My Space and My Place: PTC11

The following is a breakdown of strategies that I've applied during Term 1 to enable Level 2 DigiTech students to achieve NCEA Level 2 as their minimum qualification.

School Goal 3 Transition

That 95% of the Year 13 cohort achieve NCEA Level 2 as their minimum qualification.

DigiTech NCEA Level 2

By navigating to the NCEA Level 2 > Overview and Calendar section in my DigiTech with Ms Anderson website, the first project that the Level 2 students could work on is either 'Create a Webpage', 'Create a Program', or 'Use DCTs'.

I entered all of the students into the 'Create a Webpage Unit Standard 25655 worth 3 Level 2 credits, to build on their website development knowledge from NCEA Level 1.

The following is the credit breakdown for DigiTech NCEA Level 2 at the end of Term 1. The sections that follow the breakdown, are the updates throughout the term, as well as the strategies and interventions that were applied to enable students to achieve.

Term 1 Week 3 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 3 Update - Strategies and Interventions

The Strategies and Interventions that I applied after the Week 3 Update includes:

Student 1

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Determined that the student was working on stakeholders in Task 2

Student 2

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Workspace has been working since yesterday. Currently working on Task 2 Resources. Wants to create a website about Rugby League.

Student 3

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Working on stakeholders in Task 2. Wants his website to be about Rugby League.

Student 4

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Submitted Task 2 for marking. Unsure about Task 1 in terms of readiness for submission. Will check Task 1 and start Task 3.

Student 5

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Working on stakeholders in Task 2.

Student 6

22 Feb - Meeting with student. Needs to finish Task 1 Testing Procedures. Currently also working on Context Brainstorm.

These above mentioned meetings are not the only interactions with the students, so don't include informal Q & A throughout the lessons. These are formal meetings in an informal setting with each student, to establish points of reference; where in the project is the student currently working, and what needs to happen to progress forward.

Term 1 Week 4 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 4 Update - Strategies and Interventions

At this stage, students were falling well behind the due dates for individual tasks to be completed.

The Strategies and Interventions that I applied after the Week 4 Update includes:

Student 1

6 March - Peer Support from Dell to meet deadlines [Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy].
9 March - Meeting with Level 2 students. Project Update; explain Monday catchup session.

Student 2

6 March - Student Absent Q.
9 March - Student Absent Q.

Student 3

6 March - Peer Support from Sione to meet deadlines [Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy].

Student 4

6 March - Peer Support from Gus to meet deadlines [Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy].

Student 5

6 March - Peer Support from Tau to meet deadlines [Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy].

Student 6

6 March - Peer Support from Issam to meet deadlines [Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy].

Term 1 Week 5 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 6 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 6 Update - Strategies and Interventions

At this stage, students were falling well behind the due dates for individual tasks to be completed.

The Strategies and Interventions that I applied after the Week 5 Update includes:

Student 1

20 March - I rung home and left a message on parent's mobile, explaining that Student 1 is at risk of not completing their assessment that is due on Thursday 22nd March. Student 1 did not attend the lunch time session today, nor did they attend the after school session last Monday. I am available tomorrow at interval and lunchtime for student to complete their work.
21 March - Meeting with Parent and Student about the current assessment, and what needs to happen to achieve.

Student 2

20 March - Student Absent Q.
21 March - Student Absent Q.

Student 3

20 March - I rung home , explaining that Student 3 is at risk of not completing their assessment that is due on Thursday 22nd March. Student 3 did not attend the lunch time session today, nor did they attend the after school session last Monday. I am available tomorrow at interval and lunchtime for student to complete his work.

Student 4

20 March - Student Absent.

Student 5

20 March - Student Absent Q.
21 March - Student Absent Q.

Student 6

20 March - Student Absent Q.
21 March - Student Absent Q.

Term 1 Week 7 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 10 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Update - Strategies and Interventions

The Strategies and Interventions that I applied by the end of Term 1 includes:

Student 1

5 April - Project Update Survey whereby students submitted feedback on tasks that they had completed, strategies that they could and should apply to complete work, and feedback on specific help required from the teacher.
9 April - Student is awaiting moderation feedback on Project 1.

Student 2

5 April - Student Absent.
6 April - Student Absent.

Student 3

5 April - Project Update Survey whereby students submitted feedback on tasks that they had completed, strategies that they could and should apply to complete work, and feedback on specific help required from the teacher.
9 April - Student is awaiting moderation feedback on Project 1.

