1 of 24

Inquiry Group 6

Jill Marsh: St John’s

Tracey Law: Stella Maris

Anna O’Farrell: Carmel College

Marion Roser: Carmel College

2 of 24

Collaborative Inquiry Question

How can we implement self-regulation strategies to enable students to identify their learning steps and take responsibility for their learning pathway?

3 of 24

Our Shared Student Learning Need:

Retention of facts - vocabulary, basic facts, mathematical formulae.

What effective strategies support deeper cognitive thinking in students to retain facts?

4 of 24

Our Purpose Statement

The purpose of this inquiry is to understand how to best support students to gain the skills to effectively retain facts.

5 of 24

Jill’s Theory of Action

How can I best support a group of Y6 students to use strategies to understand unfamiliar vocabulary and to retain vocabulary facts?

Noticeable drop in Probe results, particularly vocabulary questions

PAT Vocabulary results lower than Reading Comprehension results

Teacher observation: students unable to grasp meaning from test

Good spellers being challenged to use “spelling list” words in their writing

6 of 24

Jill’s research

“Students need multiple exposures-typically six-to new words to be able to grasp and retain them” Jenkins 1984

“reading, in isolation, fails to build students’ vocabulary adequately. Unfortunately, this continues to be popularly used practice” Suzy Pepper Rollins

“Nonlinguistic representations of words enhance students’ understanding.” Powell 1980

Non linguistic representations: Research: Powell study found students whose vocab instruction incorporated nonlinguistic representations scored 37% higher than students who relied solely on looking up definitions and 21% higher than students whose practice consisted of generating sentences using new vocabulary.

Jenkins research into multiple exposures to words to support retention

I linked this with readings from Suzy Pepper Rollins Students were introduced to TIP charts (later TIP sheets) definition is co-constructed and a memorable visual depiction of the term.

Students benefited from explicit focussed discussion about the word. Visuals provide memory cues for students, . .

Based on research I ensured the TIP display in easily accessible space in classroom, provided continual support and clustered critical information. . Eventually in layers as so many words were added. Students get up out of their reading space and go to this area to look up words or add to collection. I noticed this split over into Maths area when studying geometry, students asked if they could make TIP for new maths vocabulary such as circumference, radius and quadrialateral. . developed to include some idioms added as TIP charts to explain meaning.

I observed that during reading testing in the classroom, students glanced at wall for words that they knew were there (despite many layered display covering the word they were looking for) they could still “see’ the info that they were looking for.

7 of 24

Results

8 of 24

Unexpected results

9 of 24

Marion’s Specific Inquiry:

How can I best support students to use strategies to retain mathematical facts?

A reflective process where action was informed by evidence collected from teacher observation, student voice and assessment data.

10 of 24

Overall Strategy: Consciously building in times in lessons to memorise new material, and to practise fact retrieval

Specific strategies (from research):

1) ‘overlearn’ to reduce memory interference

2) spacing memory sessions out

3) using fun activities to engage students

11 of 24

Methods

12 of 24

Results :

Interviews with my targeted students were positive; increased levels of student confidence

Google Form to gather student voice from Year 11 classes

Some improvement in

assessment results

Hoping for good results

in the externals!

13 of 24

Anna’s Specific Inquiry

How can I best support a group of Year 12 students to better use strategies to acquire unfamiliar French vocabulary and to retain vocabulary facts?

Why this inquiry specifically?

Assessment data:

Lower than expected NCEA external Listening results- no significant change from 2017 inquiry

Teacher observation:

Gut-feeling that retention of vocabulary is a weaker skill area in Level 2- Possible reason for External results.

Student voice:

Stated they do not spend time required outside of class on vocabulary retention- Challenge of my teacher assumptions.

Blank faces and silence when asked to recall expected level vocabulary from L1 and L2- affects Listening comprehension ability.

14 of 24

Which Strategies?

Allocation of time each week dedicated to vocabulary acquisition and retention.
Explicit teaching of vocabulary
Quizlet word sets
Vocabulary tests
Quizlet Live
Hot seat
Hot Ball
Fly swat
Sentence creation game
Flash cards- word cards
Jeopardy
Charades

15 of 24

16 of 24

Results:

Pre-testing and post-testing shows progress and improvement with every set
Student voice through survey
Student voice through interview
Possible improvement in NCEA results from L1 to L2 - Listening January results to be checked.

17 of 24

Tracey’s Specific Inquiry

How can I use music as a strategy to support students to learn and retain their times tables facts?

WHY MUSIC? - “Music can implement a tempo, add rhythm and melody, and create repetition within the material. Music presents the information in a way that can be more easily learned and retrieved from memory because it provides the listener many other cues in addition to verbal information” (Hyman & Rubin, 1990).

