… Been on a Learning Walk

1. …Been on a Learning Walk Now what?

2. Reflecting on TeachingWhy? • Educators, as well as researchers, recognise that the ability to reflect on teaching is the mark of a true professional. • It is through critical reflection that teachers are able to assess the effectiveness of their work and take steps to improve it. • Consideration for new forms of action. • Easier to build bridges between theory and practice. • Personal responsibility for learning and improvement.

3. What are the purposes of Learning Walks? • Learning Walks serve to: • Develop a learning community • Develop a deep understanding of teaching and learning • Develop a shared vision of every child in every classroom enabled to meet or exceed high standards • Assist in “coaching” for improved practice • Reflect on professional practice • Gain new insights and understanding

4. Why do we advocate Learning Walks • Gain a sense of the current state of instruction and learning. • Enable educators to share strategies with one another • Create a system of excellence in teaching and learning • Facilitates discussion and reflection on what is working well • Continuous learning and improvement

5. What protocols are followed? • Orientation of staff • Orientation of walkers • Classroom visits for 10 minutes • Examine artifacts and student work • Corridor talk • Debriefing • Written or verbal communication with teachers

6. When we leave a classroom, what do we talk about? We talk about: • Evidence of Best Practices in: • The lesson • The student assignment • Student work products

7. When we leave a classroom, what do we talk about? -Level of questioning -What the students were learning. -How the teacher assists the learning. -What the students said in response to questions. -Ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that were used effectively. - What we saw or heard

8. What occurs after a Learning Walk? • The observers will debrief immediately after the classroom visit. • The lead walker will lead a discussion. • The observers should come away with ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that can be used effectively in the classroom and a deeper understanding on how to improve instruction.

9. WE ARE THERETO SUPPORTTEACHING AND LEARNING Not to evaluate.

10. Step by Step (what you did) • Pre-walk discussion • Learning Walk in classrooms- 10 minutes • Catch up in corridor -5 minutes • Reflection for walkers (Where we are)

11. Post Discussions • Write on post it notes things you noticed • What you saw or heard - Level of questioning -What the students were learning. -How the teacher assists the learning. -What the students said in response to questions. -Ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that were used effectively. • One thought for each post-it (No inference)

12. Bundle 1. Clean away any post its that are not facts – no inferences 2. Bundle into like areas e.g. • Strengths of practice Make some group statements about what you have noticed. (These will go back to the school with the lead walkers) 3. Learning walk – as a group walk around to see what others have written

13. Reflection • Take a few minutes to discuss with your team about how Learning Walks might impact teaching and learning in your school. • Self to Text • What am I going to do next at my school

14. WRITING CONVENTIONSP-12Loddon Mallee Region Our purpose as teachers- to teach the writer not the writing Lucy McCormick Calkins

15. Session Outline • What are Writing Conventions? • Are they important? • Writing conventions in context of AusVels frameworks and standards • Delving deeper

16. What are Writing Conventions?

17. Writing Conventions are: • Grammar includes vocabulary, punctuation and patterns of text structure and organisation • Spelling • Punctuation • Handwriting or computer generated text • Layout

19. What is grammar? Grammar is a way of describing how a language works to make meaning within a particular culture. It includes: • Phonology- sound system • Semantics- meaning systems • Morphology- rules of word formation • Syntax- rules of sentence formation • Lexicon- vocabulary of words

21. World News Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy London 2012 can legacy by verbing the noun Team GB may struggle to gold or even podium but we can still lead the world in lexiconing new jargon

23. Why is Grammar Important? It helps us to: • reflect on how English works • develop a shared meta language • examine patterns of language and word choices to critically analyse texts and use language effectively, appropriately and accurately

25. Useful Resources for Grammar • http://www.schooltube.com/video/21001073474c19344891/ Noun song • http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.fr/ Movie segments to assess grammar goals • http://www.scoop.it/search?q=grammar Grammar quizzes

28. Spelling • Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters present in an accepted standard order Wikipedia • Writing provides spelling with its context: without writing, spelling has no purpose and no audience • Conventional spelling helps writers express themselves to a range of audiences in a way that is clearly understood First Steps WRB pg 160

29. Why Spelling is Important • In a published piece-‘Research shows that five or six misspellings in a three hundred word text can cause the reader to say, “I can’t read this.”’ • Students need to understand the impact spelling has on the readability of their writing to value it and set high enough expectations of themselves as a writer RegieRoutmanWriting Essentials pg 164

31. A site to share http://www.wordnik.com/

32. Punctuation Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language • Word Punctuation – apostrophes, hyphens • Sentence punctuation – terminating marks (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark) • Marks used within sentences ( comma, semicolon, colon, dash, ellipsis points, forward slashes) • Quotation marks (direct speech and quotations) • Capital letters • Shortened forms • Shortened words (abbreviations and contractions) • Shortened phrases (acronyms and initialisms) • symbols

33. Why is punctuation important? • Clarity of meaning • To communicate and express your ideas, and arguments, more clearly. • Crucial for successful writing. Analogy Which house would you find more interesting?

34. The impact of punctuation A woman without her man is nothing

37. Handwriting • A complex task accomplished over many years that characterises a particular persons penmanship • A way of forming letters or words in writing • Must be legible, accurate and fluent so the writer can give more attention to the message Computer Generated Text • For the same reasons, it is important to develop rapid, efficient keyboarding skills

38. Why Handwriting is Important • So people can read your writing • Not having to labour over forming letters • Allows freedom to concentrate on writing

40. Layout • Refers to how text and visuals combine on a page or electronic screen • It is about the spatial arrangement of the text such as: headings, columns, paragraphs, dot points, numbering, pictures, graphs, tables, page and word orientation Font Variations • Refers to size, colour, plain text, underlining, bold, effects, themes

41. Is it Important?

42. Reading time Articles: • Is cursive writing Obsolete? • Five Questions teachers ask about spelling • In the age of Tweets Teachers Hammer the Grammar Discussion Builder activity • In a group of 4 Each person has a set of discussion cards Goal is for every person in the group to use all cards in the discussion

43. Discussion Roles

44. Report back to others who have read a different article • Issue /article read • Key points from the article • Key points from the discussion General Discussion • How could you use these articles in your school? • How could you use this process?

45. STANDARDS AUSTRALIAN AUSVELS Curriculum VCE VELS NAPLAN

46. Australian Curriculum A fundamental responsibility of the English curriculum is to develop students’ understanding about how the English language works. This is because such understanding gives students: • coherence and cumulative learning across the school years • learning that is portable and applicable to new settings across the school years and beyond. http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_English.pdf

47. Speaking and listening Reading and Viewing Writing Language literacy

48. AusVels http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10#level=7 AusVELS is the Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools for implementation from 2013. AusVELS outlines what is essential for all Victorian students to learn for F-10 and includes the Australian Curriculum F-10 for English, Mathematics, History and Science. It provides a single, coherent and comprehensive set of common achievement standards which schools use to plan student learning programs, assess student progress and report to parents.