Students self-assessing against PACT

Today I worked with a mixed ability group of students who have been working together on their chosen topic for a statistical investigation.

I introduced them to PACT for the first time.  Their task was to read through set 4, 5 & 6 of the statistical investigation big idea and assess where they thought their own statistical investigation sat.  The students had to articulate what set their investigation sat and how they knew.  They also had to explain why they thought they weren't the set above or below and what their next learning steps are in order to achieve the level above.

Here is a video of the group self-reflecting and self-assessing their statistical investigation using PACT.

The group looking at PACT and discussing where their statistical investigation sits.

Can pupil conferencing replace after the event written feedback?

Link to a great article of the importance of verbal conferencing with students rather than after the even written feedback.

Can pupil conferencing replace after the event written feedback?

Teaching as Inquiry Reflective Log - Tracking Priority Writers

Photos of our combined Year 6 and Year 3 writing session : 1-9-2016

Here is an email a priority writer sent to their family because they were so proud of the descriptive language and sentence structures they had used.  The email also shows the mums reply.

PACT PD for teachers

Yesterday I lead a PD session for four teachers (including a deputy principal) from another school out of Rotorua.  The session was based around the PACT tool and how I use it to inform my teaching practise.  We spent most of the day looking at how to use the tool, the reporting capabilities and how each of the big ideas can be used to inform teaching practice.  We also talked about the links between PACT, the curriculum, and the need for integration.

Today I received two lovely emails about my PD session:

Thanks Tineke for your presentation and showcase of The PaCT to Mount Primary teachers yesterday. I think you are instrumental in our direction for the next 3 years!!!

The teachers were really pumped after visiting and want to continue down the path we were contemplating. We had no idea that The PaCT would have an impact on the teaching and curriculum... truly blown away!

In terms of what we can offer to you, it's limited, but Ive attached an online progressions google Doc sheet whereby the student adds their learning in the middle and highlights the parts that demonstrate an understanding.

If there's something your looking for and I have it then please ask.

Again, thanks for showing and sharing your journey with us. We are totally buzzed!

Regards

******    *******

Deputy Principal

Hi Tineke,

I wanted to tell you that yesterday was awesome and I can't thank you enough. I have come back to school invigorated today. Thank you so much for sharing the kid speak rubric with me. Can I please ask for another favour? Could you please share a week of your planning with me so that I can see how you include PaCT across the differing curriculum areas?  

Kind Regards

******   *******

Year 5/6 Teacher

Improvement made by students in the ALL intervention

Summary of Room 2 data

Sub-level movements of Writers Club A.L.L writers

Term 2-3, 2015

16 week intervention

 

	BA	JH	JD	LJ	MRM	WH	EH	CP	Average
Overall	5	2	4	3	6	2	5	4	3.9
Ideas	8	0	0	0	8	4	3	4	3.4
Structure	5	4	4	8	5	4	7	8	5.6
Organisation	6	0	0	3	9	0	6	6	3.8
Vocab	3	3	7	4	4	0	7	7	4.4
Sentence	4	0	6	3	4	4	3	3	3.4
Punctuation	4	4	10	3	7	0	6	4	4.8
Spelling	0	2	0	4	6	2	4	0	2.3

  

Individual names of your intervention children at the top

Number of sub-levels moved from initial to end easttle data

IMPLICATIONS OF DATA: reflections

 

Current practice – What does this data say about what learning was achieved?  What could I say was going well?  What can I see that was not going well reflected here?

 

There has been a significant improvement across all areas of writing, but in particular structure, vocab and punctuation. 

 

Children are now able to correctly structure their writing so it flows and is in a logical sequence; something most of them struggled with prior to the intervention.  Part of this progress I believe, is down to doing lots of editing and re-shaping of our texts to ensure it flowed and made sense.  Also giving lots of feedback to one another, helped with making changes.  Constant re-reading of texts was also important in ensuring our ideas linked and flowed on from what was previously written.

 

The use of vocabulary has seen a big improvement.  Ensuring students had lots of fancy/exciting words cards which they could use, as well as thesauruses helped students broaden their word bank.  Lots of rich discussion and creating word charts prior to writing also helped.

 

Punctuation improved through constant modelling of correct sentences, punctuation charts on display, and constant reminders of types of punctuation that must be used.  It is wonderful to see such a huge improvement in this area, despite the fact I hadn’t explicitly taught punctuation on its own.

 

Spelling still remains a weakness, despite starting individualised spelling lists and tests part way through the intervention.  The fact that there has been progress in this area, despite it showing the least amount of progress; still reflects the importance of learning spelling words each week.

 

Some students didn’t make progress in the ideas domain.  This is because this domain was already a strength of theirs prior to starting the intervention.

