My Space and My Place: VTaL

Here's an example of Hybrid Teaching and Learning in our Hybrid Timetable that involves a couple of Year 12 DGT students undertaking tasks onsite in the classroom, while a few of the Year 13 DGT students are undertaking tasks online from home.

A scenario that I've developed for the students is to complete tasks onsite at school within the VS Code - Code editing software on the classroom workstations, and transferring that code into the Neocities online web development application, so that they can continue working on their web development tasks from home. This requires the students always ensuring that the codes in their Neocities sites is up to date. However, it also allows the students to develop their technical skills in the more complex, industry standard Code editing software when they are in the classroom.

So, the hybrid teaching and learning methods in these contexts includes:

Online learning for students logging in from home and in the classroom (coding in Neocities) - Online learning is learning that is accessed by the learner via the internet, whether remotely or onsite at school
Remote learning for students logging in from home (coding in Neocities) - Remote learning is learning that takes place away from school, whether via the internet or paper based
Face-to-face learning for students logging in from home in the Google Meet, as well as students in the classroom (coding in Neocities) - Face-to-face learning is learning that takes place with the teacher, whether online or in person
Onsite learning for students in the classroom (coding in VS Code and also Neocities) - Onsite learning is learning that happens at school

The importance of setting up this approach for learners, of using complex software onsite in the classroom, and also software that is available online, is that the learning can continue for the learners regardless of whether they are learning from home, or learning onsite at school. As long as the students have devices and internet access, the learning journey continues.

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I adapted the Internal Assessment Evidence Gathering Template from NZQA into Google doc format, for NCEA DigiTech assessments that I am delivering with my students.

Student Tracking Sheets are resources that I have used with my senior students for quite a few years now. However, I decided to adapt the templates that NZQA published, in order for the format to stay consistent with what students will become familiar with.

The reason that I adapted the templates into Google doc format, is to enable learners to link their evidence into a Student Checklist, and also so that I can drop comments or feedback into the checklist. I have entered the Evidence that I expect students to link, in blue text colour, to differentiate from the assessment criteria from the standard information.

Having the template as a Google doc enables the resource to be user friendly and functional; especially when submitting work for moderation.

AS91884 (PDF, 97KB) - Use basic iterative processes to develop a digital outcome

Internal Assessment Evidence Gathering Template
Learner Name
NSN
Subject	101DGT - DigiTech Level 1		Level	1
Standard No.	AS91884		Version	1
Standard Title	Use basic iterative processes to develop a digital outcome

Achieved	Merit		Excellence
Use basic iterative processes to develop a digital outcome.	Use basic iterative processes to develop an informed digital outcome.		Use basic iterative processes to develop a refined digital outcome.

Key requirements (list):		A	M	E
Planning a digital outcome to address a problem, need, opportunity, or interest Statement of Intent		✔ or ✖
Managing the development by decomposing the digital outcome into smaller components Statement of Intent		✔ or ✖
Trialling components of the outcome in an iterative manner Testing Logbook		✔ or ✖
Testing that the digital outcome functions as intended Testing Logbook		✔ or ✖
Describing relevant implications. Testing Logbook		✔ or ✖
Using information from testing and trialling to improve the outcome Improvements Logbook			✔ or ✖
Trialling multiple components and/or techniques and selecting the most suitable Improvements Logbook			✔ or ✖
Addressing relevant implications Statement of Intent Testing Logbook Improvements Logbook			✔ or ✖
Applying information from the planning, testing and trialling of components to develop a high-quality outcome. Statement of Intent Testing Logbook Improvements Logbook				✔ or ✖

Sufficiency statement:
Achieved	All of A must be ticked
Merit	All of A and M must be ticked
Excellence	All of A and M and E must be ticked
TICK OVERALL GRADE	N	A	M	E

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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.

When I looked at the Tracking Sheet on 22 June (shown below), there were still a handful of learners who were not showing any shifts in terms of work output and task completion. This was after setting strict deadlines in place for the individual tasks, providing specific feedback and feedforward to the learners of what they needed to do to progress forward with their work, and also emailing the students respond to the feedback that I had provided them with, and give an explanation as to why they haven't finished the work. It was time to have a chat.

