Inquiry 2024- Question1 &2

(1) Our CoL teachers met with the Senior Leadership Team(SLT) to discuss our CoL Inquiry. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, my focus is the year 13 Statistics class. 

The SLT responded positively to my inquiry. I designed this inquiry with the support of 

Dr Janni, who has extensive experience in the tertiary sector.

Throughout my years of experience in education, I have witnessed the critical 

importance of a smooth transition for college students into tertiary studies. 

Readiness to study at the tertiary level, and post-secondary school,  influences 

their coping with tertiary institutions' new culture and study approaches. 

I am strongly motivated to support my students’ transition into tertiary studies 

to be as smooth and empowering as possible.

To support the student to be able to make a smooth transition from school 

learning to tertiary studies, I will focus on the:

1. Flipped Classroom model to promote independent learning and instill 

the importance of learning readiness through prior knowledge.

2. Rewindable learning offers students opportunities to revise and catch up 

with missed or poorly understood in-class learning.

3. Intensive teaching and learning sessions in class that thread prior

 learning to face-to-face tutorial-style teaching.

The Flipped Classroom involves pre-study for the next day’s lessons. With my students,

 the Flipped Classroom approach will focus on pre-reading tasks and assignments related

 to the new learning, viewing some input materials about the teaching and focus to come,

 and testing out independently how much they can do without input from me. 

Rewindable learning is focused on recycling and retrieving to consolidate new learning.

 Class lessons will be recorded and made available ubiquitously - anywhere, anytime.

 Further online consolidating lessons and learning will be made available by providing 

students with several links that offer clear explanations and working examples. 

Classroom tutorials are deep dives led by the teacher where new learning is carefully 

scaffolded and learners actively interact with teacher input and supportively try out examples. 

In my classroom, it will be a time when mathematical discourse is elevated and students 

are given the confidence and space to voice their applied learning - with their peers and 

with the teacher. 

Question 2- I have been gathering information, scanning about learner as well as working on

planning to upgrade myself. Link

Planning with the literacy specialist

 (1) I caught up with Literacy specialist Mark Milford, who agreed to work with me to enhance various literacy skills. Here is the breakdown:

• Improving Listening Skills and Summarising Lessons: Encouraging active listening techniques such as asking questions, taking notes, and paraphrasing what was heard.
• Dealing with Unknowns: Teach strategies for handling uncertainty, such as educated guesses, and breaking down complex problems into smaller ones.
• Processing vocabulary and Making connections: Encourage students to make connections between new vocabulary and concepts they really know.
• L3 Bivariate Data: Collaborate with Mark Milford to develop instructional materials and activities tailored to Level 3 bivariate data concepts. Utilize the whiteboard as a tool for visualizing data and facilitating the incorporation of real-world examples and applications to demonstrate the relevance of bivariate data analysis.
• Report writing for extension students: Provide a scaffold and support for students to plan and structure their reports effectively.

Throughout the process, I encourage active engagement, and critical thinking to foster a deeper understanding and mastery of literacy skills by working closely with Mark Milford, I can tailor my approach to meet the specific goals of my students.

Inquiry 2024 -knowing the learner

 Career pathways planning; 

The NCEA University Entrance requirements;

• NCEA Level 3.
• three subjects at Level 3, made up of 14 credits in each of the three approved subjects.
• 10 credits in literacy at Level 2 or above, from a specified list of standards, 5 credits in reading, and 5 credits in writing.

I have been working with my learners to discover their career goals as they are in year 13. I have developed a program where they could achieve at least 14 credits from their internal to secure their university partial university entrance before working on externals.

Here is their career goal: 

Course planning:

After investigating their last year's results, their dream career pathway, and their abilities, I have modified the plan for the year  as follows:

One group of learners will focus solely on internals, aiming for 14 or more credits.

A second group of learners will tackle one external exam along with 5 internal assessments.

The third group of learners will take on three external exams and 4 internal assessments.

My Inquiry 2024 -Knowing the learners

 My Inquiry this year is Year 13 Statistics class. In this class ethnicity breakdown is as follows: 

There are five Samoan learners, Five Tongan learners. one Asian learner, five  Maori learners, and two  Cook Island Maori learners.

