Farewell Pt England, for now!

As most of you know, I am leaving Pt England School this year to set off on my big adventure to England.

I am very sad to be leaving all of the beautiful and smart kids at PES, but at the same time excited to keep up with all of your blog posts in the holidays and new year!

Thank you for making me feel at home Pt England School, goodbye for now!


Love Miss Ouano :)

Interactive Think Link

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/596537564689596418

Promoting High Order Thinking - Final Presentation and Reflection

Click here for an external link

Exciting Data for 2014!

I am over the moon! To hear more reflection click here!

Examples of High Order Learning in Class 10

Manaiakalani Film Festival Movie - The Last Apple

Just though I'd share our class film festival movie, just for fun!




Imagine...you have been learning all day, you are starving, and then you find there is only one apple left!  What are you going to do?

Well lets see an example of what could happen!

Starring Christian, Talita and Desmond. Boys and girls, ladies and Gentlemen prepare to be amazed by class ten’s hilarious film.

Ulearn 2014 Presentation!

Click here for an external link

End of Term 3 Discoveries!

It is term three, I have taught for three years exactly, and only up until now have a really, truly, grasped the concept of ‘high order thinking’ and ‘creating to learn’. 

Embarrassing or exciting? Both, definitely both. 

Since Manaiakalani have employed researchers to study the effectiveness of our teachers to engage, motivate and accelerate, we have been given many recommendations to promote high order thinking and cognitive engagement. However, the hardest part for me on this journey was discovering HOW and WHAT it looks like in my classroom!

Over a course of only a few days all of the pieces of the puzzle have started to come together. Just this week I have heard and spoken to three amazing educators, who have helped me to see the light! 

So, I am going to try summarise what switched on the old light bulb… 

Last Friday - Rebecca Jesson Manaiakalani Hui 2014

Rebecca spoke about effective teachers of writing and compared the successful case study teachers, against the others. 

This is what was evident with those case study teachers with high order thinking and cognitive engagement in their classrooms; students have plenty of opportunity to create to learn, discussions with students are rich, digital learning objects focus on synthesising and creating new concepts.  

Wednesday - Kyla Hansell Tamaki Primary

Kyla based her toolkit around the SMAR model. This model explores four levels that determine how you are using the affordances of technology in your classroom. Are you making digital worksheet controlled by the teacher that requires low ordering thinking skills? Or are you providing your learners with opportunities to create to learn that is driven by them?

Thursday - Janine Tito Pt England School

I was speaking to a colleague about how I was exploring Blooms taxonomy in my classroom, when a another teacher overheard. Turns our that one of our very own teachers, taught for two years in a fully funded program that revolved around Blooms taxonmy. She shared resources, ideas and knowledge that got my brain ticking! 

Friday - Dorothy & Fiona Manaiakalani Education Trust

Dorothy and Fiona led some awesome professional development during out third digital immersion day. Here are some points that stood out for me: 

• A DLO or digital learning object = teaches people something in more than one sense - e.g. site, sound, motion, listening
• Using a new concept to create  and synthesis - sharing the child's knowledge
• Instead of: “Here’s everything I know about x” focus on: “Here is everything you need to know about x” 
• When the learning is clear, then and creation is clear!

It has been an amazing week full of questions, thinking and reflecting! Imagine if I was away? :)

Effective teaching of writing in Manaiakalani

This morning I had the pleasure of listening to Rebecca Jesson speak at the Manaiakalani Hui 2014. She spoke about effective teaching of writing in Manaiakalani following six case study teachers.

This is what was evident with those case study teachers with high order thinking and cognitive engagement in their classrooms; student had plenty of opportunity to create to learn, discussions with students were rich, digital learning objects focus on synthesising and creating new concepts.

Have a look at the presentation to see more!

Effective Questioning - Trevor Bond

 

Effective questioning from EDtalks on Vimeo

Effective questioning -  27/09/2012

Trevor Bond, a consultant working within New Zealand schools, discusses one of his passions 'questioning'. He sees questioning as being central to thinking and learning. Trevor believes that we must go beyond just talking to our students about 'open' and 'closed' questions. He states that a good question is the one that gives you the answer.


Main points

• Thinking is a process of questioning
• Not teacher questioning, but learner questioning

Two types of thinking:

• Sub-conscious - when we are not aware
• Conscious - deliberately set out to make a decision, think about something so we can come to an end point

The whole thinking process, is asking and answering questions in our heads.

