Pod+13

=Teacher Inquiry - March 2011=

**Name:** Caryn Magrath

**Appraisal group:** Teachers: Mary Leydon, Katy Howett, Jan Olney Students: All Year 4 children achieving at 1a writing level at beginning of year. Their expected level by the end of the year is 2a.

**Area of Professional Inquiry:** Written Language

**Specific Inquiry:** How to raise achievement with a group of targeted children who are underachieving.

**Agreed actions for development:** For teacher - To take 2 mini lessons (with explicit teaching) per week with target group to see if this raises their achievement as opposed to being involved in whole class learning. Research, observations, professional dialogue, experts (Raewyn Sills). For children – mini lessons with targeted teaching, explicit sharing of learning intentions, focussed feedback on learning intentions and success criteria, ownership of learning and responsibilities.

**Timeline:** Term 1 – data gathering and analysis Term 2 – research, begin mini lessons x2 each week, watch others Term 3 – as per Term 2 Term 4 – data gathering and comparisons
 * Research and record __ALL__ information in a reflective journal.**

**Monthly reflections on actions/results:** Week 3/4 - began mini lessons with target children. Found they wrote less with me there as every time I spoke and worked with one of them then the others would become distracted and listen too. Talked to Raewyn about this which lead her to guiding me to a reading about 'shared writing' in small group situations. Will try this next week and see how this goes. **Professional development undertaken: (include readings, visits, discussions, courses)** Week 3/4 - Spoke and discussed targeted teaching strategies with Raewyn Sills for Week 5. - During syndicate meeting we discussed ideas for explicit teaching in small groups - interactive writing, shared writing and learning intentions. **Areas arising for further development:**

**Summary of progress and achievement:**