Week 5 Term 1 - Teacher Practice: Reading Journey for Year 9 English: Understanding your literacy (February 26 - March 1)

It is that time of the year where the annual AsTTLe and PAT Reading tests take place. These tests are an opportunity for both student and teachers to understand where they are in their literacy (reading and writing) journey, what areas of opportunity there is to improve on and what their strengths are. We have just recently completed our PAT Reading Comprehension Test with our Year 9 students. Before we launch into our first text study for the year, I wanted to start this unit of learning with their PAT reading results. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to work with the students in helping them: 

Understand their data

What it means to them

What it means to me as their teacher

How we can work together

What I have done with my students so far in this part of the unit is looking at the data and unpacking the data. As they are in Year 9, I have tried to keep the languaging relevant and 'light' to them. We looked at the overall picture for PAT stanine reading levels. 

Looking at the PAT Stanine Reading Levels

It is important to explain the data to students so that they understand what it is and how it applies to them. I made it clear that the curriculum levels are there to help teachers, students and families understand where they're positioned in terms of the curriculum level. I then shared the student's PAT reading levels (February) and went through it with them one on one going through: 

• Sharing their data: The reading level that they achieved from the PAT Reading Comprehension test

• Identifying their strengths: Identifying their strengths that they already have in their reading comprehension is the next part of the conversation. We have just started this discussion and it is interesting as my students (those in Level 2 to those in Level 6) do understand what the strengths they carry in their literacy. So we have started to talk about what they can do with reading, what they find easy, what they enjoy - affirming and identifying it as a strength. 

• Areas to improve on: When we start this part, I am going to get the students to identify 3 areas they think they need to improve when it comes to reading - I will scaffold it and give them some options to consider (achievable goals that can either do in their own time or at school). It could be - Discover your reader identity - find out what you type of texts you like to read and spend X amount of time during week reading these texts. Vocabulary - Building work banks linked to the texts and spending time to explore to these specific words to the text to help them understand the text. 

• Goals: I hope to get the students to the point where they can some reading goals for Term 1. I am hoping to do this by the end of Week 6 Term 1. Increasing reading fluency and a healthy and safe reading culture in the classroom is one thing that I want to create in my class for my Y9 students this year. 

A colleague has created a post PAT reflection worksheet for students to work through so that they can reflect on their literacy journey and work through the next steps and actions. I really liked it and I have started to use it this following my conversation covering the four parts I have outlined above. 

The Big Picture! Post PAT Reflection Document

Next Steps: 

• I am hoping to get through 'The Big Picture' in our next class (Tuesday Week 5)
• From here I will create a check in point to see where they are at with their reading goals. 
• Once the students have completed on this, I am going to put them in reading groups. The students will read through the same text but their reading comprehension questions will be customized according to their group (reading level groups). They will stay in their reading groups for Term 1 and then I will mix them up in Term 2. 

Week 4 Term 1 - Teacher Practice: Summative Assessment 1.3 (February 19 - February 23)

OUR STORIES, OUR HISTORIES, OUR VOICES

The new curriculum refresh for NCEA Level 1 English has officially launched at Tamaki College. Our focus and theme for this year is 'Our Stories, Our Histories, Our Voices'. The theme is centered around the concept of 'our stories', 'our histories' and 'our voices' as something that we need to treasure, acknowledge, explore and celebrate. After all of the planning and drafting of our new NCEA Level 1 English course, we are excited to start our year off with the new curriculum refresh. 

The primary focus for Term 1 is 'Our Stories and Our Histories (Through Film)' with the primary text being the film 'The Dark Horse' (Napier 2014) and the assessment to flow on the text study being 1.2 - Demonstrate understanding of specific aspects of studied texts. For my Level 1 class, the plan is to start the film study of 'The Dark Horse' (watching the film and studying the film - scene analysis, character analysis and film techniques) in Week 3 to Week 7 of Term 1. 

