My Space and My Place

Briefly restate the specific change you want to bring about in student learning and the evidence used to select that focus

My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 will be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I intend inquiring into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.

• that learners did not necessarily understand the formative feedback that I was providing them with in order to progress forward in their learning; or, 
• that they didn't understand why I was asking them to share their work, and through the sharing process, reflecting on the task, would give them a greater understanding of the work.

Therefore the specific change that I want to bring about in student learning is 'Student Understanding'.  The way that I intend focussing on Student Understanding, is by inquiring into learning interventions to support the following:

1. Comprehension - levels of support required for task completion of assessment tasks
2. Meeting Assessment Criteria - outcome or impact of pace of task completion for Technical Skills Tasks, and levels of support required to complete assessment tasks, and how these combine to maintain engagement in meeting assessment deadlines 

Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature.

My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 will be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I intend inquiring into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.

Although this particular reading focussed around collaborative strategies for teaching reading comprehension, I can see the benefit of some of these strategies to assist learners with developing a better understanding of assessment tasks and assessment requirements.  This can be achieved with having clear, concise 'Checklists', as outlined in the first section highlighted in yellow "Checklists, rating scales, and rubrics, developed with colleagues and in some cases with students in advance of instruction or early in the lesson, establish the criteria for post lesson assessment".

Aspects of this particular reading align with strategies that I am implementing with the students in terms of the use of the Year Level Google+ Community.  More specifically, the last section highlighted in pink that reads "Online asynchronous discussions also provide learners with opportunities to prepare, reflect, think, and search for additional information before participating in a discussion".  The strategies are not in exact alignment, in that students are not necessarily searching for additional information before participating in a discussion.  

I feel happy

The blog comment that one of the learners included in the blog post, BP4,  suggests that the learner feels happy, and proud by the following sentences in his comment "I like sharing my work into the Year 11 DigiTEch Google+ Community because I like to help other students out with what they're confused about." and "I share my work into the Year 11 DigiTEch Google+ Community not only because it makes me feel proud but because it's helping other students as well."

I can think and learn

The blog comment that one of the learners included in the blog post, BP4,  indicates that the work that the learner shares into the Year 11 DigiTech Google+ Community, including the title and description of the work, gives him a greater understanding of the work "It gives me a greater understanding of the work that I have completed and shared because you need to know what is the heading of the work, what's about and where you find it."

I feel part of the school community

The response that students provided to Question 1 and Question 5 in the blog post, BP4, suggests that the students feel a part of the "Class" or "Subject" community, by all responding YES to the use of the Year 11 DigiTech Google community to share their tasks.

Whilst the data that was collected, was in the form of a questionnaire conducted via the chat function in a Google Hangout, and didn't follow any of the examples of data collection in the reading, the data still gave an indication of various aspects of student wellbeing by students using the digital tool of a Google+ Community to support their learning.  Although it is just a snapshot of student wellbeing, there is enough positive feedback to see how the use of the Google+ Community supports student learning.

Explain how some of the data you have used to build a profile of the students’ learning will be used as baseline data at the end of the year.

My target group of learners for my Inquiry 2020 will be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. I intend inquiring into the process of using the LearnCoach online programs (content) and VTaL Visible Teaching and Learning (workflow) to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.

Following the discussions that I had with the three learners, I sat with Student 1 during class time, which they were happy for.  I noticed that when we were working together on a section of the task, that the student would stop when they were not able to spell a word or if they were unsure of the grammar.  They would literally stop working.  They wouldn't try to spell the word, nor would they try to find out how the word was spelt, as a coping strategy and means of continuing to work.  They would just stop working.  I sat and explained numerous times, that they were not being assessed on their ability to spell, or their grammar.  I only wanted them to demonstrate that they understood that section of work.  I prompted the learner to keep writing, even though they misspelt the words.  This took a bit of convincing.  Once I managed to get them to continue writing, they finished the sentence, and could see the spell check options that popped up to correct the words.  This made them happy, and also enabled them to overcome the hurdle of spelling and grammar.  However, this only occurred when I sat with the learner.  Almost as though my presence, prompting and ongoing positive feedback is what enabled the learner to continue with the work.

My next steps are to use the information obtained from the discussions with learners and strategies applied in class, to enable learners to progress with learning tasks without the need for me to sit with them the whole time; essentially, developing strategies for the learners to become more empowered and self sufficient in their learning and not dependent on me to do work.  In addition, the strategies need to be developed that still enables learners to know that they are able to ask for help and feedback, but that they don't need to wait for me to prompt them, in order to attempt learning activities.

I may look at developing a matrix in conjunction with the learners, to prompt student learning.  I will put together a draft of this over the holiday break, and the discussion with learners when I see them again at the beginning of Term 3.