Blogpost #4 - Hypothesise & Research

Share your findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge. Make sure it is clear what evidence from your inquiry supports each finding.

I've decided to include my Term One easTTle Reading data as well. It's good to use more than just a single test in order to get a better picture of where my students are at. 

EasTTle has 39% of my students in Room 6 working within level 4 of the curriculum. 18 students were tested. This means 61%, almost two-thirds of my students are not working within curriculum expectations. 

Room 6 Term 1 easTTle Data

EasTTle has 25% of my students in Room 7 working within level 4 of the curriculum. 16 students were tested. This means 75%,  two-thirds of my students are not working within curriculum expectations.         

Room 7 Term 1 easTTle Data

After analysing the data I knew that my intervention would focus around Reading as this is still where the greatest need exists, Also, improving reading comprehension will have a positive knock-on effect on Writing and Mathematics.  

Initially I thought that my intervention would somehow focus around the my current PD of T-shaped Literacy.  T-shaped Literacy is based on the hypothesis that reading of multiple texts with a relatively narrow focus can simultaneously deepen understandings, widen the breadth of texts engaged with, and promote higher-order skills, all skills which my students need to master. 

However, after reflecting on the easTTle results with my students, many said that they often just chose answers at random as they were tired of reading towards the end of the test. I then decided to increase their reading stamina (being able to read independently for long-ish periods of time without being distracted or without distracting others) as this in conjunction with the T-shaped literacy, will have a positive effect on student outcomes.  With easTTle testing, it was apparent that when the text was short, students did reasonably well, but when the text became longer, a sizable group of students began to skip around the text or jump to questions without reading. 

Blogpost #3: Preliminary Findings

 "Data use involves the systematic collection and organisation of information and evidence to inform key decision-making in schools. It includes student achievement data from standardised and informal tests, assignments and pieces of classwork, as well as teacher observations, conversations with students, and student voice and feedback. The use of data is central to strategic planning, teacher inquiry and wider improvement work. It forms the basis of formative and summative evaluation of teaching programmes and student progress and achievement."  - The Education Hub

I've decided to use the PAT student achievement data (as this is what Woolf-Fisher uses to compare and track achievement) as an indicator of my student's comprehension ability. The Reading stanines across all year 7 and 8 students ranged from stanine 2 - stanine 6. It was a real struggle to get all students tested as we are still grappling with attendance issues due to the ongoing impact of Covid. I managed to test 18/21 students in Room 6.

Our school School Strategic Learning Goal #1 is:

"To increase the number of ALL students reading at chronological age following on from a disrupted year of learning." With this goal in mind, I didn't choose a target group, but decided to use my entire class.

Here is my Term 1 PAT data (Room 6):

From the available data we can see that only 16.7% (or 3 students) are currently operating at or above the expected curriculum level.

Here is my Term 1 PAT data (Room 7):

From the available data we can see that only 21.1% (or 4 students) are currently operating at the expected curriculum level.

References:

Timperley, H. (n.d.). Using evidence in the classroom for professional learning. Retrieved from: https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/education/about/schools/tchldv/docs/Using%20Evidence%20in%20the%20Classroom%20for%20Professional%20Learning.pdf