Thursday, June 25, 2009
interviewing
Tremendous Tahi - what has been happening.....
For this inquiry, we have focussed in interviews as our main avenue to gather information. This in itself proved rather tricky. The children had formulated questions using the question map but had real difficulty converting these into questions that you could ask someone. It is a lot harder to word a question correctly to ask a person, instead of finding answers fromt he net or a book.
To make this more successful we had mock interviews using these questions. The children tested the quality of their questions as they asked peers. This proved to be a valuable activitity as it gave the children an instant gauge of the quality of the question. The interviewee was directed to only answer the question asked, not to contribute any prior knowledge or to read between the lines. This was very frustrating for some as they had to think harder about how the question was worded. Now the children are comparing the quality of the answer against the quality of the question, for some, quite challenging. It was great to see those children that made the connection quickly, tutoring others so their question and interview techniques also improved, some very powerful learning.
This has made the children realise that they can learn so much more by taking risks and supporting their peers through those risks. Really meaningful learning, in more ways than one.
For this inquiry, we have focussed in interviews as our main avenue to gather information. This in itself proved rather tricky. The children had formulated questions using the question map but had real difficulty converting these into questions that you could ask someone. It is a lot harder to word a question correctly to ask a person, instead of finding answers fromt he net or a book.
To make this more successful we had mock interviews using these questions. The children tested the quality of their questions as they asked peers. This proved to be a valuable activitity as it gave the children an instant gauge of the quality of the question. The interviewee was directed to only answer the question asked, not to contribute any prior knowledge or to read between the lines. This was very frustrating for some as they had to think harder about how the question was worded. Now the children are comparing the quality of the answer against the quality of the question, for some, quite challenging. It was great to see those children that made the connection quickly, tutoring others so their question and interview techniques also improved, some very powerful learning.
This has made the children realise that they can learn so much more by taking risks and supporting their peers through those risks. Really meaningful learning, in more ways than one.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Heroes in Room4
The children had some ideas on what a hero was so immersing in Traditional stories and
Fairy tales, articals and pictures from the newspaper and listening to our numerous wonderful visitors has enabled the children now to talk more freely about what key competencies these heroes have. We have used Y charts as a class and in groups to let them voice their own opinions on what a hero looks sounds and feels like. We are continually referring to the 7 servants on display not just for inquiry but for any questioning at any time and especially during our" oral language time" when making sure the children are using key words in their questions. Doing this orally appears to be working really well and much easier at this early level, for them to understand. The children were able to choose their heroes quickly of course being their mums, dads, and grandads. those being important in their lives. Again referring to the 7 servants, in pairs the children shared their ideas for questions to ask their hero. 3 main starters were How, What and Why.
Fairy tales, articals and pictures from the newspaper and listening to our numerous wonderful visitors has enabled the children now to talk more freely about what key competencies these heroes have. We have used Y charts as a class and in groups to let them voice their own opinions on what a hero looks sounds and feels like. We are continually referring to the 7 servants on display not just for inquiry but for any questioning at any time and especially during our" oral language time" when making sure the children are using key words in their questions. Doing this orally appears to be working really well and much easier at this early level, for them to understand. The children were able to choose their heroes quickly of course being their mums, dads, and grandads. those being important in their lives. Again referring to the 7 servants, in pairs the children shared their ideas for questions to ask their hero. 3 main starters were How, What and Why.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Questioning skills are not easy to teach!!
Well Rockingrua have moved through the questioning map and we've done lots of work on 'what makes a good question'? This was not as straight forward as I may have initially thought and has taken more time than I first anticipated...but was it worth it? Absolutely!
