My Space and My Place

• What am I doing that is positively impacting on learning on a societal scale?  What can I do to positively impact on learning on a societal scale?
• What am  I doing that is positively impacting on learning at a structural level?  What can I do to positively impact on learning at a structural level?
• What am I doing that is positively impacting on learning at a student level?  What can I do to positively impact on learning at a student level?
• What do I need to adapt or change?  What needs to remain the same?

levels. Dr. Jannie Van Hees

At the beginning of the year, when we first started discussing what the CoL focus would be for 2018, and with me already a year into my CoL inquiry, I was unsure as to how to connect "Language in Abundance"with my existing inquiry findings.   Not because what I was inquiring into was irrelevant to the concept of "Language in Abundance", but because my inquiry was and is focused around a framework; so essentially, a collective range of individual components and processes to enable accelerated achievement to take place.

My approach to addressing literacy for students within my inquiry process, focused more on the literacy associated with visibility and clarity of learning information for the students, as opposed to the literacy strategies for students.  This is reiterated in some of the Manaiakalani Inquiries presentation materials delivered by Rebecca Jesson, as shown in the image below "Are the instructions/ways to participate clear?"

Visibility and Clarity of Instructions

Some of the research materials that I'd been looking at with regards to visibility and clarity of learning information includes the following:

• Instructions https://goo.gl/bqk4Ap
• How to Write Clear Instructions https://goo.gl/StVytd
• Making Learning Visible https://goo.gl/TjXUP5

In terms of 'Instructions', useful take-outs from this resource link includes the purpose of instructions, as well as the features of instructions:


In terms of writing clear instructions, this research link focussed on three key areas:

1. Understanding the Task
2. Writing Your Instructions
3. Testing Your Instructions

This year I have been extensively trialing the use of Workspaces to communicate learning information to students, as well as collate evidence of student learning in order to provide students with both formative and summative feedback on learning tasks.  The trialing of the Workspaces is in comparison to the sole use of learning instructions that are embedded, linked and accessible to students via my Subject Google Site.

My next steps for further investigating the Literacy Lens of my Inquiry, is to identify the pros and cons of the use of Workspaces v my Subject Google Site, in terms of which resource (if either) is more effective in enabling visibility and clarity of instructions for students.

Scratching the surface of capabilities

Cultivating Growth Mindset

One of the sessions that really stretched my thinking, was the session run by Lindsay Wesner, Deep Dive : The Power of Possibility - Cultivating Growth Mindset in Your Classroom.

As well as Lindsay sharing her experiences as a classroom teacher, and her extensive range of resources with those of us who attended who session, the activity that had a lasting impact for me, was the bingo activity.  This activity required attendees to work in small groups of 2-3, to identify various tasks that we undertake as teaching practitioners, to enable our learners to develop a growth mindset.

Getting Creative with Google Sheets

The most constructive workshop that I attended that impacts directly on some of my current practices, was the workshop run by one of my colleagues Gerhard Vermeulen entitled Getting Creative with Google Sheets.  There are so many different functions within Google Sheets that I was unaware of.  One of those functions is the formula that allows the colours of individual cells within a worksheet to change, depending on the entry within the cell.  This is particularly useful with the VTaL Tracking Sheets that I use to enable students to track their own progress.  I am unsure whether the formula can be integrated into Hapara Gradesheets, which I'm also using as VTaL Tracking Sheets within Workspaces; however, it will just be a case of experimenting to see what works.