Providing opportunities for SHIFT

My NCEA L2 students have not had any academic success in mainstream schools, let alone maths classes, so I had to be a point of DIFFERENCE if we wanted different outcomes. So what did we do differently?

On day one of each term, I gave my learners a mini whiteboard to write down one thing they wished their teachers knew about them. These are some of the responses from students in all my classes:

- My Name
- I am dyslexic
- I don’t focus when I don’t understand
- I work better if I am left alone and listening to music
- I like to be alone
- I tend to get mad really easily and don't like sitting still too long
- Some days I don't feel like doing anything and some days I want to finish all my work
- I have manners
- I am hard to teach.

When I set up my 12MAT course I had to be mindful of my clientele. None of my learners had had any NCEA L2 maths credits from their previous school, so we were starting with a blank slate which I used to my advantage.

Each term our learners get new timetables as they change courses/teachers, so we usually begin with introductions.
My attempt with my NCEA L2 class failed miserably as learners were not too keen to share anything about themselves except their name. I let them know it was OK and immediately moved on. I sought their permission about attempting some critical thinking activities using de Bono's 6 Hats and they were willing to give it a go. They loved it and when I suggested taking a short break after a few challenges, they all begged for more...... music to my ears........mission accomplished. They seemed to get the message, loud and clear, that they were very capable if they tried and they were beginning to trust me as their teacher.

When it was time to move on to academics, I had to tread carefully and told my learners that I had prepared a CHEAT Sheet for each standard and it was going to help them taste academic success in maths. Each CHEAT Sheet included
- Achievement Objectives rewritten in "student speak"
- Evidence needed to meet the standard
- Research based literacy standards
- Teacher-created learning strategies

After a discussion about the CHEAT Sheet all learners seemed keen to get on with their learning journey which they could monitor on a tracking sheet. The tracking sheet forced learners to self-manage, one of the 5 key competencies of the NZ curriculum. Learners were competing with themselves and not each other as they progressed through the course as they all worked at their own pace. To their surprise, some of them completed the programme and practice test ahead of the deadline and sat summative assessments before moving on to the next standard. In all 3 terms thus far, most learners have completed additional standards as they were not bound by a structured timeline set in stone. All it took was for one learner to set the pace before the others followed. "Nothing breeds success like success". My 12MAT results are shown below together with a comparison with National data.


You will notice that for each of the 4 standards, my learners' success data far exceeds national data. My next post will analyse Maori and Pasifika achievement.

Post Lockdown Student Achievement Data

My previous post focused on academic achievement of learners in my mentoring class, most of whom I did not teach in terms 1 and 2.
I would like to follow up on academic achievement of learners in my core subject, Maths

In a nutshell term 1 had 8 weeks of on site instruction and term 2 had 7 weeks.

One would predict that....
......academic achievement would be similar between the two terms as there was only a 1 week difference  or             
......term 2 academic achievement would be lower as teachers and learners had to deal with the impact of Lockdown, both physically and mentally and implement distance learning which was a first for most.

My Maths course had standards ranging from 2 - 3 credits; some students sat one assessment, others sat 2 or more assessments and a few did not finish the programme so did not sit an assessment within that time frame of  8 weeks (term 1) or 7 weeks (term 2).
Below is a comparison of academic achievement data of learners who gained 4 or more credits during term 1 (8 weeks) or term 2 (7 weeks) which means they sat 2 or more assessments.

                                                    11MAT                   12MAT               
                                 Term 1:    3/14 = 21%            2/5 = 40%             

                                 Term 2:    7/9 = 78%              5/6 = 83%         

There was a significant shift in achievement data between the 2 terms. So what did we (me, students, school, community) do differently?

For starters, I created additional rewindable learning resources during Lockdown which my term 2 students seemed to appreciate immensely. It was like having multiple mini-me's in the room as I would hear my voice pop up as students accessed the resources which were about 2 minutes long, long enough to get the message across and still keep learners engaged.

I had more deliberate learning conversations with individuals after they had attempted a few activities and if they felt confident enough, they would sit the practice test and summative test without working through the entire programme. At first, I was a tad bit uncomfortable with that approach, but soon realised that quality of learning evidence had to trump quantity of learning evidence and I had to maximise learner enthusiasm and engagement.

The community donated food.

My school prepared the donated food and fed learners throughout the term with hot wholesome lunches with plenty for seconds.

My take away (no pun intended) is that the hot wholesome lunches had the most impact.

Post Lockdown data of menteees

After an abrupt end to term 1 due to COVID-19 and an attempt at distance teaching and learning for all staff and learners for the first half of term 2, we were all keen to get into a familiar routine when schools reopened. Our learners did not adjust well to distance learning as we were in unchartered territory, so how did that impact learning and academic achievement? I will share term 1 and 2 data from my mentor class who seemed to do remarkably well post Lockdown.

Each term our learners select courses that are different from the previous term; so term 2 learners did courses that were offered to their peers in term 1. Teaching and learning resources were similar and allocated timetabled periods were the same. A few teachers created rewindable learning resources in the form of  videos during Lockdown which term 2 learners could access. The marked differences in term 2 post Lockdown were:
the reduced time spent onsite and
students being fed hot meals DAILY.

Well what a difference a satiated belly makes


Student:                           A         B         C        D        E         F        G        H
Term 1 credits gained:    18        3          4         0         7         0        24       5
Term 2 credits gained:    24       21       32        17       24       30       34       2
Credit shift:                   +6     +18     +28     +17     +17     +30     +10     -3

7 of my 8 mentees (88%) gained more credits post Lockdown compared to credits gained in term 1.