...effective pedagogy requires that teachers inquire into the impact of their teaching on their students. NZ Curriculum, P35 NZC p.35 Focusing Inquiry (establishes a baseline and a direction). The teacher uses all available information to determine what their students have already learned and what they need to learn next. Teaching Inquiry The teacher uses evidence from research and from their own past practice and that of colleagues to plan teaching and learning opportunities aimed at achieving the outcomes prioritised in the focusing inquiry. Learning Inquiry The teacher investigates the success of the teaching in terms of the prioritised outcomes, using a range of assessment approaches. (This occurs...) while learning activities are in progress and also as longer-term sequences or units of work come to an end. (Teachers...) then analyse and interpret the information to consider what they should do next. Using the Teaching as Inquiry process to inquire into the impact of teaching on students. NZ Curriculum p.35. Teacher/Group/Syndicate: Anji Sami Class Year 11 NCEA Level 1 Music Date: 8.8.2014 Focusing Inquiry: What is important, and therefore worth spending time on, given where my students are at? Students need to strengthen their score reading skills and oral and written use of music vocabulary. Student Profiles: What do you know about these students? What are students saying about their learning? Aretha, Year 11 Number of credits: 26/41 (as of 8 August 2014) Pass rate of 63% Number of credits needed to pass level 1: 54 Aretha is a fifteen year old girl New Zealander of European decent. She is Year 11 and is on track to achieving Level 1. Currently she has the 10 literacy credits required of her. With 26 out of 41 attempted credits, she has a pass rate of approximately 63%. To ensure that she achieves the 80 credits she needs to pass level 1, Aretha has been withdrawn from some of her external exams so that she is able to focus on resubmitting the internal assessments that she did not achieve earlier this year. In music, she has the opportunity to complete AS 91095 Demonstrate Understanding of Two Music works from contrasting contexts which is a specified achievement standard that can contribute to her overall literacy credits (as a class they have completed study on one of the required two works. It is worth 6 credits). Aretha is half way through a number of credits in music and will confidently achieve 18 credits minimum with the opportunity to gain a further 4 credits in the external exam. Aretha has struggled with behavioral issues this year. On the last day of term two she was stood down for threatening another student with a weapon. She acknowledges that she has a short fuse and is making progress and improvement seeking help and gaining self awareness. She is well aware of the fact that she is on probation and is determined to not let her lack of judgment and self control effect her chances of achieving level one. Aretha is a highly sensitive and thoughtful young person. She has an excellent sense of humor. Aretha is a talented guitarist and enjoys playing a combination of classical and alternative guitar music. She has an excellent command and use of technology and guitar related music and tablature. She needs to develop her score analysis skills to a higher standard - she received an achieved grade for her last score analysis but with a focus on articulations, ornaments and performance directions she will be able to achieve to Merit or Excellence in the next half of the standard. Arethas focus is improving during class time - she was often distracted and distracting but since being stood down she has applied herself with a determination that I have not seen from her before (I taught her media studies in Year 10 last year). Mariah, Year 11 Number of credits: 17/34 (as of 8 August 2014) Pass rate of 50% Number of credits needed to pass level 1:63 Mariah is Maori and considered a priority learner. With a pass rate of only 50% Mariah is struggling this year. She has opened up to me and has said that she is living with her aunty as her mother has a drug related mental illness and her father is bed ridden and dying of cancer, unable to look after her. She is the youngest of four children. Mariah is a lovely girl but is severely lacking in confidence. She is a wonderful singer and a talented songwriter but has stated a number of times that she will not perform nor will she complete the composition credits (6 are available). She feels like she cant actually do them and admits that she cant be bothered. Mariah is not motivated. She has had little success and is unable to see what success looks like. She is part of mandatory study which is a class that have compulsory tutoring on a Wednesday afternoon (as seniors usually finish early). Mariah has 7 of the literacy credits required. She is focussed on achieving in english, employment studies and social studies. I believe Mariah will be able to gain 12 credits in music by week two of term 4. Though she has a very basic understanding of the musical elements needed to achieve in AS90150 - Mariah should still be encourage to submit this assessment. She needs to be shown exactly what is expected of her -to be shown what it looks like. Tasks need to be broken down and documents unpacked in order to feel like can have success in music. A focus should also be made on achieving her performance and composition credits. I believe that this is a realistic goal. Mariah must be encouraged to believe that she has the ability to succeed in music and shown the steps she needs to take to be successful. For performance, I would first encourage her being part of a group ensemble. There are a number of lovely female students with similar interests and abilities that could provide the support she needs to be able to gain confidence. I would recommend the group performance assessments over the solo ones. Target Children Year 11 NCEA L1 Target/(Standard) AS 91050 - Demonstrate Understanding of Two Music Works from Contrasting contexts - First half was assessed early in Term 2, second half will be assessed in Week 8 of Term 3. (6 credits that can be counted as literacy credit). Developing this literacy in music will allow these students