Richmond School (TLIF 3-081) - How digital devices might improve teacher practice and student writing performance Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: Richmond School (TLIF 3-081) - Richmond School had seen success in student achievement across a number of outcomes, including writing, as a consequence of carefully planned and scaffolded professional development, linked to teacher appraisal and the targets set in the school’s strategic plan.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Ryan Higgins
Date Published: October 2020
Overview
The introduction of hybrid SurfacePro laptops had successfully raised overall achievement for students in years 5–6 and narrowed the gap between male and female and Māori and non-Māori achievement. The school’s TLIF project team wanted to see what would happen if they deliberately spread the approach across all classes and what would be necessary to sustain improvement over time.
The teachers are now proficient users of the digital devices and the use of these certainly have improved the teaching of writing and generally, children’s writing has progressed markedly. There is most definitely greater assessment consistency amongst teachers in terms of assessing children’s writing. This being an outcome of ongoing, frequent moderation exercises conducted at staff meetings and the construction of our own school exemplar booklets. Teachers are so much more confident and accurate when assessing students’ written pieces.
Project report
The school found that professional learning and inquiry opportunities provided through TLIF, combined with the Board of Trustee’s readiness to invest in the necessary technology, and a carefully planned but agile action plan, enabled significant improvements to both teacher practice and student learning. Rising confidence in the use of the digital devices, more accurate assessment, and support for inquiry have encouraged teachers to push past any lack of confidence and try new things.
One of the keys to success was the construction of shared resources that hold joint understandings steady and support teachers to better assess and monitor their own and their students’ progress. Having strategies to scaffold part time, relieving, and new teachers into the school’s approach creates a consistent learning experience for students. The team found that having higher expectations for what achievement looks like can mean teachers make “tougher” judgements about student achievement. However, this also means that teaching can be more tightly connected to learning needs, so that when students are judged to have made progress, teachers can be sure that the progress is real.
The inquiry story
This inquiry began with the teachers of students in years 4–6. The plan was to deliberately spread the innovation through the school over time, with members of the project team coaching and mentoring their colleagues. In practice, the project’s early successes led to a decision to spread the learning sooner than planned, supported by the Board’s readiness to invest in additional devices and professional learning opportunities.
The inquiry was also connected to the achievement challenges identified by the Waimea Community of Learning and to its focus on understanding and promoting the concept that Teaching as Inquiry should be a “professional way of being”. To support this, the school’s within-school leaders became part of the inquiry team.
What was the focus?
Several years’ focus on writing pedagogy had led to gratifying outcomes at Richmond School. An average of 75–80% of students had been judged to be at or above the National Standards for Writing every year from 2010. However, that still left a group of students below expectation. Māori were over represented in this group, and a large percentage were boys.
In 2016, three years 5–6 classes had trialled the use of Surface Pro laptops. This had included the use of a digital modelling book, created on One Note and incorporating The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars. The teachers saw a significant acceleration in writing achievement for both girls and boys, with over 90% at or above the relevant Standard. The school had also had success with using digital technologies to enable students to improve their reading at home, as well as at school. Teachers wondered whether these successes could be repeated, sustained, and expanded across the syndicate and school.
The school’s TLIF inquiry addressed three inquiry questions:
- How might effective teacher digital devices improve pedagogy and student writing literacy?
- How can we create moderation and assessment consistency between staff?
- How can we grow the home-school partnership within our developing writing programme?
What did the teachers try?
The inquiry team looked to the future by iteratively developing an action plan with clear targets that were linked to the school’s strategic planning and to teacher appraisal and that tied resources, programmes, and opportunities for professional learning together in a cohesive way.
Two achievement targets were established, each with its own minor targets and action plan:
- To improve consistency with moderation assessment for all staff, including the time it takes to moderate a piece of work
- To improve staff confidence with using technology to build pedagogy, assessment, and home-school partnership.
The first achievement target was addressed through requiring each teacher to assess four samples of student writing independently, against the clock, and in relationship to a school-wide writing matrix based on the English curriculum, New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars, Literacy Learning Progressions, and e-asTTle writing rubric. The initial survey provided the basis for a series of sessions on moderation. Data was captured on Microsoft Forms and analysed so that again, ongoing professional learning could be accurately targeted to needs. The team created Richmond School exemplar books to support all teachers in making overall teacher judgments.
The second achievement target was addressed through the provision of professional development in the use of the new technology within classroom writing programmes. These opportunities were offered at both the syndicate and whole-school levels, with the inquiry embedded in regular meetings.
Each teacher then used the Teaching as Inquiry approach to trial their new ideas, plan and develop their writing programmes, and monitor the impact on student achievement. For example, teachers explored how they and their students could use the laptops to present and edit writing, make decisions, and determine the next steps for learning. Some looked at how the dictation tool might be used to help boys and those with additional learning needs record their ideas and maintain momentum.
Teachers were supported with coaching and mentoring throughout their individual inquiries. A rubric, based on the e-Learning Planning Framework, provided a road map for them to identify where they were in relationship to six indicators:
- Use of technology
- Engagement with professional development
- Teaching as Inquiry
- Modelling
- Moderation
- Home-school partnership.
