WHAKAMANA: empowering all learners to reach their highest potential by providing high-quality teaching and leadership.
MANAAKITANGA: creating a welcoming, caring and creative learning environment that treats everyone with respect and dignity.
PONO: showing integrity by acting in ways that are fair, honest, ethical and just.
WHANAUNGATANGA: engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whanau, our colleagues and the wider community
Table of Contents
Record of Teaching
Next Steps – feedback from 1b
- Ensure the purpose for learning objectives are clear with ākonga
- Practice being clear about expectations
- Ensure learning intentions are clear in my head
- Work on planning really specific learning intentions that can be measured using verbs such as demonstrate, identity, state
- Establish, and keep to clear timeframes
- Calm down
- Practice waiting time when giving instructions
Observations
- School Profile
- Classroom Profile
- Child inside Classroom
- Children outside Classroom
- Observation of AT’s lesson
| Practicum 2A | 3 weeks | 8 May – 26 May |
| Practicum 2B | 4 weeks | 28 August – 22 September |
Teaching Standard: Professional Learning
Use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Goal:
Familiarise myself with assessments used in the classroom, particularly around reading, writing, and maths. Explore how these assessments are used to guide planning. Carry out at least one assessment any analyse to identify a student’s strengths and needs.
Goal: Professional Learning
Action Steps
I will reach my goal by:
- Observe AT for assessments used in the classroom
- Where possible discuss with AT what assessments are used and how they guide their planning.
- Have casual conversations with ākonga about their learning, and how they find it (what’s fun, what’s hard, what made them feel frustrated, what made them feel proud). Observe if there is any correlation between their feelings and their achievements in assessment
- Where possible talk with other staff about different assessments used in their classrooms and what assessments they’ve seen during their time teaching.
- Research different assessments used in New Zealand, reflect on which I have encountered and which I would like to learn more about.
Updated Goal for 2b:
Plan for using formative assessment through mini plenaries during lesson to develop reflection in action as a natural part of my teaching practice.
Updated Goal: PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Professional Learning Reflection and Evidence
Week One Professional Learning Action Steps (8 May – 12 May):
- Observe AT for assessments used in the classroom
- Where possible discuss with AT what assessments are used and how they guide their planning.
- Where possible talk with other staff about different assessments used in their classrooms and what assessments they’ve seen during their time teaching.
Week One Evidence:
- Writing assessments at Andersons Bay primary have been moved to e-asTTLE assessments. Classes have been learning about writing a “Recount”. In class, the structure and reasons to use a recount writing style are taught explicitly. This is also integrated with punctuation, spelling, and general literacy aspects.
- I was allowed to join a staff meeting that was expressly to discuss the e-asTTLE assessments, how to mark, and how to ensure uniform marking was achieved schoolwide. This involved staff being separated into groups, with a mix of different year levels, and ensuring that each group had a member who had been trained in e-asTTLE assessments, an experienced teacher, and a beginning or less experienced teacher.
- Discussion with AT was around the teaching to ensure ākonga understood the learning objective. This is something that is very strong at Andersons Bay. While each teacher has a slightly different approach, all kiakō ensure their ākonga know what the learning focus is for each activity.
- In other areas, the assessment may be less formal but is ongoing. The use of recap and rephrasing is used to ensure all ākonga are working towards the same understanding. Lesson Cloze may include a “thumb” scale to judge how confident or comfortable ākonga are feeling for the subject. This is a social norm that has been established and used for a variety of aspects throughout the school, but the precise meaning is still reiterated when used to gauge more complex topics (e.g. with learning decimal place values – were students confident they could work on the topic without any assistance, felt they needed a little more help, or were getting really confused).
Week One Reflection:
Being in a school that has a strong emphasis on ensuring ākonga have a solid understanding of the learning focus is wonderful for my own teaching. This was an area identified as needing improvement from Practicum 1, so seeing this in action and the effectiveness of helping children develop their understanding is solidifying my own learning. I have been lucky that my timing of this practicum has coincided with PLD at the school which has focused on assessments, feedback and delivering a clear learning focus. Understanding how the e-asTTLE assessments work is great, but what was more beneficial was the teacher discussion around how to use them as a tool. This isn’t a “set and forget” method of grading a child, but a really effective way to develop the next steps for ākonga in a way that is actionable.
