Dialogic Teaching and testing

Term 2

Week 1 to 4 of term 2 was spend on PROBE AND GloSS test.

The PROBE has provided myself with greater understanding of how my students engage with text. It was a good opportunity to see the reading behaviour and how students try to making meaning out of the text. 

It has given me a great insight on how to plan my talanoa/dialogic teaching to cater for their learning needs.

During the GloSS assessment (Global Strategy Stage) in maths, I see the frustration of my learners in trying to understand the question and to transfer it to a mathematical thinking to solve the problem. 

This has given me a great opportunity to focus on developing talanoa or talk on how to unpack the text we read. 

Again I asked myself 

Will dialogic teaching improve the quality of classroom talk/talanoa as a means of increasing students’ engagement, learning and achievement is reading, writing and maths?

Term 1 Reflection

Term 1 had been a great term for teaching and learning-
 I felt that I have a good understanding of my learners and had set a good learning atmosphere, however, I felt that the Year 7 were very slow to tune in to what I have tried to established in our learning space(or should I say we have tried to establish). I see a lot apprehensive learners, some students were sacred to be involved but I hope that will pick up quickly in term 2.
I have to work on my relationship with these students.

THE DEEP DIVE -
- Because the reading materials was topical, it was good motivational for the students and they talk a lot - especially for the Christchurch tragedy.   
- Having them to read the article before hand was great practice and they have something to talk about.
- Developing reading fluency was a need for most students, however, they did not like that as they are too self- conscious of each other.
- We are still learning to independently lead the discussion in the Talanoa Group.
- Getting students to think deeper and outside the box about what the articles says is still a long journey for us.

My Inquiry Focus

From the data analysis and discussion with Debbie, I decided to focus on Achievement Outcome 4 - To raise achievement of Years 7 to 10 in Reading, Writing and Maths as measured against agreed target. I focused on my target students that been identified by the school. 

My Question: - To develop dialogic teaching, together with talking tools and signals (talk moves) to improve students’ oral language, confidence and participation in learning.

I am excited to explore and look for opportunities to make a life long impact on my learners and hopefully lead to successful and happy future. I am open to learn and change my practice to maximise the learning of my students.  Happy journey 2019.

Maths in Action

Community Maths Approach

Based on DMIC, I have mixed ability groups . I established 4 talanoa groups  - I used talanoa because it's a Pasifika word for talking/conversation/meeting to discuss . I spread the students so there are expert and different levels of ability in each talanoa group. 

The Maths Process

1. Unpack of the Learn, indicators, Assessment/Reflection
2. Basic fact drill - use of material and online tools
3. Problem  unpacked together, finding key information. What is the problem asking for.
4. Individual time on the problem, then sharing, discussing and supporting.
5. Reflection  - Questioning.

My focus is to teach my students these steps. It was not easy. The capable learners were keen to help but they were not helping as they tend to tell the others what to do. The less capable ones were apprehended to seek help and tend to rely on the expert. However, we keep trying.

My Hypothesise

My Hypothesis

Having delved into the data and creating profile of each learner (target students especially) I want to take the learning conversation to the next level as I think that my students are struggling with expressing their thinking and having a proper learning conversation that can build up their learning.

The beginning teen is an issue. The students are very self conscious. This is a big social issue that I see that hinders learning ability.

Learning disposition is still a major issue.