to progress to level two music should they choose to. Actions Taken: Need to sit down with individuals and set goals - as there is a limited timeline (10 weeks) plans need to be co- constructed between teacher and student. Goals must be set, sought to and realised. Monitoring. What available information do you have to determine what students have already learned and need to learn next? How will you monitor this? Academic counseling and goal setting specific to music. Continually check in with student progress - converse with students to evaluate where they are at. Progress chart for internal assessments - to motivate students progress can be charted by moving their names on a chart that serves as a kind of check list for different tasks in internal based assessment. Develop a check list that students can check once they have understood a particular concept/topic. They need to be able to interpret this information from various contexts and sources. For example: POSSIBLE LITERACY CREDITS TO ACHIEVE AT LEVEL 1 IN MUSIC Level 1 91094 Demonstrate knowledge of conventions used in music scores. (1.5) - External exam Level 1 91095 Demonstrate knowledge of two music works from contrasting contexts. (1.6) - Internal Assessment Teaching and Learning Strategies / Deliberate acts of teaching What will you do to help students achieve the outcomes? Collaborative approach to literacy development in music. It is essential to place the learner at the centre of your teaching and structure learning environments Activities should help learners construct knowledge, rather than just absorb it. By having the students in groups they are able to interact on a social level and help each other. Practise analysing scores as a group. Begin with listening to pieces of music (preferably something students are familiar with) and then analysing their score. Scores need to be unpacked. They will identify any unknown symbols, use their devices and their theory books to find out what they mean, then share and collate their findings. Modeling sentence construction. Practise constructing sentences together as a class - especially with relation to score reading (on which the literacy/music standards are focussed). Analysing more examples as a class will strengthen class confidence and improve musical vocabulary. This will also be useful for the external music exam. Engage in class dialogue and discussion. Practise using topic specific vocabulary and sharing their ideas, research and continually reflecting and asking questions. Teaching Inquiry Rationale What evidence from research, personal past practice or that of colleagues, underpins your teaching intentions? From the ERO August 2012 Report on Priority Learners Mahuika, Berryman and Bishop assert that learning environments in which students! are honoured as partners in learning are fundamental to the relationships that are developed [between teachers and students]. 9 Partnerships that provide good opportunities for M"ori students to bring [into the classroom] what they know, and their ways of knowing and making sense of the world,...[signal to students] that their ways are valued, acceptable and accepted. Identifies a need for students and teachers to work together to set realistic and specific goals. I was able to identify with the majority of these priority learners as I didnt begin reading music myself until I reached university level. Letting them know this seemed to offer some sort of relief to students who at NCEA level 1 were struggling to read a score. In Sound before Sight by Charles Hicks he states that skill in reading music is determined by awareness of tonal and rhythmic movement in music, of concepts of tonality and of the relationship between the symbols and the sounds they represent. It is therefore important to begin with the analysis of something know to the learner. This supports the idea that what is most important is the understanding of the principles of notation rather than system of notation. Auditory perception followed by visual perception. Learning Inquiry. Investigating the success of the teaching in terms of the outcomes, using a range of assessment approaches. Collaboratively learning approach to breaking down score reading and music vocabulary has been greatly beneficial. Starting with simple and familiar songs - listening to them first was helpful to those with little experience with notation. While some students are familiar with music notation many of this class were not so by experiencing this together and modeling answers both the students and I were able to explicitly teach each other what we had discovered. Upon sharing back information and discussing what was learned it was clear that this collaborative learning approach was beneficial for the majority of the class. Peers reviewed each others work and discussed answers and meanings - I talked less, moving away from the traditional teacher as dispenser of knowledge, student as absorber. However, despite some success, I was unable to engage all of the students. Mariah still had difficulty understanding the work and an was disengaged because she felt the topic to be too academic and that she was too dumb to even attempt it. I was told I was wasting my time. Having already identified her as a priority learner I was left feeling a little bit helpless but determined to learn more about different strategies for effective teaching. How has this impacted my PCK? (Pedagogical Content Knowledge.) It is important to know your learners as individuals - their backgrounds and their learning needs. These need to be constantly monitored to ensure your students academic success. Teaching for effective learning needs to be constantly adapted and reflected upon. I need to research more theory related to our priority learners and develop more teaching and design learning activities to allow for curriculum differentiation. My next inquiry might be into the concept of Ako in relation to providing opportunities for Maori to succeed as Maori. I need to be able to use a range of strategies that promote effective teaching interactions and relationships with their learners. I thought that we use manaakitanga in music. We are inclusive and collaborative and our relationships are positive.