Testing The Hunch - Development Of Language In Maths

Hunch part 1.

I am seeking to raise achievement in writing, reading and maths this year by targeting methods
which students may identify the necessary features, language and audiences especially in their
writing. So far, I have noticed a small shift in approaching our writing from a stance of planning
based on audience and needs of the text. Conversations around their learning, especially in
writing, seem to surround complying or asking for answers rather than seeking clarification.
This gives me a hunch that they haven’t had much critical voice in their learning.

Target Student Data

STUDENT	Ethnicity	Year Level	Year level/Age at 1/1/18	Maths (GloSS T1 18)	Reading Age (Nov 17)	Writing (Term 1 ITJ)
Y6A	Samoan	6	10ys2mos	4/E6	R.A. 10-10.5/11yrs	3P/3A
Y6B	Tongan	6	10ys3mos	E5/E6	R.A.   10.5-11/11yrs	3P/3A
Y7A	Tongan	7	11ys4ms	5/E7	R.A. 11-11.5yrs/12-13yrs	3P/4B
Y7B	Samoan	7	10ys10mos	E5/E7	R.A. 10.5-11yrs/12-13yrs	3P/4B
Y8A	Samoan	8	12ys5mos	E6/7	R.A.10-10.5yrs/12-13yrs	3A/4A
Y8B	Filipino	8	11ys6mos	E6/7	R.A. 10-11/12-13yrs	/4A

Focus Background

Focus background:

I have noticed that the cohort which have come from Y5 are developmentally far behind the other
two year level students. They have had little to no exposure to writing for any other purpose other
than recount. The Y7 students have begun working on writing for purpose, however, they still cannot
independently identify the needs for each genre of writing. The Y8 students have had a good
background in writing across a range of purposes, however, Y8A has been identified due to his
tendency to “do as he is told” which clearly demonstrates he can’t understand “writing for purpose.
In Maths there is a big gap in their knowledge and strategies - due in part to ESOL students coming
from an overseas education focus on algorithm and learning process rather than strategies. During
GloSS testing, I noticed that most of the children simply lacked the language to explain their processes.
There is an obvious opportunity to fill in gaps in areas such as geometry, time, measurement and times
tables.

Our school focus for this year is to develop CRITICAL THINKING among students. The focus for our
CoL is LANGUAGE.