Academic leadership - I can help with their studies.
• Lisia: Being in the background and planning. Quiet but have a lot of ideas.
• Siale: Take charge + confidence
• David: I can lead. I just need to build more confidence in order for me to do that. If I need help I will ask, but only if I need it.

What do you want Totara House to represent?

• Falakika: Resilience
• Maletina: Unity
• Miracle: Team/family unit
• Lakai: Unity - a house that gets along with everyone in it. A house where being comfortable is the main focus. Comfortable coming to see sir and us leaders.
• Lisia: I want our house to represent family, where we can all put our BEST into our education and life.
• Siale: I want our house to be represented well with whatever they do. 
• David: Family - I want everyone to come together as a family, as one.

The hope from discussion is that the team can start to reflect on what leadership means to them. Often they are given these roles and responsibilities but have little knowledge or understanding on where they stand in it. I am hopeful that this reflection will be the catalyst for the student leaders to know their strength and use that well in how they lead the house. I am also planning on getting the leaders to meet with the Totara House students and talk to them about what they want the House to represent. Like last year, we will collate the feedback and then choose the key concepts for Totara House 2022. We will then work around the concepts and see how we can make this happen for the students (whether it is through lunch time activities with sports or study classes after school). Setting the tone with the leadership team has been good for us this term as it has given us something to think about and work on. 

This term we have been able to meet in person and in week 1 saw the beginning of the in person, face-to-face Whanau Assemblies. I am not the type of person wants to 'wing it' and I typically like to prepare a message for my students when it comes to our Whanau time. I use the same structure for each assembly which traditionally follows as: 

Opening Prayer

Introductions

Message

Student Reflection

Updates/Notices

Acknowledgements

Closing Prayer

The message that I prepared for the Totara House assembly last week was 'Set the tone'. I am a firm believer that the success of an organization, company and team is grounded in the leadership. I believe that it 'all starts from the top' and that how the leadership functions will influence the outcome for the team. I chose the message 'Set the tone' in an attempt to get everyone in Totara House on the same page and to understand the expectations - from the start. I hesitated doing this in Term 1 because I felt this type of message would only be effective if and when we were able to meet in person. So I saw this new term as the perfect opportunity to 'set the tone' and get everyone on the same page from the onset. 

Sharing my expectations with the students - for when we meet as a whanau, for when they are in class - was my way of solidifying my goal to them. This was something that I made sure to take my time with during our meeting. I enjoyed the first Whanau assembly as it was the first time that we were able to come together (in person) and connect. I am looking forward to this term where we can continue to connect and work with each other! 

Week 1 Term 2 - English Department: Review of Term 1 + Plan for Term 2 (May 2 - 6)

Term 1 was an interesting, evolving, rewarding and challenging time for all of us. As COVID 19 spread in the community, we found ourselves either in isolation or working onsite. Hybrid learning became our ‘new normal’ and as a team we worked together in navigating our learners through a disrupted term. Amber and I cannot thank you enough for the flexibility, patience, commitment and heart that you poured into your teaching, our department and our akonga in Term 1. As a team we have committed to making sure that our communication is transparent so that we are not only on the same page but that we understand the shared vision and goal for our department. We have done this through:

• Committing to our weekly meetings (Thursday 8:30am)
• We have met outside of department meetings to review our NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 assessment schedule.
• We have started looking at our Literacy practices and what we can do to improve it.
• We have started to share literacy strategies with each other during our department meetings.
• We have attended different presentations that impact what we do in the classroom - Design for Learning (CORE Education), Education Perfect (Julian Proccacini), Te Reo PLD (La, Hr, Fn + Sp) + RISE Project.
• Our informal meetings that usually take place after school + the impromptu department shared lunch afternoons.
• We started our Professional Growth Cycle journey early in Term 1 to establish our personal goals for 2022.

English Department @ TOD Term 1, January 2022

Communication is key in any team environment. We hope to continue this going in Term 2, in that we believe this will strengthen what we do both collectively as a team and individually as professionals.  Despite the disruptions that we experienced in Term 1, we are confident in knowing that you provided a service (both online and onsite) that is motivating and inclusive of all our students especially to those who were impacted by COVID 19. Thank you team, we are truly humbled and grateful for what you have done and will continue to do going into Term 2. Here is a brief review of our Junior + Senior English Programs for Term 1 2022.

JUNIOR ENGLISH TERM 1 REVIEW: 

Reviewing our Junior English Program and what we have covered so far is important in that this helps us see where we are headed next. In Term 1 our Year 9 + 10 students were able to tick off our ‘beginning of the year ticket items’. Administering and managing these tests during a term where most of the students were working from home or who were absent from school due to COVID, was a challenge. Thank you to Ms Amber George, Mr Marc Milford + Mrs Mele Suipi Latu for guiding all of us through each task. The tests that the students were able to complete in Term 1 were:

• Asttle Writing
• PAT Reading Comprehension
• STAR Test

We were able to integrate our online tools that helped keep our students engaged from home and in the class. Online tools such as:

• Education Perfect
• MyON
• Workspace
• Google sites
• Kahoot

These are just some of the tools we used to aid our students, especially those who were unable to attend school. We know that there are many other tools that you have used in your teaching that have helped and we look forward to hearing all about this when you share them at our department meetings this term.

