Monday, August 19, 2019

Learning in the Fast Lane Chapter 4 - Formative Assessment

Here is the recording of our team discussion on Suzy-Pepper Rollins Learning in the Fast Lane on acceleration student progress.




I thought I would make Google Slides with the strategies for each section as my notes from now on. These can go on our team site, but feel free to use them. I will try to add photos of examples as they happen.









Saturday, August 17, 2019

KPMG Day 3 - The Dragon's Den

On Monday the 12th of August we meet again at KPMG. Our task for this session was to sell our idea and tool to Dorothy, Anne and Jenny, as well as each other. Anne prefaced us with these questions:


  • What is the tool/concept/idea?
  • How have you tested it? What did the testers think?
  • Why would we want to use it? 
  • What is it able to do?
  • How has it evolved and what changes have you had to make? How and why?
  • What do the learners think of it? 
  • Is it making a difference or will it make a difference? How do you know? 
  • What has driven you in the development? 
  • How is it different from other similar tools? 
  • What does your team (us) think?
Here my summary of where my inquiry and tool currently sit.



It was great to see all my MIT colleague's tools. In particular, I am eager to use Nicola's, Joanna's and Amber's tools with my students.

As the day went on I started to draw some conclusions about my next steps. They are:

  • Develop a supporting Google Site for teacher information and resources (Dorothy suggested I use an additional page on the LITCRICON blog)
  • Develop scaffolding resources for all the roles in a literature circle - currently, I have a question poster for the Discussion Director role
  • Get some of my Rāwhiti School colleagues to test it
  • Set up labels on the blog and video submission Google Form for texts or theme
From Dorothy's notes, we also discussed how important it is to front-load students with behaviour expectations. Students need to apply the Key Competencies and "soft skills" to be successful with the LITCIRCON blog and literature circles.

Bring on October's Manaiakalani Wananga!

Accelerating Spelling 2020

 This year Rāwhiti School held Professional Learning Groups to help support our independent teaching goals. Below is my reflection of my goa...