Last year's (2023) NCEA results:

Last year NCEA results showed that nine learners came from the year 12 Statistics pathway, 

seven students came from the General Maths pathway and two of them didn't take maths in 

year 12. Additionally, of those who came from the year 12 Statistics pathway, two gained 

Excellence, 3 gained Merit, and three gained Achieved in External examination.

Reflection for 2023 including externals

 There are 15 learners in this class. Initially 14 and with one transferred from another class. Among the 15 learners, 9 successfully passed their external, earning two Excellence, three Merit, and four Achieve. Furthermore, nine learners have acquired 18 credits, including their external assessment. These show outstanding results by our learners, surpassing previous results.

 There are two Maori learners in this class and one of them passed their external while the other one gained 14 internal credits.

My learners are thrilled with their results and have decided to year 13 Statistics pathway to pursue careers in Law, Medicine, and more.

Burst and Bubbles 2023

My inquiry focus is on the Year 12 Statistics class to enable 
and progress learners’ Statistical capability through an explicit 
focus on reading comprehension and guided writing responses.

 My personal goal is that as an Assistant HOD, I want to increase
 learners’ Mathematics achievement in years 12 and 13. This goal 
will make a powerful contribution towards the School, Department, 
and Manaiakalani goals.

I identified this as my focus when I realized that facilitating a 
Year 12 Statistics course leads to  Year 13 Statistics, which,  strengthens 
the career pathway in health science and their desired pathway.

To build a rich picture of my learners' learning, I utilized student voice, topic tests , and PAT results. This is a mixed-ability class of 14 students: 3 Samoans, 6 Tongans, 2 Cook Island Maori,1 Niuean, 1 Maori, and 1 Asian.

Last year's NCEA result shows, six students came from the Statistical
pathway and the rest came from other pathways.

To build a rich picture of my learners' learning, I utilized student voice, 
topic tests , and PAT results.

This is a mixed-ability class of 14 students: 3 Samoans, 6 Tongans, 

2 Cook Island Maori,1 Niuean, 1 Maori, and 1 Asian. 

Last year's NCEA  result shows, six students came from the Statistical 

pathway and the rest came from other pathways.

This course consists of five internal assessments and one external 

assessment. I have divided the students into two groups: the first group of

 12 learners focused on internal and external, while the second group of 

2 learners focused on internal only.

The profiling of my teaching has shown that I have strengths in teaching 
Statistics. However, if I were to further develop their skills in reading 
comprehension, writing responses, promoting rewind,  frequent monitoring
- using the verb monitor, recording and tweaking whanau engagement, and 
of course chat GPT I can reach my dream goal.

The changes I made in my teaching included implementing the SOLO taxonomy,
 using a voice recorder, applying the Tapasa framework, utilizing PEEL structures,
 engaging in professional reading, using the Chunk Chew Check strategy for external
transition teacher ownership to student ownership, using Think Loud strategies,
 incorporating the ViTaL sheet, utilizing Google Jamboard, creating video lessons,
 offering career pathway guidance, and providing study classes. 

Dr Janni, Kerry Boyd, Marc Milford, and Matt Goodwin  helped me to make 
these changes.

The challenge is teaching Statistics to those who haven’t Statistics before as 
Year 12 is a huge jump., and maintaining the deadline.

Qualitative shift- Problem solving, well-being, and growth mindset.

Quantitative shift-  all the learners have completed all the internal with 

14 credits and completed externals with 100% attendance(12/12). First time 

I taught Year 12 Statistics at Tamaki and I enjoyed it too. feel free to view my blog,

week1 to week5 Montoring

 I have been monitoring my learners very carefully during this term and they have been working hard during class, after school as well as on Saturdays to improve their grades. Today they had their examinations and attendance was 100% (12/12)and they were happy about the examinations. I put them into three groups, one group was working toward Excellence, the second group was working on Merit, and the third group was towards achievement.  They have completed their internals with 14 credits and will be waiting for external examination results to finalize the endorsements.

Here is the tracking sheet- Link