Interventions

While going through my Planned interventions for Term 1, I realised that I needed to create a consent form for the parents to permit me to use their child’s writing for this inquiry. So I created a Consent Form to be signed by the learner’s parents/ guardians, whom I have selected before I can go ahead with this inquiry.

So far, I have accomplished these interventions: 

• Met/ collaborated with my SLT ie. our school principal to assist me in regards to my inquiry research question. 

• Met/ collaborated with my SLT, especially with our school deputy principal to better/ improve my writing planning site.

• Met/ collaborated with Ms Naicker (colleague and CoL teacher ) regarding my inquiry question and discussed the insights. 

• Collecting baseline data. Term 1, 2024 assessments are over and I have successfully analysed the marks after our cluster writing moderation. For my inquiry, I have chosen 8 learners whose progress I will monitor this academic year.

Priority Student Baseline Data - Term 1, 2024

	2023 EoY	Term 1, 2024
Learners		Ideas	Structure	Organisation	Vocabulary	Sentence Structure	Punctuation	Spelling	Writing Level
Jon	1A	2	2	2	3	2	2	3	1P
Gra	1P	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	!P
Sot	1A	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	!P
Gab	1B	2	1	1	2	1	1	2	1B
Edi	1A	3	2	2	3	2	2	3	1A
Ala	1P	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	1B
Jan	2B	3	2	3	3	2	3	3	2B
Ali	1P	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	1P

• Investigate the Easttle Attitude questions and the answers (collect the learners' responses).

• Create a Google Questionnaire Form to understand and know my learners better.

• Discuss with last year/ previous teachers regarding the learners' writing in class. Last year’s teacher left so I reached out to Ms Webster (the previous year's teacher).

• I collected samples from their term 1, e-asttle writing test.

 

• I ordered various National Library books to expose my learners and other learners in our school to a variety of texts. This will enrich their learning experience, support their cognitive and emotional development, and lay the foundation for a lifelong appreciation of literature and learning.

• Continue to encourage students to do well in producing their writing. This is because, in our Kura, there is a weekly writing display in the foyer of the best piece of writing from 2 of the classes. 

• Continue Group writing sessions.

I am still working on these interventions: 

• National Library Week (April 23, 2024 - April 29, 2024).

• Ms Naicker and I have planned to organise a Library Week celebration at our school. Further discussion is needed with the admin team.

• Record my writing lesson to observe my learners and myself.

• Continue Group writing sessions. Over here I will delve deeper into introducing my learners to verbs, nouns and adjectives.

Kia Ora, Talofa Lava,  Malo e Lelei, Kia Orana, Fakaalofa Lahi Atu, Bula Vinaka and  Namaste

Welcome to my Professional Blog!

I am a year 3 & 4 teacher at Glen Innes School and this year I am fortunate to embark on a year-long journey with the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako cluster as a Community of Learning within school teacher at my school.

This is purely inquiry-based learning so any refreshing ideas (feedback/ feedforward) via comments are welcome to enable me to become a better within-school educator.

Inquiry 2024 - Planning for an Effective Teacher Inquiry with my Senior Leadership Team (SLT)

Reconnaissance - Student Inquiry Foci

1. Collaborate with your school’s leadership team and colleagues to identify areas where your inquiry will make a powerful contribution to wider school and cluster goals.

2. From what you know already about your classes and your school’s profile and leadership goals for the year, share a possible inquiry focus.

3. Frame your focus as a desired change in student learning NOT a change in teaching (as yet!)

My Inquiry Focus for CoL 2024:

I have chosen The Achievement Challenge 2 as an area of focus:

Lift the Achievement for Boy’s Writing Years 1-10 and NCEA Years 11-13.

My inquiry focus question is: 

Will the emphasis on using precise vocabulary such as adjectives, nouns, and verbs at the draft stage lead to improved writing proficiency?

I am focusing on this inquiry question because, for all of my learners, English is their second language. They are scared to take risks. They need lots of practice, motivation, vocabulary, and spelling words to use in their writing and build self-confidence to produce a good piece of writing. 

For all the above to happen successfully I have done the whole class profiling and selected 8 mixed learners to investigate and see what I can do differently to assist them and bring about successful change regarding my inquiry topic. Profiling is the activity of collecting information about someone. In this case are the learners. This inquiry will investigate the nature of the student’s strengths and gaps in their valued learning outcomes in detail. 

