iPads and Independent Learning

I have had the chance to use our 20 ipads in a range of classes over the past week and a half and the results have been outstanding.  I am really impressed with how well the students are taking to the technology - they quickly get over the "wow!' factor and start to create some great learning opportunities.
The ones I have been most impressed with include:

• The Year 6 class who is using the range of free instrument apps and creating a song, 
• The year 4 class who are using an application to link to the classes Mindmeister account and share their ideas and thoughts
• The year 6 class who are researching using the pages and Safari and sharing this information to the school iDisk account
• The New Entrants class who are using Doodle Buddy to create drawings and use these as inspiration for their writing
• and the Year 3 class who are discovering Keynote and sharing their thoughts and learning with others using this tool.

The next steps are for teachers to up-skill and feel confident using these tools in the classroom and for them to discover how to unlock the biggest potential of the iPad - true collaboration within the school setting.

 Using Doodle Buddy as a springboard for New Entrant writing

 New Entrants sharing their new learning

Publishing using Pages and then uploading the finished article to the school iDisk account for sharing

Notes from an inquiry PD at Waimairi School

Keynote speaker: Perry Rush from Island Bay School, Wellington

Inquiry Learning -

Defending and justifying pedagogies - the why and the how

Three fold - Our philosophy - what we believe about learning, Our culture - our educative environment (what does it look like? How does it operate?), Our practice - strategies, techniques, approaches (tools) - what is the practice that is congruent with the beliefs and culture?

Philosophy of inquiry - how to meet the needs of diverse learners.

How do we teach children so that they make sense that is personal to them?

Inquiry - Big ideas - conceptual understandings - what context? - (accountability to curriculum) - for exploring ideas - negotiated with student and teacher - drive inquiries term by term. Each syndicate does the same concept and then it is up to the teachers for how its driven. (at Island Bay)

Teaching for understanding (Island Bay model)

teaching is more than gaining knowledge

the difference between what it means to gain knowledge and gain understanding.

Instructional goal as teachers - what knowledge for students? - in a context that's meaningful

Definition of understanding - knowledge + understanding

Knowledge - think of something you have knowledge of but little understanding of...

Challenge of moving pedagogy into understanding underpins "inquiry".

Explanatory understanding - context - knowledge - how it changes when you inform it.

In inquiry - keep informing knowledge with explanation/experience - to keep expanding the child's knowledge through the more experiences of the world - the more explanations/making sense.

Understanding is:

the meaning of the facts

the theory that provides coherence and meaning to information.

Teaching inquiry - to have an intention with the knowledge - but for it to be explored/explained + the knowledge gained in many ways. The real learning comes from the sense that children make. Always future planning...

Integration of Inquiry - ensuring adequate and broad coverage.

Learning About(Dominant learning areas) - Learning By (Key Comps) - Accessing, sorting and expressing understanding (learning through)

Under each BIG IDEA there is a link to each strand in the context of the curriculum. Every two years each strand will be covered - accountability.

Managing Inquiry into a day's plan - similar to most schools

Core subjects all morning

Inquiry in afternoon - some integration in "Core" as appropriate.

Big Ideas - no time frames (short, long - what best suits the learning) many ways to look at how questions can be approached.

Key Planning - syndicates together (planning one day a term (released - not CRT) to do this effectively - sharing ideas - thinking about which context within the concept.

Important for inquiry not to be model driven - treat models as a guide.

Inquiry dispositions - communicating opinion and justification; providing new perspectives; considering alternatives.

BIG IDEA - deep understanding statements developed into a rubric describing expected performance - links to curriculum - context: development of a provocation. A statement or question that causes cognitive conflict.

Process -

1 "tuning in" - goal to be achieved to be able to upload children about key knowledge outcomes - to develop questions to drive inquiry process. Develop understanding of prior knowledge (assessment to assist further knowledge) - take a sample of this for portfolio -"First Ideas"

2 "Finding Out" - how do we help our learners find out...gathering data, experiments, direct teaching - ask children "how does this deepen our understanding?" "How is that deepening the deep understanding?"

