Ok so we have everyone working as a team, we have a shared
vision, we have a shared mental model, all we have to do is get the systems and
structures in place to allow us to put it into action and develop patterns of
behaviour and create events that will realise the vision.
What does life long learning look like in action?
We divided it into two areas:
1. Learning for life: Developing strategies, knowledge, skills and
understanding in Numeracy and Literacy.
2. Life of learning. Applying strategies, knowledge, skills and
understandings in real life0 context to be Confident, Connected, Actively
Involved Life Long Learners (see diagram in Part 2).
To achieve this we broke
the curriculum document into four areas:
Literacy, Numeracy, Integrated curriculum and assessment, and made belief
statements about each of these. The school day was divided into two, with
the morning sessions being ‘Learning For
Life’ where the students developed their strategies, knowledge and understandings
in literacy and numeracy. The afternoon sessions of ‘Life of Learning’ the
students would be applying strategies, knowledge and understandings of literacy
and numeracy in real life contexts.
Literacy
We believe we had to
develop in our children the ability to communicate effectively with confidence
and to encourage them to use language in all its forms.
Numeracy
We believe mathematics
is an integral part of the curriculum. In our rapidly changing technological
world there is an increasing demand on mathematical skills and understanding.
We will teach mathematics in relevant and realistic contexts offering children
a broader, richer and more challenging maths programme as they master basic
skills.
Integrated Curriculum
We believe the
integrated approach to the curriculum accelerates and motivates children to
learn. We believe that we need to teach the children how to learn through an
inquiry process. We believe this approach creates a culture of co-operation and
enjoyment. Literacy and Numeracy will underpin the integrated curriculum.
The Integrated
Curriculum was designed to encourage the students to develop/apply the Key
Competencies, Values, Habits of Mind and Six Thinking Hats into the skills and
strategies for lifelong learning. Programmes of work are based in topics of
substance and significance and help students make connections and see real
purposes for their learning. Key questions addressed in the design of the
curriculum are:
What is powerful
learning?
What is it powerful to
learn?
The main purpose of the
curriculum integration is to improve children's learning by applying
strategies, knowledge, skills and understandings of literacy and numeracy in
real life context through quality teaching and an inspiring curriculum to be
Confident, Connected, Actively Involved Life Long Learners.
Learning through a
programme of Integrated Curriculum Units of Work, enables students to perceive
the natural relationships between the disciplines that make up our
comprehensive curriculum. It helps students to take responsibility for their
learning by providing them with an opportunity to directly or indirectly
contribute to the scope of the Unit of Work at the planning and development
stages. An Integrated Curriculum provides teachers with an opportunity of
utilising real life contemporary issues as a focus for their teaching
programmes. It allows the children to develop deeper meaning and knowledge of a
topic through an inquiry process that develops skills and strategies for Life
Long Learning.
The Integrated
Curriculum programme is planned and implemented through School Wide Themes
which usually run for a terms duration. Generally four School Wide Themes are
covered in any one year. However this may vary according to topic needs. The
overall school-wide theme concepts, context and learning intentions are decided
upon prior to each year in consultation with students. I remember we used to
think ‘We haven't done dinosaurs for a while” and then do that thinking that
kids love dinosaurs. Student agency is key in developing the topics. These are
based upon student wonderings and worries, our curriculum, curriculum review
and recommendations made as part of our school wide review process. The students at the end of each year are
asked 5 questions:
1. What do you want to know locally?
2. What do you want to know nationally?
3. What do you want to know globally?
4. What are your biggest concerns?
5. What are your interests?
The children are also
asked 5 questions about the ways that they learn:
1. What
activities they enjoyed the most?
2. What
activities did they learn the most from?
3. What made
your learning fun?
4. What would
they most like to be able to do again?
5. How can the
teachers improve the way they teach?
A staff meeting is held
to analyse the answers that the children have given and to categorise them into
topics. These then become the Topics for the following year. We will then take
the overall theme and plan specific units based around these and incorporate
the ways of learning activities that the children had suggested where
appropriate. The first 4-6 weeks of each term are what we termed information
saturation. This is where we give the students as many learning experiences as
we can on the topic. There are field trips, experts visits from within and
outside the community, hands on activities etc, all aimed at giving the
students knowledge and understanding of the topic area. The final 4-5 weeks of
the term are then where the students can inquire into the topic further. The information saturation phase is a key factor
in the inquiry process. We had found that the children didn't have the prior
knowledge or understandings of topics to ask deep questions for their inquiries
if we just started the term with their inquiry questions. By providing this
information beforehand the students then had knowledge of the topic and they
could then ask deep questions to develop a greater understanding.
