Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Hi Aoife. I agree that a really positive outcome of ICS is how teachers can learn from observing other teachers or by participating in their special projects. Similar to the ‘writing workshop guru’ on your staff, two of our staff have invited colleagues to participate in action research post-graduate studies in recent years to explore a strategy, e.g. that is how we were all introduced to UDL in maths many years ago. It’s a great way to upskill and learn.
Over the past couple of years, we had been using a lot of our SET / Class Teacher (CT) collaborative teaching time for literacy or maths either as (a) “team teaching” with me as SET sharing equal responsibility with the class teacher and both teachers in a position to provide targeted support to specific pupils or (b) the “one teach, one support” approach, with me as SET generally in the support role for target pupils and available to others as required. Listening skills and focus have been an area of concern in all classrooms in recent years, so we had reduced the amount of fully independent activities during ICS because a large minority of pupils were not able to fully engage.
We will be reverting back to the tried and tested station teaching model in September. As part of our School Self Evaluation, we are working on even more streamlined collaboration between the SET and CT so that we are sharing information about the incremental progress of all pupils in a more timely way and planning around this. This really is essential if we are going to reap the full benefits of this ICS. We believe station teaching can help us hit more target areas in literacy on a more consistent basis and allow for more regular practice and consolidation of key skills. Specifically, we can address all 8 of the phonemic awareness areas as well as other reading, comprehension, spelling and writing tasks.
Observation and assessment have led us to decide to schedule a lot more of the available ICS support towards next year’s 1st Class and 3rd Class in their multi-grade classrooms. Both groups have been on our radar since day 1, with an unusually high level of needs. Many have been very slow to master foundational motor skills, many have not met class level milestones and most have poor listening skills. Controversially, we are considering using an ability streaming model for 3rd/4th Class stations because the range of strengths and needs is the broadest we have ever seen. While there are individual issues at play, we suspect that these two groups were impacted disproportionately by the pandemic. We are hopeful that station teaching will supplement the withdrawal support that target pupils will be receiving and also give every other child an opportunity for a timely response.
Hi Catriona. I like your point about the benefits of UDL on the more able learners. Despite the best will in the world, our focus is often more on meeting the needs of the pupils with identified needs rather than giving a really meaningful challenge to the more able learner. UDL really allows the able learner to progress a step further with their creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, risk taking or whatever approach they want to pursue.
I really liked the “buffet” (for UDL) versus “short order cook” (for Differentiation) menu comparison in the course presentation.
Overall, I would summarise UDL by saying it means we are aiming to cater for multiple learners and remove as many barriers as possible in a proactive way using UDL compared to catering for individual learners by avoiding specific barriers per child in a more reactive way using differentiation.
With UDL we are considering a menu of choices to help engage the learner, a variety of different ways to represent the content to them and flexibility for how they can demonstrate their learning back to us. Differentiation often only focuses on one aspect of these three aspects.
UDL is an area we are targeting through our School Self-Evaluation. We decided to focus more on this approach following a recommendation from a very positive maths evaluation that tasked us to cater for all learners in an even better way than we currently do. Based on our first attempts at UDL, there is an awful lot more involved in adopting UDL than a single differentiation plan, so I am surprised by the suggestion in the presentation that UDL is more efficient and that differentiation is more time consuming. However, I do think that over time we will reap the rolling benefits of UDL approaches because what is new now will become more automatic over time, e.g. everyone will automatically have a broad choice board available at their finger tips for any lesson.In my SET role and previously my Infant teacher role, assessment is an essential part of the teaching and learning planning process. It can be quite challenging too.
It guides me in understanding each child’s strengths, needs (in particular) and learning style. It can catch any developmental delays or additional needs early. It helps me plan activities that match the children’s abilities and interests. Another benefit (especially in SET) is that it has encourage me to consider the whole child – academic skills, social, emotional, language, motor skills, etc.
Where I do find it challenging is the huge range of learning strengths and needs in any classroom or group, especially in our multi-grade classrooms and especially with the huge diversity of need we are now catering for, including autism, EAL, children who did not attend pre-school, etc. We need to use a mix of assessment methods – observation, play-based tasks, and input from the pupils and their parents. Another challenge is that there is a big focus on playful learning through Aistear and how we are deliving the main PLC and PMC and other subjects. I liked Fiona’s suggestion in her presentations about how we need to build assessment of play and playful learning into our assessment strategies. It can provide myself (SET) and the Infant teacher with lots of information across the 3 elements of the PLC and the learning outcomes for each. Fiona highlighted how this also explains to parents the value of the learning that is actually occurring during playful learning.I agree with your comment about how younger learners might find it difficult to report on their own learning. This would apply to some SEN pupils with communication needs too. That’s why we need to chose assessment strategies such as pupil portfolios (especially photos of their work) and teacher-pupil conferencing to capture the information we need.
Hi Kitty. Just to let you know that the access to your link seems to be restricted. If you go into your Google Slides document, hit the “Share” button in the far right corner again, go to the “General Access” drop-down menu and change your option to “Anyone with this link”, I think we should be able to view your Slides. If you have already done this, I am not sure why I can’t open the link. Hope this is helpful.
Hi Kitty. I do take your point about the efficacy of the Kahoot quizzes. I have a number of pupils with SEN who sometimes just click on any response at random! In these cases, I think conferencing alongside the child while they use this tool adds an extra dimension – scaffolding their learning with appropriate questions about the process they are using, asking them to clarify their answers, etc. This is possible in individual or small group settings, not during full class use. Getting the child to create their own Kahoot quiz is where I have found this tool to be most effective. During the Module 4 presentation, Fiona highlighted how the thinking involved in the child selecting their three “wrong” answers is a valuable learning experience too.
Teacher observation: Our staff have agreed that high quality teacher observation notes are our basic “record-keeping” requirement for everyone. We have all opted to use the post-it note approach, as it has worked well in the past. On the post-it, we are good at recording what our target action will be and noting when we have followed up with the child.
However, I was relieved to hear Fiona acknowledge during the online lecture that it can be challenging to “operationalise” this when you have post-it notes everywhere. I liked Fiona’s example of that four squared teacher/SNA observation grid showing likes/dislikes/strengths/needs for a particular area. At least you can have all the assessment data for that topic in one tidy place. You can always decide to stick the post-it notes onto some of the squares too. Sometimes the simple and ‘old’ ways are the best ways!Hi Kitty. While I haven’t used the Google Classroom rubrics per se (and would be interested in reviewing – thanks), I have found it very useful to post my teacher feedback online directly into the children’s Google docs or Google slides. As well as my comments, I generally pose a question back to the child too, and they will reply. As you note, this leaves a permanent assessment record with their work sample and one parents can access too. The children really enjoy the online interaction too. Regards, Anna
