Rubrics - a way forward.

Rubrics and continuations by @sherrattsam article on  popped into my feed at a perfect time. I have been reflecting on how I can make mine more student centered and not just something I feel I 'have' to do at the end of a unit. 

At the moment I am working with a Graduate student and the conversation about assessment came up. My intern was finishing off his 'post' test (requirement from Grad school) and came across Child X's work.  

He was in a dilemma as he knew that Child X had made improvements. He had been engaged, shared ideas and answered class discussion, yet based on his rubric Child X hadn't passed. His personal OTJ judgement was that he had worked extremely hard on our Matariki topic yet he hadn't meet the criteria on the rubric to 'pass'. 

We discussed the fact that when assessing it should be meaningful and provide formative information not only for the teacher but for the student. To me assessments need to show a child their 'next step'.


One of the issues I have with rubrics are the ones written where certain students will never get off the lowest point despite their best efforts. How are we promoting success if we write them like this? How does that child feel knowing that they will never reach the middle or the top? This could also be said for the student at the other end of the spectrum. The child who will achieve. How are they challenged? 

Language! Even I have been guilty of this in the past. Creating a rubric that is full of jargon that won't help the students achieve. 

I will admit, I really don't like the word rubric- I'm more a Success Criteria sort of person where All students can achieve at their level. It allows them to achieve success but also means that they also have next steps to achieve. This is something rubrics don't often allow. 

One of the problems is that a lot of rubrics are designed by the teacher rather than co-constructed with the class/students. (yes been guilty of this as well!).


My focus next term is to work on this and create criteria's that are created with the students rather than for the students. 

• where they think the learning is going

• what they’re looking for from themselves

• what they’re looking for from their peers

• how they might reach – or get close to that

• who might guide them in that direction (Rubrics and Continuum 2017)

This is something I would like to focus more on next term, co-creating with my students so that they are setting their own goals and beginning to communicate what they need to achieve.  Obviously I will need to scaffold this and provide models but I feel it will be more successful then rubrics I have used in the past. 

Proud Achievers

This term our schools disposition is Proud Achievers.

After a chat with the class we decided that this term is WAY to busy to squeeze in our Stem Challenges. Therefore we talked about how to link our next disposition 'Proud Achievers' to this terms work.

We talked about setting goals and how we could set some for the term. However once we discussed it more, the majority of the class felt that as we set goals at the beginning of the year it seemed like we were repeating ourselves again. Plus a lot of them also felt this was too easy for them as year 5/6's. Obviously last terms Effective Communicators got them thinking!

They identified that this disposition links a lot to EVERYTHING they do and could easily be achieved. Therefore we began discussing how we could link more of our subjects together to achieve this. We looked at our topics and what we were learning in each area. From that the students began to see links. They saw that our Myth writing could easily be made into plays and performed. They saw that our 'textiles' then could be fabric and we could make puppets to perform our myths.

Therefore this term they are working in groups to re write a Maori myth, then making their own puppets to perform their myths.

It's been wonderful to have the students take ownership on their own learning and where they want to go with it.

Changing it Up

Term One and our schools disposition is Effective Communicators. Usually  as a class we deconstruct each pathway and come up with ways on how we can achieve each path. I would then label the poster with these ideas.

This year I decided to do this in another way. My reasoning behind this was although we were working as a class to come up with ideas and then placing them on the pathways, I still felt some students were not actually engaged, using or reflecting on them.  I also felt I wasn't using reflecting/relating on them with the class as effectively as I wanted to.

When we first started using these pathways, it seemed fine to put ideas down as it was all new to the students and they had to learn the language, each pathway and how to relate it to class life.

I wanted to link the dispositions as much as I could to learning and everyday life. These dispositions are what we as adults also use and I wanted my students to see this and make connections. In came Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths). I set up a 'Tech Tuesday' where each week or fortnight (depending on the task) the students had to work in groups to achieve a Stem Challenge. The groups always had to be different and our dispositions linked to our success criteria.