Glazzard & Stones talk about building assessment into every lesson, and this seems to be something my mentor teacher does automatically, so something I have been working on. Checking in with the ākonga about their understanding, and using self-assessment. This is also something that is done in the Structured Literacy lessons, where each tamariki mark their own work, and anything spelt wrong is written out in whole again. There are not Xs used, only corrections or ticks, this emphasises that we are learning rather than having a pass/fail where learning stops afterward.
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Week Two Professional Learning Action Steps (15 – 19 May 2023):
- Observe AT for assessments used in the classroom
- Where possible discuss with AT what assessments are used and how they guide their planning.
- Have casual conversations with ākonga about their learning, and how they find it (what’s fun, what’s hard, what made them feel frustrated, what made them feel proud). Observe if there is any correlation between their feelings and their achievements in assessment
- Where possible talk with other staff about different assessments used in their classrooms and what assessments they’ve seen during their time teaching.
Week Two Evidence:
- Staff meeting to work through e-asTTLE assessments
- Team meeting discussed maths assessment, including ikan
- Working through different writing samples and marking for two different teachers to get practice with “next steps”
- Talking through maths assessment with R.UK, these were also discussed in team meeting.
- Observation of AT maths lesson included student evaluation of own confidence, which was used to assist the next lesson plan.
Week Two Reflection:
Using the simple method of thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways to ask ākonga about how they are feeling about a topic works really well to evaluate teaching. Although this doesn’t mean capability, just confidence, it does provide a good idea about high-ceiling and low-floor starting points for the next teaching.
Working through several examples of writing using the es-TTLe system, for two different teachers, gave more insight than I expected. I probably wouldn’t have picked up on the child who only used capital W’s or children who consistently wrote y, p and g above the line just evaluating the overall writing. Using this system I was able to analyse individual aspects of the writing independently. Talking with other teachers, and the discussion at staff meeting, the es-TTle system provides good insight for next steps, and is generally close to the B-Basic P-Proficient A-Advanced style of marking used, but is not 100% accurate for the
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Week Three Professional Learning Action Steps (22 – 26 May):
- Observe AT for assessments used in the classroom
- Where possible discuss with AT what assessments are used and how they guide their planning.
- Have casual conversations with ākonga about their learning, and how they find it (what’s fun, what’s hard, what made them feel frustrated, what made them feel proud). Observe if there is any correlation between their feelings and their achievements in assessment
- Where possible talk with other staff about different assessments used in their classrooms and what assessments they’ve seen during their time teaching.
- Research different assessments used in New Zealand, reflect on which I have encountered and which I would like to learn more about.
Week Three Evidence:
- Delivered iKAN maths test to class.
- Used IKAN assessment to target next lesson plan
Week Three Reflection:
Discussing the results of the iKAN with my AT, confirmed the knowledge gained from the recent maths lessons I had delivered, and as such I was able to change my maths lessons to focus on developing a solid base in place value knowledge, as several ākonga were not quite there, and this was likely a barrier to them developing a better understanding of column subtraction and decimals.
After spending an entire maths lesson on nothing but place value, with a lot of explicit teaching followed by a mix of independent work and one-on-one teacher, ākonga had all solidified their learning. While some of the ākonga who were really struggling before are “almost” proficient, and with one more lesson with place value as a focus will be ready to thrive
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Teaching Standard: Teaching
Teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace.
Goal:
Through ongoing reflection and collaboration with my mentor teacher, I will develop my ability to identify the strengths and needs of individual learners in maths and use this knowledge to adaptively plan and deliver instruction that supports their progress towards learning goals, while also fostering a positive and inclusive classroom environment.
Goal: Teaching
Action Steps
I will reach my goal by:
- Try to build up a solid understanding of each ākonga approach to learning maths
- Discuss observations with AT for additional insight
- Work with AT to create maths plans that take the strengths and needs of ākonga into consideration
- Be very prepared to step back, pivot, and admit I made an error in assumption or strategy.
