PAC discussion Tuesday 23rd May 2017

Conversation with Jaehee

What were you learning to do?
How to write diaries. We learned that to write a diary you write in the first person and present or past tense. You have to keep to the same tense.

Anything else you can think of that you were learning to do?
No.

What was your specific learning?
To write a diary entry.

What did Mrs Robson ask you to identify?
If I had written in past or present tense.

Can you tell me about this (Courtney pointed to the sheet where I had given examples of past and present tense sentences)
This is a past tense sentences and this is a present tense sentence. That word says it happened yesterday or some other time and this sentence says it is happening now.
is - present tense - it is happening now
was - past tense - it happened yesterday

Do you like writing?
Sometimes.
Sometimes there is a topic I don't really like.
Lots of times I get to choose what I want to write so most times I do like writing.

When you get stuck in your writing, how does Mrs Robson help you?
Long pause.
With words I can use.
With ideas I could write about.
With talking to me about what I'm learning to do.

How do your parents help you when you write at home?
They don't help me cos I don't write at home.

How have you improved in your writing this year?
More punctuation so it makes more sense.
More ideas so I can write for longer at a time.

NEXT STEPS

Jaehee 
Clarity of learning - to articulate what he is learning to do and why he is learning to do this, to say the remember to's in his own words and identify where there is evidence in his writing.

My Next Steps
Clarity of what we are learning and why.

By the end of Term 2, I will have developed the language of learning so that all students can articulate what they are learning and why they are learning this.

When conferencing:

• What will I be listening for in your writing?
• What was the focus of your writing?
• What was the remember to you were focusing on? 
• Why are we conferencing today? 

My thoughts from the Observation 23rd May 2017

Focus of this observation changed on the morning before the observation and after I had completed the pre observation sheet.

I was aiming for interaction between the boys with articulating to each other what they were learning and using feedback and feed forward to discuss their writing. However I found that the boys did not have clarity around what they were learning to do or why, even though they had both been able to complete the writing.  Jae Hee and Jeremy did not cognitively recognise the achievement of the learning intention and remember to's even though it was apparent in their writing.

So the observation became teacher led rather than student led. My goal from the Term 1 observation was to move into writers circles and peer to peer feedback and feed forward using the sentence prompts we had developed as a class, but I realised when talking with the boys in the morning before the observation that this was not going to be a happening thing! My students who are on track and likely to succeed are able to work in this model, however clarity of the learning is the greatest need for the students who are needing support.

Listening to the Transcript

• Wait time was between 8 and 10 seconds. It needed to be longer to give the boys more opportunity to formulate the thoughts and articulate them. 
• I did lots of prompting and rephrasing - and sometimes the rephrasing was too much - it interrupted the wait time as I jumped in too soon and gave them more to think about even though it was the same question, just phrased differently.

Sequence was good. 

• What have you been doing in your writing? Setting the scene and putting into context.
• Referred them to look back to their writing books to see what they had been learning to do.  I could have had the boys look back to their books first before asking the questions so they had the chance to reacquaint with the writing. 
• Why are we doing this? 15 seconds silence, rephrased and prompted to think of their Imaginary Land.
• JaeHee did the majority of the talking. Jeremy was able to contribute when prompted to. 
• They both eventually identified the learning - looking at the difference between past and present tense and humour in the writing - informal language rather than formal language. 
• Asked them to read out the remember to that they found difficult - they both read it out and identified the past / present tense

Script:

T: What does past tense mean?

Jeremy: Past tense is after.

Jaehee: It is something that happened in the past.

T: Can you give me some examples? .

Jeremy: I washed my face. (wash - washed - already happened

Jaehee: I played in the hall. (play - played - already happened)

T: Now look to your writing for examples of past tense. Find a sentence to share. 

Both boys found examples to share that were in past tense. We then looked at another sentence in each of their writing that was in present tense and worked together to change it to past tense. 