“Singing was found to be more effective than speaking or rhythmic speaking” (Ludke, Ferreira, & Overy, 2014). “… a memory benefit is also observed for verbal information learned through songs rather than through hearing speech .”

Tracey from Stella maris cannot be here today, this is her notes: my inquiry addressed how I could use music as a strategy to support students to learn and retain their times tables facts. There is ample research to support the use of music to assist retention of information. I knew of the Mozart and Vivaldi effects and their benefits for memory, however after discussions with colleagues I wanted to investigate the effectiveness of singing times tables based on the research above. My cohort of 8 Year 5 students were identified at the end of 2017 as not achieving in Maths and had not mastered times tables facts. Teachers commented that they were able to use different strategies to solve maths problems, but were held up by the inability to recall facts. When asked why they thought they had difficulty learning their times tables, most said they were put off learning them as the numbers got bigger. Some had a closed mindset and said they would never be able to learn them. They did some practice at home and school, but it was not very often. Some parents said there was no point learning them because they could just use a calculator. It was not seen by many as a priority learning area.

18 of 24

Collecting Data

HOW?

Musical app called Maths Rockx. -uses popular and catchy songs that students can sing along with. -Has times table quizzes set to music.

-An intervention period of at least 15 minutes every day for 3 weeks.

Pre Test - Before intervention

Post Test After 3 weeks of daily intervention.

Term 4 Test - After 4 weeks after completing intervention

For the intervention the students used an app called Maths Rockx every day for at least 15 minutes for 3 weeks. It uses popular songs with the lyrics adapted to contain times tables facts. They worked either independently or we sang and danced to them together as a group. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the device, my child with Downs Syndrome that was working in the room separately on his addition and subtraction facts with his teacher aide was able to join in singing the 5 x tables to a Pink song. Me at concert - The students were then tested on the same questions - as a post test. Results showed all the students recalled more facts in their post test, and some improved both their recall and speed. Four weeks after completing the intervention they were re-tested again to see if they had retained their results once the timetabled practice was no longer enforced. Data showed that half of the children had retained their post test results and had in fact increased the number of known facts. The other 50% had shown a decrease since the post test, but still had retained a greater number of facts than their original pre test.

19 of 24

Difference in time taken to complete tests (seconds)

Most students (6 out of 8) -Time taken from Pre to Post had decreased. (Students recalled facts quicker from Pre Test)

-Time taken from Post to T4 had increased. (Students recalled facts slower from the Post Test)

Student OJ

Student

LJ

20 of 24

Results

Students enjoyed the app, but some preferred to use Mathletics or Prodigy.
Students said the familiar songs on the app helped them to learn their tables.
Students were able to recall times tables facts more accurately and quickly at the end of the 3 week intervention of daily focused practice.
Students that had displayed a fixed mindset during the pre-intervention interviews had begun to demonstrate a growth mindset.
These students need to be directed, supported and given time to practice their times tables facts.
These students needed support to develop self-regulation skills.

At the beginning of this inquiry the students and I discussed the importance of learning these facts. They enjoyed the app, and most agreed that it helped them to learn their tables, however they preferred using Mathletics or Prodigy - computer online games. There was also a turnaround with the students that initially had a fixed mindset towards their learning. These students realised that through time and effort they actually had the ability to learn facts. From the beginning my intention was to encourage students to focus on their times tables independently once the intervention period was completed, therefore supporting the development of self-regulation skills. However most students were not able to take ownership, initiative or be reflective with their learning and needed intervention from an adult, who would provide the required time, resources and instructions. Moving forward - One change within my teaching programme was to make tables practice a daily timetabled activity rather than relying on students to learn them at home as we had previously presumed was happening, and Maths Rockx was an effective strategy for many students to help develop their times tables.

21 of 24

Summary: findings and conclusions

Students’ level of connection and engagement has led to improved results and more confidence
Intentionally making time in class to engage with facts
Deliberate acts of teaching strategies, and modelling engagement with facts has lead to improvements in the retention of facts.
Students who had lower results at start of intervention, made more improvements,

22 of 24

Summary of our learning

Our collaborative observations based on IC (Innovation Configuration) map were helpful for us to look at our own and support the practice others.

Collaborative inquiry process and making connections with colleagues in different schools and in different subject areas has been beneficial

23 of 24

How we evolved?

We also found jointly that student self-regulation was

lacking and our original idea of further supporting students with self- regulation and independence needed further time to be developed and this is next steps for all of us.

Finding ways not just to support acquisition in class but also to promote self- regulation on a deeper level.

24 of 24

Recommendations and next steps

Collaboration going forward

Share

Fine tune (student confidence survey would have been helpful)

Plan early