3 Sorting out - now what, so what

4 Going further - unpacking a quesiton; focussing on an aspect more closely, extending experiences, challenging assumptions

5 Synthesis

6 Reflection

Assessment - the spirit of change in Curriculum and Implications for Assessment

-learning how to learn - developing an identity as a lifelong learner

-school based

Implications for assessment?

To be a focussed learner - at the heart of it.

"If what we teach, isn't always learnt then would it be appropriate to rely on summative assessment?" (Nuthall, 2007)

Build strong rationales for what we do.

21st Century Paradigm - learning intentions (planning); understand + dispositions - learning how to learn (assessment)

1. Accountability

2. Formative

3. Fostering lifelong learning - inquiry

students directly involved - 1st ideas, 2nd ideas, 3rd ideas - in portfolio and can be used to report to BOT - use big books for comments from children. Success criteria designed by students. From these assessments (from 1st , 2nd and 3rd ideas) set goals for next inquiry. Synthesize work that was undertaken to create new goals. Continuing to learn from it to deepen understanding.

Can compare 1st, 2nd and 3rd ideas each inquiry - as a staff to see where learning is at and also to self review and for reporting to the BOT.

"If you have a great idea - find some research to back you up" (Perry Rush)

Terry Crooks (assessment expert in Dunedin)

1 Emphasis should be on variable of change. What is the degree of change? Progress and growth is paramount - not measuring against a standard.

2 The major challenge is to exemplify what children know and understand.

3 Curriculum levelling when used as a NS is problematic. The curriculum is not standardized + children's normal achievement is variable within levels.

4 We are better assessing underlying goals that are more independent of contexts

5 inquiry assessments should help delineate more or less advanced achievement.

DATA MINE over the duration of the inquiry

Data mine 1 Prior knowledge + understanding Tuning in (early inquiry)

Data mine 2 Understanding After sorting out (mid inquiry)

Data mine 3 Understanding After Now what, so what (end inquiry)

Can be sketches/notes/ thoughts etc - keep the evidence

Workshop 2 - Daniel Birch (Discovery 1 School, Christchurch)

Inquiry - the dispositions

www.discovery1.school.nz - they have broken down and written a curriculum that has value for them.

Core values and beliefs - need to be personal to the classroom culture, honest mistakes are ok, trust your students, child centered, real life context, meaning and purpose in life's every day context,; co operative skills and individual skills to manage learning.

Principals - understandings as a community

Importance of having conversations with children to challenge their thinking beyond "topics" that are perhaps repeated. At Discovery 1 - I day each fortnight to conference with their students.

Skills sets for effective inquiry

Using the 'must dos" and 'can dos"

A model helps parents to understand what their children are able to do (and not able)

Useful for self directed learning time

Three stages of progression

1 Supported learner

2 Self Managing learner

3 Self Directed learner

Can create a rubric that shows the progression of independence

Eg With language such as:

"I need my LA (learning advisor) to determine all or most of":

-what I do

-why I do it

-How I do it

-When I do it

-Where I do it

-With whom I do it

"I need my LA to direct/support me in my personal and community responsibilities"

From Discovery 1 School - Daniel Birch

I Tunes - Sir Ken Robertson Re Climate Crisis of Human Resources

"Do you endure or enjoy?"

One cannot predict education progress with children, but you can nurture and help to grow in a customized environment.

Notes written by Kate Husband

Room 22's rubric

I had a great time in Room 22 watching the students making their Report Rubrics.  The language they used, (macro topics, GOS, general nouns), had evidently been used in class on several occasions and it had become part of the students vocabulary.
I am looking forward to heading back into the room and seeing the rubric being put to use by the students.