OVERALL:  The conversation was teacher led - however I am not sure that longer wait time with these two boys would have led to greater input from them. The focus was on their writing and both students came away from the conference with improved clarity of the learning - past and present tense distinction - and both boys improved sentences within their writing.

The first sample below is Jaehee and the other 2 samples are Jeremy's.

Monday 22nd May 2017 Pre Observation Notes

Pre-Observation Conversation

Group Conference 2 students  Monday 22^nd May

1    Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

I will be working with Jeremy and Jaehee. Jaehee is my radar student, however he has been away last week (has at least one absence a week) and so I have Jeremy in the group in case Jaehee can’t follow where we are up to!

2     The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

Group conference to promote further learning.   

For Jeremy and Jaehee to select one of their journal entries each that they think best show the features of a journal entry as developed through class discussions. Share this and give each other feedback on the entry.

From Me: I’ve noticed something in both your work that isn’t part of the remember to, but I think it will really help your learning.  I think it’s important that we look at that as well.

For Jeremy and Jaehee to develop their ideas further with adding on to an idea – adding detail to give more information. This could be through using a range of sentence conjunctions to create compound sentences.  (only using and / because at the moment)

Why this learning for these students?

Both these students have the ideas to write however lack the detail to develop the ideas. So they find they haven’t written much, however by adding onto a sentence with an idea linked with a chosen conjunction they will find they can further develop an idea without having to write large amounts more.

How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

Remember to:

Use a Fanboys conjunction     for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

(http://www.smart-words.org/linking-words/conjunctions.html)

What will it look like when the students understand it?

Jeremy and Jaehee will be able to add detail to a basic idea through using a conjunction – compound sentence that is more than “and”  “because”

What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation?

Prompts I am using to promote further learning.

What will this look like in practice?

Using prompts.   (www.evaluate.co.nz/downloads/files/PFL_part_2.ppt)

Reminder Prompt:  Look at the word you have used to link the ideas in this sentence. Is there a fanboys word we could use instead to make a more detailed sentence?

Scaffold Prompt: Try putting a different conjunction in this sentence instead of and …..

Example Prompt: making suggestions for which conjunction could be used to further develop the sentence.  

How will you know you have been successful?

By having an awareness of the prompts I am using and using them judiciously to promote further learning.  

By evidence in Jeremy and Jaehee’s writing that the prompts has promoted further learning.

Discussion from Observation 1 Friday 31st March

What Robin said...

What do you do when you get stuck in your writng?

• I ask the teacher 
• I stop getting distracted and move so I am writing on my own
• I focus on my words
• I think of what is going to be next

What does your teacher do to help you?

• She reminds me of what we are learning to do
• She asks me if it is making sense
• She asks me for more detail

Do you like writing?

• I like writing cos it shows my feelings in the best way.

What do you like writing about?

• Culture and countries and World stuff. Non fiction stuff, stuff that is true. Cities writing I like best. 

What do good writers do?

• Don't repeat stuff
• Tell quite stringly
• Bad writers keep saying the same stuff
• Good writers dont write as much. They write not as much as bad writers cos they dont repeat stuff. 
• Tell things for the audience
• Donr get distracted when they are writing

How has your writing changed from Year 5 to Year 6?

• I have improved my writing. I did like more writig now, but not writing the same stuff, saying different stuff.  I know more ideas to write. When I wa sin Year 5 I didnt write more interesting stuff. In Year 6 I have learned aboutsentences being interesting and about nouns and adjectives and verbs and how to start sentneces in an interesting way. 

MY REFLECTION

Robin spoke really well about his learning. He is an ELL student and I thought what he said showed an understanding of himself as a learner and of what he was learning.  Much of what we have been working on in class came through in what Robin said.

Next Steps for Robin: 

• Deliberate choice of vocab with an audience in mind.
• Strategies for what good writers do.

Next Steps for me:  

• To keep building a shared understadning of the language of learning.
• To establish writers groups and group conferencing. 

