STEM and ESOL-Language and Learning

During Term 1 and 2 I have been incorporating STEM activities into my ESOL workshops. These have proven to be really motivational for students and helped them to collaborate and talk to each other about what they can observe and what they think may happen.

I have also used picture books to help reinforce different language concepts or STEM ideas. Having this Literacy link means that students with English as a second language can identify and discuss pictures, as well as text with support.

It has helped students collaborate on a set goal and work in a team to test and problem solve. Often students will come up with creative ways to approach these STEM challenges if they have the time to tinker and test. Students who may be shy or introverted can show their thinking as they are making. They are developing their ideas in a fun, safe environment where it doesn't matter if you fail.

Engagement and a shared experience helps to solidify learning of language skills through these STEM activities. Most importantly it helps students to let go of inhibitions and to talk, laugh and learn!

Full STEM/STEAM Ahead!

Our Teacher Only Day focus: What is our Vision?

This year as I start at a new school I take on board a slightly different vision for 'An Inquiring School.' A pivotal focus will be the integration of STEM throughout the school.

So what does this look like?

-Real Word Contexts
-Collaboration
-Research
-Problem Solving
-Creativity

It is a learning approach that focuses on thinking and applying knowledge and skills to foster concepts of innovation and invention.

For me this means driving these key ideas through Literacy, specifically ESOL, oral language, reading and writing. Having fun together, collaborating and learning to apply these skills in workshops and small group challenges will be the focus. So it will sometimes be a side step into STEAM but at the heart will be STEM.

So what will be the skills the Whakarongo kid will be learning from this?

The primary skills focused on in he first year will be:

-Science- Chemistry and Physics

-Electronics

-Coding

-Robotics

For me this means working alongside Toa and Pono Pods and linking with their STEM focus areas to engage students learning through literacy. 

There will also be a big focus on Computational Thinking, Pattern Recognition and Algebraic Thinking. 

So, exciting new pathways and tools to engage students in their learning. I am looking forward to branching out from Play based Learning and beginning to inquire into STEM and Literacy. Full STEM/STEAM Ahead!

Playing to Learn

My teacher inquiry this year has delved into Play based learning. I was lucky enough to get to observe Carolyn from Russell Street and her NE roll growth class last week. She has also been focusing on play based learning. 

Carolyn made fantastic use of the outdoor space by utilising the deck and courtyard. A small group were talking about and drawing their mums.

Carolyn was asking lots of questions about what mum looks like, what she was wearing and where she was. All the discussion brought a lot of depth to the pictures and students could describe their Mums confidentially and in detail.  

Another group was using Duplo to build and create a variety of things either independently or with a partner. They chatted away together describing what they were making in a role play type situation.

The last group were enjoying zooming around on the courts on their scooters. It was awesome to see them having so much fun engaging with each other and being active. 

Afterwards everyone headed inside for a shared story 'My Mum' and wrote about the pictures that they have drawn. 

Carolyn gave them support to hear the sounds and had a system of marking using visual images. 

She drew the picture from the sound card

Ticked the sounds they knew, circled the fast words, had a pair of eyes for the focus word and an ear for hearing the sounds in a word. 

As students heard the sounds, Carolyn scribed to support them. Those who could only make lines and squiggles instead of forming letters she called 'Magic Writing.' Saying they needed to explain what they had written as it was magic. This took a lot of stigma away from students not being able to form letters correctly. They felt they could just try and it didn't matter if it wasn't 'right.' She had done a big focus on mindset and the learning pit with them as well to support their thinking in this area. 

She had set up the writing to have particular words and simple sentence starters eg Mr 'ing' to focus on weekly. She incorporated this with her Little Einstein's song on the class blog to practices sounds. 

Having these displayed were a visual reminded of how students could start their sentences.

I loved how Carolyn had set up a learning space with so many visual reminders and play based learning activities to let students express themselves in a variety of mediums. Being active was encouraged as was being a risk taker with your learning. I will definitely adapt some of her ideas to support my writing and ESOL programs next year. 

Engaging Young Writers

This week I was lucky enough to visit Robyn at Russell Street to observe and discuss her writing program. There was some fantastic learning taking place! 

Rob had her students focus on two independent tasks: Lucky dip story and word power. 

The Lucky dip activity involved students picking a laminated picture of their choice, drawing a picture and writing about it. This gave them freedom of expression, encouraged creativity and a lot of autonomy over what they could write about. 

Word power used different sight words around the classroom. Both of these activities would be particularly useful for ESOL and my small writing groups. 

