Emma's Teaching as Inquiry

 Summarise key changes in teaching and other factors that influence student learning.  Structure of writing lessons  In the past, I have always modelled writing to the whole group. Problems that I faced with this were:  The model was either too high or too low and was not targeting specific needs.  Different learners have different interests Difficult to engage 25 learners and make interactive Changes I made to the structure of my lessons:  Split writing group into 2 modelling groups Offered a range of skills based writing workshops that relate to Schooltalk progressions. (I wanted these to be opt in workshops)  Made sure that all lessons followed the writing process      2. Opportunities for vocabulary building  I found this to be the change that made the most difference.  Things I tried:  Connecting writing topics to concept learning so they already had vocab knowledge about the topic as well as word walls that were easi...

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2021 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise As a school, our data shows that learners (particulary Māori boys) are not succeeding in writing. This has been my inquiry focus this year and I hope to continue with this further next year. I love teaching literacy and hope that my inquiries over the last 2 years have been helpful for other teachers. This year I have learnt a lot around challenges for these children such as limited vocabulary and engagement. I am working hard to build my knowledge about te reo Māori and I hope to inquire into whether integrating te reo Māori into writing lessons will give Māori learners more of a sense of belonging and purpose to the writing process.  What learnings from the 2017 - 2020 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking. Jannie Van Hees research around oral language and all the inquiries that used her research. In my previo...