We knew the layout of the question map so this was not new to the students and we've used it before so there was prior experience BUT did we really know what components create a good question? After feed-back from lead teacher of ICT, we were given resources to enhance our questioning skills. We began by identifying the Seven Servants: who what where etc. Great we all knew those! Then we looked (lots of displays needed here) at the 'criteria' of writing a good question. We practised and practised so our questions were relevent to the topic, contained more than one Seven Servant and contained Keywords. We discovered just how important the contextual language is and how we incorporate it in our questions as Keywords. O'kay so now we have the tools and we've practised the process....where to from here? We used the question map to practise our skills and each student shared their questions to the class. The class then fed-back ideas on improvements or agreed a good question had been written. This was such a useful (although time-consuming) task as it allowed me to observe and listen to the students and identify those that still needed guideance. One of the key points that the students fed-back to each other was to stop using 'they' and 'their' and to be specific throughout the entire question. As their teacher, I was so pleased to hear the learning they had taken on-board and to listen to these wonderful questions they had written. Once our 'practise' was over, we moved onto identifying our own personal Hero. Each student brainstormed possible Heroes to them and wrote statements to justify each person. This ensured they were not randomly selecting but actually thinking about the person and their characteristics. Once this was complete they then chose one person that they believe to be their Hero. Then they brainstormed this Hero and included Keywords (from our display of contextual language) to describe the character of their Hero. Next came our Question Map. The students worked through this with confidence and wrote a good selection of questions to use for interviewing their Hero.
One point to note: It was decided (by the students) that if you use more than one Seven Serpent then you have two pieces of information to gather to answer the question and this must make it better!
And one other: Throughout the teaching of questioning skills there were many times that I reflected upon a lesson and was satisfied that the majority of students had understood and demonstrated successfully their skills but then we'd revisit and I found myself re-teaching/reinforcing the same skills. I mention this because the skills are life-long and not as easy for students to grasp and transfer without the time being put in.
We are now in the process of interviewing our Heroes so I'll update soon to let you know how our Inquiry goes and the outcomes of our interviews..
We knew the layout of the question map so this was not new to the students and we've used it before so there was prior experience BUT did we really know what components create a good question? After feed-back from lead teacher of ICT, we were given resources to enhance our questioning skills. We began by identifying the Seven Servants: who what where etc. Great we all knew those! Then we looked (lots of displays needed here) at the 'criteria' of writing a good question. We practised and practised so our questions were relevent to the topic, contained more than one Seven Servant and contained Keywords. We discovered just how important the contextual language is and how we incorporate it in our questions as Keywords. O'kay so now we have the tools and we've practised the process....where to from here? We used the question map to practise our skills and each student shared their questions to the class. The class then fed-back ideas on improvements or agreed a good question had been written. This was such a useful (although time-consuming) task as it allowed me to observe and listen to the students and identify those that still needed guideance. One of the key points that the students fed-back to each other was to stop using 'they' and 'their' and to be specific throughout the entire question. As their teacher, I was so pleased to hear the learning they had taken on-board and to listen to these wonderful questions they had written. Once our 'practise' was over, we moved onto identifying our own personal Hero. Each student brainstormed possible Heroes to them and wrote statements to justify each person. This ensured they were not randomly selecting but actually thinking about the person and their characteristics. Once this was complete they then chose one person that they believe to be their Hero. Then they brainstormed this Hero and included Keywords (from our display of contextual language) to describe the character of their Hero. Next came our Question Map. The students worked through this with confidence and wrote a good selection of questions to use for interviewing their Hero.
One point to note: It was decided (by the students) that if you use more than one Seven Serpent then you have two pieces of information to gather to answer the question and this must make it better!
And one other: Throughout the teaching of questioning skills there were many times that I reflected upon a lesson and was satisfied that the majority of students had understood and demonstrated successfully their skills but then we'd revisit and I found myself re-teaching/reinforcing the same skills. I mention this because the skills are life-long and not as easy for students to grasp and transfer without the time being put in.
We are now in the process of interviewing our Heroes so I'll update soon to let you know how our Inquiry goes and the outcomes of our interviews..
