1.What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2021 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise.
I want to begin by stating that 2020 has been a year of unprecedented disruptions which left students and teachers greatly affected and I feel like justice was not done therefore I feel that I want to go back to my topic and spend another year working on the inquiry, ie how multimodal reading activities can lead to improved writing skills.
Braunger and Lewis (1997, p. 24) state that “writing leads to improved reading achievement, reading leads to better writing performance and combined instruction leads to a higher level of thinking than when either process is taught”.
2.What learnings from the 2017 - 2020 COL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking?
My inquiry in 2019 focused on vocabulary building through a spaced repetition programme to get boys excited about writing and raise student achievement. I must admit that those powerful strategies that I was so passionate about has made a huge difference in empowering boys,and will always be a part of my pedagogy.
Reading the success stories of other col teachers have also been inspirational in shaping my pedagogy.
3.How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?
My work would help to increase student engagement in order to facilitate learning, creating and sharing. I value the cultural background the student comes into class with and by combining that with effective technology, we could bring about greater empowerment.
4.Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?
Wolf Fisher research found the area for improvement was reading across the cluster, and I feel strongly that the multi modal approach will help address this problem.
5. How would you like to be supported in 2021 as you undertake this inquiry?
I think the regular col meetups are great, but if more time could be allocated for group sharing, that would be very productive.
We would like the continued support of the management and BOT, as well as staff, where we have the opportunity to share our gems with staff,so that we can learn from each other.
How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?
I plan to continue with collaborative PLD at our team and whole staff meetings, where we can share face to face the strategies that worked/ did not work and also offer help and guidance to colleagues.