For example: Analysis - asking questions that compare and contrast. Decisions - asking ourselves questions, and finding answers.

• All revolves about asking and answering questions.
• Questions - prime intellectual tool - what aren’t we teaching kids to question better? - Neil Postman
• Questioning central to thinking

Thinking = Questioning


Internal and external questions:

• Internal - un-asked, cognitive, un-expressed
• External - expressed questions, to bring information, to fill in gaps, inform thinking.

Open and closed questions are not enough - we need to look at core skills that we use as questioners.

As adults we use them subconsciously - need to teach the kids the strategies and skills we use to ask and answer questions. Thinking/questioning process.

Facilitate and teach kids to become effective questioners.

So what is it that we do as effective questioners?

1.  We identify the need - how can you ask a relevant question when you don’t know what the need is?
2.  We identify the contextual vocabulary - how can you express the question if you don’t have the vocabulary? How can you understand the context if you don’t have vocabulary ?

Teach children, within a context or problem to:

• Identify the need
• Identify what they know,what they don’t know
• Along with contextual vocab to ask questions = effective questioner.

Frame a range of question types - fallacy “open are better than closed”. Nothing wrong with closed questions. A good question is the one that gets you the answer you need.


Stay away from who, what, when, where, why, which, how? Don’t leave kids out from asking good questions.


Teach children, within a context or problem to:

• Change and modify questions, until they find the way to answer their questions
• Embed keywords and questions
• Be persist until they find the answers

Create situations where the children need to ask questions to help them to solve the end point - then facilitate and support them.


If we really work on our children’s questioning ability, we are working at the foundation of thinking skills, foundation of reading comprehension skills, foundation at learning skills.


Go and help your kids to be effective questioners!

- Trevor Bond 2012

A picture is worth a thousand thoughts: inquiry with Bloom's taxonomy

This is a great example that show the different of levels of questioning/thinking when inquiring into a photograph.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/articles/bloom0405-3/bloompix.html 

Term 3 Update

Busy, busy, busy in Class 10!

Term two just flew by! Now I am here at the start of term three trying to get into the right frame of mind with my inquiry journey so far.

In term one, I focussed on getting the students to understand and apply the NZ curriculum key competencies. We use them daily now in learning and social/behavioural situations. Focussing on the key competencies in term one helped us as a class to create classroom norms and expectations, and also helped the students to set goals for themselves in order to become better learners.

I also used the key competencies in my classroom to support small group expectations. So for example in maths or reading in our small groups I would integrate 'participating and contributing' and 'relating to others' in order to promote more dialogic/conversational norms. I started to use the 'Five Talk Moves' during maths so that students have the chance not only to share their ideas, but also listen to others ideas, and learn from them. The talk moves help students to have  safe yet engaging conversations/debates with peers, they promote re-voicing and clarifying, repeating, reasoning and adding on.

Last term, I was looking at Bloom's taxonomy and SOLO taxonomy and thinking about how to use them in my own practice. I used one release day to plan a unit that revolved around the 'evaluate' component of Blooms model. That activity was a success, as it challenged my students to assess two different perspectives and bring them together to make new connections.

Through the rest of the term, I continued to use Bloom's and SOLO and also introduced extended readings to students. It was recommended by Rebecca Jesson (our researcher that works closely for our school) to provide students with further readings related to the current learning context and also to make better use of the affordances of the technology we have available. For example during reading we start off with a journal story about sailing boats, then afterwards students look into related texts about other boats or something that relates to that context.

This term (term 3), I am going to continue with integrating Blooms and SOLO taxonomy in literacy and continue with providing my students the opportunity to access, analyse and respond to extended readings. I feel last term went so fast, that I did not give it  a good enough go!

There are also two other things I would like to look into this term and they are: encouraging kids to come up with their own inquiry questions related to our topic and also giving the students richer 'creating' opportunities in order to consolidate and reinforce new learning.

So in short here is what I am wanting to focus on this term:

Term 3 Action

1. Continue to promote and provide extended readings related to journal readings/class inquiry, based on Rebecca’s feedback. Provide opportunities to inquire into own learning.

2. Continue to use blooms thinking prompts in group discussion and follow up activities. (Focus on analyse, evaluate, synthesize/create).

3. Create to learn - reinforcing new learning through creation. Focussing on providing students with rich creation tasks to consolidate learning. (Rebecca Jesson 2014).

Research to support:
Biggs & Collis, 1982 - SOLO
Bloom's, 1956
Rebecca Jesson 2014     

Until next time...

