Term 3 Week 9 Cross Country Part 2

Movement Inquiry – Goals help us to focus on a personal action plan

Training for Cross Country Term 3

The students moan at the thought of running everyday training for cross country. As Year 6’s they have a good idea who is going to win and who is going to be in the interschool team.  So this year I took a different approach. We looked at becoming fitter rather than training just for cross country.  Movement was the inquiry for the term so we decided to do a personal inquiry into fitness.   During the term:

·            Running training – most days                                                                                           Footsteps – Dance Group 5 week programme  and Jump                                                      Performance Hour – 1 hour a week based on movement and then a performance                  3 times a week 10 minutes’ circuit rotation to music

1    Cross Country Action Term 3

    Criteria 9:  Select teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning and assessment activities that are inclusive and effective for diverse ākonga.  Modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of ākonga                                                                                                    

      This was a most successful way of addressing diverse learning needs.   Would I do it this way again - TOTALLY!!

      This unit has been shared with Miguel who is the facilitator from Sport North Harbour. Miguel is working with the Physical Education Team (Sam, Lisa Negus, Tracey Clarke and myself) on the new school wide PE plan. He asked for a copy of this work so he could share with other schools.   (Criteria 5)

Week Six Culturally Responsive

Culturally Responsive

I was reading an article for next weeks team meeting on Innovative Learning Environments. 

One section is headed: Is the design culturally responsive? Does it encourage and support practices that allow learners to draw from their culture and background to achieve as themselves? 

My class description: 

There are 15 Male and 11 Female students.  

Nationalities are:  1 Other European    8 NZ European     6 Korean    7 Chinese    1 Cook Isl Maori    1 NZ Maori     1 Indian     1 African/African Origins 

3 students are ESOL funded. (Jeremy, Robin and Suyheok) 

From EOY 2016 data:

Reading:  
Above - 5 students (3 girls, 2 boys)     
At - 13 students (5 girls and 8 boys)        
Below - 5 students (2 girls, 3 boys)      
Well Below (1 boy)

Writing:  
Above - 2 students (1 girl, 1 boy)        
At -  12 students (7 girls and 5 boys)
Below - 10 students (2 girls and 8 boys)  

Math: 
Above - 3 students (1 girl and 2 boys)  
At - 15 students (7 girls and 8 boys)
Below - 4 students  (1 girl and 3 boys)
Well Below - 2 students (1 girl and 1 boy)

There are 2 new students to Forrest Hill school this year. (1 girl and 1 boy) 

Reflection: 38 percent of the class are below expection in writing. This would seem to be the greatest area of learning need in this class. Of these students identified as below the nationalities are:
1 African (Anthony)
2 Chinese (Danny and Abby)
3 Korean (Jeremy, Jaehee and Robin)
1 Cook Is Maori (Zayliah)
1 European (Cameron)
1 Other European (Matthew) 

So there will be a focus on writing this year and the culturally responsive aspect will be an area to look in to how to put this into the learning programme. 

Initial work with the class suggests they have a good understanding of PIE - persuade, inform and entertain, however do not know what forms of writing come under each piece of the pie. They also have a learning need in knowing what the features are of specific genre and how to recognise features in a piece of writing. This will be Term one focus to expose to different forms of writing and the features. 

Week Five Feedback and Feed forward

Feedback and Feed Forward

Very interesting discussion with the class about the purpose of feedback and feedforward and what it looks like in their learning. From the class - 

Feedback:

• You tell the person what they did wrong
• It is the negative parts
• The parts you didnt understand and they need to change
• The parts you didnt like
• You can say what you think is good about the work and what you liked

Feed Forward:

• What they need to improve on
• What they need to make better
• What they need to change
• The spelling. What words they need to write properly.
• Handwriting: How they could make their handwriting better. 

I was surprised that this is how the class saw feedback and feed forward as it isnt my understanding of these two aspects of peer conferencing. The vital part missing is the individuals ownership of the work and the reflection part for them to respond to feedback and feed forward that has been given. The class had the understanding that it was their job to make the work better by telling the person what had to be improved - rather than the owner making the changes in response to suggestions that had been made by their audience. 

I started a discussion about prompt beginnings to use when giving feedbck and feedforward. We took the word negative and bad out of the discussion completely. The new understandings we developed were:

• Feedback is when you show someone a part of their work that meant something to you.
• Feed forward is when you show someone a part of their work that as their audience you found confusing or would like more information on. 

The following prompts were developed by me with the class but as a class we talked through them together and they will become what we use when we are peer conferencing.  

Before I can get peer conferencing happening though, there are basic understandings of self management (key competency) that I would like to develop with the class so feedback and feed forward can be more meaningful. 

The personal reflection is the most important in the whole process and the part the class did not talk about at all when we were generating our ideas on feedback and feed forward. This personal reflection is where the student uses the feedback and feed forward to improve their writing / work and move forward in their ability to respond. 

Sentence Starters for Giving Feedback to your Partner:

Positive/Neutral:

I was really interested in what you were saying when…

My favourite part of your writing was…

I could really see / hear / feel what you were describing when…

I could relate to what you said when…

My favourite word / phrase you used was ….

This part made me feel…

This part reminded me of …

Your most convincing part / reason / evidence was…

Sentence Starters for Giving Feedforward to your Partner:

I was confused when you said… can you explain this to me?

I would have liked to hear more about….

I didn’t have a picture in my head. Could you use nouns / adjectives / verbs / adverbs in this part…

This part is hard for me to understand because the punctuation isnt clear. Can you make it easier to understand?

I didn’t understand this part … can you clarify it please?

I don’t understand what you meant when you said  ….

What else could you tell me to make me want to agree with you when you said…

What is your main point in this paragraph?

What do you plan to do next?

Personal reflection

My initial writing goal was… did I meet it?

What part of my writing did my buddy / group get confused by?

Where did they need me to tell them more?

What is one part of my writing that I could improve on?

What still needs to be added to my draft so that it feels finished?

Have I checked the Remember to?

What words could I add to make my reader see / hear / smell / taste / feel something I describe?  (have a picture in their mind)

Have I used paragraphs that make sense?