Usually at the beginning of a literacy lesson Rob has students use a whiteboard to write their name and other ideas so they are actively involved in the writing process. They then work on a shared piece of writing in a big modelling book. 

Before starting she likes to warm up with Eric Carle alphabet cards and ask the students 'what letter?' Or 'what sound?' 

She felt that many students lacked knowledge of rhymes and had little experience with nursery rhymes so she incorporates this in her program where ever possible. She also uses songs effectively to engage students and get them to hear different sounds and rhyme e.g. I am Robin, I am Jamie..

After doing the date together she starts to draw a picture and the students discuss it and ask questions, perhaps asking what it could be. These are then expanded on as students write their ideas as well. 

Having a picture on the board to discuss was a successful way to write together. Rob felt a great way to promote positive writing and sharing of ideas was to enlarge the students own writing and then have their peers reflect on it in a small group. 

Their work was then displayed together on the wall. Students felt really proud of their work and the prestige of having work on the wall really helped students to value writing. It had the added bonus of being easily shared with parents. Putting this on Seesaw is also another awesome way to share learning with a wider audience. At the end of the shared writing they have a quick fire writing session using the white boards with a time limit of 2 to 3 minutes. Students were then encouraged to write what they could manage in that time frame. 

Rob puts a focus on recounts and looks at draft writing and reworking to focus on aspects such as word families, chunks, blends, full stops and capital letters. Publishing work is something she felt really was a waste of learning time compared to the learning involved in draft editing. 

The 'perfect person' of the day then wrote some of the ideas alongside Rob. 

I loved how Robin had identified her students reluctance to share their own work but that they were happy to work on their peer's work together. She had also effectively used Seesaw to share her students work with their whanau. I'm looking forward to adapting some of Rob's ideas for my students next year! 

 

Hauora and Play Based Learning

This year I have focussed on play based learning with my Year 1 students. The primary objective was to support students with their learning in a way which also helped their emotional, physical, social and 'spiritual' well being or Hauora. 

Several of the Year 1 students had anxiety issues or outbursts of anger on a regular basis and they needed a way to learn that would help them manage these behaviours. 

The concepts of Hauora in our Health and PE document shows how this can be related to play based learning and supporting our tamariki to work towards a balance and a stronger sense of themselves as learners. 

This Whare Tapawha model by Dr Mason Durie incorporates the 4 areas where the walls of a whare are each supporting each other and working together to provide "strength and symmetry."

It is this strength and symmetry that I am trying to support my students with. Alongside this scaffolding comes concepts of student agency and growth mindset. 

Many of the students would refuse to do certain activities because they believed they couldn't achieve at them or they became angry and frustrated at their limitations. Through a planned play based learning environment with workshops and open ended activities students could begin to learn in an environment where you could try again, have something not work, talk about the problems through role play and then come to a point where learning worked for them. Failing had begun to be normalised. 

The classroom became a calmer and more relaxed environment. Instead of the constant internal banter and monologue play helped them to clear their thinking to a more mindful state. 

Play based activities could be picked to indirectly target behaviour so they could practice through play. Also areas of passion for the students could be targeted and linked to learning through inquiry, literacy or maths. At the same time these four areas of Physical, Cognitive, Social and Emotional Development are focussed on as well. 

Of course there are still challenges and days where activities and play based learning just don't work. From this reflection comes and we can start to work through changes together. Student input into this is vital to their learning. If we can help our students focus this through play and reflection then their Hauora and mindful state will support their learning journey and future challenges that they may face.

Maths driven through Play Based Learning

My Year 1 Students learning about Geometry through play based learning was my main focus in Term 3. Since working at an IB PYP school I have been particularly interested in inquiry and play based learning. 

My students and I designed a variety of activities for Discovery time together. We also posed open ended questions so they could investigate areas they were interested in. Questions such as: 

What could we make with these resources? 

How could we incorporate these shapes in our design? 

I wonder how we could use these shapes? 

enabled students to develop their wonderings and explore shapes in a variety of ways. They were free to investigate their own and/or other's questions through out the term. 

Investigating shapes and having a 'shape race.'

Designing a mini golf course using different shapes. 

Making a 3D shape marble run. 

Designing shape robots and describing them with the help of our Year 4/5 buddies. 

Our finished products. I love how they are all so different! 

Making different shapes bubbles with our hands and other shapes made from straws. 

Designing shape jewellery with wire and cardboard. 

'Baking' with play dough. 

Making shape 'mood boards' These have a New Zealand beach and outdoors theme. 