Kirsten Brown's ideas

Kirsten, in Room 19, has been playing around with some literacy ideas.  She adapted the Reading Independent Activities sheet from a year 7 and 8 one that was used in her previous school.  The class have been working on the success criteria so that everyone knows what the work will "look" like.

Newsletter Term 2 2010

We had a really good turn out for the Parent Education meeting last Friday. The topic we discussed was Independent Learning and what this means for the children and teachers in the classroom. The ideas we touched on were wide ranging, but I thought it would be useful to outline a couple of the most important aspects of the talk in this newsletter. (By the way, Independent Learning is a phrase which the staff have latched onto at the moment. It does not totally sum up the learning that takes place in the classrooms, but is a starting point from which to build our Professional Development from. A new, more complete term, will be created as our own learning continues)

The key point we are trying to make with Independent Learning is that we want to ensure there is student voice in the learning that takes place in the classroom. This does not allow for a total free-range of "play" activities, but rather, in negotiation with the teacher, a co-constructed approach to learning. Students who have a particular passion, for example a keen interest in drama, might choose to use create a play which shares the learning that has taken place during reading time. Another student might choose to share their learning by creating a poster outlining the key learning points from their lesson with the teacher.

Here we have two different methods of sharing the students learning, both of which require different skills to be taught and different success criteria set to ensure that the time spent on the task is valuable. This is a challenge for the teacher but, with effective teaching and management skills, opportunities like this are seen as unique learning scenarios for the students and truly reflect their own voice in the classroom programme.

The second key point that needs to be made is the time this learning model gives to the teacher and students in the classroom. Independent Learning allows the students to focus on a wide range of learning opportunities while giving the teacher the time to work with small groups and even individuals. Small group teaching, linked to the assessment and overall teacher judgements we have about the students, means that explicit learning can take place within the normal structure of the day. Think about what it was like when we were at school. The teacher would have a "one plan for all lesson" and those who already knew the skills or knowledge being taught would be bored, those of us in the middle of the class would be taught and those who were struggling would often be left until the end of the lesson and, because time had run out, would be seen tomorrow. But tomorrow never really came, did it? The key here is that this Independent Learning model gives the teacher the time necessary to ensure that all students are successful.

Another key point of the discussion was the need for the teacher, often with help from the the students, to set the success criteria for whatever learning is taking place. A class may well have a wide range of teacher directed activities for the students to chose from, but each of these needs to be well set up, managed and the success criteria clearly outlined so that the children are able to independently access the learning opportunities. Setting this success criteria also allows the students to access prior knowledge and this adds depth to their learning.

Students need instruction and teaching about what Independent Learning is and how best to access their learning through this model. It is not OK to just assume that the students, any year level, understand how to "do" this. The teacher has a vital role to play in the classroom to ensure that effective learning choices are being made by the students. This could begin with just a few choices of activities to do, heavily supported with success criteria, and flow through to a wide range of learning opportunities co-created by the students and the teacher.

The staff, like the students, are on their own journeys with Independent Learning. We are discovering ways of tracking the students work, their success, next steps and working out how this fits into the Learning Reports that are the primary face of the students learning at FOS. Rest assured, Independent Learning brings out the best teaching practices and ensures the students have the most effective learning opportunities available to them.

Staff meeting week one, term 2

We had a very successful meeting yesterday and used it as an opportunity to Stop, Check and Think about our Independent Learning Journey so far. We spent the time working in groups to look at a variety of questions and a lot of teachers came to the realisation that the teaching and learning opportunities that were taking place in the classroom were great and they should continue to do an awesome job!

Marama spent some time working with the staff and encouraged them to look at the goals they wrote last term. Seemingly, all teachers have re-written their goals in anticipation of the up and coming term.

Room 17 Independent Learning

I played around with some basic Ind Learning ideas with room 17 the other week and we had some great results. The children who normally have problems with focusing on a task, where really well behaved and on task for substantial periods of time. The feedback I got from the session included some interesting responses, like, "I was scared to begin with", but the majority of the class were keen to keep working on this idea.