This was my birthday surprise! 

Ka kite ano! :)

Creating With Movenote

Animating In Google Presentation

Follow these instructions to make your own animation using google presentation:


1. Draw a sequence of images on google presentation.

2. File > Publish to the web > Change size to 'small 480x299' > Tick the first check box 'Start slideshow as soon as the player loads'> Copy your embed code and paste in HTML on a new blog post. 

3. Now it is time to change the embed code or HTML code. Find the words 'delayms=3000'. Then change the number 3000 into a number between 200-800. I chose 400 :)

5. Publish and enjoy!

Using Bloom's and SOLO Taxonomy Reading

Last Friday, I used one of my MIT release days to collaborate with a fellow MIT teacher, Kent Somerville (check out his inquiry blog here). We decided to create a high order thinking reading unit around our inquiry focus - The Titanic.


A few days before I had received some feedback from Dorothy the head of the program, about my inquiry and my journey so far. Some of the main points were taken from Rebecca Jesson's research feedback and recommendations for our schools in the Manaikalani cluster:


- Provide student the opportunity to extend school journal text read, with online readings and further text.
- Give students rich 'creating' opportunities in order to strengthen learning.
- Stay away from low level 'digital worksheets' and give opportunities to learn from text and across texts to explain/reflect/show learning through creation.

This feedback provoked a lot of thinking and caused a total mind shift in my pedagogy. I had a eureka moment! I have been taught this way myself at school and had been taught how to teach this way… Good old photo copied worksheets from black lined masters and in worst cases digital worksheets.


I am also feeling quiet embarrassed that I didn't make this change in pedagogy sooner, I know that Blooms and SOLO have been around for yonks! It is now time to wake up and smell the roses and realise, that I  am getting closer to shifting my class, to one of high order thinking.


We chose to focus on 'evaluation' from Blooms levels of thinking. In the first session we got the students evaluate and assess the value and importance of 'thung chai' (basket boats) to the people of Vietnam. In the second session, students had to assess the value and importance of the Titanic to the people of the UK. Then finally in the last session, students had to assess why boats were important to different communities.


So there you have it, I am finally feeling like I am getting somewhere! Now to bring it into the classroom!

The SAMR Ladder - Are you teaching above the line?

Top Tweets and Tips GAFE Summit NZ 2014

I had a blast on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Google Apps For Education Summit, Auckland, 2014.

This was the second summit held here in AK. The first one was in 2012, when I was a baby teacher (I think I still am) and I presented for the first time!

#tbt #gafesummit2012 

Anyway, I thought I would put together the top tweets and tips from the GAFE summit to inspire you, and partially for me to remember!

Enjoy :)

FAIL - First attempt in learning @k_shelton wise words #gafesummit
— Leanne (@fivefoot3) April 30, 2014

Be more Dog https://t.co/VH2zJiqKLc #grabthefrisbee #gafesummit
— Matt Goodwin (@goodwingold) April 30, 2014

#gafesummit 4 tenets of reflective learning: thinking backward, thinking forward, thinking inward, thinking outward @k_shelton
— Amanda O'Connell (@eFacilitator) April 30, 2014

Google Sites and the Digital Learning Environment @FionaGrant "Learning is not a secret" #gafesummit
— Juliet Revell (@Juliet_Revell) April 30, 2014

Choose large player instead of fullscreen (to maintain access to controls) on YouTube cc @mistersill at #gafesummit
— Claire Amos (@ClaireAmosNZ) April 28, 2014

Google for Education privacy policy: http://t.co/t0CYSwZeUf #gafesummit Don't believe the FUD that's out there!
— Suan (@suaneu) April 30, 2014

use the insert image, search option to automatically add images that you can legally reuse in a document #gafesummit pic.twitter.com/9CeRd9dfV1
— Karen Ferguson (@karen0968) April 29, 2014

Demo slam links to resources for NZ North #gafesummit http://t.co/nl6Dm9bJ8W Live now!
— Julie Lindsay (@julielindsay) April 29, 2014

@markwagner opening #gafesummit Auckland at Albany Senior High School pic.twitter.com/8AGqLoXMnX
— Suan (@suaneu) April 28, 2014

Get the new Google Docs iPhone app- https://t.co/WB4kOuyrdQ You can SEE people editing yr collaborative Google Docs. #gafesummit Happy dance
— Allanah King  ADE (@Allanahk) May 1, 2014