As part of the
children's total growth and learning experiences at school, significant school,
local community, national, and global events and activities would also be
celebrated. For example the Olympic Games, Calf and Pet day, Book Fair, Maths
Week, Life Education, Whole school productions, Police Education Officer
visits, Environmental themes, Second Language learning through the VLN Primary
and Health themes eg. Pubertal Change, Kia Kaha and Keeping Ourselves Safe.
The School Wide Themes
provided a meaningful framework on which to build the development of a broad
range of understandings, skills, concepts, values and thinking and learning
styles or abilities. The Local Goals, Our Learning Community, Key Competencies,
School Values, Habits of Mind and Six Thinking Hats are our core focus for a
balanced Curriculum.
Assessment
We believe that
assessment should have purpose and meaning and be used to improve teaching and
learning, and the quality of learning programmes. We believe that students
should know where they are and their next steps in learning. We believe that
assessment should be used in real life contexts and we planned for most of our
assessments to be in the integrated curriculum. One of the first things we
did was to look at what we were doing and what we were doing it for. What are
we assessing and why, what does it tell us? If we were keeping records -
why? What for? If we are never going to
look at it again why are we doing or keeping it?
Then we looked at what was important to do, to keep and what
was not. How do we analyse the results from each of the assessment tools, are
we using the tools to tell us what we want to know? Or are we just using them
because they are there!
Everyone has a say from Year 0 - 8. Every teacher knows what
is involved in educating the whole child from the time they begin with us until
they leave. We spent a lot of time moderating childrens work in reading,
writing and maths to all come to a shared understanding of the standard for
each level. Teachers are fully aware with what the child is bringing to their
class and what they need to take to transition to the next. From all of this we
developed an annual assessment schedule that represented the important
assessment tasks needed for students achievement.
Students taking
responsibility for their own learning
We also developed achievement progress booklets that each
child was given when they started at school. These booklets had their
achievement tasks for reading, writing and maths from year 1-8. These were
based on the literacy progressions, numeracy project, national standards, and a
range of other documents, tools, experience and knowledge and understandings
from the moderation process.
The children were then able to say where they were in any
given area and what they had to learn next. When the children achieved a goal
they had to provide evidence of this. In
the junior classes it was usually referenced to a particular workbook and in the
senior classes they usually linked it to a QR code that would show a video or
link to a document showing their achievement of that particular assessment
task. These booklets were also used by the students at 3 way conferences to
show their parents where they were with their learning and why; what they had
to do to achieve their goals and where to next.
Planning
With the students becoming responsible for their own learning
and having their achievement progress booklets to say ‘I am here and go here
next’, we had to seriously change the way we planned. We can't just plan to
teach, we must plan to learn. This is my planning for the students to learn,
not, this is my planning for my teaching. Again changing the mindset. Planning
for personalised, individualised, differentiated learning, with the students knowing where they were and
what they had to do next the planning had to reflect this. It had to reflect
the needs of the individual students. No longer could we just say Im teaching
reading or writing or maths. We had to think about teaching a particular
student their particular needs in reading, writing or maths. Its not about how well am I teaching, it is
about how well are the students learning.
Teaching As Inquiry was used as a key tool for teachers in assessing ‘how effective is my practice, what impact is
my teaching having on student learning’
Planning and assessment was also considered in all of the
Learning environments.
We saw there were five distinct learning environments that we
had to address:
The School Environment.We called it
the school rather than the classroom because we needed to see the whole school
as a learning environment and not just our classroom. We needed to identify all
factors that can assist our learners within the school. That is the learning
spaces, the playgrounds and surrounds, the teaching resources, the teachers and
the students.
The Online Environment.Google, WWW, YouTube, Virtual Reality etc. What are the children already doing here that
we can utilise in our teaching and learning? What is the most effective way we
can use this environment to enhance learning? What do we have, what do we
use, how does it enhance student learning, don’t just use DEB!!! (Digitally
Enhance Babysitter).
The Virtual Environment.Virtual classrooms where learners are being taught
by teachers in other locations (off site) and learning is done both
synchronously and asynchronously. We used the VLN Primary School for our
students who wanted to learn in subjects
or languages that were not readily available in our school.
The Home Environment. What are the
students already doing at home? How do we communicate with parents and
caregivers to assist them in helping their children? How can we utilise the
resources that our parents had to enhance learning?
Community. Using
community , local, national and global connections to enhance the learning
experiences.
Now
that we had changed the way teaching and learning was happening in the school
we also had to reflect this in all of our policy and procedural documents. With
the strong links across all areas, when you changed something in one you had to
consider all of the other areas as well.
No longer could we just review one subject area, it was a holistic
approach to learning, all factors had to be in play for effective learning to
take place. So now that everything was in place next month I will discuss how
it impacted on the students learning and how teachers and parents felt about
the changes.
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