One of our goals for Term 1 was to focus on a literary text (1 per term) and across Year 9 and Year 10 - there have been a range of texts that you were able to cover with your students from extended texts The Wave (Todd Strasser), Boy (Roald Dahl) to the visual text The Freedom Writers (Richard LaGraveness) - exposure to good, solid and relevant literary texts is always at the forefront of our teaching and it is awesome that we have started this journey with our akonga. There was also some great work produced by our Year 9 and Year 10 students as a result of your planning and learning program such as creative writing, formal writing, analyzing the language of advertising, understanding film through close viewing with even some dabbling in writing poetry.

SENIOR ENGLISH TERM 1 REVIEW: 

The focus for our NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 students was getting through the Visual Text Study and to complete the accompanying assessment - Close Viewing (3 credits). We had to find innovative ways in making sure that we managed this assessment successfully considering the disruptions that happened throughout Term 1. We decided as a team that we would give the students an extension (considering that many of our senior students were unable to return to school due to COVID or work commitments) which meant that our program schedule would have to change. Students who were unable to complete assessment by the new deadline had the option to apply for the Missed Assessment Form (Form D) and undergo the process led by myself and Amber.

We decided to go down this route to ensure that both our teachers and students would not experience ‘assessment fatigue’ by stretching out the deadline (traditionally this has been our approach in the past). We wanted to close the loop (whilst still giving the students the opportunity to complete it if they were unable to) and ultimately move onto the next part of the program. Our students need to see themselves progressing and with that in mind, we are confident that this approach was successful.

Here is a breakdown of our achievement data (to date) for our NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 students for Term 1.

NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 English Results Term 1 2022: Close Viewing Assessment

*This is subject to change Wk1 Term 2 - pending entries of assessment grades on KAMAR across Level 1, 2 + 3

TERM 2 PLAN: 

It is important for any team and organization to review and reflect on where they are at in order for them to understand where they want to go.

JUNIOR ENGLISH TERM 2 PLAN:

The focus for this term is to extend our literacy practices in our class for both Year 9 and Year 10. Below is a list of things that we are planning on doing across the department and there are also some recommendations on what we would like for you to consider in your planning for Year 9/10 English Term 2.

• Year 9 Literacy Booster Group - This is an initiative led by Dr Jannie who will work closely with our Year 9 students who we identified as needing literacy support. The Literacy Booster Group is a response to growing literacy needs that we can see from our Year 9 cohort. The group is made up of 12 students (2 from each class) - Dr Jannie will work with students starting from Week 3 - Week 9.
• Year 9 Crafted Writing Program - During Week 1 and Week 2 of Term 2, all teachers of Year 9 English will go through the Year 9 Crafted Writing Program (designed by Dr Jannie). Dr Jannie will work closely with us during this time.
• Literary Text Study - Focus on an extended text, short text and/or visual text to focus on with your Year 9 and Year 10 students for Term 2.
• Year 9 CATS - Please work on completing a Common Assessment Task with your Year 9 students - you can attach any of the CATS to your text studies.
• Year 10 CATS - It is recommended that you start (if you have not done so already) the Reading Responses and Connections CATS with your Year 10 students this term.

SENIOR ENGLISH TERM 2 PLAN:

The focus for this term is to get our students immersed in a literary text. The goal for our Level 1, 2 and 3 English students is that they will complete an extended text study and an assessment. There is a non-negotiable assessment assigned to each Year Level - this means that this is the assessment that they have to complete in Term 2. There are extra assessment options that we will offer once they have completed the Term 2 assessment.

NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 English plan for Term 2

*Please note that Week 1 of Term 2 is reserved for completing the Derived Grade (film essay) for Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 students.

*The assessment schedule below will take place Week 2 onwards.

 
 

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT TERM 2 PLAN: 

Here is our plan for our department this term. Of courses things may change but here is what we are hoping to do with you this term. We will keep you updated if anything changes.

• School Goals - We will review the School Goals for 2022 in Week 3 of Term 2. We will look at Goal 1 and see what we can do to implement our action plan. See the English Department’s response to Tamaki College’s School Goals for 2022 here (this was discussed + reviewed during our planning week Term 4 2021)
• Professional Growth Cycle - We will organize a time to observe you this term :D
• Literacy Strategies/Practice - Continue to share strategies with each other and learn more from our literacy experts - Marc Milford + Dr Jannie Van Hees. PLD - If you come across any PLD sessions (either onsite/offsite/online) that you would like to attend, please email Amber so she can arrange this for you.