Overall I felt the class saw more value in doing it this way as they could see a clear connection. This disposition worked so well with the Stem challenges as the students could clearly see each week how a lot of the paths related to their challenge. This connection achieved more student reflection and feedback as well. They also loved the fact that at times they were 'Leading' and you would hear groups discussing how this was a 'Using' or 'Leading' path.

Next Term I am unsure if I will continue with the Stem challenges or link our next disposition to a new challenge.

Te Reo

Over the year I have been re thinking the way I have been teaching Te Reo in my classroom. Usually it is a 30 -minute lesson once a week. I began to find this wasn't working for my class in the the fact it was only a one off lesson and by the time we re-visited the following week a lot of the students had forgotten their Reo.

I decided to do a 15 minutes lesson every day and started incorporating activities into their language programme to help consolidate previous and new learning. So after our Karakia each day we started to do mini lessons based on the topic we were looking at that term.

My emphasis was to make sure that my class were pronouncing the words correctly and had time to consolidate this. This is where I felt a one off lesson a week wasn't helping with this. My students needed time each day to work on their pronunciation and to listen to themselves and others speaking.

When we learnt about Te Tinana (the body),  I had already establish that the majority of my class knew their basic body parts thanks to 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' song in Te Reo therefore I decided to extend them by teaching them the rest of their body parts. Once we had spent time learning how to pronounce each body part correctly, we moved on to asking simple commands to help identify them.

Kei hea? (Where is your)       Anei taku (here is)

We also played a matching game in groups/pairs (as shown in the picture below)

Twinkl

During their language time, students were able to work in pairs/small groups to either play the matching game or ask Kei hea? 

We also did this when we learnt about about Akomanga (my classroom). I used a lot of the ideas from this site. Parts of our classroom were already labelled in Te Reo so my class were able to identify a few items already. We used the command 

'He aha tēnei? - What is this?'

Children used the cards to help consolidate their learning.

There were a number of ways they used these from 'matching game' 'memory' 'snap' etc. 

After each term, students still continued to use these cards and pictures during their language and free time.

I saw a vast improvement in their learning and saw the benefits of doing mini lessons each day rather than a one off lesson each week. 

Self Reflection.

One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging for a while is because I have been struggling to write anything positive. I will admit this year has been a struggle. I am teaching a year 2/3 class and to be honest, I am finding it very difficult to enjoy it.

I am WAY out of my comfort zone and spend a lot of weekends wondering if I am actually the best person to teach this year group.

My comfort zone is older children. Give me some of these students in year 5/6 and I will absolutely love them! But at this age I am not so sure.

I am reflecting a lot on my own teaching and learning. My planning is for ever changing each day and some weeks I completely re-write what I am doing.

I look at my assessments and wonder how will I move a certain child on to reach a level that seems so far away!
Post assessments have me questioning my own teaching style. Did I expect too much from some individuals? Did I rush through the learning? Do I need to give this year group more time? More hands on? Learn through play?

My biggest worry is that I will fail these children.

As a teacher I feel I’m not experienced enough at teaching younger students to read and write and feel I am always swimming in the deep end. I then begin to second guess myself and my own teaching ability.

Is this where I want to be? 

Putting the zing into maths

I was lucky enough to attend a maths course that was focussing on the approaches to teaching mathematics.

I have always had a nagging feeling in the back of my head that at times I don't teach maths to the best of my ability. The reason behind this is because I was dropped into a classroom with no training in this math curriculum.  I have basically read the books, asked the questions and tried to get my head around what I am supposed to do. But I always wondered if I was doing it the right way.

Thankfully this course gave me that sense of relief that I have been doing the majority correct - ( haven't yet got my head around modelling books!).

This course focussed on the teaching of maintenances in maths which I still can't get out of the habit of calling starters.

What I found interesting was that a lot of teachers don't teach this or find it hard to set differentiated activities for the students. This is something that was expected from my previous school so is something I have never found difficult to do.

Courses like these are always great to go on as they remind you of old activities you have forgotten about and new ones to learn. This course also focussed on developing students mathematical discussion and encouraged the use of literacy in the lesson. Which I loved!