Student 4

5 April - Project Update Survey whereby students submitted feedback on tasks that they had completed, strategies that they could and should apply to complete work, and feedback on specific help required from the teacher.
9 April - Student is awaiting moderation feedback on Project 1.

Student 5

5 April - Project Update Survey whereby students submitted feedback on tasks that they had completed, strategies that they could and should apply to complete work, and feedback on specific help required from the teacher. Extension negotiated due to an Off-Site 3-day Course in the previous week.
6 April - Lunch time catchup - did not attend.
9 April - Reassessment opportunity to be completed in Student's own time - due 29 April.

Student 6

5 April - Project Update Survey whereby students submitted feedback on tasks that they had completed, strategies that they could and should apply to complete work, and feedback on specific help required from the teacher. Extension negotiated due to an Off-Site 3-day Course in the previous week.
6 April - Lunch time catchup - did not attend.
9 April - Submitted Project 1 work for moderation.

Overview of Term 1 Tracking and Teaching Interventions for School Goal 3

In addition to the various VTaL tools (Tool 01 - Google Sites, Tool 02 - SOLO Learning Activities, Tool 03 - Class Project Class Lists, Tool 06 - Workspaces and Tool 09 - Subject Google+), that were applied to the delivery of the Create a Website NCEA Level 3 Project, the range of teaching strategies and interventions also included:

Formal Meetings with Students
Tuakana-Teina Collaborative Teaching Strategy
Student Reflection through the use of Project Update Surveys using Google Forms
Interval, Lunch time and After School Catch Up Sessions
Contact with Home
Parent Meeting

The Class Task Lists - Tracking Sheets, enabled regular feedback to be submitted back to students to identify where they were within the project. This also helped to inform my practice in terms of the strategies and interventions that were required to enable the students to achieve.

The key motivators for students to achieve could be separated into two different categories; intrinsic motivation whereby the student was motivated enough to apply the tools and teaching strategies to achieve, as well as extrinsic motivation whereby students responded to outside influences such as parent contact, to motivate them to complete tasks. In addition to this, students were who involved in Off-Site courses struggled to keep up with in-class course work and keep to the deadlines. This is not always the case, but it was the case for this particular project.

Teaching is exhausting! However, with appropriate tools in place, eg. the use of VTaL, ongoing pedagogical practices can be identified, applied, and adapted, to enable student achievement to be tracked and monitored during the assessment, as opposed to discovering at the conclusion of the assessment that students were not able to meet the criteria.

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Focus Class for the Goal

Māori students in NCEA Level 1, NCEA Level 2 and NCEA Level 3

Goals and Actions - Student learning and achievement

To improve outcomes for students in my classes by making changes or adjustments to my teacher practice by tracking the attendance and achievement of Māori students in my NCEA Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 multi-level class, and communicating this information to students on a regular basis.

Goals and Actions - Teacher learning and achievement

To develop a digital process and system to collect regular data on achievement and attendance.

To digitally share the data on achievement and attendance with the students.

To have one to one meetings with students whose attendance or incomplete work leaves the student at risk of not achieving.

To contact home for students whose attendance or incomplete work leaves the student at risk of not achieving.

To enter updates into Kamar for issues relating to achievement and attendance.

Goals and Actions - Reflections

The initial template turned out to not be a sustainable resource. I then developed a different process that integrates achievement data with student attendance.

This aligns with the data summary sheets in Kamar that is used to discuss student achievement with SLT. The Student Standard Data Update - Templates enable an overview of the formative feedback relating to students with regards standards the students have achieved, standards the students are working on, credits offered to each student, attendance, teaching strategies and interventions, student actions, and any other notes that are not picked up through summative feedback in Kamar.

The sheets also included meeting updates between myself and individual students, which I then shared with the students, so that they had a copy of the feedback to action in terms of the project they were currently working on. This also enabled me to track the conversations that I'd had with students, as well as the actions that the students either had, or had not, followed up on.

Goals and Actions - Future Focus 2018

I have shared the process with staff in the Technology Department and have developed a template for Technology Staff to use in 2018. Student Standard Data Update - Template.

This will enable each staff member, as well as myself, to know and understand where each Senior Student who takes a Technology subject, is tracking throughout each term, and from one term to the next.

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What happened for the learners?

Learners Achieved!

Shift of Student Achievement in Senior DigiTech from September to November

The following diagrams show the shift in achievement in my Senior DigiTech class from September this year, to November.