The rubrics provided a focus for regular, individualised observations, linked to teacher appraisal. Collated learning from the observations informed decision-making about next steps for professional learning. The e-Learning Planning Framework also offered links to examples and resources, such as The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars, the National Standards, and the Literacy Learning Progressions.
The work done on moderation was used to help build teachers’ understanding of the criteria for each level of the writing matrix so that they could better personalise learning opportunities. Teachers also investigated how they could use the digital technology to help parents better understand the classroom programme and how they could help from home, deepening the home–school partnership.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Teachers have become far more consistent in their assessments. They are faster at making overall teacher judgments and more confident that they can defend their decision-making. Participation in robust discussion has proven a fruitful opportunity for collaborative learning.
Teachers became far more proficient users of digital devices. For most, OneNote and their classroom televisions have replaced hard copy modelling books. They use them to plan, store and share resources, present writing prompts, demonstrate expectations, create word banks, capture ideas from brainstorms, and model how to re-work text. Teachers can link their OneNote modelling books to their students’ iPads, making them part of the regular classroom programme and supporting learning at home, too. Some teachers are allowing students to use the stylus with their Surface laptops, a practice that enables students access to the sensorimotor experience that is part of learning to write. Others are experimenting with using Microsoft Teams.
Digital technology has enabled teachers to capture and share their learning, too. They are adding to their bank of exemplars with those developed within their own school. They store their Teaching as Inquiry journeys on OneNote, where it is easy to access and modify. They are exploring other digital resources, such as those developed by literacy specialist, Sheena Cameron.
An exception was for new entrant teachers, who still find hard copy modelling books more effective with their students. This is an area for further inquiry.
The speed of change was an unexpected but welcome development. The Board’s agreement to purchase laptops for all teachers, including part-time teachers and regular relievers, enabled this to happen. These teachers were also included in the professional development, so that the new approach could be implemented consistently in all classrooms.
Parent are often physically in classrooms, and teachers are increasingly giving digital access to children’s classroom learning through programmes such as Office 365 and Sway. These help children to continue classroom learning at home where they can also be supported by family members. Every class has a blog, and a lot of published work is shared with family members through student portfolios. Some teachers find that using their laptops to take a photo of children’s work and emailing it to parents works well for engaging parents in their children’s writing progress.
Ostensibly, student achievement fell slightly after a year of implementation. However, teachers agree that this is a reflection of raised expectations, rather than an actual drop in achievement. They better understand what writing success looks like. Students themselves say that the value teachers place on writing impacts on their motivation and achievement. In 2019, 78 per cent of students were achieving their curriculum level expectations for writing, which is close to the school’s target of 80 percent by the end of year 6.
Teachers are choosing to transfer the use of the laptops and software to other parts of the curriculum, particularly mathematics. Many are looking to go completely paper-free in their approach to planning.
What did they learn?
The team have found that the moderation exercises provide a valuable tool for collaborative learning and that it enables effective assessment for learning. The school will continue running writing moderation exercises periodically, every year, in order to sustain the gains.
The team learned that it is imperative that new teachers coming into the school are quickly upskilled in the use of digital devices and programmes and provided with ongoing support, so they become practised in using them within their daily programmes. They have found that the approach they have developed is successful in other curriculum areas, especially mathematics, but that support is required to help teachers make this transfer.
Inquiry team
Ryan Higgins was the project lead. The rest of the team included Jaime Kingi, Jess Drummond, Nicole Lams, Donna Miles, Tim Brenton, Glenna Armstrong, Marie James and Bronwyn Scott
Expert support was provided by:
- Di Skilton and Tim Muir (Cyclone Ltd.)
- Arnika MacPhail (Vision Ltd.)
- Craig Render (CORE Education).
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Ryan Higgins, at 03 5448959 or rhiggins@staff.richmondprimary.school.nz
Reference list
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“Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities - Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou” Corinna, Russell and Maraeroa Schools in Porirua explain what they have learned that makes them more effective teachers of maths to Pasifika children. www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/BES/developing-mathematical-inquiry/14-culturally-responsive-pedagogy
Education Review Office (May 2016). Richmond School (Nelson) report. ERO website.
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Microsoft: The pen is mightier that the keyboard: https://news.microsoft.com/europe/features/new-research-underlines-the-power-of-the-pen-in-learning/
Ministry of Education. (2004). The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum for English-medium teaching and learning in years 1–13. Wellington: Learning Media.
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Robinson, V., Hohepa, M, & Lloyd, C. (2009). School leadership and student outcomes: Identifying what works and why: Best Evidence Synthesis iteration [BES]. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Sheena Cameron https://sheenacameron.com/
TKI: e-Learning Planning Framework http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/e-Learning-Planning-Framework
Webb, M. E. (2014). ICT and Pedagogy. In M. Leask, & N. Pachler (Eds.). Learning to teach using ICT in the secondary school: (3rd ed., pp.67-83). Abingdon, Oxon, U.K.: Routledge.
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