- Try to be conscious of the pedagogical strategies I am using in order to have a common language in which to talk with professionals.
Teaching Reflection and Evidence
Week One Action Steps (8 May – 26 May):
- Try to build up a solid understanding of each ākonga approach to learning maths
- Discuss observations with AT for additional insight
Week One Evidence:
- Getting to know ākonga, names, and background.
- Ākonga were introduced to decimals, then multicolumn addition and subtraction, these two topics will then be tied in together to build on mathematical knowledge.
- Maths books are marked at each lesson, either by the student and reviewed by the teacher, or by teacher, will comments written in maths book. This reminds teacher, other assisting professionals, and the ākonga what areas they need to focus on (e.g. check column placement).
- Co-created lesson on decimals that fit with 3 different learning levels.
- I will assess learners’ strengths and needs in math to customize instruction and support their progress. By doing this, I will help them feel included, confident, and empowered to take responsibility for their own learning.
Week One Reflection:
Having a clear learning focus written on the board, that ākonga then copy into their maths book helps ensure that all students understand what they are trying to learn. While children are at different levels they are all working towards the same learning focus.
Useful assessment really helps ensure that each child is getting the focused attention they need. As Glizzard & Stones suggest “pupils learn to evaluate their work in relation to the expected outcomes”, so, by having ākonga mark and correct their own work they are able to see where they may need to focus. While marking being able to sit with different children and talk through the errors they made can help cement the learning and helps to provide insight into what needs to be adapted in the lesson.
Starting each lesson with recaps are helping to build on prior knowledge and build confidence, while also ensuring that ākonga who were away or are struggling to understand the lesson are given more opportunities to develop their knowledge. It also provides opportunities to expand on the understanding, or rephrase concepts in a different manner. Using different wording can also help to ensure that ākonga encountering different terms later won’t be thrown (e.g. renaming, borrowing, regrouping).
There are numerous ways to assess work and understanding, and developing a stronger awareness of these different pedagogical approaches will help to continue to develop my teaching practice by ensuring I am actively engaged in giving feedback.
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Week Two Action Steps (15 – 19 May 2023):
- Try to build up a solid understanding of each ākonga approach to learning maths
- Discuss observations with AT for additional insight
- Work with AT to create maths plans that take the strengths and needs of ākonga into consideration
- Be very prepared to step back, pivot, and admit I made an error in assumption or strategy.
- Try to be conscious of the pedagogical strategies I am using in order to have a common language in which to talk with professionals.
- I will assess learners’ strengths and needs in math to customize instruction and support their progress. By doing this, I will help them feel included, confident, and empowered to take responsibility for their own learning.
Week Two Evidence:
- Working with AT to understand how maths assessment can be completed to develop a better understanding of where the student is at in their learning, where their problem areas may be (and if they are caused by calculation errors, comprehension errors, or something like a transcribing error.)
- Discussing the importance of feedback being recorded in the maths book. This is for both the student and teacher as a reminder of the focus, but also to refer back to as a way to gauge how strategies are being applied and understanding is improving.
Week Two Reflection:
While my focus of this goal was supposed to be maths-specific, I have found a lot of opportunities to look at more formal writing assessments. Many of these more formal assessments could be applied to maths (e.g. writing ladders) if needed.
While the senior team does have formal assessments for maths, I haven’t yet been exposed to these in action other than the most cursory discussion. However, ongoing assessment is performed as AT walks the room, making observations, corrections, and affirmations on students’ work. This helps to clarify what will be covered in a recap through the next lesson, where gaps in knowledge may be, or when the class is ready to move on. Although there is a need to move through the curriculum, the school has adopted an interconnected curriculum approach, so areas that are still causing concern can be integrated into other topics.
