CoL Blog 4

My wrist is still sore so more handwriting!
I didn't crop this because I thought it was quite artistic!

CoL Blog 3

Learn - Scan

Yesterday I interviewed five of my target Māori students about their reading and writing habits at home and at school, both now and in the past. The code names for students remain the same.

I asked them what their reading habits were like at home:

Student 1 (e-asTTle reading level 4P)
Reads anime comics online, and they specified that these are both 'flicky' and downwards-scrolling texts. Student 1 "sometimes" reads offline.

Student 12 (e-asTTle reading level 3B)

Reads the Bible, and also visits the library to read 3x a week. Finds it too distracting to read at school.

Student 2 (e-asTTle reading level 3P)
Doesn't read at home, unless social media posts count.

Student 15 (e-asTTle reading level 4P)

No reading at home other than flicking through junk mail like newspapers and fliers.

Student 6 (e-asTTle reading level 3P)

Never reads at home.


I asked them what reading activities were like in Primary school, and all of them reported taking turns reading sentences or paragraphs in a book, being asked to summarize, and then answering questions about the text.

I found this interesting because students' didn't mention practicing identifying key points (without just reading out a full sentence), evidence, perspectives, key words and definitions - although this could have happened during the 'questions about the text' stage.

I asked them what strategies they would use to read a difficult science text.

Student 1 (e-asTTle reading level 4P) would just jump straight in and begin to read.

Student 12 (e-asTTle reading level 3B) would skim and scan first, identify key words, then read. They would ask friends about any words they found hard.

Student 2 (e-asTTle reading level 3P) would look for definitions.

Student 15 (e-asTTle reading level 4P) would "start from the beginning."

Student 6 (e-asTTle reading level 3P) would "just read" and if there was a difficult word they would "search it up."

I asked them how engaged out of 10 they were in school, and in science (there may be some bias because they were reporting this to me, their science teacher!)

Student 1 was 6 when friends were away, 4 when they were present, and 10 engaged in science
Student 12 was 9 in school and 8 in science
Student 2 5 in school and 8 in science
Student 15 was 7 and 7
Student 6 was 7 and 5.

I asked them if they could describe what they were learning in science at the moment, and all of them said "energy" along with "types of energy, such as kinetic, sound, and how they can't be created and destroyed." Student 2 went back in time and said "babies, DNA and genes."

I asked them whether they write differently in other classes compared to science:

Student 1 and 12 spoke together and said that in English they do fiction writing, but science is more factual. That they would "write anything" in English and use their imagination, but that science required fact.
Student 2, 15 and 6 said they didn't know..

And finally I asked them whether they had learnt any writing strategies in science:

Student 1 said he learnt everything in English.
Student 12 said simple sentences and adverb sentences.
Student 15 said adverbs.
Student 6 just shrugged.

Scan - Perspectives of Young People

Can changes to cultural visibility and responsiveness in the junior science program improve Maori student a) reading achievement and b) enjoyment, confidence and achievement in science?

When Graeme Aitkin visited Tamaki College in 2017 he said enjoyment, confidence and achievement were vital to student success. In this post I look at how much students in junior science enjoy learning our subject

As with my last post, I surveyed 16 Year 9 students from two classes at the end of 2017.  In my previous post I mentioned factors that may have impacted their data - please refer back to it :)

To find out how much our Year 9 students enjoyed science in their first year of secondary I first asked about how much "fun" they had in science. Perhaps "fun" is not EXACTLY the same as "enjoyment" - sometimes I enjoy things because I am confident, or can feel myself improving, or know I can achieve it.  On the other hand, if you're having fun then you're definitely enjoying yourself. For now, fun is a fine measure.

The average score across the 16 students was 7.5, which is definitely more "fun" than "not fun."

I also asked students how engaged they are with science in class and at home:

The average score for engagement at school was 7.1, with a fairly even spread of answers from 5-10; half-engaged to always-engaged. The average engagement with science at home was 4.5.

I also decided to find out how important students thought that learning science was:

The average score was 8.9, indicating that students do think science is important.

Interestingly, one student who put they are (5) engaged at home, (2) engaged at school, thinks science is really not fun at all (3) gave the highest score for how important that they think it is (10). Does this student see science as extremely valuable to them but too boring at school; so they put more effort in at home? That's not what I want for our junior science students. I want to them to enjoy learning at school, grow in confidence and accelerate in achievement in a subject they have reported is important for them to learn.