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Summative assessment is intended to summarise student achievement at a particular time, whereas formative assessment is intended to promote further improvement of student attainment (Crooks, 2001). However, summative assessment can also be used formatively, if it provides feedback to the student, teacher (TKI)

Prior to the film study, I prioritized space and time for my students to complete a summative assessment. The summative assessment I put in place is aligned with the external assessment that the NCEA Level 1 students are going to do in Term 3. This assessment is 1.3 - Develop ideas in writing using stylistic and written conventions. For this external assessment, the students have to craft a text that is centered around a statement of intent. The text that they craft needs to be in a style that they choose from persuasive writing to formal writing or creative writing - the students must use the correct stylistic and written conventions for the style of writing that they choose to craft their text. In order for the students to understand what style they want to write, I knew that I have to provide opportunities for the students to try different styles of writing so that they know what they are going to do come Term 3.

101ENGE doing their summative assessment for 1.3

I am going to outline the summative assessment and what I did with my student's in Week 2 of Term 1 and explain my learning from this experience. 

Phase 1: Our Stories | Our Histories

Integrating local curriculum into the summative assessment

An integral part of 'Our Stories, Our Histories, Our Voices' is celebrating 'our stories' in the classroom. We have had the privilege of learning the history of our local area and in particular our iwi - Ngati Paoa. For the summative assessment I used one of the stories from our iwi and the history behind the name 'Maungarei'. We read this text and the discussion around how history, tradition and customs for Maori and Polynesian families is transferred through conversation, through song, through oratory practices. It was a great discussion following the reading of the text. 

Phase 2: Crafting a Persuasive text

Summative Assessment: Persuasive writing task

The students were given the task to craft a persuasive text using the prompts above. The word limit was 500 words and the students had to decided what their argument is, write a statement of intent and find evidence to support their statement. The students spent two sessions crafting their text. 

Student Exemplar from 101ENGE class

Phase 3: Peer feedback

101ENGE Persuasive Writing Feedback

The students spent the last session reading their persuasive texts to each other in small groups. Once they shared their text, we had a whole class discussion where the students shared their feedback to the whole class. The feedback was framed by three questions (below):  

• What did you like about their text and why?
• What was their opinion/argument?
• What sentence starter/prompt did they use well? Give an example. 

Feedback session for 1.3 summative assessment

Some the feedback from the student's: 

"I really enjoyed their piece. Their opinion really made me think about my own and where I stand with it."  

"He had researched online and used it to back his point, I like that and I felt that is something that I can do to support what I like."

"I liked how they used the prompt - I disagree - because it was strong and it showed me where their argument is at straight away, no mucking around."

"The sentence starter that she used well was - I believe - she used it throughout the piece so she kept repeating it which made me see her point."

This was a fun part of the summative assessment. The students were able to see what their friends wrote and learn from it. Sometimes we learn the most through the eyes of those closest to us, I felt that this was a meaningful and beautiful way to end our summative assessment. 

Next Steps: 

• I want to do another summative assessment with the film that we are studied in Week 3 - as the primary text. I will do another persuasive writing summative assessment so that they can give it another go! 

Week 3 Term 1 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry Framework for NCEA English Data (February 12 - February 16)

Investigating and unpacking data is an important part of our teaching practice. More recently in the last 5 year I have taken a deep dive into this space where I am unpacking the achievement for NCEA English and it is a space that I am still learning and growing into. At the beginning of the year the NCEA English results were released for our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English students. Initially I was surprised by the results and I found myself logging in and out of the NZQA a few times to make sure that what I was seeing was not just my imagination. 

Overview of NCEA Level 1 + 2 English Results

My first response to the results was shock and disappointment. Across each year level the (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 English) our students did not perform well in their English exam. 

Overview of Internal Assessment Results for NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 ENG

Our internal assessments results were on track and I am really happy with how these results worked out. Overall we had a number of endorsements across NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English that we are really proud of. They are as follows: 

• NCEA Level 1 English Endorsement: 34 Achieved Endorsement + 2 Merit Endorsement
• NCEA Level 2 English Endorsement: 12 Achieved Endorsement + 6 Merit Endorsement
• NCEA Level 3 English Endorsement: 3 Achieved + 1 Merit

INQUIRY: noun,plural in·quir·ies. a seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge. an investigation

Now that I have had some time to reflect on the results, I have decided to launch into a mini inquiry for Term 1 focusing on the achievement data for our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English students (2023). For my inquiry I have used a framework that enables me to identify all the key drivers to the successes and the failures for our NCEA English results. From here it is all about finding the solutions to the gaps and organizing the next steps to action the solution. I have found that this type of inquiry framework useful so that I can keep myself accountable and also track the progress (or lack thereof). 

