Design for Learning

Design learning based on curriculum and pedagogical knowledge, assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths, interests, needs, identities, languages and cultures.

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Learning-focused Culture

Teaching

Select teaching approaches, resources, and learning and assessment activities based on a thorough knowledge of curriculum content, pedagogy, progressions in learning and the learners.
Gather, analyse and use appropriate assessment information, identifying progress and needs of learners to design clear next steps in learning and to identify additional supports or adaptations that may be required.
Design and plan culturally responsive, evidence-based approaches that reflect the local community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in New Zealand.
Harness the rich capital that learners bring by providing culturally responsive and engaging contexts for learners.
Design learning that is informed by national policies and priorities

Evidence

Planning

Unit Plans

L5 Physical World Unit Plan

Y10 Physical World Unit Plan

Forensics Lesson Overview

Y10 Forensics Unit Plan

IT - 9STEM 2020 Course Plan.pdf

Y9 STEM Unit Plan (Terms 3-4)

Lesson Plans

10 Galileo Science Lessons 2019

Year 10 Science Daily Lesson Plan

9STEM Lesson Plan 19/10/2020

Year 9 STEM (option) Daily Lesson Plan

Level 2 Physics Hyperslide - Nuclear Physics

Copy of 1. Intro to Nuclear Physics

This hyperdoc was intended to be completed over one week.

Year 10 Science Hyperslide - Conductors and Insulators

Copy of Electricity - Conductors and Insulators

This hyperdoc was intended to be completed in one 90 minute lesson.

Gamification in Year 9 Science

Gamification Planning

Copy of The Hunger Games Rule Book

Copy of The Hunger Games Plan

The First Day

IMG_4782.MOV

The Game Board

3D map of the game world. This map is only for the introduction where students are introduced to the world of the game, laboratory safety, and some key skills they will use in the lab.

Student Work

IMG_4776.MOV

Examples of student work

Battle Time.MOV

A Battle

Gamified Task - Topic 1 (Living World)

Copy of L7 - Cell Organelles

Students used this Google Form to submit their completed work. This created a large workload for me as a teacher and was difficult to provide feedback to the students. It was also difficult to track student progress.

Gamified Task - Topic 2 (Material World)

This topic was not gamified due to workload during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Instead hyperdocs that had been created by the Science Department for use during lockdown were used. This was assigned to students using Google Classroom and completed at home and in class once the lockdown was lifted. Students still received XP for the completion of these tasks even though the tasks themselves had not been explicitly gamified.

Copy of Section 1 - L4 MW

Gamified Task - Topic 3 (Planet Earth and Beyond)

Students used the Panem App to choose which task they wanted to complete, then asked for it to be assigned to them on Google Classroom.

PEB tasks on app.MP4

Copy of S7 - Distances in Space

PEB google form checkpoint.MP4

Gamified Task - Topic 4 (Physical World)

Hunger Games Task Booklets PW - Energy Types

Hunger Games Task Booklets PW - Light

Hunger Games Investigation Task Sheets E1-E3

Organisation and Self-Management Tools and Strategies

Blog post on my website on prioritisation and organisation strategies.

Digital Strategies

Trello

Kanban board on Trello. Each student was given their own board with all the things they needed to do to create a successful Science Project. Students drag and drop the cards into the relevant column. This works in real time, so I (as the creator and member of the board) can track student progress.

A more detailed view of one of the Trello cards. This contains a 'To Do' checklist of the specific steps they need to take before that card can be moved to the 'done' column. The checklist provides a visual progress bar. A due date and time can also be added to each card so students can easily prioritise tasks.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom was used heavily this year, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown. Instructions were provided in multiple locations as were due dates.

Analogue Strategies

Contents Page, Task Checklists, and Self-Reflection

Hunger Games Task Booklets PW Instructions - Energy Types

Copy of Hunger Games Investigation Task Sheets instructions and self reflection E1-E3

Study Timetable

Copy of Study timetable

Used with senior students. Particularly at the end of Term 3 and during Term 4 when students are trying to manage internals, study for externals/tests, and extra curricular commitments.

Students are directed to first block out the time where they already had commitments; work, sports, dinner etc. Then to write down all the major tasks and their due dates. These major tasks were broken down into more manageable chunks which were put into the timetable.

Reflection

It has become increasingly clear to me, through experience and professional development, that teaching is (and really has been for some time) not solely about the communication and subsequent memorisation of 'important information'. As society and the environments we inhabit change with increasing rapidity, transferrable skills are becoming more valuable than knowing specific facts. This is recognised in the Key Competencies of the NZ Curriculum (p.12-13, 2007). Students' awareness of their need to master these skills is also rising, so providing them with as many opportunities as possible to grow and develop has been at the forefront of unit and lesson planning. In the junior school, with the implementation of gamification, students have had the choice of the order they complete the tasks and the responsibility to complete these within a specific timeframe. The seniors have also had similar opportunities through hyperdocs, although the order of learning has had to stay more rigid. The use of

Gamification has been my main focus (and inquiry) for 2020. This encompasses many different pedagogies, techniques and task types. My journey into gamification began with the introduction of another teacher in NZ using Trello as an organisation and self-management tool, with the ability to enable and increase student agency and collaboration. This lead to the discovery of several teachers internationally who are leaders in student agency and thus gamification. One of these teachers, Scott Hebert (Top 50 Finalist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2020), also created an app (Glide apps) as part of the delivery of his gamification.

I jumped at the chance to learn more about the world of coding and online platform development. The app has allowed for constant and close tracking of student progress and quality of work. XP is used to convey completion and quality to the students and is presented in a leaderboard for added competition (a key driver for boys). In addition to the app, I also created a website (Panem Online) with more capability, flexibility and a different purpose to the app. The original intent was to have somewhere for parents to be more engaged with what their sons were encountering in the classroom, and to have a place for students to extend and broaden their knowledge (in the form of digital escape rooms). This was begun during lockdown as I came across some professional development in this space online. However, still needs much work to be fully functional.

This year in particular has been a steep learning curve, what with the new pedagogies, different technologies and shifting teaching foci. However, for all the challenges and obstacles that have been presented this year, I am excited to continue developing my gamification programme and incorporating my learnings from that into all my teaching.

Next Steps

I would like to embed more opportunities for the development of the Key Competencies and use various techniques (e.g. timetables) and technologies (e.g. Trello) more consistently to aid this implementation. These skills and competencies are recognised internationally, and more immediately by the boys themselves, as important tools in their toolkit for a manageable, successful, and fulfilling life.

Throughout this year as the game, and its many components, have been trialled I have been making notes of improvements, additions, or removals that need to be made. Many of these I have been able to implement and trial as the year progresses. There are many more large scale changes that I feel need to be made, which require a significant time and energy investment. Particularly I feel the story needs to be more prominent and drive the learning forward, as opposed to being in the background and only occasionally relevant.

Group work needs to be meaningful and necessary (i.e. the task has to require a group to function in order to successfully complete the task), something I have found difficult to incorporate previously. Expert groups is one way this can be achieved, and could be used as a foundational activity which I can use to create other group tasks.

Contextual learning is a significant part of successful gamification and is something I would like to improve upon for 2021 and beyond. Particularly in terms of including contexts and cultures that are familiar to our students.