Research
Manaiakalani Research
Colleen Gleeson has been researching selected lead teachers' classes through the Manaiakalani schools from 2008 - 2010, and our netbook pilot classes in 2011.
She has completed her draft report for 2011 and the final report will be available to staff soon.
Her executive summary from 2010 and the use of the Literacy Cycle was as follows:
From the Research: What works?
Use of a Literacy Cycle with explicit teaching of each stage. Continued reflection and revision of cycle to meet the needs of the teaching and learning.
The Literacy Cycle encourages independence and self management.
The Literacy Cycle needs to be used throughout the school to ensure continuity for students.
The ‘hook’ of having an authentic audience motivated students to write and to ensure they had clarity and correctness in their work.
Use of a variety of tools maintains interest and enthusiasm.
The more high-tech an innovation was the more teacher controlled it seemed to become. There was often more literacy basis and student input and control in the more basic tasks and students seemed to be more motivated by this.
Boys found computers made writing easier and more legible than their handwriting.
For students from a low socio economic background it was extremely powerful to know that your ‘voice’ is being heard.
Students were aware that their presentations, written, visual or oral needed to be of excellent quality for the global audience to understand and appreciate and the standard of presentation improved greatly each year.
Posts and comments can be used effectively as exemplars for teaching.
Literacy skills improved throughout the project. There was multiple causality for this and it is not possible to say how much of it was because of the project.
Reluctant readers and writers found the computers easier and more motivating to use.
Reflecting, critiquing and commenting on blogs supports students to peer and self assess independently.
Google Docs have made student draft writing more efficient with immediate teacher comments and flexibility for editing.
Many students were managing their own blogs and were being used by teachers as technical and software supporters across the school.
Students were clearly taking more ownership of their posts and beginning to direct and manage their own learning.
As teacher confidence developed in handling ICTs they were empowered to give more responsibility to students.
Skills learned during the project would be really helpful to students in the future when they were looking for jobs.
Posts uploaded immediately were relevant and interesting to students.
Commenting time as part of the reading rotation gives all students an opportunity to post.
Having an internet policy and procedures is essential.
Students are motivated by parent participation in their blogging.
Students are enthusiastic about working online.
Speaking on line improved oracy as students strived to be understood by a global audience.
From the research: What we found
Student achievement levels had risen by 2010 and teachers were changing their pedagogy to progress these students. An inquiry approach to literacy was used and more link and integration between reading and writing.
There was an issue of quality versus quantity of work on a blog. This debate is continuing.
Continued professional development is needed for school leaders (Principals and Lead Teachers) as well as teachers. Because of the wide range of ability and understanding PD may need to be reviewed to meet these needs.
Students took e-learning tools for granted and were more focused on their literacy learning.
It takes 2 to 3 years for teachers to fully integrate e-learning into their literacy programmes successfully. Teachers who have a strong literacy base integrate more quickly than those with a technology base.
Lead teachers often need training in leadership and management to fulfil their role within their school.
Once students had worked with the project and then moved to a class where this was not happening they got frustrated.
The limit on computer access put a limit on what teachers could get students to do with e-learning.
It took 2 to 3 years for teachers to implement the project and not feel time constraints.
Most students had limited access to computers at home and they enjoyed movie clips and social networking.
Achievement shifts were significant throughout the 3 years. The academic achievement was due to many initiatives implemented by the schools, however it cannot be discounted that Manaiakalani had some influence on the continued increase in achievement across the cluster.
9.5.3 AsTTle Reading – Longitudinal comparison of shifts
It must be noted that the cohorts in the following two graphs are not the same students each year.
This table shows the shifts made in AsTTle Reading for each year group in 4 schools monitored over the three years of the Project. It is compared to the national expected shift for each year level.
Table 9: AsTTle Reading Shifts – Y4 to 8 target students – March 2008 to November 2010
Very significant shifts were shown at all year levels. The shifts increased each year for Year 5 and Year 8 levels. The majority of shifts were above the expected shift for each year level.
9.5.4 AsTTle Writing – Longitudinal comparison of shifts
This table shows the shifts made in AsTTle Writing for each year group in 4 schools monitored over the three years of the Project. It is compared to the national expectation for each year level.
Table 10: AsTTle Writing Shifts – Y4 to 8 and Yr 10 target students – March 2008 to November 2010
Very significant shifts were shown at all year levels. The shifts increased each year for Year 8 levels. All shifts, except one, were above the expected shift for each year level.