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Racing Rima - Heroes
What has gone well in our Topic—Heroes in Room Five
Firstly and very importantly, having visitors – heroes in our school, who shared their experiences first hand and answered the children’s questions. This was much more beneficial than finding answers in books , Google, etc but in saying that, books and other resources provided very useful background information, rather than being the information
Before Brigadier Torrance came, the children became enthused through the ‘Whisky 3’ website where they viewed photos and became familiar with the environment in Vietnam and could recognise the Brigadier. They had some very specific questions which he answered in full, and so much was learnt. The children loved seeing his medals, uniform and sword etc. which added meaning. Many of the Year 3 and 4’s had a real feel for what the Brigadier went through in the War.
Danyon Loader was another success, relating so well to the children. The children had a good background of his life so they had other things they wanted to find out, another opportunity to have their questions answered. Most children understood that there was a sacrifice made over years, hours and kilometres of training, leading to success.
We looked at our visitors ‘attributes’ which reflected the Key Competencies which we’ve been looking at quite closely. Eg. Thinking on the spot and making decisions which were hopefully the best for all concerned, working alongside others to succeed, being part of a team and cooperating with others and contributing to the group and managing self in regards to time and looking after/using the tools of the job.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The question Map
This is a tool that we use to set up our inquiry.
In past inquiry units, this hasn't worked as well as it should have, this time we used a task to start our inquiry. The question map was much more useful, it became a tool or learning and thinking rather that a sheet we needed to fill out.
Once the children had unpacked the task, found the purpose for their inquiry, the question map was the next logical step.
The children found it a lot easier to write questions, having a bank of contextual language definately helped. The question map forces the children to look at a topic from a variety of angles, rather than staying focussed on a singluar aspect. It promotes questioning by encouraging deeper thinking and deeper exploration of a single subject.
Our next step is to design an interview, questions taken directly from the map will be the main body of the interview.
check out the children reflections http://www.tremendoustahi.blogspot.com/
The questions have a purpose, the assist the inquiry path - which was the whole aim of using the question map.
We now have to decide - if we keep the task and only use the QM with tasks or do we have a choice between question and task - also, do we need to alter the steps in the discover stage for each option.
The journey continues.
In past inquiry units, this hasn't worked as well as it should have, this time we used a task to start our inquiry. The question map was much more useful, it became a tool or learning and thinking rather that a sheet we needed to fill out.
Once the children had unpacked the task, found the purpose for their inquiry, the question map was the next logical step.
The children found it a lot easier to write questions, having a bank of contextual language definately helped. The question map forces the children to look at a topic from a variety of angles, rather than staying focussed on a singluar aspect. It promotes questioning by encouraging deeper thinking and deeper exploration of a single subject.
Our next step is to design an interview, questions taken directly from the map will be the main body of the interview.
check out the children reflections http://www.tremendoustahi.blogspot.com/
The questions have a purpose, the assist the inquiry path - which was the whole aim of using the question map.
We now have to decide - if we keep the task and only use the QM with tasks or do we have a choice between question and task - also, do we need to alter the steps in the discover stage for each option.
The journey continues.
Poems are published
Check out poems from the senior children as a result of their inquiry.
Go to this website www.w3vietnam.org.nz - click on the news page and scroll down, it also provides a link to the classes poems - which are on their own page.
Congratulations Tremendos Tahi - You Rock
Go to this website www.w3vietnam.org.nz - click on the news page and scroll down, it also provides a link to the classes poems - which are on their own page.
Congratulations Tremendos Tahi - You Rock
Monday, June 8, 2009
Celebration of ideas!!!!
Please check out http://www.tremendoustahi.blogspot.com/ for details of how childrens thinking about heroes in wartime is going to be celebrated on the global stage after a local hero visited our school.
Brigadier Torrance a Vietnam Veteran visited our school, he was impressed with the childrens questioning skills.
Danyon Loader came and shared with the children of ODS how they could become a hero through determination and believing in themselves. A very inspirational presentation.
Children have been working on using contextual language in their questioning, this has made a huge impact, both in quality of questioning and the childrens confidence. Danyon Loader was also impressed with the quality of questions, he said they really had to make him think of his replies - great work students and teachers!!!
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