Share your findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding.

TAI2020WRFC Inquiry question#5: 
Question5/1: Share your findings of the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding.

I have collected individual students' past year results from kamar. See  blog post is here
Historical results from NZQA site and my blog post is here.
The following is the year planner:

Data: My whole class has finished the first internal coordinate Geometry (2credits) before the lockdown and here is the comparison of results between 2018 and 2019




Trends:
The percentage of students who achieved Merit and Excellence increased, thereby shifting achievement higher out of the achieved level. Overall, I am happy with these results.

I am currently teaching the Trigonometry topic and catching up with teaching the second internal. We are following tight time constraints because of lockdown.

Challenges:

•Lifting achievement up to Merit and Excellence so that students can get Merit and Excellence endorsements.

•Another challenge is getting students to complete the second internal (Graphs) as few students are still in the process of internal completion.

To combat this, I have asked my learners to complete the graph internal while I teach Trigonometry.

I am also holding after-school study classes to ensure that students complete the learning which they missed during the lockdown.

To figure out how effective these solutions are, I have created a tracking sheet, google hangouts, catch up classes, and conversations with the learners.

Question5/2: 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.

The credits they have gained are a huge contribution to my inquiry. And I am working on marking and catching on the second topic (worth of 4 credits) as well as teaching Trigonometry(worth of 3 credits).

Question5/3: Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped your form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning.

Reading one- Link

Reading two- link

Reading three-link

Next step: Learners working hard towards third internal Trigonometry.

Rethinking Assessment

I read a super article about the Rethinking assessment by Melissa Musgrove.
(1) what is the purpose of the assessment?
(2) How do you maintain or build trust with your students in the classroom- are you creating opportunities for this trust to be nurtured whilst online?
I found it very useful during this time.
Here ie the link

The Elephant in the classroom

I read a book about The Elephant in the classroom by Jo Boaler helping learners to learn and love; Mathematics. I found this useful during this critical time to cater to everyone to meet their needs.




In conclusion:
Mathmatics is a painful experience for many children in the English speaking world.
Without mathematical know-how, young adults are disadvantaged in the workforce.
The book is about helping children have a positive relationship with maths.
Our challenge needs to be to take the fear and boredom out of our subject and replace it with excitement and interest.

Leading for Differentiation

Leading for Differentiation

I read a book about Leading for Differentiation  by Carol Anne Tomlinson & Michael Murphey which is 
an ideal book as this class is a mixed ability class.
Four traits of classroom teaching

Student-centered, because to help each learner grow, it is imperative to know where that learner is in a 
progression from novice to competent to expert.

Knowledge-centered, so that teachers and students  invest in important learning goals that help learners

 make connections among ideas, see relationships among the various aspects of what they learn, 

and become able to apply and transfer what they learn to contexts beyond the immediate lesson

 and beyond the classroom.

Assessment- centered, because of the effective use of formative assessment helps teacher and students

 better understand the student's learning journey and know how to construct the next steps in 

that journey.

Community-centred, because it is important for students to have support as they grapple 

with challenge and because working in a  community (rather than in isolation) inevitably

 models varied pathways to learning.

I found this book very useful to differentiate effectively.

KWL Strategy

KWL Strategy

Currently our year 12 classes are working on Trigonometry.  This was particularly useful, as this topic has a lot of formulae to work with, Algebraic steps and contextual based questions.. I modified all the exercise by adding KWL in order to classify the correct formulae, learners found it useful.

Here is the sample lesson:

TOPIC: Trigonometry

What I Know              What I want to Learn          What I have Learned

                   

K-W-L is a group activity developed by Donna Ogle (1986) that helps students think actively while reading.

K - Stands for helping students recall what they KNOW about the subject.

W - Stands for helping students determine what they WANT to learn.

L - Stands for helping students identify what they LEARN as they read.

   

 Know- Right angled triangle SOH, CAH , TOA

            Non right angled triangle- Cosine rule- SSS, SAS

            Non right angled triangle- AAS

Want- Diagonal length

Learn- SAS therefore Cosine rule

Answer- Answer the questions and write in words.

Here is a sample lesson shared with my learners via google calendar.

KWL structure

Student work

Next step: Online teaching continues with Trigonometry

GO SOLO AS91259 (2.4 ) Trigonometry

GO SOLO AS91259 (2.4 ) Trigonometry



I found SOLO taxonomy very useful for teaching, learning and marking. 
 Achievement
  Learners will demonstrate competency in at least two different methods
  listed
   Length of an arc of a circle,
   Area of a sector of a circle
   Sine rule,
   Cosine rule,
   Area of a triangle
   Merit
   Students will demonstrate competency in at least two different methods and
   use at least one type of relational thinking across their solutions.
   Solve problems and model situations that require them to apply
    trigonometric relationships, including the sine and cosine rules,
   in two and three dimensions
   solves problems that can be modeled by trigonometric relationships
   uses the area formula for triangles and the sine and cosine rules
   to  solve problems
   uses radian measure
  Excellence
   Students will demonstrate competency in at least two
   different methods and use extended abstract thinking across
   their solutions and answer question
   fully relating to the problem.
   Arc length and area of sector problems:

Plan for AS91259 (2.4 ) Trigonometry

 Plan for AS91259 (2.2 ) Apply Trigonometric relationships in solving problems (Internal 4 credits)

Achievement		Achievement with Merit	Achievement with Excellence
·       Apply Trigonometric relationships in solving problems.		·  Apply Trigonometric relationships, using extended abstract thinking, in solving problems.	·       Apply Trigonometric relationships, using extended abstract thinking, in solving problems.

This is their third topic and will be taught between week 2 to week 6 according to the year planner. I have been working through Trigonomtyy (2.4, Internal) with my 12MAA.
This topic is a combination of Algebraic skills, contextually based questions with Aera of non-right angled triangles, Cosine rule, Sine rule, Area of the arc, and sector. I am very excited to dive deeper into this topic because it is the first time I am online teaching through solving and working through contextually based questions.  I am very confident this will give students another concrete foundation towards the calculus pathway.
I got student input on how to teach this topic and after a discussion with my students. I made the following planning decisions:
• Applying SOLO taxonomy, to work on Achievement/Merit/Excellence.
• Spending more time on Algebraic skills, forming equations and applications.
• “Do now” questions every day to work on Trigonomtris skills.
• Focusing on the interpretation of questions and keywords. Mrs Latu will assist by translating wordy questions for one of Tongan ESOL students and Dr janni Van Hees will assist in tackling complicated contextual questions.
• Using Google calendar to set lessons and video the lesson for rewinding purposes.
• Tracking sheet will be used to track their progress.
• Continuing my study classes on Wednesdays and Fridays (after school hours.)
•  I will give students a KWL chart to facilitate better learning.
• At the end of the topic test, I am going to get feedback from the students to get a better insight into their strengths and weaknesses in order to organise a resit if needed.
• Using the online whiteboard, videos, and education perfect to make my online lessons more effective.



Next step: Apply SOLO taxonomy to graphical methods in solving problems AS91259 (2.4 ).