The 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf story.: http://t.co/fmUM59JXdy via @YouTube #gafesummit
— Cameron Lockie (@camlockie) April 30, 2014

Reflecting - Thinking back, thinking forward, thinking inward and thinking outward @k_shelton #gafesummit
— Sara Melville (@SaraMelville1) April 30, 2014

"I haven't changed, but I'm not the same" #gafesummit @k_shelton pic.twitter.com/zbZYhApkFp
— Kimberley Ouano (@kouano89) April 30, 2014

Our consumption is learning: comforting, nourishing, enriching #gafesummit
— chasingalyx (@chasingalyx) April 30, 2014

Be an active tweeter not a retweeter all the time #gafesummit
— Sara Melville (@SaraMelville1) April 30, 2014

Want to see more tweets from GAFE? Click here to see them all!

One of those cool teaching moments!!

Amazing conclusion, to our KC reflections this week! The grammar hadn't been checked yet, but that's not the point.  I am so impressed with this girl, the last sentence did it for me :)

Building Question Askers Not Question Answerers - Trevor Bond

Building question askers not question answerers from EDtalks on Vimeo.

CORE Education's Trevor Bond helps us understand how to build active learners who ask questions.

Student Questioning Skills  - Notes  

Research shows that we are growing question answerers:
- 50% of questions are generated at home
- 10% at pre-school
- 0.08% at high school
- focus on answering teachers questions

Difference between a question answerer and questions asker:
Q Answerer: All they can do is share knowledge in their head.
Q Asker: Somebody who can think, find information, get the things that they need to solve problems, to think deeper and wider, to see new perspectives.

"If we go on doing what we have always done, we will go on getting what we have always got". 

Neil Postman - Teaching as a subversive activity - Questioning being our most important intellectual tool.

Cleaver teachers may provide experiences/learning that create stimuli for child's thinking
-  When that stimuli kicks in, there will then be that moment of cognitive dissonance.
- The stimuli has kicked in, then the questions will follow.

"Thinking is the process of asking and answering questions in your head". 

Moment three - negotiates questions - where student thinks whether or not they have the right to ask.
- Time constraints,  teacher planning, and teacher attitude can hold back those critical question moments.
- Fighting against it.

What does this mean in reality in the classroom?

- Have to change the environment - have to change messages/body language.
- Start out as three year old - full of questions - effective learners.
- Stop the negative signals - encourage it.
- Any time a kid has asked a question, celebrate they have! - even if irrelevant.
- Rather than answering it straight away, help the student to clarify exactly what it is they are asking.
- Wonderwall
- Framework - questioning waka

http://question-skills.wikispaces.com/Waka+graphic

Integrating Key Competencies In Reading

I am in the process of integrating the NZC key competencies in my classroom. As a class we have all discussed, understood, and have been using the key competencies through behavioral and social situations. For example prompting the kids to think about what KC's they need or needed to use in certain situations.

A simple google search of 'how to use key competencies in the classroom' led me to this amazing research project which involved a few schools working on integrating key competencies in reading.

Excerpts from the executive summary:

Lifelong Literacy Twist, J. and McDowall, S. (2010). Lifelong Literacy: The Integration of Key Competencies and Reading.

The study was featured in the NZC update newsletter issue five. An easy to read version of the report, which really highlight the benefits of integrating the key competencies and reading. 

NZC Update 5 - Integrating key competencies and reading

I am motivated to use the Lifelong Literacy research in my own teaching practice. Below are notes I took from the research: 

Lifelong Literacy 2010

- Using the KC’s in reading opens up the opportunity for student thinking and students experiences to be brought forward.

How the KC's were integrated:

Participating & Contributing
- Teacher models themselves as readers, share their own passion, show that they are literary critics.

- Look at the text as a whole and make connections, as opposed to look at the main idea of the text.

- Giving the opportunity for to kids to explore the author's meaning/message. Preparing them to be 'literary critics' actively participating in a community of practice.

Thinking

- Teachers wanting to move kids away from literal to critical thinking.
- Looking at news articles could provoke discussion - viewpoints on a subject - working only on two opposing views - recognising views and questioning them.
- Critical thinking - can apply really well to articles and current events - Must apply in writing.


Relating to others
- Exploring how characters feel. 

- Getting kids to feel empathy towards characters and relate it to their own world. 

- Support students to match emotions to those actions. 

- Support students to relate the character’s predicament to their own lives.- Kids responding to characters in the text - talking about the character

Link to reading lesson plan developed by the researchers and teachers. 