My Inquiry Framework - Term 1 

• Identifying our key drivers (reasons for achievement and non achievement)

English Department @ Careers Expo 2023

I have already started to identify the key drivers for the successes and failures for our NCEA English results. I believe that our successes are connected and rooted in the following drivers: 

1. Good Relationships - Good relationships with the students, where the student's understand the expectation and the purpose for their learning is clear is integral. Having a good relationship with the student (knowing who they are, communicating with them etc) helps to settle and foster the learning. I am so grateful for the team who put this at forefront in their teaching practices. 
2. Feedback - Providing robust feedback where it is constructive but also affirming the student's work has been an important part of how we work with our students. 
3. Flexibility - Working with our students means that we have to be flexible with how we teach. There were some cases in 2023 where some of the staff were teaching outside of school hours online to help get students through internal assessments. This type of flexibility is definitely a sacrifice but the return is positive for both the teacher and student. 

• What is the solution to the problem and What are our next steps?

This is where creativity comes into play. Problem solving involves a lot of creativity and this is a stage where I am figuring out what are some meaningful steps I can put in place that will impact change and what steps do I need to make in order to get there. 

In this part of the inquiry I want to see: 

Quick Wins - Where are our quick wins (short term goals) that we can achieve that will help build momentum?

Long Term Goals - What are some long term goals that we can leave on the board and timeline it (things we can achieve in 3 months, 6 months, 9 months etc). 

Next Steps: 

• I want to interview my current Level 3 English students and see what they believed contributed to their success and what they believed contributed to their failures. 
• I want to collate the information from my interviews and see what the trend is and find a way to support/address the trend. 
• I would like to start to see what the possible solutions are for low achievement and find the next steps to shift this trend. 

I look forward to reflecting on the next phase! 

Week 2 Term 1 - Totara House - A Year in Review + Goals for 2024 (February 5 - February 9)

Totara House juniors after winning 'Whanau House 2023' in Dec 2023

2023 was an awesome, challenging and rewarding year for Totara House. Our Totara House saw many come and go, but we remained steadfast in our mission to journey well together. Our 2023 Totara House family consisted our amazing mentorship team - Ms Francis Kolo and Mrs Alka Rani (9TKl), Mrs Mariana Ahokovi (10TAo), Mr Fiu Niko (10TNi), Ms Kalesha Paketama (11TPt), Mr Johan Koch (12TKh), Ms Seini Tuitupou (12TTt) and Ms Karen Ferguson (13TFn). Our Totara House Student Leadership team - who led our House for 2023 were Kosini Mapapalangi (House Captain), Danny Sefilino (House Captain), Anika Crichton Ward (House Prefect), Alo-Ki Hingano (House Prefect), Christian Kava (Head Boy 2023), Saimone Misinale (House Prefect) and Mario Vakauta (House Prefect).

2 Timothy 4:7 says “I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance and I have kept the faith.” 2023 was a big year for everyone in our House, both in and outside of school. We all had to overcome our own hurdles and challenges. We all had to step up and face the challenges and persevere through it. We all had to help each other when others were struggling. From the mentorship team to the student leadership team, 2023 was a year where we had to go the full distance and while it was bumpy and there were a few twists and turns, we went the full distance together. Doing our best in the race can be draining when you just want to give up but I am so proud of everyone for pulling through especially when we had to as a House. I am incredibly grateful to the mentorship team for their love, care, support and commitment to their students and for stepping in when I was unable to. I am proud of the leadership team and how they lead the house together with pride and grace. I am humbled and extremely proud of all of the young people in Totara House for trusting my leadership, for always saying ‘yes’ when I called on them. I acknowledge all of our young people who contribute to the life of our house through the different house events. Your hearty Totara pride added so much life and value to our whanau, thank you! 

Totara House 2023

I acknowledge all of our Totara House family members who have moved on - from our Year 13 students (13TFn) to some of our mentorship team who have finished at Tamaki College (Mr Gutry and Ms Paketama). Thank you for your hearts of service and commitment to Totara. I am stoked that we won ‘Whanau House 2023’ as it is a reflection of the commitment and love that we have for our House. As the Whanau Dean, I am incredibly grateful, humbled and proud of the team that I get to work alongside. From the mentors to the student leaders, I am very thankful to work alongside a team who are committed to ensuring that whatever Totara House did was a success.

