Mutukaroa

Reflection ....Mutukaroa .....TeachMeet NZ

I was invited by Sonya to present on TeachMeet NZ my learning this year with a new initiative we implemented called Mutukaroa. My initial response was "how much time do I have" then I realised that it has made a difference....why not share it with others so here I go. Preparing for this presentation has clarified my learning and more so my thinking. Being asked to share something that has made an impact in three minutes seemed impossible but you can do it. 

Newmarket School was very fortunate to be one of the initial 10 schools in the cluster working alongside the host school (Sylvia Park School). I have the awesome privilege of being the Mutukaroa Coordinator. Working alongside Mutukaroa Coordinators, parents, teachers and students have been an amazing experience. 

Here is my presentation on TeachMeetNZ.

Mutukaroa is a learning Partnership between the home and school. It is working alongside our whanau, supporting, empowering and engaging them in their child's learning. It is taking the learning that's happening at school into the homes of our whanau.                                 

The classroom teacher administers a detailed observation survey both in literacy and numeracy at age 5, 5 and a half, 6 and 7. These assessments are then shared with me the coordinator. Part of my role is then to invite the parents to be part of a learning conversation based around their child's learning. At this meeting we celebrate successes and set new goals. Ten weeks later we meet for a review meeting where we review the goals. If the goals have been achieved we set new ones, otherwise we look at other resources to support that specific learning goal. The two targets that are usually set together with parents are very specific. One target is for literacy and the other is for numeracy. The best part of it is that resources are provided to support these targets at home.

As a coordinator the biggest challenge that I face is sharing the data collected with parents within two weeks of the testing and ensuring that there are enough resources ready to support the goals.

The biggest impact of this initiative on my teaching includes building strong relationships with our parents. In addition being responsive to the culture and background of our whanau. Some of what I learnt was that parents are reliant on the teachers to teach their children. Some parents are unsure of how to best support their child and to what extent in literacy and numeracy. I have built a closer relationship with our teachers by working collaboratively.

Mutukaroa surely has made a huge impact on our learning outcomes. We have had some students making a year's progress in 6 months in terms of learning. All children to date have made some progress in their learning. Where the most progress is seen is where the parents have set specific targets and have been involved in their child's learning. 

My practise is refined and becoming more focused specific in meeting the needs of my learners.

"Whaia te iti Kahurangi"

"Reach for the Stars"

To make a difference we need to journey together.

Visit to Hobsonville Point School

I was excited to make a visit to Hobsonville Point School. Lots of good things I had heard about the school and after visiting it previously, I needed to make a second trip with my team. This time I was more interested in not only the modern learning environment but what a day looked like for a child at the school. How did they plan their day? What were the challenges teachers face?

I was blown away with the way students could clearly articulate their plan for the day even the five year olds. There weren't any bells ....how did it work? The question that keeps popping into my head is why do I do what I do? The more I think about it the more I challenge myself.

Team Inquiry

"The Power of Collaboration" 

Junior Team Inquiry - 2014

This year my Junior team decided to have a collaborative approach to inquiry. Our goal for the inquiry was to work collaboratively to accelerate achievement using a variety of strategies in writing.When the idea was floated by, it sounded like a great approach so we all got on board and decided to have a go.The more I thought about it the more nervous I became because like all inquiries it is not knowing where the inquiry would lead and what would it look like for us as a team.
  


As a team we felt that writing was an area of the curriculum we needed extra support with. Alongside that our baseline data confirmed that all our children was writing at Level 1B and we wanted to re-look at how we taught writing across the syndicate. I wondered personally whether teaching writing differently as to how I had always taught it would make a difference. So the inquiry began in February of this year.

We collected some baseline data such as alphabet knowledge and word list, hearing letters and sounds in words, beginning of the year writing sample. We looked closely at the literacy progressions and ensured that we understood clearly what the expectations were for our Year 0/1 students.

Looking at my class, I decided to target my Maori/ Pasifika child as well as students who were past the emergent stage in writing and thinking of ways to accelerate them to the early/ fluent level in writing. Stacey decided to target her emergent writers while Andrea were looking at her ESOL learners and looking at strategies to best support them in writing.

As a team we identified the learning needs of our target students. We recognised that because of the lack in alphabet knowledge of letters and sounds, we needed to make it a priority to teach this. Through their five year observation survey we targeted the goals we set with parents to learn their alphabet by name and sound. To my amazement, when it came to 5.6 assessment - nearly all the children were scoring very high. This made a huge shift in writing because now the students knew that in writing we write using sounds. 


Their knowledge of basic words increased as well which gave them a sense of achievement in terms of becoming independent with their work. Other learning needs we highlighted from the data was that the plan for writing was very simple and we needed to look at ways to extend this. Story starters were boring and reviewing the purpose in writing was crucial - thinking of ways to engage our audience through interesting hooks.  We also identified that ideas and vocabulary in writing was very simple and so there were lots of discussion around this as to how we were going to build on this.

It was important as a team that we set specific goals with the students in child speak language so the students could not only read them but understand well what they were trying to achieve in writing.

At syndicate meetings there were lots of discussion around strategies we were already using in class that was making a difference in our practice and sharing of how we modelled writing to the students. Some of the strategies we started to implement in our classes were planning for language experiences where we would build and extend on ideas and vocabulary. We had vocabulary charts displayed with topic related words. This would be done in a writing session.

We found that our writing programme started to look different because there was more engagement from the students, time was given to build language and vocabulary and think, pair, share ideas became powerful. Instead of rushing through our writing sessions and getting everything done, writing became more purposeful and meaningful for both the learner and the teacher. Our writing lessons started to spread over a week instead of in a day.  We used apps such as Book creator, camera and doodle buddy to create e-books. The level of motivation and engagement was high. 

What was even more exciting for me was seeing my team being enthusiastic about writing and sharing what was going well for them after trying new strategies. Not only hearing the stories of marked improvement in achievement of students writing but shifts made in terms of teacher's practise.

  

As a team we came to the conclusion from our inquiry that to expect great writing from children we as teachers need to be very clear about our expectations and ensure that we are providing children with rich language experiences and giving them time to talk about their ideas. Allowing students to view and celebrate themselves as authors reinforces the purpose for writing. Giving them lots of opportunities for free choice writing provides them with sharing their thoughts in a meaningful way.

Our next steps as a team is to continue to look at ways to use iPads/ google docs so that children can collaborate and share their work. We also want to provide students with different tools and ways to express themselves, their interests and abilities. As we continue to look at our learners, we will continue to look at ways we can be responsive towards their culture and needs.

As a team we reflected and talked about what went well for us. In terms of having a collaborative goal was good because we were able to bounce ideas off each other and support each other in terms of trying new things.

We felt that the inquiry flowed well and we were able to revisit the inquiry at syndicate meetings from time to time. We have identified that in order for us to accelerate students in writing we need to know them well and to continue to make explicit the expectations. We will look at displaying the expectations for writing visually on the wall using child speak language so students can identify where they are at and what do they need to do to get to the next level. 

To conclude, I believe there is effectiveness and power in collaboration. It does work and can make a difference.