Swell teacher research

School: St Francis de Sales School

Year Level: Middle Syndicate

Teachers: Jacinta, Nik, Marilyn, Lisa

Focus area: Managaing Self in Literacy (Writing)

Research Questions:

Question 1. Implementation: Are students' learning outcomes in writing enhanced through using a rubric?

Question 2. Engagement: Do students use the rubric to assist their learning?

Question 3. Competency: Did the students use the rubrics effectively to increase their learning outcomes?

Success Criteria for Competency

Expert:

8. Proficient: Be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses when using a rubric, self reflect on this knowledge and use it to improve their own learning outcomes by setting their own goals andexpressing to others how this was determined and transferring skills to help others.

7. Beginning: Be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses when using a rubric, self reflect on this knowledge and use it to improve their own learning outcomes by setting their own goals.

Practitioner:

6. Proficient: Demonstrate the knowledge and the ability to use a rubric as a self assessment tool and to identify their next learning step.

5. Beginning: Is able to tell others of their positioning on the rubric identifying features to self assess against.

Apprentice:

4. Proficient: Has the knowledge and the ability to use the rubric as a self assessment tool and can identify their next step.

3. Beginning: Able to use rubric and can identify their next learning step.

Novice:

2. Proficient: Knows the rubric represents their level of skill and knowledge in writing and is used to set their next step in learning goals.

1. Beginning: Knows what the rubric is and attempts to use it to reflect on their goals.

Learning Story:

We got together and decided that the area of focus which we wanted to explore was the effect of using rubrics in literacy (writing).

We had previously written the asTTle assessment criteria (for descriptive writing) into rubrics to link with our self-regulated/self-management goal. Our intention was to use the rubrics with the students so that together we could identify where they were meeting literacy functions in writing and what area they needed to focus on. We conferenced with the students to identify their next learning step and shared this in three-way conferences. Through these conferences, we recognised that the rubric (information transferred from asTTle rubrics) were in 'teacher language' and therefore, the students had no control (lanugague barriers).

For our action research, we decided that it was necessary to further develop the rubrics based on these learning steps to make them more child-friendly.

Steps to Implementation:

1. Mid Syndicate Teachers refined existing rubric into ‘child-friendly’ language. This was a very difficult and lengthy process as teachers working at Level 2 needed to juggle between NZ Curriculum Writing Exemplars at Level 1iii and align to asTTle Level 2. There was also the difficulty of simplifying technical terms into 'child speak'.

2. Students' writing samples were gathered using a test topic created on asTTle with the focus being on 'description', (gathered wk 9 Term 2 so that we had data to became conferences straight back into the term).

3. Wk 1, Term 3 - Shared rubric with students using the suggested strategies we developed together:

□ Model by deconstructing exemplar against the rubric
□ Buddy read, deconstruct rubric together, come back with questions
□ Question students as to how they could use this rubric, where and when could it help with their learning etc.

3. Process of Implementation:

a. Using term 1 writing sample - revisit goal from Term 1

b. Students were given back writing sample – asked to self-assess against rubric

c. Teachers conferenced with individual children to analyse writing sample identifying positioning on rubric. This lead to co-construction of new goal by assessing writing sample together.

d. Every child has a copy of their own goal to readily access and implement.

In Reflection: Positives, Minuses, and Suggestions after Implementation:

Working with the Rubric:

Positives:

1. Students can see areas of ability/strengths/weaknesses

2. Tool for motivation

3. Most can identify next step easily

Negatives:

1. Some langauge barriers still/ambiguous areas

2. Time factor involved (3 weeks of guided writing instructional time dedicated to conferencing)

3. Steps between levels were unclear in some areas

4. Doesn't allow instructional writing to be taught - unable to feed-forward, feed-back

Suggestions:

1. Revisit some areas

2. Concentrate/focus on one writing function

3. Feedback on specific goal only

Conferencing with student:

Positivies:

1. Valuable 1:1 time

2. Able to identify child's abilities, informed to find next step

3. Creates class discussion = all students are involved

Minus:

1. Time factor involved

Suggestions:

1. Working together in groups with students who have the same goal and asking them to self/peer assess

Reporting: (writing up feedback)

Positives:
1. Many falling in same area - ability to transpose comments

2. Written feedback valuable to students and parents informed

Minus:
1. Time consuming
2. Editing - who??

