My Inquiry

This year for the first two term we will be focussing on Maths and so my inquiry is for Maths.
After considering my school targets, the end of 2016 assessments and the Woolf Fisher feedback from 2016, my inquiry for this year will be on Student Voice.

I have 5 students who will be the target students. All these students are sitting below the national norms.

My Inquiry Question

Does encouraging students to regularly reflect on and articulate their numeracy goals and explain their mathematical understanding help them to accelerate their learning?

What does this look like?

Students will receive explicit teaching through their own data. They will be made aware of the their strengths and weaknesses. They will be able to articulate their learning. They will know why they are at a certain stage, what is it that they can do and cannot do. What skills and strategies do they need to attain in order to achieve their goals. At the end of each lesson, students will be asked some questions that will be based on what they have learnt which in turn will empower them to express themselves about their learning.

What does “AT expectation” look like for these students? What will we focus on?

All students at the end of their academic year need to be at stage 5 and above for Add/ sub, Mul/ div,  measurement, algebra and statistics

What are our hunches about what has happened for the learning of these students?

• Through my day to day observations of these students I have felt that these students are not aware of their goals and expectations. They hold themselves back from participating in discussions about their understanding and thinking. These students are not very confident to achieve in Maths and feel that they do not have the necessary skills and expertise to solve problems. 
• All these student may not have the necessary mathematical language to explain their thinking.
• There may be gaps in their understanding of mathematical concepts

So what action will we take? What will we focus on in our cycle of inquiry?

What will I do differently?

The New Zealand Curriculum (p15) states:

'Students who participate and contribute in communities have a sense of belonging and the confidence to participate within new contexts. They understand the importance of balancing rights, roles, and responsibilities and of contributing to the quality and sustainability of social, cultural, physical, and economic environments'

For authentic student voice, there needs to be a high level of trust within the classroom. These students but have not really had opportunities to communicate and make a contribution to class learning. I will have to make a deliberate effort to channelise the learning of these students through careful planning and teaching.

For this to happen I will need to:

• Understand the preferred ways of learning for each of these students and this will mean working alongside them to understand how learning can be made accessible to them. 
• Facilitate the development of mathematical language to communicate. 
• include them in my planning and assessment process so that there is clarity around their goals. 
• create a class environment where students will be free to ask and answer questions without any hesitation. 
•  support and encourage my students so that they feel confident in reviewing their learning and teaching of Maths
• Make Maths learning fun for my students. 

How will I gather evidence to see that I have made a difference?

I will gather evidence of my students learning through 

• Questionnaires
• Collective brainstorms
• Interviews with individuals or groups
• By finding out their knowledge and beliefs
• What kind of teaching they find the most effective
• Knowing about their backgrounds and their prior knowledge and the experiences they bring to class.
• How interesting or challenging they find the subject.
• Their aspirations at and beyond school.

Resources that I will need

• Nz Curriculum
• Continuous feedback from my critical buddy teachers

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