Audio from the Observation 1

Here is the You Tube link to the audio of the session.


https://youtu.be/IYJEnMZKw7Y

Robins writing

Yesterday I rode the super boat. I was so excited. Suddenly the boat started to move. At the same time, I was so scared. On the information panel it said; This boat goes up to 80 km when jumping off the water slide. The boat quickened it s speed for 5 minutres. I went closerto the water slide. The hovercraft became really fast, finally. It started to fall to the water slide. If it jumped a little bit higher, the boat should've fall on th wrong side of the track.   (original)

While the boat was flying, I fekt dizzy and uncomfortable. Although it landed back on the gorund, it splashed and capsized on impact. I capsized with the hovercraft.   (Since I was dizzy from flying, I died)  (took this part out to add promote further learning and add to the writing) 

After I capsized I fell very hard to the water. It was so cold and at the bottom of the water, there was seaweed. Unitl I saw an underwater view, I had just thought it was fish or something like that. (added parts using AAAWWUBBIS)

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Pre Observation Conversation

Pre-Observation Conversation

Individual Student Conference   Tuesday 28^th March

1.       Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

I will be working with Robin who is my writing radar student.

2.       The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

Individual conference to promote further learning.   

For Robin to reread his writing to ensure it is making sense and the story is being developed. (Ideas)

For Robin to develop his writing further with a few more sentences using one of the sentence beginnings. 

- Why this learning for these students?

Robin’s writing goal is to write with different sentence starters. His writing will often start with “I” or “the” so we have been looking at different ways to start a sentence.  He has been introduced to AAAWWUBBIS and this is what he is now using to help him to improve his sentence beginnings.

3.How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

Remember to:

Choose an AAAWWUBBIS word at the beginning of a sentence.

Although, after, as, while, when, until, because, before, if, since.

4. What will it look like when the students understand it?

Robin will have a piece of writing where he is able to identify the sentence beginnings he has used, specifically the AAAWWIBBUS words.

5. What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation?

Prompts I am using to promote further learning.

6. What will this look like in practice?

I will use a prompt.

Reminder Prompt:  Look to the sentence beginnings, specifically the AAAWWUBBIS words.  Do you think using this word has improved your sentence / overall writing?

Scaffold Prompt: Let’s not use the last sentence, but continue the story for a few more sentences, adding onto your ideas.

Example Prompt: making suggestions for which word could be used to further develop the story.  

7. How will you know you have been successful?

By having an awareness of the prompts I am using and using them judiciously to promote further learning.  

By evidence in Robin’s writing that the prompt has promoted further learning. 

OBSERVATION SHEET for 21st September

Individual Observation:   21/9/2016   Week 9 Term 3 2016

1. Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

One student - Anika

2. The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

To conference to promote further learning

Features of an factual report - the facts are recorded without the personal opinion

IALT write facts in my own words.

After conferencing last week, Anika realised that she had more personal content than factual content in her information report.   Her next learning step was to take out the personal content, see what she had left and then add facts as needed.   She found this a challenge to do, so had scribbled out her work and was starting again.

I have photocopied her writing. Today’s one to one conference with her will be to cut up the writing with her and organise the parts that are factual and the parts that are personal content.  

We will then look at her next steps - which will be to organise under subheadings and to add more factual information.   Anika also confuses number of lines written with number of sentences.  

Why this learning for these students?

Anika loves to write fictional stories, specifically fantasy and creative retelling of books she has read. She has found it a challenge to move into factual writing where she is required to write facts in her own words but not to write in a less formal way with personal comment.

3. How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

Remember to records facts in your own words.  

Facts that are about the same topic go together under a sub heading.

4. What will it look like when the students understand it?

A factual information report organised under headings with facts and no personal comments.

5. What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation?

Promoting further learning - recognising what is needed to move students forward in their learning. This could be one to one conferencing, buddy conferencing,  group writing conference.

6. What will this look like in practice?

Regular writing conferences based on one of the above.

7. How will you know you have been successful?

Evidence of conferencing in books and writing process.