Although the students had the freedom to explore I still incorporated workshops to focus on our Junior Team learning intentions. I could then support or solidify their maths learning with rich learning tasks. Embracing their curiosity meant we could investigate shape concepts as they came up through discussion, reflection and sharing. 

I really like this image from uLearn 2016 as it shows the heart of our maths learning this term.

The utilising connectivity came primarily through the class blog but it is something that we would expand on in the future. 

 In particular thinking critically, communicating clearly, working collaboratively, developing creativity and embracing culture were particularly evident during the term.  This is why I value play based learning as I see students thriving in these areas. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on play based learning or maths inquiry. 

Nga Mihi Nui

Giftedness in the Early Years

As part of my professional and parental learning I am embarking on a journey into giftedness in the early years ( birth to 8 years old). I'm looking forward to the challenges and new learning that lay ahead. 

 l would like to focus on changes to curriculum, how to best respond to their specialised knowledge, interests and dispositional learning strengths. I have a particular interest in learning how to support students with emotional issues. 

Obviously there is a huge amount to learn 

and it will be an ongoing process but "It is the responsibility of all early years teachers to engage with giftedness." 

At present I'm using this book as a starting point and initial guide: 

I would love to hear how other teachers are supporting their gifted students or children. So if you are interested in this area it would be awesome to hear about your thoughts and experiences. 

Nga Mihi Nui

Writing and Play based Learning

Today we started a focus on incorporating play based learning into our writing. Our goals for this are to: 

1. Increase engagement and achievement for all learners and in particular our target students. 

2. Provide an opportunity for students to discuss and role play ideas creativity before they draw and write. 

3. To decrease negative behaviour and attitudes towards writing. 

Students were provided 3 rotation activities and 1 workshop that was choosen by the Teacher. 

Activities were set up before the students arrived and it was interesting to see several of the target students came to play with the farm animals and equipment. Many asked 'when can we do this activity?'

During mixed ability workshops students 

choose a Disney character sticker added their own background and then described their character's physical attributes and actions. The target students who are often very reluctant to write were more engaged and happily shared their ideas in the supportive group setting. 

The other options were to design, draw and write about a Lego creation:

Also a focus on onamatopeia and rainbow writing: 

Using the mixed ability groups allowed children to support each other during workshops. They were far less dependant on the teacher and there were no interruptions during workshops. Student also enjoyed role playing with the farm animals and equipment when they had finished writing. It was fantastic listening to the conversations and discussions as the students played. 

We are looking forward to setting up our writing rotations for the remaining 5 weeks of Term 2. Watch this space!

 

Play based Learning and Lego

Does looking at this huge pile of Lego make you feel excited about the possibilities that you could create?! 

Today I went to a Lego exhibition and was reminded that people of all ages hold a passion for creating whether that is through following instructions or doing it the 'organic' freestyle way. Problem solving, designing and collaboration were clearly evident. That is why I have been incorporating Lego based activities in learning through workshops and play based learning. 

The Year 4/5 students started by unpacking a co constructed recount. Looking at what makes a good recount, effectively working from a tried and tested recipe to write one. They then decided to add their own ideas and 'ingredients' to take it in a new direction. 

Students opted into the Recount workshops and began to add their creative spin with Lego. 

Three groups choose this and they decided that each group would make part of the story with Lego and video their explanation for the following group. They would have to collaborate within their own group and across all groups so that a complete recount was 'built' by the final workshop. 

By listening to each other explain which part they had choosen to make and examining their models they began to hugely enhance their understanding of what a recount is. The discussion and language used was far more indepth than if they had sat alone and written on a device or paper. Most students collaborated in twos or threes and a few opted to create alone. However they all agreed that it was essential that what they made in each workshop had a cohesive flow for the next group to follow on from. 

In total 24 students collaborated to build their Lego recount. I think it was the most engaged I have seen many of the students in a writing 'piece.' 

In addition to using Lego for written language I have also recently used it for measurement activities. We first focused on using blocks as a non standard form of measurement to estimate the length of lines. Then we checked our estimate using a ruler. 

This task was especially engaging for the boys who were finding these Maths concepts challenging. Several felt confident enough to share their knowledge with others which was exciting to watch. 

For my younger Year 1 students I have been encouraging play based learning with Lego linked to our Space Science Inquiry. Many students have enjoyed this, creating role play scenarios to match their creations. It has been the students who often can't communicate effectively due to language, emotional or behaviour issues who have thrived in this environment. By simply observing and 'eavesdropping' during this Discovery time a huge amount of knowledge can be gained. 

So If you are looking for a way to increase confidence, problem solving skills, creativity, collaboration and conversations then get a container of Lego for the class and let your students lead the way!