Takeaways for me were:

• Making sure that there were 'I can" statements for each stages and examples of this so students can see the progression, where they are at and what they need to do to get to the next stage.

One great idea was to use these statements as a maintenance activity. Either discussing what it meant or getting students to show you what they understand the statements to mean.

• Are we pulling out our information from our data?

What does your data say about your students? Do you re visit what they still don't understand? Does your teaching reflect your data? Use maintenance to re visit this and always differentiate to meet the needs of your students even those at the same stages.

• Don't teach Monday to Friday instead it should be Day 1 to Day 5 with the fifth day having a literacy focus.

Use picture books to communicate mathematical knowledge and learning, word problems or even get students to create their own maths story. As long as it is filled with language.

This is something I have tried hard to do each week. I noticed a lot of the teaching of mathematical was number based and when we were assessing the students we asked children questions based on a word problem/story which totally threw them.  One thing I have been trialling this week is the microphone on the active board. Each day I have put up a new picture up that they need to turn into a multiplication story.

• The Knowledge is important.

You don't always have to teach the strategies. If the strategy is not there then in most cases it is because the knowledge is not secure. Place value, place value, place value- students need a good understanding of this. Having moved to a lower stage in maths this is something I have learn this year. A lot of the time I am teaching the knowledge as my students don't have this understanding yet.

• Hands on

Show it , draw it, model it using as many different resources so students understand what the numbers means.
345
Use dienes blocks, money, write it, how many groups of?

What do I want to work on myself?
Get into the habit of using modelling books. I use a working wall and differentiate the activities by placing (big) sheets of paper around the room. I am (slowly) beginning to see the benefits of these books now.

• Rotations.

I haven't really been doing different rotation groups this term. This is because at times I can have three teachers in the room and with a class of 18 we tend to have our little groups set already.

• What I want to try is the idea of

Concept- small group teaching with the teacher
Practise- using the modelling book with set questions (six at the most) and a maths buddy to work with
Application- independently solve problems that also incorporate word based problems.

This is something I have done in the past but again let slip this term mainly because most of my students struggled to do any work independently and it has taken me a long time to set up/make resources that cater for this level.

Move Out Of Your Comfort Zone

If anyone had asked me this weekend if I wanted to continue teaching year 3/4, I would have probably said no! This weekend I have spent more time staring at a computer in-between juggling the children and my domestic goddess roles and I am knackered.

I have forgotten what it is like at this age. I love the challenge, the different relationships you have but getting my head around everything is taking longer than I thought.

I have gone from teaching Stage 7-8 maths to Stage 5 and that is a whole new concept for me. Stage 7-8 was fine for me as it was where my year 6’s (in the UK) were at so slotting back into NZ wasn’t too hard. But Stage 5 is a whole new ball game. I have had to learn strategies’ and terminology that I am not familiar with while getting my head around what they can and can't do yet. I have devoured Book 5 and asked a multitude of questions to team members. I have even scoured the internet to find the key ideas broken down so that I know exactly what knowledge and strategy's  I need to be doing. It’s also getting my head around the fact that I am working with numbers a lot smaller than I am used to.

Then there is writing. Realising that some can and can’t write. That I need to remember that they have limited vocabulary and if I’m going to use terms like ‘outrageous’ ‘cunning’ and ‘sly’ I am also going to have to explain their meanings. That when I talk about a semi colon they might not actually know what this is alongside brackets as well. Although I do love this quote I saw on Twitter the other day and something I believe in.

My head is about to explode.

But although completely drained and exhausted I can still smile. It’s nice to get out of my comfort zone and to challenge myself. I am able to tell my students that this is all new to me, that I will make mistakes but it’s ok because that is how I learn. And what is great is that they see me make these mistakes, take the risk and sometimes look completely bamboozled at situations in the classroom. But in the end they see me smile and try again and that is what counts. A teacher modelling to them that risks are part of life, mistakes do happen and we can learn from them and still feel great inside.