Teaching as Inquiry - Cycle 1, 2017

Room 10 - Term 4/17 - Cycle 1

Towards the end of term 3 - 2017, I decided to carry out an inquiry into how to accelerate students' achievement in writing.  I was teaching a year 5 and 6 class with students writing at levels 2 and 3 of the writing curriculum. After looking at the writing data and getting student voice on what they felt about their writing, we decided to unpack the AsTTle writing rubrics in 'student speak' language so that it would be better understood by all students and would be easy to follow. The whole class worked on looking at Rubric 1 and 4. It was agreed by the class that Rubrics 5 and 6 would be done in Terms 1 and 2 of 2018.

With some mentoring by Mary Wooten, the facilitator for PD on writing, I  managed to set the goal for my research.

Goal:
To enable students to unpack and co-construct the Asttle writing rubrics in ‘student talk’ - in students' own voice.


Inquiry Focus:
Do unpacking and co-constructing the Asttle writing rubrics with the students help accelerate student achievement in writing


Expectations:
For students to move up one sub-level in writing by midterm.
For students to identify the features they need to consider when writing for an audience.
For students to write with confidence and accuracy

Indicators of progress
Students are able to recognise and state the audience they are writing for.
Students are able to identify and state the structural and language features of the genre they are writing.
Students are able to identify and state the seven mandatory features in the rubrics they need to focus on while writing.

Evaluation:

Checkpoint 1:  After 3 weeks  06/11/17
After working with the students for three weeks, students had begun to understand as to how points were awarded for their writing and what level of the rubrics they should  had been focusing on so that they could reach the national standards in writing. However, there was still a lot more unpacking to be done before students had begun to write using features from R4 of the document.

Checkpoint 2:  After 6 weeks 27/11/17
Most students were able to outline some of the structural and language they should be focussing on while writing at level 3 of the writing curriculum ( Rubrics 4). However, it took a little bit more time for all students to become very well versed with all the structural and language features. I felt  there was still a lot more need for practice to consolidate students knowledge on all the features.

Checkpoint 3: After 9 weeks  13/12/17
Most students were able to identify the language features and structural features of the genre they were writing on. They were able to outline the features they need to focus on from the Rubrics 4 of the Asttle writing rubrics. To consolidate students learning,  it was very vital to continue with a lot of practice over an extended period of time ( 6 - 12 Months of 2018).


Evaluation & Sustainability: How will I sustain the habits that are promoting success for your students?
Continue with a lot of practice on student voice and through student talk and documentation.
Unpack Rubrics 1 with the students and then allow them time to unpack Rubrics 2 - 6 by the end of two more terms of TAI.
Maintain this group as a class unit  so that the unpacking of the Rubrics can be completed.

What did you learn as a teacher / what surprised you?
The unpacking of the rubrics made a change in how students were writing - writing more critically and asking questions whether their writing was meeting the Rubrics 4 criteria
Students have begun to self assess and peer assess their writing.

How will you transfer your new learning to other students / curriculum areas?

In order to transfer this learning to other students in the class, it is very vital to continue with the unpacking process with the whole class as I had done so far.
Therefore it was important that  I continued with teaching this group of students for another year to really consolidate their practice in writing.
I could do a similar exercise with other curriculum areas by unpacking the literacy and numeracy standards with the students in their own voice (Student voice and student talk) to transfer the learning to these curriculum areas.


Writing Rubrics

Writing Results as at the end of Term 2017

Writing Rubrics

Writing Results as at the end of Term 2017

Name	M.Y. Level	E.Y Level	Writing Gaps/Needs
StudentA	1A	2B	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student B	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student C	2B	2P	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student D	2B	2P	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student E	2B	2P	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student F	2B	2P	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Studdent G	2A	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student H	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student I	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student J	2B	2P	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student K	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student L	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student M	2P	2A	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures
Student N	2A	3B	Sequencing of ideas, punctuation, organisation, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structures