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!