 

Some students made no progress in organisation due to the fact they were still unable to paragraph independently.

 

Future practice – What might I change?  What would I do differently?  What does this data say about my focus for continued learning for these children?

 

Next time I would ensure I started a spelling program at the start of the year as part of homework.  For those students who are below national standards, I would ensure they learnt the essential word lists before progressing to individual words they need to learn.

 

I need to focus more on ensuring students can independently paragraph their writing.  This could be done by dividing their books into sections with a highlighter.  Also, ensuring they refer to their plan and start each new idea on a new line may help reinforce the concept of paragraphing.

 

Now that I know how to find the student’s individual e-asttle reports, I would print these off prior to starting the intervention and conference with each student so we could establish their learning intentions and next steps together, and ensure the areas of greatest need, were at the forefront of my teaching.

 

I am now trying mixed ability writing groups so that these students will have the support from more able writers.  This grouping will also give the ALL students opportunities to reinforce their new learning, as they become the teachers of their new groups, as we roll out the ALL approaches to writing to the rest of the class.

How students view their writing now they are over half way through the intervention; And where to from here?

At our last ALL meeting, the question was asked 'What am I transferring from my teaching of ALL to the rest of the class?'  After thinking about this question I realised that I hadn't really changed my teaching practice for the rest of the class at all.  When asking myself why this was the case, I realised it was because of the way we currently plan at school.  At present, we plan around genre with the purpose of completing a writing sample for assessment.  This locks us into teaching genre, rather than student interest or need. 
Because of the need to complete a writing sample and have it moderated by the middle of term, I felt my teaching of writing was based on quantity, rather than quality.  This is because students need as much practise as possible on writing a particular genre in order to be able to write it independently for their assessment.

Now that my team are starting to plan for term 3, I thought it was timely to ask my ALL students to self-reflect on their writing now they have been a part of the intervention group for a term.  I am hoping to take their comments to the team when we meet next week for planning so that I have student voice and evidence, with the hope to change the way we teach writing for the whole class in term 3.

It was interesting students commented on both writing improvements, but also attitude improvements towards writing.

Below are students comments about ALL writing:

"I enjoy writing a lot more because I get to write about cool things and different things.  Before I joined ALL I didn't like writing because we had to write boring stuff so we could do our writing sample.  I've been using full-stops and capital letters correctly.  I am editing and making changes a lot more.  All has helped my writing because I'm using more descriptive words, my hand writings improved, and I think writing is fun now" By W, 1-7-15
 
"I like how I get to publish everything so I don't have to look at my book, I can share my publishing folder and show off my best work" By L, 1-7-15

"I am adding a lot more description so my story is more interesting.  I am using a lot of different punctuation and I know what a semi-colon is" By L, 26.6.15

"I am using more punctuation.  I am editing more and proof-reading.  I am using a lot more descriptive words so my writing sounds better" By J, 25-6-15
 
"ALL has helped because I was struggling and I didn't like writing.  I was always distracted.  I really like writing now because we have fun in ALL and get to do activities to help our writing" By J, 22-5-15
 
"I'm using rhetorical questions for description.  I now know what a semi colon is and use it to join two sentences.  My spelling has improved.  My writing now flows and is in order" By C, 25-6-15
 
"I like writing more because I like the ideas I'm using.  I am using full stops in the right places. I am trying to use different sentence starters.  I am doing a lot more editing.  I am making my sentences longer because I'm putting more detail and descriptive words in" By B, 25-6-15
 
"I am crossing out words and making them better words.  I enjoy ALL because I get to write different stories because before I didn't get to write stories that I could always share my ideas with.  I get a lot more say in what I write about now because I always get to share my ideas when writing.  I feel good about writing now because I use more descriptive words and can use paragraphs" By B, 1-7-15
 
"I like ALL better because I get to write a lot of different things.  I like writing now because it's easier because I get more help with spelling and ideas.  My writing has improved because I use more descriptive language.  I'm using full stops at the end of sentences, and capital letters at the start of sentences.  I write with more detail.  I'm using paragraphs to improve my writing and organise my ideas" By M, 1-7-15
 
"I like writing now and want to write.  I enjoy writing now because it's easier to write because we all share our ideas" By M, 22-5-15
 
"I'm using more similes and onomatopoeia to make my writing more interesting.  I'm using capital letters and full stops properly.  I'm using more punctuation and speech.  I'm putting more information in my plans" By J, 25-6-15

Reflecting on students feedback, it's great to see they are starting to articulate specifically how their writing has improved.  At the start of ALL, the feedback included things like, 'I am using more punctuation', but now most students are saying what punctuation is being used and how they are using it.

