e-asTTle

e-asTTle

This year I was introduced to the e-asTTle online learning and assessment tool as a form of assessment to assess students’ achievement and progress in writing. I’ve always been interested to see what e-asTTle was as I had heard good things about it from other teachers’ who I consider to be experts in literacy and writing.

The main drawback I was concerned about is that I had read on an online teaching site that many teachers found that it took a long time to mark, and there also seemed to be frequent problems with entering data and information being lost and frozen.

Our school has administered the e-asTTle assessments twice, once in Term 1 as a test run and then in Term 2 as an assessment to be formally entered. I can appreciate the way that the e-asTTle is a measure of what students can do independently without teacher scaffolding and support.  I agree that E-asTTle is a good way of measuring student progress over time. While we often make an OTJ based on student work, I have often wondered to myself what about what students are actually capable of…..by themselves. I feel that this tool is more of an accurate assessment of student’s ability and capability when determining what they can do independently.

However, I did find that it took me a while to mark. The first time I marked a class lot I did a few at a time over a few days,  then later on I wondered if my own OTJ levelling was the same over a period of time! While the second time I marked a class lot, I did it all in one go (and yes it did take me hours) but I still found it better than dragging it out. Also, I felt that my assessments were more on an equal par. I also probably added to my workload by making the marking take longer as I tend to write Next Learning Steps on the sample itself, as I find this helpful for informing my teaching as well as when it comes to writing individual student reports. I haven’t experienced any problems with entering data or logging in.

So while I may find it time consuming to mark, I still feel that it is a good tool to measure writing by. One aspect of our writing assessment which I don't find as beneficial is highlighting Reading and Writing progression forms per student twice a year. Not only is it time consuming, but I believe that I know the Literacy Learning Progressions enough to know if students' are working towards, at or above standard and that it adds to my workload with highlighting individual forms. Feedback from other teachers has been that my OTJ's and NLS's which I often list on the forms are what they have found to be more valuable. I like making my own judgement and not necessarily following the previous teacher's highlighting. Another good benefit of e-asTTle samples is that they are easily moderated within the team and across school levels.

I am still deciding whether I think e-asTTle results link that well with the Writing Standards and Literacy Learning Progressions regarding curriculum levels. However, it is good that it takes into consideration students' ideas in writing and it does serve to highlight individual student strengths and weaknesses. The Progression sheets place a lot more emphasis on phonological spelling issues while the e-asTTle has it as one area out of a number of areas.

IT in the Classroom - Chapter Chat

Class Twitter @ PonderersRoom8

A primary focus for my teaching inquiry this year has been to introduce IT more into my teaching and to the students in my classroom. In Term 1, I started a new reading project called Chapter Chat. Chapter Chat is a Twitter based book club for New Zealand kids. Our class follow the Year 3 & 4 Chapter Chat group. What happens is that each term a chapter book is selected and during the week I read 3-4 chapters aloud to my class according to a set reading schedule. At the end of the week, all the Chapter Chat classes that follow each other come together to discuss the chapters. Questions are posted on twitter every 10 minutes for students to tweet answers to. I keep up to date with reading activities through a shared teacher Facebook and Twitter group.

In Term 1, we read Tuesday's at the Castle, and in Term 2, we read Matilda and in Term 3, we are going to read The Sasquatch Escape. This has been my first foray into Twitter. The students' all really enjoy Chapter Chat; they have learned to tweet and respond to other students online. It has also been an excellent way of sharing work and collaborating with other classes throughout New Zealand.

I found the students were engaged with responding to what they had learned through their reading, and the use of twitter appealed to all students. The questions encouraged students to think critically and be challenged by vocabulary that would have been otherwise overlooked. Tweet guidelines need to be followed and questions answered properly in full sentences with punctuation. 

Twinkle are also very supportive of Chapter Chat, and provide free resources to support the reading of weekly chapters. The shared questions and optional tasks mean that resources are easily available. I find that there is total engagement by my class in Chapter Chat. The students are motivated to complete tasks, which are often added to our weekly Home Learning as a optional extra. However, many of the students who may not necessarily normally complete their reading, spelling and math...often complete the assigned Chapter Chat tasks! Often if they don't have time at home they will happily complete these before school or during their recess breaks.

Something that I hadn't anticipated by our involvement with Twitter was the impact of my students enjoying seeing the work which other students and classes have been completing. They are  positive and generous with their feedback towards the completed work of others. Chapter Chat provides an authentic audience to students individual ideas and opinions. We really love it and it has added so much to my reading programme.

Registered Teacher Criterion 1.

Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga

This year I am leading the Middle School pod, there are 3 of us in the pod. The other two teachers are experienced and very capable. All of our meetings are documented and shared on the school server. Our pod meets weekly to discuss each of our target children. The pods have proven to be the most valuable of all the meetings that I attend at school. Working with other teachers at the same level and sharing what works and hasn’t worked so well in the class and planning together and working as a team has been a valuable learning tool for myself as a fourth year teacher.

Each of us have chosen a target student and a stretch student in the curriculum areas of Writing, Reading and Math. A target student is a student who is working below or well below the National Standard, and a stretch student is one who is working AT or above standard.

One curriculum area is reported on each week. The concept that we follow, is that each of these students represents a group of other similar students also working at that level and with similar learning needs.

As a pod we share responsibility for all of our target students, and as a Pod leader I collect the overall data and ensure that everyone is regularly reporting on their students. Earlier in the year, all of us let each child’s parents know that that their child was a target student and that we would be maintaining regular contact with their parents about their child’s learning.  

The parents were happy to know that their child would be closely monitored over the year. I have found that this has presented some relief to parents who know that their child’s learning is my primary focus and that there is shared responsibility in their child’s learning.

Three of my target students receive additional school support and are removed from the class. These students are identified as ESOL students and work in a small group led by a Teacher Aide. At the beginning of the term the Teacher Aide and myself plan what the student needs to focus on. A weekly record of what each student has been working on is kept by both the Teacher Aide and myself, in this way I am able to keep up with what my student is doing while he/she is working outside the class.

At times, students need additional support from outside the class. One of my students has a social worker who I contact when issues arise. As this particular student is Tongan, this has been culturally beneficial as a go-between for this student’s extended family. The social worker has also been able to find an after school Pasifica programme to help my student access study support once a week.