St Agnes' Primary Learning Collaborative - a Journey for ALL staff

The Learning Collaborative drew inspiration from Lyn's book and started the year with having staff retell, relate and reflect upon their Learning Collaborative journey so far, with the view to have this data inform what revision might be needed. This data is viewable here:  Staff Data Snapshot Staff went into break groups according to their learning needs.  

Starting off 2022 professional learning with a revision of the parameters. Staff then were asked to give in 25 words or less their elevator pitch.  

  It took a whole staff meeting to go deeply with Learning Intentions. Our next meeting, some what two weeks later went into Success Criteria. The focus: How they need to be visible, understood, relevant and transparent. Lyn's video showed how we can demonstrate to students how to succeed - connecting it to prompts, resources, anchor charts and Bump It Up Walls. Staff sat in their PLTs (which included their TA) and divided their page into a Ta chart. Staff examined two work samples and analyzed what did the samples both have and what did the better sample have. Staff then shared this with another PLT and together they co-constructed what is the success criteria (standards - what students do to attain the Learning Intention). They were instructed to ensure their Success Criteria enabled all students to achieve at least one aspect of success. Success Criteria was then shared around the room through a gallery walk. Two PLTs at each Success Criteria T chart were asked to reflect on the...

  We begun our session by listening to Hattie on what the research says about the effect of clear Learning Intentions and Success Criteria on student learning.  We watched a clip from Lyn that discussed how Big Ideas and Guiding Questions surround the Assessment Waterfall chart. Staff discussed how they develop BI an GQ's in their planning sessions. How do we infuse higher order thinking skills into our units of study? How do we give students time to develop inquiry questions and draw out the Big Ideas? Why do we do this? We then went through the following slides and discussed. Lyn links the Learning Intentions to the Walks and Talks we will be undertaking. She emphasised the following: Staff highlighted how the 'so that' sentence stems helps to ensure the 'why' we are learning something is covered. It challenged staff the need to move away from WLT, WILF and TIB. Learning Intentions are not about 'doing' but about 'learning' and come from the syllab...

  The learning Collaborative team engaged with learning around the Assessment Waterfall Chart. We begun by analyzing the purpose of assessment. The learning focused on how every meeting should start with data and ensuring our instructional strategies move students to learning the deeper, broader concepts that sit beyond the context of the activity.   We also contemplated how learners best learn and how this might influence us as teachers of students and each other as professionals. The Assessment Waterfall Chart directly connected to the 5 Questions we ask with Learning Walks and Talks. If students are able to answer the questions then the Waterfall chart is evident. As a Learning Collaborative we discussed the importance of unpacking each section so that our students can become assessment capable learners (an effect size of 1.44).  With staff we shared how The Assessment Waterfall Chart depicts all of the components of assessment as and for learning, NO amount of instruc...

Click on the following box to see the embedded video: The second video is available from the following website:  https://watch.screencastify.com/v/pp3f3vH5qDGvYpcQNgIU    

Sharing student work samples (that have come about after creating an English program with a 'Clarity' influence):   De-Constructed Learning Intentions:   Teachers brainstorming with students examples, non-examples and what technical words mean (with visuals). Anchor Charts to support learning:   Co-Construction of exemplars:     Co-Construction of Success Criteria and Bump It Up Walls: Teachers shared from 'Clarity' the Venn Diagram that they love to use for assessment. Teachers spoke of using it to inform their teaching. Those who were 'unsure' or 'not getting it' would come to the teaching table, those who were getting it would partner with those who don't or even having the diagram as a tool for self-assessment. Kindergarten teachers talked through their process. Breaking down Big Ideas and Guiding Questions. Developing anchor charts with students using the best example from the Bump It Up wall as a reference. Building the writing process by start...