Jackie


 * Initial reflections from Patuha March 2011:**
 * Familiar surroundings with good memories - both personal professional growth and collegial strength and support
 * Clarification and fine-tuning of my thinking ref Inquiry process
 * Lyn's practical examples and advice
 * Bouncing ideas about - (some of the best ones apparent when we stepped outside requested parameters - thanks Ryan for your ever-analysing, thought provoking prompts)
 * Re-visiting and refreshing Blooms knowledge and application potential
 * Non-threatening challenge to develop my professional thinking / actions
 * Knowledge that there is support available - online and person
 * Frameworks to scaffold us with our learning journey
 * Stimulation to make me look more closely at my practice
 * Kay and Geraldine's no-fuss intro and facilitation of new art ideas
 * Bec's honest & transparent reflections ref perceived inadequacy, and readiness to change
 * The co-construction implicit in Lyn's challenge .........: **How can my students and I successfully develop our understandings and practice of the Thinking Competency**

We began our foray into the competency of THINKING by creating a Y chart on the active board. //(will get pic here when I find out how - won't find file) Have it now - // Some children contributed confidently, others needed much encouragement to envisage / verbalise the astract nature of the concept. They then discussed our findings with their critical friends - when do we do this? why do we do it? etc and were invited to use the camera to take shots of 'thinkers' who displayed the attributes we had co-constructed. Their responses to the when and why questions were interesting - most didn't 'think' they 'thought' outside school and the important considerations seemed to be around writing! (Food for thought here - this is obviously an area where I have requested deeper thinking input).

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//This was the result of a chat about questions - our thinking about what constitutes a question.// =====


 * ** Teaching as Inquiry **  ** Teacher planning and reflections **  ||
 * ** My name: Jackie ** || ** Class Level: Yr 3/4 ** ||
 * ** Achievement Target: ** I have interested, capable children in my room, but many require constant input to focus / re-focus their thinking and thus learning. My target is to better develop their metacognitve processes - to help to instil the critical thinking skills they require to become innately curious about themselves, others and the world about them, and to be able to process their understandings to create new learning. ||
 * ** Timeframe: Terms 2, 3, 4 2011 ** ||

Baseline: Find out what students can already do and what more they need to learn. Refer to National Curriculum and other resources || ** Reflective questions ** || Post reflections here  || Dates || Levels of questioning are not yet established (generalisation) No knowledge of de Bono's hats (neither class nor me) Ditto Thinkers Keys Limited knowledge / use of graphic organisers I appreciate Kim's suggestion for a benchmark of what degree of thinking skills her students are currently using. || 30 /5 || Research to see what has worked for other teachers and contexts. Formulate a plan. || ** Reflective Questions ** || Post reflections here  || Dates || Simple 'awards' - seize -and celebrate the moment "I asked a powerful ??" etc ||  ||
 *  ** Discovery ** ||  ** Focusing **  |||||| // Initial plan. What am I going to do? Develop? Strengthen? Why? // ||
 * ^  || Potential – what might be? Prioritise outcomes.
 * ^  ||^   || Why am I focusing on this? || As their intellectual maturity develops, I want to link into establishing the scaffolding that these 7 and 8 year olds will require to become effective thinkers and creators. ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What level are my students presently at? How do I know? || Currently very egocentric. Many are not yet sure of the difference between a question and a statement
 * ^  ||^   || What barriers to learning need to be overcome? What resources will I need? || No barriers other than developmental stages - ZPD = scaffolding and growth. ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || ﻿Resources - trialling 'our' tools in varying contexts ||   ||
 *  ** Designing ** ||  ** Teaching **  |||||| // What is my plan for doing this? What strategies will I try? How will I change my practice? // ||
 * ^  || What craft knowledge do I already have? Search your own and colleagues' past practice for strategies that may be more effective.
 * ^  ||^   || What new teaching strategies & tools will I use? || Thinkers Keys ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What are the key steps for implementing my inquiry in the classroom? || Reflecting on Key Comps - what we know of / about them - THINKING. Extrapolate all that we know about thinking. When,Why, Where, What, Why, How do we need to thnk -then create the lnik to the next stage - questioning ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What methods & ICTs will I use to track & record student change/achievement and how often? || Easy speak recording of learning groups, photos, photo stories (animoto etc) anecdotal notes, independent use of appropriate tools etc, recording brainstorms etc on activ board ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || Child directed / designed dislays

Use this new information to decide what to do next to ensure continued improvement in student achievement and in your own practice. ||||||||^  ||   ||   ||
 *  ** Delivering ** ||  ** Learning **  |||||||| // Put my plan into action. Monitor; collect evidence; write regular dated reflections; interpret data. Plan next steps // ||   ||
 * ^  || Monitor students' progress towards identified outcomes and reflect on what this tells you.
 * ^  ||^   |||| ** Reflective Questions ** ||  Post reflections here  || Dates ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   |||| How am I infusing my ideas into classroom practice? || ===== Thinking Y chart =====

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Reverse question key - ref Inquiry - The answer is A River. GREAT difficulty and a very important indicator of the need for really thinking about information and how to acquire it by asking the right ??? Children chose the colours and related to traffic lights - Stop - ineffective question, through to GO - =====

Levels of questioning
|| April ||  ||
 * ^  ||^   |||| What am I learning from monitoring student outcomes? || Those who need extra stretching with questioning / hooking into prior knowledge / interest base to capture the learner ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   |||| What are the next steps I need to take? (Research, resources, activities) || Building transparently into maths and reading activities more often ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   |||| Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || ﻿ ||   ||   ||
 *  ** Evaluating ** ||  ** Summarising **  |||||||| // Analyse data and observations and draw conclusions. Prepare and present findings to colleagues. // ||   ||
 * ^  || Reflect on progress, observations: current versus initial data. How did it go? What strategies have made a difference to my students' learning? How do I know? ||||||||^   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || ** Reflective Questions ** ||||  Post reflections here  || Dates ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What methods will I use to collect ‘end’ data? ||||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What conclusions can I draw from data analysis? ||||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What are my main points? ||||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Specifically how will I share my Inquiry with my colleagues? ||||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Notes ||||   ||   ||   ||