Suggestions:

1. offer opportunity for parents to comment

2. Rubric to be sent home also, then child could share learning pathways with parents (all informed of criteria)

3. Release time should be given for added work-load

4. Standard formatting form should be developed to be used school wide (standardised)

INDIVIDUAL CLASS FEEDBACK:

Room 2:

In our Year 5/6 class, the students overall comments were positive.

Positives: (high rating overall)

'I learn faster and I like it" Yr 5 student

'Helps me to have a writing goal and shows me where I'm on the scale' Yr 6 student

'To make us better and to understand where we have to learn and achieve" Yr 6 student

"It helps us to see where you need to achieve and what we are good at" Yr 5 student

Minus: (4 comments in total)

'It goes too fast and is complicating sometimes" Yr 5 student

"So much information about what we need to work on" Yr 5 student

Suggestions:

"We could do it with someone with the same score"

"Could compare it with people and get some tips or learn how or what you can do"

Rm 3: Overall, there was a general feeling that students understood the purpose of using the rubric and still needed more guidance as to how to use it for managing their learning pathway.

Comments

"I found it cool. I never knew what I had to learn but now I have something that can direct me."

"I know now that I have different areas to work on."

"I can still see that I have areas to improve."

"I can see what I have to work on."

"I think it good. I can see what I need to include in my writing."

Room 1:
At first the students were nervous about using the rubrics to identify the strengths and weaknesses within their writing. Once it was explained to them most were able to use the rubric successfully, but some needed support to understand the format and the language used. It was used to identify the student's next learning step for their writing.

Comments.

"It allowed me to see what I could do (success criteria)."

"I showed me what to do next."

"I needed help to understand what it was."

Room 4

Some students said that they enjoyed highlighting where they were up to on the writing Rubric and others found this challenging. The students could clearly see their next learning steps in writing but commented that there were so many. Some were overcome with the amount of language that they had to process in order to complete the Rubric task. All students managed to self-assess using the Rubric either independently or with support. The students need to have easy access to these Rubrics and interaction with these regularly to become more familar with the process.

Outcome 1. Room 2 Engagement only: Do students use the rubric? (see above comments)

Room 2: SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always

Mean level of engagement of students ... Offered ideas - [3.0]
Asked questions - [3.2]
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - [4.3]
Used positive body language related to task - [4.2]
Persevered in order to enact related task - [4.1]
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - [3.5]
Showed interest in directing their own learning - [3.0]
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - [1.3]
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - [3.8]

Overall mean level of engagement of students = [3.8]

Outcome 2. Knowledge:
Number of students who were ..
8. Proficient experts - at start [#]; at end [#]
7. Beginning experts - at start [#]; at end [#]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start [#]; at end [#]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start [#]; at end [#]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start [#]; at end [#]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start [#]; at end [#]
2. Proficient novices - at start [#]; at end [#]
1. Beginning novices - at start [#]; at end [
Knowledge effect size =

Standard error =

Outcome 3. Competency: Did the students use the rubric effectively to increase their learning outcomes?
Number of students who were:
8. Proficient experts - at start [0]; at end [0]
7. Beginning experts - at start [0]; at end [0]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start [0]; at end [0]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start [0]; at end [2]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start [0]; at end [3]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start [0]; at end [16]
2. Proficient novices - at start [0]; at end [9]
1. Beginning novices - at start [31]; at end [0]

Competency effect size = 1.24

Standard error = 0.09

Conclusions:
Much of our conclusions can be drawn from the reflective comments above. We have come to the conclusion that the rubric is an essential tool which we will embed into our teaching and learning practice.

Without the rubric, students do not have personal access to their learning path. There are far more advantages to learning than disadvantages (as evident in data gathered).

Next Steps: we will implement our writing rubric into every text form explored - which means writing each asTTle text form rubric into child speak to provide our students with an essential tool for identifying their next steps leading to managing self in learning.







[outline conclusions to be drawn from the research here]