I am still struggling to identify and use pedagogical terms. While I know this will come with practice I also feel that this has become less of a focus than identifying different strategies to use with descriptions, as different teachers and resources seem to use different terminology to refer to the same concept. E.g. “Reflection in action” (coined by Donald Schön) can also be referred as:
- Thinking on your feet
- Adaptive thinking
- In-the-moment reflection
- Real-time assessment and adjustment
- Responsive teaching and learning
- Dynamic pedagogical decision-making
- Reflective practice during instruction
- Adapting instruction on the fly
- Immediate feedback and modification
- Agile pedagogical responses
- Thoughtful adjustments during teaching
- Continuous monitoring and adaptation
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Week Three Action Steps (22 – 26 May):
- Try to build up a solid understanding of each ākonga approach to learning maths
- Discuss observations with AT for additional insight
- Work with AT to create maths plans that take the strengths and needs of ākonga into consideration
- Be very prepared to step back, pivot, and admit I made an error in assumption or strategy.
- Try to be conscious of the pedagogical strategies I am using in order to have a common language in which to talk with professionals.
- I will assess learners’ strengths and needs in math to customize instruction and support their progress. By doing this, I will help them feel included, confident, and empowered to take responsibility for their own learning.
Week Three Evidence:
- Undertaking PLD on delivering feedback
- Using iKan assessment and formal conversations to actively plan maths activities
- Actively creating maths lessons to ensure that ākonga are building their understanding not just going through the motions
Week Three Reflection:
Saying “build a solid understanding of each ākonga” is rather pointless. Each student has strengths and weaknesses within maths. Some are brilliant at addition but really struggle with subtraction, some need physical manipulatives to form a strong connection with a maths area (e.g. fractions), but are great at understanding other areas with only abstract knowledge (e.g. decimals).
It was particularly interesting this week, being in a classroom where learning communities are actively encouraged. Having a key member of one learning group away highlighted the lack of understanding other members of the group had around the topic. Whether this is because the key member was unable to assist as normal, or if they had started to rely on the key member providing insight is unclear. But having the knowledge meant I could actively work to focus on their needs and ensure they had really strong foundations before moving on to more difficult lessons.
As Eaude (Thinking through pedagogy) says “the danger for educators is to assume a conceptual understanding which individual children do not have.” Checking in through formal or informal assessment, and asking the same question in different ways to ensure a really strong foundation can be time-consuming in a classroom full of learners with individual needs, but the alternative is a learner who struggles for the future of their education. So many adults hate maths because they missed critical learning that would have seen them thrive as they move to more advanced lessons.
Being able to combine abstract learning with real-world applications is an area I want to explore further, and continuing to work on developing an interconnected curriculum is a way to do this. However, the danger of this is that tamariki who are away may then be lost in multiple areas. So using a connected curriculum to consolidate knowledge rather than to introduce new information or ideas will be key.
Have I achieved my goals? What steps should I take? Do I need to adjust my goals to suit my emerging teaching style and philosophy?
Record of Teaching 2a
Next steps – feedback from 2a
- try to integrate more te reo Māori into everyday teaching
- plan for ways to involve TAs when creating teaching plans
- Adapt planning and learning materials to be more differentiated to help all ākonga reach the success criteria with confidence
- Provide multiple instructional strategies
- Identify students who require additional support or enrichment and provide targeted interventions accordingly
- Consolidate my content knowledge before teaching, staying at least several steps ahead of the lesson being delivered (particularly English grammar)
- Add mini plenary during lessons (include this in lesson plan) to assess understanding
- Practice using “reflection in action” to direct/redirect my teaching approach mid-lesson
- Work on timekeeping during lessons to ensure space for plenary.
Thoughts for reflection throughout practicum:
- When using authentic formative assessment integrated into classroom activities, how do we work with ākonga who are not achieving? Particularly in short units (e.g. teaching cubism, the authentic assessment is being able to create a piece of art in the cubist style, if tamarki don’t create a piece in this style what is the next step when the rest of the class is moving on to the next step?)
Record of Teaching 2b
References
Eaude, T. (2011). Thinking through pedagogy for primary and Early Years. Learning Matters.
Glazzard, Jonathan & Stones, Samuel. Evidence Based Primary Teaching. 2021; Learning Matters. SAGE Publications. California. ISBN 9781529741932