Whanaungatanga

Of my 6 Maori learners

• 2 have sat an assessment and gained credits 
• 4 have not sat any maths assessments 
• 5 have at least passed 1 assessment in another subject 
• 1 has not passed any assessments in any subject

I had contacted whanau (family) earlier in the year about the lack of progress and that is where the conversation ended, so I had to come up with a better plan if I wanted to see a change. My recent conversation with whanau was more explicit. For students to get NCEA L1 they need 80 credits of which there are 10 Literacy credits and 10 Numeracy credits. Without numeracy, a student cannot get NCEAL1, so I encouraged parents to help me, help their child by encouraging their child to attend after-school study classes. 2 of my parents responded to my request, but only 1 was favourable, so out of the blue this week, one of my little treasures turned up and worked on their maths for just over an hour.

I contacted their mum with an update that afternoon to say "thank you for helping me help your child".
Mum was thrilled for 2 reasons
1. Their child's renewed interest in learning and
2.........................................wait for it......................................that she gets to have a relationship with her child's teacher (whanaungatanga).

Monitor and adjust

"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." –John F. Kennedy

To avoid complacency,  a few key moves were trialled to improve learner commitment and raise academic achievement.

The table below outlines the achievement criteria, in "student speak", for the Number Achievement Standard worth 4 numeracy credits. 

Number - Internal  4 credits - Numeracy
Fraction, Decimal, Percent, Integers, Ratio, Rounding (in context)
ACHIEVED	any 3
MERIT	Answer the question
EXCELLENCE	Provide reasonable alternative answers
Literacy Strategy:	Chunking
Teaching Strategy	Association: Look for the Fraction, Decimal Percent or Integer, link it to a number and a keyword(s). For ratio, find the relationship between numbers. Statement                          Working                        Answer (what are you finding)       (+, -, x, )                  (solution with units)

Action	Learners had to READ what was in the table EXPLAIN using prior knowledge what Fraction, Decimal, Percent, Integers, Ratio and Rounding meant to them and an example was done collaboratively. Integers and Ratio seemed the least familiar, so that was the start to our whole class discussion.
Literacy Strategy “Chunking”	The literacy strategy "Chunking" had an unusual meaning for some, like throwing numbers together......as in chucking, so Chunking was explained as having a plate full of food where we had 2 options: option 1 - stuff as much as we can into our mouths until we choke/get sick OR option 2 - take bite-sized pieces of food, chew and swallow slowly before taking another bite. So chunking took on a new meaning for learners in maths. It meant reading the contextual question slowly and highlighting bite-sized pieces of important information
Teaching Strategy “Association”	Find the Fraction, Decimal, Percent, Integer or Ratio, link it to another number and to a keyword(s). That number becomes part of your working and the keyword(s) become your statement.

Bitter pill to swallow

Today was our Level 1 maths exam where a total of 7 credits were up for grabs, 4 for Statistics and 3 for Linear Algebra.

25% of my priority Maori learners sat an assessment
25% were absent
50% showed up without a device. 

After an intense week of revision, 75% of the learners were not prepared for success - what a bitter pill to swallow.

Light bulb moment

Professor Graeme Aitken shared 3 things for learner success at our Manaiakalani PLG today:

Enjoyment of learning, Confidence and Achievement

I had a light bulb moment ......I am so FOCUSED on Maori achievement in my 1104MAT class, that I have overlooked the enjoyment/fun factor for learning that is needed to build learner confidence which will subsequently lead to achievement. With increased confidence, I am certain that learners will attempt more set tasks which will better prepare them for summative assessments and thus reduce our high level of learners who are not sitting assessments.

Baby steps

Our Maori achievement data shows a slight reduction from Term 1 to mid-term 2 of students who Did Not Sit (DNS) the Linear Algebra assessment. 

  

AS 91029	% Maori Term 1	% Maori Term 2
N	90% - DNS	75% - DNS
A	10%	25%
M	0%	0%
E	0%	0%

Achievement criteria in student-friendly language were revisited in conjunction with explicit literacy and teaching strategies as shown below

Algebra - Internal  3 credits - Numeracy
ACHIEVED	Form equations, Solve equations (line graph), Substitute
MERIT	Interpret data (in context)
EXCELLENCE	Create and solve your own equation
Literacy Strategy:	3 Level Guide Achieved - Read on the line Merit - Read between the lines Excellence - Read beyond the lines
Teaching Strategy	Forming equations: Look for secret words: each, every, single, one, per; that number gets the letter Solving equations: =sum( Interpreting tables: Colour code cheapest prices

The table below shows an increase in Maori Achievement from 10% to 38% and a reduction in students not sitting assessments from 90% to 62%. 

AS 91029	% Maori Term 1	% Maori mid Term 2	% Maori after Term 2 exam
N	90% - DNS	75% - DNS	62% - DNS
A	10%	25%	38%
M	0%	0%	0%
E	0%	0%	0%

The Maori National Decile Equivalent (%) for Not achieved for this standard is 17.8%. We still have a way to go to get students confident enough to attempt assessment tasks.

Whanau support

Our recent analysis of data from 1 May showed that 42% of our year 11Maori learners and 87% of 1104MAT Maori learners have zero maths credits. Giving 1104MAT learners an opportunity to set maths specific Goals on day 1 of term 2 seems to have had limited effect on a few learners, so I stepped up the intervention and contacted whanau today asking for their support to encourage learners to attend maths study classes after school. 50% of our whanau immediately agreed to support their children. Now we just need learners to show up.

Empowered learners

All learners should be familiar with the achievement objectives from the New Zealand curriculum. Empowered learners can interpret and show evidence of their understanding of the achievement objectives. At the start of our new standard on Multivariate Statistics, we discussed the achievement criteria in the table below.

Statistics (multivariate) - Internal  4 credits - Literacy/Numeracy
Problem - I wonder………(compare 2 populations) - 2 questions needed Plan - randomly select data from the table provided (about 30 for each population) Data - table Analysis - 5 data summary and description of graphs (Dotplot and Boxplot) Conclusion - Answer the question, Reflect on the outcome if another population was used. Discussion - shape/skew, median, shift, overlap, spread, interesting features
ACHIEVED	Discuss any 3 for each population
MERIT	Discuss and compare any 2 (in context) with evidence
EXCELLENCE	Detailed discussion AND comparison of any 3 (in context) with evidence
Literacy Strategy:	Mnemonic - PPDAC Cycle Word Definition Give one Get one
Teaching Strategy	Acrostic Poem Shapely Men Shift Over Seas for Interesting features Shapely - shape/skew Men - median Shift - difference between medians Over - overlap of boxes Seas  - spread for Interesting features - interesting features

Learners then found definitions or images of words which were unfamiliar to them. For example
Multivariate
5 data summary
Dotplot
Boxplot
Skew