I met with the learners individually. When I asked them why they haven't responded to my feedback, or why they haven't updated their work, these were the following responses:

Student 1 - "I don't understand the feedback. I don't understand what you're asking me to do. I prefer talking to you one to one instead of ".

From my observations in class time, I knew that this learner was very capable at undertaking the coding tasks. I often needed to prompt them to stay on track, but I knew that they could cope with the coding tasks. So I was quite perplexed as to why they were not updating their work based on the feedback that I was providing them with.

Student 2 - "I don't know why Miss." [In response to me inquiring into the way that they prefer to learn] "I don't mind, I'll do whatever you ask me to".

As the conversation continued, I realised how difficult it was for this student to freely express how they felt, and also, they didn't like to ask for any sort of feedback or help. We talked about their favourite subject, why it was their favourite subject, and what we could do that might be similar and enable them to complete work.

Student 3 - "I know what to do Miss".

This student is playing catchup due to ongoing absence from class. I know this student to be an able student, who is able to complete tasks when they are at school and focussed on the work.

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.

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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.

In a previous blog post, BP3 : Tools, Measures and Approaches I identified Tracking Sheets as one of the possible tools to use to measure task completion. Task completion is directly connected to student achievement when learners complete tasks at the required standard and criteria for NCEA standards.

The blogpost BP4 : Evidence, Data and Preliminary Findings - Student Progress during Covid19 Lockdown demonstrates how Student Progress through the use of Tracking Sheets for a particular project or assessment, can be measured over a specified timeframe. Within the specified timeframe, the Tracking Sheet relevant to a particular date, can show the Student Progress and completion of the tasks within the assessment. When this is compared to previous Tracking Sheets, it is possible to measure the rate of task completion for each student. This is particularly important, when students need to hit mini deadlines within an overall assessment deadline.

Digital Technologies 1.7 & 1.8: Develop a Computer Game

In order to support learners to understand the assessment task, and to complete the assessment activities for the NCEA Assessment 'Develop a Computer Game',. I developed a Task/Hei Mahi to be an Overview of the Context for the assessment, and a much shorter version of the Overall Assessment. My hunch from previous experience, is that the shear volume of information within NCEA Assessment Tasks can be overwhelming for students. Whilst the information is important in terms of what needs to be covered and completed within the assessment, as well as the criteria that learners need to meet, it is still a lot of information.

I decided that I would develop a Student Checklist for students that would chunk and break down each individual set of evidence for all tasks within the assessment. I spent a double lesson discussing, demonstrating the explaining the purpose and use of the Task/Hei Mahi, Assessment Task © and Student Checklist to the class.

I also had an initial Tracking Sheet, that consisted of the four different sections of the Assessment Task. The students were expected to submit all of the evidence for each section into one document for the relevant section. However, throughout the lesson, some of the students indicated that they would prefer if a adapted the Tracking Sheet to include each individual set of evidence that is required for the assessment. I asked the students if they understood that would make the Tracking Sheet extremely long and how they felt about having a long Tracking Sheet. The students still preferred a longer Tracking Sheet to represent each single piece of evidence. The outcome is the Updated Tracking Sheet.

At the end of the lesson, I asked Olever and David how they felt about the lesson, and whether they felt as though they had a better understanding of the Assessment Requirements. The following video outlines what the boys had to say about the Task, Assessment Task, Student Checklist, and also the Tracking Sheet.

Based on my inquiry findings from my previous blogposts;

as well as student feedback during class time and captured in the short video above, suggests that the combined use of Student Checklist and Tracking Sheets will be effective tools to use to focus student learning and also to measure student progress. The Tracking Sheets at the beginning and end of assessments, for each assessment throughout the year, will provide a gauge of baseline data from the beginning of the assessment, up to the due date for the assessment.

I have inquired into the use of Tracking Sheets to accelerate student achievement in previous years. However, the difference of this inquiry to previous inquiries, is investigating the use of LearnCoach online tutorials (for content knowledge and skill development), and Visible Teaching and Learning (Student Checklists, Tracking Sheets and Google+ Communities) to accelerate student achievement.