Plan / Try / Innovate / Implement

After having chosen students to be in my Teaching as Inquiry target group for accelerating their progress, I gathered evidence, identified trends for students writing well and barriers to their writing achievement from our staff analysis of 2017 end of year writing data. I then read articles around teaching as Inquiry and Teaching Writing in Years 7 and 8: Accelerating Progress.  

Plan / Try / Innovate / Implement

During weeks eight, nine and ten, the students were working on writing narratives in their classroom. This was a good genre to use to start working with my target group. In class the teacher unpacked the structure and language features of writing narratives. I had some input in the lesson. 

The plan was to now to use a resource created by Gemma "Crafting Sentences" I introduced this resource to the students who used the resource to identify noun phrases, zig zag sentences, use of AAAWWUBBIS and complex interrupters in a text. Students quickly learnt how to differentiate between simple, compound and complex sentences using the two resources introduced to them during week 8 of Term 1.  The other resource I used was FANBOYS.

The students also used the resource "Crafting Sentences" to craft their sentences in the narrative they were writing. During discussions the students said that referring to the resource and using it gave them a better idea as to how to write their stories in a better way. They were excited. On checking with the students they did say that they used noun phrases, more adjectives and adverbs in their stories. They also said that they used complex interrupters, AAAWWUBBIS and FANBOYS to write more complex sentences. They also said that being aware of the criteria to write stories (in child speak) helped them be aware of the different criteria in the writing rubrics. This was exciting!!

The awareness that has come upon the students that the stories they write could be taken to a higher level just by crafting their sentences using simple resources is already exciting them as well as exciting me.

Students have written one story, crafted their sentences using the resources provided. They have used the rubrics in child speak to provide peer feedback and feedforward to their peers. 

Gather Evidence, Scan, Identify Trends, Hypothesise and use Research

Gather Evidence:
With my target group selected, I went about gathering evidence: I used the 2017 Analysis of end of year writing data to look at trends in achievement and the barriers to achievement. I took note of high achievers who need to be provided extra support to further enhance their achievement levels.

2017 Analysis of end of year writing data (Senior School)



I also looked at the e-asttle results of these students, checked their attitude to writing from the e-asttle writing scripts. This gave me an idea of where these students were at, in their writing. I even looked at each target group student's end of year 2017 writing sample that these students had identified as their best pieces of writing and why they thought those pieces of writing were the best.

Term 1 data 


Identify Trends:
Attitude of boys to writing is good but girls show much better attitude to writing.
Achievement Level of e-asttle writing (Females within level 4 and males within level 3)
Girls persevere to complete their writing and respond to feedback
Boys struggle to complete writing task and responding to feedback


Hypothesise:
Boys need to be motivated to write
Topic / prompts need to cater for boys' interests to motivate boys to write.
Girls write on any given topic or prompt

Research:
At our staff meeting we read the following articles and unpacked them to make ourselves aware of how students need to be taught "Writing" in the junior, middle and senior school at Glenbrae.

Teaching Writing in Years 1–3: Building a Strong Foundation

Teaching Writing across the Curriculum in Years 4–6: Increasing Progress

Teaching Writing in Years 7 and 8: Accelerating Progress

The Writing Book by Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey  A practical guide for teachers -
I read the chapters - Catering for different learning needs,  How to support students to build a 'toolkit' for writing and reviewing editing and celebrating writing. These are really useful for planning and teaching students in my target group.

The process I adopted in my Teaching as Inquiry

I am using the Manaiakalani Teaching as Inquiry Framework as below to work my way through my Inquiry. I am excited to see what difference I can make to the achievement of my target group students from Room 7.




The Process I adopted:
I shared my hunch with Mary Wootton and my Principal Lesley Elia to clarify if it was a good hunch to test: through my inquiry.

My hunch is....
By crafting sentences in their writing very deliberately, students’ writing quality will improve and so will their level of achievement.

Data I have collected or will collect to check my hunch
E-asttle data,  writing sample from End of 2017, student voice (survey)

My Inquiry Question
Will teaching students explicitly to use strategies to craft their sentences, improve the quality of their writing and their achievement level?

Who are my target students?
A group of Y7/Y8 students from Room 7 who have a positive attitude to writing and have a reasonable love for writing, were chosen to be in my target group.  I shared with the students my hunch and my Inquiry question and asked if these students would be interested to be part of my Teaching as inquiry and thereby improve their writing skills and their achievement levels.
The students showed keen interest and enthusiasm to be part of the group.

Teaching as Inquiry using the Learn, Create and Share Model

At Glenbrae School we are a staff that always reflect on what we do 
in our role as teachers, and work on noticing and responding to our students' 
strengths and needs. We question ourselves if there is need to change how 
we are teaching and do something different to achieve better outcomes for our students. 
This is working for us.

Working with Mary Wootton (Facilitator - Writing PLD) has been invaluable. 
Thanks to Mary Wootton, Rebecca Jesson and Lenva Shearing for clarifying 
the Teaching as Inquiry Framework and making it a lot more comprehensive and 
easily adaptable.