What next?

• Make changes to the way we plan so that the things that are working well in ALL is transferred into writing for the whole class.  I would like to do this by:

1. Plan for the needs and interests of the students, rather than planning for the purpose of a writing sample.
2. Give writing a purpose for the students. 
3. Students to write for an audience.
4. Give students plenty of opportunity to publish their writing so they can see it all complete, neat, and tidy.  It also helps to lift the quality of writing because students know it is going to be read or put on display.
5. Quality vs quantity when writing.  1-2 pieces of excellent, high quality writing is more empowering and encouraging for student, as opposed to 5-6 poor-average pieces which show little improvement.  Quality pieces gives students good models of writing to refer to, and also makes them want to share it.
6. Give students more choice in the context of their writing and use their ideas. 

• Give students rich learning experiences to motivate them with their writing.  This also enables students to use more description in their writing.

• Consider whether doing a writing sample is necessary every term, especially now we are doing PACT judgements for writing.  Would an E-asttle sample be more relevant and appropriate?  E-asttle would mean one writing test completed in one writing session, as opposed to 1-2 weeks spent on students writing independently to complete a writing sample on a specific genre that has been taught.  (Time spent on assessment means students miss out on guided teaching time).

• Mixed ability writing groups.  Students then can share their ideas, opinions and perspectives.  This could enable struggling students to have higher ability writers as role models so they get advice on how to improve their writing, rather then the ideas and advice always coming from the teacher. 

Proof that ALL is working

Yesterday when I was marking an ALL student's independent writing book, I noticed some big changes in his writing since starting the writing intervention.

Below is evidence from his independent book that shows he has made progress in his ability to identify and correct spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.  He has also inserted/deleted words to improve the quality of his writing and improve his sentences.

Before starting the intervention:

4 weeks into the intervention:

 

These last two photos show the student has independently corrected spelling errors, has realised he has incorrectly used a capital letter so has fixed this, and has fixed a sentence so it is grammatically correct, e.g. 'Harrison and I' instead of Harrison and me.

Students progress reflections

Yesterday as a part of our ALL meeting, the question "Do your students know how they are progressing?" was asked.  After pondering this overnight, I decided that during today's writing session, I would ask each student to tell me have they think they have improved, and what are they things they are doing differently in writing which they weren't doing before the intervention.

Rather than make it a laborious task for them, I used an orange pen to write their comments in speech bubbles in the margins of their writing book.  I dated the entries too so that we could monitor the changes when I come to asking them the questions again in a few weeks. 

To help capture students feedback, I also asked a few of them to contribute their answers via video.  The students volunteered for this, but struggled articulating their answers compared to when I did it with them by writing responses down.  (Maybe they were a bit shy in front of the camera, or maybe they were trying to recall what they had already said previously).

   

Empowering students through assessment

Yesterday I conducted a new approach to assessing my students afternoon topic and profiles they had created.  Using the set criteria which followed the SOLO approach that was formed during our team planning day, I decided to do the assessment in a 1-1 situation with the child.  Rather than having me mark their profiles against the criteria and putting a mark on their work, I decided to sit with the student, read through their profile and assessment criteria, then decide on the appropriate level together.  If we were in disagreement about the level, then we went back through the profile and looked for the evidence to show where they were at.  I found this approach a lot more empowering for the student as it gave them immediate feedback about their work, as well as giving them an understanding of what their achievement level was and why they were at a particular level.  I found that this approach also enabled students to come up with more meaningful next step for their future learning.

My next step in reflecting on empowering students through assessment is to gather student voice.  I am interested in finding out if the students did in fact feel more empowered assessing their work with me, or if they prefer me just giving them a mark.  Students will need to give reasons for their thoughts as well.

 

 

 

Selecting my ALL intervention writing group

It has been a really hard job trying to select my most needy students for my ALL writing group.  There are numerous students who could do with an accelerated boost in writing however when I looked at the students most recent results, paired with what I have seen in their independent writing books, and conversations with my teacher aide, my group of 8 have been selected based on the most urgent needs.

Attached is the assessment data that I have used to base my selection on.  There are three students who may end up floating in and out of the group as they achieve success.  This is due to the fact that they have achieved higher results last year, however from what I am noticing in their independent writing, as well as recent testing, these three students have some areas of their writing that need immediate attention.  Many of these needs are around the surface features which are now beginning to hinder the development of their ideas as well as the fluency of their writing.

The attached assessment data is for the entire Year 5 group of struggling writers.  I have removed all the names and just left initals so individuals cannot be identified.  The pink highlighted students are the students from my class who I have identified as having the greatest needs.  These will be the 8 members of my Term 2 ALL group.

ALL selection data 2015