TOTARA HOUSE: House Values Review 2023: 

In my role as a House Dean, I understand that the spirit and overall dynamic of the house is a reflection on how I lead it. I have taken the same approach from how I lead Totara House in 2021 in that the main driver for the House is our values, things that are important to us and this is the sole focus. This year the House Leaders and I spoke to all of the students during the mentoring sessions (Monday morning) and visited other students during class time, to gauge with them and see what they wanted Totara House to represent. The leaders led the discussion and shared what they wanted the House to represent and the students (for the most part) were interested and engaged because they could relate more to the House Leaders. The focus question this year was the same question that we posed to the students in 2021, which was 'What do you want Totara House to represent?' 

Once the feedback was completed, the leaders and I reviewed the student voice. We looked for common values across each class and then found some common themes that the students shared in the discussion. It did not take long for us to identify the values that the students wanted their House to represent. It was clear throughout the feedback that the common values that were echoed from Year 9 to Year 13 were Integrity, Leadership and Gratitude. So in honoring what was shared from our students, we revealed our 2023 Totara House Values to the students at an assembly in Term 1.

Totara House Y9s and Y12s at STARS Camp 2023

Integrity is defined as "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles." Honesty and integrity are interconnected, so with this we used our House assemblies as an opportunity to talk and discuss what the value means. Our House leaders used Term 2 to talk about their journey at school and to be honest about the challenges that they have faced and what they have learnt from it. This was a powerful way for the student leaders to minister to their house - student to student - so that they can relate and to learn from their peers. I also used the whanau assembly time to address my concerns and to have some frank and honest conversations with the students about some of the issues that we faced as a house. Integrity is something that we journey through, it is something that we learn and grow from. I am really pleased at how we grew through this value as a house.  

Totara House @ Samoan Language Week 2023

Leadership is defined as “Leaders enable the individuals on their team to reach their highest potentials. By being a true leader, you show others that you can inspire and motivate your team for the good of the organization.” The student leadership really wanted to build the leadership within the house. There were a few moments this year where we had students within the house lead in our whanau assemblies to the house events. Our Year 12 students helped to teach the Athletics Day chant, to our senior Year 12 students leading Samoan Language Week to our Year 10 students leading the inter house Basketball competition. Growing the leadership within the house has always been a big focus for Totara House and I am so pleased that we were able to do that in 2023.  

Totara House @ Athletics Day 2023

Gratitude is defined as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” Being grateful and carrying a posture of gratitude is something that is needed and important. Gratitude can help shift your lens and perspective, in a way where you are not dwelling on what is not working but grateful for what is. The leadership team shared their journey with the students throughout the year and shared what they are grateful for. It was humbling to hear from the young people what they are thankful for. I am grateful for the successes that we have experienced together as House from winning the House Chant for Athletics Day 2023, winning the Samoan Language Week House Dance competition to winning the overall Whanau House for 2023. We celebrate and we are grateful for our successes that we have been blessed with.

TOTARA HOUSE: Goals for 2024

We were unable to explore our goals for 2024 at the end of last year, but I am looking forward to spending the first few weeks of Term 1 going through this with the team. It is important for us to discuss our goals and what our ‘finish line’ is for 2024, so that we can understand and know what we are working towards. I have outlined some goals below - things that we can focus on and work on throughout the year. This will be discussed with the team as we get into Term 1.

Totara House @ Inter House Soccer Competition 2023

• New House Values 2024 - I hope to work with our new leadership for 2024 and to see what they think our House Values should be. It would be a good idea to also collaborate with our student body to get their input as it is something that we have done over the last two years. 

• Participation - Continue to encourage our students to participate in the House events and activities. There is something special when we come together and I would like to continue this with our students

• Monitor student achievement/progress - I would like to see our mentorship team and academic mentor work together to track and support our students (across year 9 to year 13) with their learning and achievement. That is our core job and I would like to see our students feel confident in where they are and where they want to go academically. 

• Student Leadership - The mentorship team discussed how we can utilize our student leadership more effectively and efficiently in our house, we have an idea on what we want to do and I hope that we can help drive this with our leadership team.

I am looking forward to working the new student leadership team for 2024, our mentorship team and the students of Totara House 2024!