The learners within my Senior DigiTech class include students undertaking either NCEA Level 1, NCEA Level 2 or NCEA Level 3. As well as being a multi-level class in terms of NCEA levels, the class is multi-ability at each year level. Within each of the year levels, only three students in the class had taken DigiTech as a senior subject in 2016, the previous year of learning. This impacts on prior knowledge of content, technical skills, and an understanding of technological practice which is required to achieve at curriculum levels 6 to 8 for NCEA. Three students also enrolled into the course partway through the year from abroad. A multi-level (of all three NCEA levels) and multi-ability NCEA class, is not common. This classroom structure includes a wide range of teaching and learning variables that potentially impact on student achievement. Identifying achievable teaching and learning strategies is instrumental in enabling student achievement to take place.

The colour codes represent the following; bright green (standard is moderated and achieved), light green (standard is on track to achieve if fully completed and moderated), orange (standard is a work in progress), dark gray (standard is not yet started).

VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Own Practice

The use of various VTaL tools enabled accelerated shift to occur for some of the learners in my Senior DigiTech class. The following image links to a description and evidence of accelerated shift in my own practice for one of the learners in my class.

VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Staff

It was awesome to see how VTaL has contributed to accelerated shift for students in other learning areas. This was reflected in the presentation that Lenva delivered at our recent staff meeting, whereby some staff indicated that different VTaL tools were used to accelerate shift in achievement with at least one of the identified learners in their class.

Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.

What evidence do I have for this?

Student Feedback, Staff Feedback, Own Reflections

VTaL and the Impact on Student Achievement – Own Practice

The following are VTaL tools that have had a direct impact on student achievement in either my Senior DigiTech class, or Junior DigiTech classes this year. The impact on student achievement is either outlined by measuring NCEA standards achieved, or by student feedback explaining that the tool has impacted on their ability to achieve in the subject.

The following are VTaL tools that have had an indirect impact on student achievement by promoting student engagement, in either my Senior DigiTech class, or Junior DigiTech classes this year:

The following are VTaL tools that I am either trialling, or are yet to be trialled, and therefore requires time to gain evidence on the impact on student achievement:

Staff uptake of various VTaL tools

The following presentation shows the uptake of various VTaL tools by staff from Term 1 to Term 3 of this year.

Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.

What did I do to make this happen?

Modelling Visibility and LCS, explicit Teacher Practice

Embedding VTaL Tools into my Subject Site

Modelling the use of VTaL Tools and Learn Create Share was achieved by embedding the various tools into my Subject Site, DigiTech with Ms Anderson, and ensuring all tools were visible at all times. Also, using my Subject Site as the main portal by which students access their learning was important.

Own Teacher Practice that directed students towards learning processes using various VTaL tools

It was really important that in my own practice, I was able to direct students towards the use of various VTaL tools with a particular achievement outcome in mind. For example, asking students to load work into a community is one thing, but directing students to the community, and explaining the use of the community as a portal by which to guide their own learning, is a deliberate action on my part that lead to the community being a useful tool that contributed towards student achievement. The same goes for Class Project Task Lists. I embedded links into calendar posts as well as embedding the Task Lists themselves into web pages in my site, and directed students to those links and pages, in order for students to make use of the VTaL tool. In this particular instance, the Class Project Task Lists gave students feedback about their current achievement within a project, and feedforward about what they needed to progress within a project.

Taking the Journey with Technology Staff

I spent time throughout the year with Technology Staff, helping to integrate VTaL into their teaching and learning programs for a specified senior class. Throughout this process, this enabled me to gain insight into some of the trials and tribulations that staff were experiencing associated with integrating VTaL into classroom practice. From this, we were able to identify different VTaL tools that could easily be integrated into teacher practice (shown in the image below), and further trialled during JumpStart and also in 2018.

Contributions at Middle Leaders Meetings

Through my own teacher practice, and also throughout my inquiry this year, I have been able to contribute and feedback into discussions at Middle Leaders meetings on a regular basis, about VTaL as well as ideas around Visibility and Consistency.

Creation of VTaL Resources - Google+, Site, StarterKit

The creation of different VTaL Resources such as the Google+ Community and Google Site, are platforms that I set up to share information and resources about VTaL, and enable others to share information, resources and feedback about VTaL as well. This has been a deliberate action on my part, to enable VTaL to be utilised beyond my own teacher practice.

Wonderings about what next?

More trialling, more refining, more sharing

More trialling

I am keen to continue trialling some of the VTaL tools that I either haven't used extensively yet eg. Workspaces, or that may have more potential to contribute directly (as opposed to indirectly) towards student achievement.