Reflection

In what ways might I change my teaching practice to fully integrate the key competencies into my classroom programme?

Participating and contributing:
- Model myself as a reader and a literary critic.
- Discuss texts, think about the authors message.
- Share  responses and contribute to the discussion as a reader of the text.
- Maintain the balance between responding as a reader and providing guidance as a teacher.
- Listen to students in an open way.
- Slow the lesson down, allowing time for conversations.

Relating to others:
- Model how to be empathetic to characters in the story.
- Match character actions to emotions.
- Gift in language that describes the emotions.

- Support students to relate the character’s predicament to their own lives.

Thinking:
- Respond to an article that kids can relate to, such as something that is happening in our community.
- Get students to respond and share points of views.
- Choose topics on which students see the need to generate knowledge.
- Choose texts that provide something to think deeply about.

- Ensure students are encouraged to express their views and are able to do so safely.

Now my next steps are integrating fully in my literacy programme. 

Term 1 Week 7 Update

Wow! The weeks have just flown by. We had camp last, week and now swimming for next two. Too see some of our amazing learning and experiences so far visit out blog here.



In terms of my MIT inquiry, I have planned and started Key Competency sessions in the afternoon. Hearing Helen's success with the KC's inspired me to implement them successfully in the classroom, and they have been working wonders. I have decided to implement the Key Competencies because my inquiry revolves around promoting high order thinking for all learners, especially those who stuggle to succeed at all five.  I used a presentation to base out sessions by (link here).

Each session we talk about one KC, share ideas, deconstruct the words, and create a lovely slide about each one. So far we have covered - managing self, thinking and participating and contributing. It is truly amazing how powerful they are if you really make a big deal out of them, integrate them throughout the day and if the kids truly understand them in real life contexts.  I have also incorporated them into my class rewards system 'Class dojo'. It has been a great way for the kids to think about which KC relates to certain behaviors. I am yet to cover the last two KC's, and hoping we will be done by the end of the week so I can start thinking about our next steps.

As for the high order thinking, at the moment I am stepping it right back to simply thinking! It is interesting how a day could go by and we possibly get through it without really thinking deeply. I have been focussing the thinking during reading time - So when we are reading in small groups, I have been getting the kids to fold their arms once they have an idea/answer, and we wait for everyone to think, I will sometimes choose someone who particularly looks like they have new clue in order to force them to think.

In terms of follow up, I am encouraging them make more inferences about  the text (example here). A colleague of mine suggested I look at the thinkers keys. At the moment I am in the middle of making a generic thinkers key presentation that could relate to any topic, and use these for future lessons.

The Thinkers Keys are twenty powerful strategies for generating quality thinking in many learning situations. To find more info on the thinkers keys click here.

So that is me so far! My next steps are to visit a few teachers from around the clusters to find out:

- How they incorporate the Key Competencies
- How they promote thinking and high order thinking
- What their cognitively engaging/high order thinking follow up activities look like
- How they plan for such thinking


Until next time :)

Promoting High Order Thinking - Kimberley Ouano MIT 2014

Welcome

In 2014 seven teachers from across the Manaiakalani schools were selected to form the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers- 2014 group. I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a part of this.

On this blog you will find my research, thoughts, ideas and hopefully some conclusions too!

Below is my proposal and also a link to the other teachers who are involved in Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers Group 2014.

Kimberley Ouano

School: Pt England School

2014:    Teaching a Year 5 class.

My class Blog link here. 

Our class Site is here.

My blog where my MIT14 Inquiry is shared is here.

  

Proposal:

How do I promote high order thinking and cognitive engagement in my classroom whilst supporting those who struggle when it comes to developing key competencies? 

The Manaiakalani report 2013 made me aware that teachers across our cluster had plenty of engagement in their classrooms, but not many had challenging cognitive engagement, rather 'set' activities that focussed on completion. This provoked me to reflect upon my own practice and the levels of thinking in my classroom.

The researcher's recommendations were to promote high order thinking skills and have learners cognitively challenged, especially during 'independent' follow up time. I see the need to promote the independent time as a key opportunity for learners to not only consolidate learning, but also extend their learning using high order thinking.

With more critical thinking and creativity comes the conflict of management, especially for learners who struggle when it comes to developing key competencies. 

How do I support students who struggle with managing themselves, thinking critically, and working collaboratively? 

How do I provide the same opportunities for these learners, as for those who are more capable?

Follow me on this learning journey to find out more!

Kimberley :)