End of year reflection - Inquiry 2024

As we come to the end of the year I have reflected on another very interesting year in my professional learning. 

I began the year with a focus on Numeracy with my class of Year 2's I share with Ms Squires. I had some big ideas as it was the first time I had taught Mathematics in many years due to having had a focus on small literacy groups. 

I began therefor with JAM data and a big question; How do I best build retention of facts and support children to apply these in multiple contexts? This stemmed from what I believed was a lack of understanding around maths concepts; Did the children know what they were trying to find out? What was the best strategy to use? What facts did they know that would help them with the problem?

I began with JAM data and moved swiftly into Reading data with the exciting news I was to begin BSLA training mid year. I would be enrolled in the University of Canterbury Micro-credentials course. This course supports teachers to understand the research behind the approach and help them scaffold changes to their teaching practise.  

So at the start of term 3, I changed my inquiry focus to match my new role as the BSLA teacher for small groups. I am now focused solely on teaching the Better Structured Literacy Approach (BSLA) with two classes, Rooms 11 and 13, as well as teaching the Taumata in Room 23.

This is just the start of my learning on the structured literacy journey but I can already see the changes in my students confidence, their growth in understanding of how to apply their knowledge of spelling patterns and phonics to their reading.

Teaching as Inquiry 2024

This year, as well as taking my small literacy groups, I am also back in a Year 2 class team teaching with Ms Squires in Room 23. I am teaching Maths to the whole class and will be undertaking the BSLA training in Term 3. I am really looking forward to learning this approach to literacy and seeing what benefits it can have for both my class and my literacy groups.

I am excited to see what the intervention can achieve over the ten weeks in terms of improvement in both areas of reading and writing for both my small groups and my Taumata group in Room 23.

Teacher Inquiry 2024

This year my area of focus for Inquiry is Mathematics.  This is the first year in many years that I have taught Mathematics in the classroom and I am excited about this new focus.

I have chosen to focus on a small group of six students, two male and five female. These students have all had one full year at school and are working around Early Level1 for their Additive Strategies.

My initial data for this group has been gathered from their JAM test taken in Term 4 last year. The data tells me what they have achieved on Level one of the curriculum. What I need to discover next is what they understand about maths concepts and the strategies they have been taught. This I believe is the key for this group of students.

My inquiry question; How do I best build retention of facts and support children to apply these in multiple contexts? stems from what I believe is a lack of understanding around maths concepts; Do the children know what they are trying to find out? What is the best strategy to use? What facts do they know that will help them with the problem?

My first step is to find out just what they understand about Math concepts!