More refining

As updates occur within different apps that are used to develop VTaL tools (such as new or different functions and capabilities), the updates could enable the opportunity to refine existing VTaL tools for greater efficiency and use. An example of this is the updates to NEW Google Sites. The easier that an app is to use, may appeal to stakeholders to utilise these tools more extensively in teaching and learning. Sounds obvious, but when stakeholders invest time and energy into developing resources, it can sometimes be overwhelming to consider that updates that require significant change, may actually be more beneficial to learners and student achievement in the long run.

More sharing

There is a gold mine of information of great examples of teacher practice using VTaL by colleagues from throughout the year. I'm keen to catch up with these colleagues about the amazing work that they're doing within their teacher practice, and the impact that this has had on student achievement in their classes.

It's been an exciting and interesting year as far as my inquiry goes. I'm pleased to see the impact that VTaL has had within my own teacher practice in contributing towards student achievement. I'm also delighted to see the positive impact that VTaL has had with some of my colleagues who have generously shared evidence of their findings into the 'Visible Learning Accelerates Shift' presentation. In addition to this, that students are feeding back on the benefits that they see from different VTaL tools on their learning and student achievement, reflected in my blog posts labelled Feedback - Student Voice, and VTaL for Students.

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Use and Impact of Tool 04 - Student Project Checklists in DigiTech

I used Student Project Checklists mostly with my multi-level Senior DigiTech class. The senior students found it useful and empowering being able to track and monitor their own progress within projects, leading towards the achievement of credits for NCEA standards. Although I initially trialled the Project Checklists with Junior Classes, time restraints (3 x 50 minute lessons per week, out of a total of 30 lessons per week), as well as junior students seeing their progress within the Class Project Task Lists, meant that the Student Checklists were not as favourable with junior students as they were with senior students, in terms of students monitoring their own progress and achievement in class.

As with the Class Project Task Lists, Student Project Checklists also use the colour code system to track and monitor achievement eg. green (complete), orange (incomplete) and red (not started).

The following are examples of student feedback or posts about the effectiveness of Student Project Checklists to enable students to track and monitor their achievement:

Use of Tool 04 - Student Project Checklists across Staff

The following are examples of student and staff feedback across other Learning Areas, about the effectiveness of Class Project Task Lists to track and monitor their achievement:

In addition to this, many staff directly attributed the use of VTaL Tracking Sheets to Accelerating Shift within their subject areas this year. This is reflected within the presentation in the following blog post: Visible Learning accelerates shift - Term 4 2017 Tamaki College

The following shows the use of Student Project Checklists by staff from Term 1 to Term 3 this year.

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My Space and My Place

School Goal 3 Transition

DigiTech NCEA Level 2

Term 1 Week 3 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 3 Update - Strategies and Interventions

Term 1 Week 4 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 4 Update - Strategies and Interventions

Term 1 Week 5 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 6 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 6 Update - Strategies and Interventions

Term 1 Week 7 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Week 10 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Update - NCEA Level 2 Create a Website 25655

Term 1 Update - Strategies and Interventions

Overview of Term 1 Tracking and Teaching Interventions for School Goal 3

Focus Class for the Goal

Māori students in NCEA Level 1, NCEA Level 2 and NCEA Level 3

Goals and Actions - Student learning and achievement

To improve outcomes for students in my classes by making changes or adjustments to my teacher practice by tracking the attendance and achievement of Māori students in my NCEA Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 multi-level class, and communicating this information to students on a regular basis.

Goals and Actions - Teacher learning and achievement

Goals and Actions - Reflections

Goals and Actions - Future Focus 2018

What happened for the learners?

Learners Achieved!

Shift of Student Achievement in Senior DigiTech from September to November

VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Own Practice

VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Staff

Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.

What evidence do I have for this?

Student Feedback, Staff Feedback, Own Reflections

VTaL and the Impact on Student Achievement – Own Practice

Staff uptake of various VTaL tools

Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.

What did I do to make this happen?

Modelling Visibility and LCS, explicit Teacher Practice

Embedding VTaL Tools into my Subject Site

Own Teacher Practice that directed students towards learning processes using various VTaL tools

Taking the Journey with Technology Staff

Contributions at Middle Leaders Meetings

Creation of VTaL Resources - Google+, Site, StarterKit

Wonderings about what next?

More trialling, more refining, more sharing

More trialling

More refining

More sharing

Use and Impact of Tool 04 - Student Project Checklists in DigiTech

Use of Tool 04 - Student Project Checklists across Staff

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Manaiakalani

Tamaki College

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