Profiling can be done in so many different ways. According to OpenAI, 2024 profiling in writing can be done by:

• Using Writing Samples - learners write less than what is expected of Year 3 and 4 learners. Some learners are learning to write basic sentences. Some are learning how to spell high-frequency words so they can use them to form simple, compound or complex sentences.

• Writing Tasks - incomplete tasks. Some write a few lines, but there is not much evidence of various kinds of punctuation being used. Even the basic ones, such as using capital/ small letters or full stops.

• Writing Process - some can follow the recount writing process but details are missing. There is hardly any evidence of the use of adjectives, nouns or verbs while producing a draft piece of writing.

• Peer Review - learners are still learning how to give feedback to their peers.

• Writing Conferences - learners can hold basic writing conferences. 

• Diagnostic Assessments - it's done either weekly or fortnightly that is once they have finished their writing.

• Language Proficiency - most of my learners have good language proficiency but putting the words in writing is difficult for them. This is because they are struggling with spelling or sounding the words.

• Writing Attitudes - most of the learners are scared of taking risks. They think they can not produce a good piece of writing. 

• Writing Habits - learners struggle to produce a piece of writing per week despite looking at the sample writing shared and discussed with them.

• Parent/Teacher Input - learners need lots of motivation from home, school and the class teacher to produce a good piece of writing. Learners also need to be exposed to a variety of texts plus they need to practice writing at home as well.

To address the above, I have planned a series of interventions.

My Planned Interventions for Term 1:

• Investigate the Easttle Attitude questions and the answers (collect the learners' responses)

• Create a Google Questionnaire Form to understand and know my learners better.

• Discuss with last year/ previous teachers regarding the learners' writing in class.

• Collecting baseline data - from Term 1, 2024.

• Collecting writing samples from their e-asttle test.

• Meet/ Discussion with the principal and senior lead teachers.

• Met/ Discussion with Ms Naicker (CoL) teacher.

• National Library Week (April 23, 2024 - April 29, 2024)

• Ordered various National Library books to expose my learners to a variety of texts

• Ms Naicker and I have planned to organise a Library Week celebration at our school. Further discussion is needed with the admin team.

• Record my writing lesson to observe my learners and myself.

• Collaborate with my SLT to assist me to better/ improve my writing planning site.

• Group writing sessions.,

• Encourage students to produce their best text to be selected ……Continue to choose the 2 best writers per term and display their writing pieces in the main foyer.

Other Explicit Teaching Interventions:

• Language Development: Encouraging my Year 3/4 students to use specific vocabulary that will help in their language development. It introduces them to a wider range of words, teaching them how to express their ideas more precisely.

• Vivid Descriptions: Teaching students to use descriptive adjectives can make their writing more vivid and engaging. They can learn to paint a clear picture in the reader's mind by choosing descriptive words that appeal to the senses.

• Action-Oriented Writing: Emphasising strong verbs encourages students to write in a more action-oriented manner. Instead of using generic verbs like "go" or "say," they can learn to use verbs that show specific actions, making their writing more dynamic and interesting. (Action-oriented means willing or likely to take practical action to deal with a problem or situation)

• Noun Usage: Teaching students to use a variety of nouns will enrich their writing. They can learn to use concrete nouns to make their writing more specific and descriptive, rather than relying on vague or abstract terms.

• Creativity and Expression: Using specific vocabulary encourages creativity and self-expression in writing. Students can experiment with different words to convey their ideas and feelings more effectively, developing their unique writing style.

• Expanded Vocabulary (The Code Book): Focusing on specific vocabulary helps students expand their vocabulary over time by using their phonological knowledge.

• Writing Skills Improvement: With practice and guidance, students can improve their writing skills significantly. They can learn how to craft well-structured sentences and paragraphs, and recount using specific vocabulary appropriately, leading to higher achievement in writing tasks and assessments.

Planning thoroughly, such as exposing my learners to various experiences, encouraging discussions, explaining and answering their questions and then getting them to produce a piece of writing is an enriching experience. 

I will provide examples, exercises, and feedback to help them understand and apply specific vocabulary effectively in their writing. I will foster a positive learning environment and encourage creativity, so students can develop a strong foundation in writing skills that will serve them well in their academic journey.

For writing sessions, I will provide weekly hands-on activities where learners will use their senses to gain experience and enhance their priority on the utilization of precise vocabulary, (adjectives, nouns, and verbs), leading to improved writing proficiency.

Reference:

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [3.5]. https://openai.com/chatgpt