Reflective practice
Reflective practice can help teachers to understand and be able to evaluate their practice, which in turn can lead to professional development. Looking into the codes and standards, I believe the standard I have noticed has been at the forefront of my studies with The MindLab is professional learning. The Education Council (2017) identify professional learning as using inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability, thus impacting on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Reflective practice can help teachers to understand and be able to evaluate their practice, which in turn can lead to professional development. Looking into the codes and standards, I believe the standard I have noticed has been at the forefront of my studies with The MindLab is professional learning. The Education Council (2017) identify professional learning as using inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability, thus impacting on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Evaluating the identified change
1. Problem identification:
My most immediate problem at the beginning of my reflective journey was my literacy rotation. I had changed it three times in the first two terms of school as I found it was not engaging enough for any student agency to take place. Guided reading groups were difficult with the level of behaviour that was happening among the rest of the class. Something needed to change.
2. Observation and analysis:
I noticed that when students were working together in groups, much of the work was being completed by the same students each day, the self-motivated ones. I had a hunch that if students were working on digital devices, and possibly independently, there would be more engagement. I decided to create a classroom site where students could access their tasks, and gave them one must do with follow up activities, instead of three must dos as this proved too difficult and lead to negative behaviour.
3. Abstract re-conceptualisation:
I observed a year 5 & 6 teacher during her literacy rotation and noticed that she only had two groups, one group was in a guided reading group while the other was working independently on devices. I decided to give this a try, however because my students were year 4 & 5s, I decided to reduce my four groups down to three, with the two groups not in a guided reading lesson working on the same independent activity.
4. Active experimentation:
After observations and noticing things within our current classroom practises, I began to make changes. I split 25 students into 3 groups, and my new focus became giving clear and explicit instructions. The students now had their site to access all the information, and everything was clearly spelled out for them. They now only had one task to complete, at a high level, and had to manage their time as they would also be part of a guided reading lesson at some stage. This worked great. All the students were on task and engaged in their activities, and the children were beginning to help each other on their devices instead of coming to see me. I was able to get through all three reading groups instead of only seeing two per day.
Sharing my next steps
Because of the success that the changes in literacy have had for my class, I am going to implement a similar programme for mathematics. The programme is simple and easy to follow, and the students are able to focus solely on one activity, which also allows for more in-depth thinking. I am going to have three math groups, and change them from mixed ability to ability, and differentiate the learning for each guided group, but have the whole class working on the same activity independently or in buddies during this time.
References
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
1. Problem identification:
My most immediate problem at the beginning of my reflective journey was my literacy rotation. I had changed it three times in the first two terms of school as I found it was not engaging enough for any student agency to take place. Guided reading groups were difficult with the level of behaviour that was happening among the rest of the class. Something needed to change.
2. Observation and analysis:
I noticed that when students were working together in groups, much of the work was being completed by the same students each day, the self-motivated ones. I had a hunch that if students were working on digital devices, and possibly independently, there would be more engagement. I decided to create a classroom site where students could access their tasks, and gave them one must do with follow up activities, instead of three must dos as this proved too difficult and lead to negative behaviour.
3. Abstract re-conceptualisation:
I observed a year 5 & 6 teacher during her literacy rotation and noticed that she only had two groups, one group was in a guided reading group while the other was working independently on devices. I decided to give this a try, however because my students were year 4 & 5s, I decided to reduce my four groups down to three, with the two groups not in a guided reading lesson working on the same independent activity.
4. Active experimentation:
After observations and noticing things within our current classroom practises, I began to make changes. I split 25 students into 3 groups, and my new focus became giving clear and explicit instructions. The students now had their site to access all the information, and everything was clearly spelled out for them. They now only had one task to complete, at a high level, and had to manage their time as they would also be part of a guided reading lesson at some stage. This worked great. All the students were on task and engaged in their activities, and the children were beginning to help each other on their devices instead of coming to see me. I was able to get through all three reading groups instead of only seeing two per day.
Sharing my next steps
Because of the success that the changes in literacy have had for my class, I am going to implement a similar programme for mathematics. The programme is simple and easy to follow, and the students are able to focus solely on one activity, which also allows for more in-depth thinking. I am going to have three math groups, and change them from mixed ability to ability, and differentiate the learning for each guided group, but have the whole class working on the same activity independently or in buddies during this time.
References
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
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