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Dept TAI: taking the blank page fear out of creative writing

 

Students often paralyse themselves with self-doubt and procrastination when it comes to creative writing.

I have focussed on several methods of getting them to write without fear and to expand on initial ideas, rather than trusting to their judgement on whether they can ‘do’ creative writing. The Design Thinking process was used to plan lessons.

Year 9 – top set/extension class.

Obstacle Empathy

Students identified they felt under pressure to come up with ideas and found it very difficult. Most (82%) said they ‘hated’ poetry or found it boring. Around 2/3 of the class said that they were stronger on Maths than English and found creative writing harder than essays because they had to come up with original ideas that they didn’t think were good enough. 

The pressure to  write at Excellence meant that the class overwhelmingly felt that their work was not good enough and so they kept deleting work. We discussed the process of writing and how ideas don’t land perfectly on the page. They also felt far too self-conscious to consider the idea of slam poetry and were flat-out horrified by the idea of sharing poetry in person with others.

Define problems to resolve

• Create ways for students to try different approaches that focus on the creativity and process rather than the end result.
• Encourage ways to develop imaginative responses to stimuli.
• Develop confidence with exploring ideas and feelings through poetry, also getting students to build on previous work that focussed on techniques.

1st activity (IDEATE): gut instinct, interpreting ideas

We talked about song lyrics being poetry and how they bent other people’s words to their own meanings every time they listened to a song. Students were given half a lesson to pick 4 songs by different artists, select at least 3 lines from each that hit them hard, then reorder them to make a new song that said something about the difficulties of growing up. This got them interpreting ideas freely and thinking about structure and contrast.

I also did my own versions in real-time in class to model the process and thinking strategies. More importantly, it showed that I was willing to write and have my work seen by others too (especially given the often personal nature of creative writing).

2nd activity: Idea generation

Poetry Consequences

• Basic activity  Each student given rough paper, folded like a concertina.
• given one word randomly chosen by a student, then write a line in 30 seconds with this word in
• paper folded over and passed to the next person who adds the next line below (without seeing the other writing).
• Repeated 7 times.
• Pages laid out on floor, student picks one page with one of their own lines (to establish connection with outcome and give some choice)

Ouctome: within 10 minutes, each student had the bones of a ‘finished’ poem. Freed from worrying about the end form and with some anonymity, they felt less self-conscious and wrote more deeply. This would then springboard into the next task.

Some students wrote ‘joke’ lines because they knew their friends would see it. A refinement to this would be to swap papers with someone who they don’t normally talk to. Most wrote well. The disjointed ideas weren’t a problem as they were just to springboard potential directions to write in.

3rd Activity: selection of ideas (prototype) followed by expansion and refinement (test)

Students to choose a minimum of 3 lines from the poem. They can rephrase or change these lines slightly or just take a key phrase from it.

Once they have selected these lines, students given 10 minutes to write a rough ‘scream of consciousness’ poem about a powerful feeling they have had, or can imagine, or base it on the feelings/situation of a character from a book or film. This gave students a rough draft/prototype which formed the basis of a longer poem. They then had to expand on key areas and go back to play around with structure, rhythm, vocabulary and language features (refinement/testing).

The last aspect, of having an ‘out’ from personal experience made male students less self conscious – either it helped them with ideas or it gave them a smokescreen for their own feelings.

The male student below turned his lines into some slam poetry/rap, based on a character from The Avengers.

 

student 2 (female)

student 4 (female)

student 4 (male, bright and different but often fails to complete work) – this student chose to expand on some key lines from the original lyric activity instead.

Feedback on this activity:

I talked about the poems with students and whanāu at the parent-teacher conferences. Some parents were quite surprised at how traumatic their child’s poetry ended up being.  Students said it was either quite good to get feelings out of their system or just said it was a lot easier to write angsty traumatised stuff than happy stuff (we were just about to do the funny poems, which they found much more challenging). They were overwhelmingly positive about the poetry project and often commented on how they thought they hated poetry at the beginning but liked it now.

4th Activity: writing positively or humourously

Students added to a shared doc, compiling links of funny slam poets and witty rhymes etc. before trying to make their own about an awkward situation, a funny character or updating a fairytale.

Without a doubt this was the most challenging activity in terms of writing, with many students giving up or writing very brief poems. They identified the problem of writing positively without sounding cliched or cheesy. It didn’t matter so much that the poetry itself was less successful. As writers, they had worked out that it is easier to tap into the darker side of things. Some students with a natural flair for words managed to write a convincing poem. The below is from a female student who knocked up a Revolting Rhymes-inspired poem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifth activity: analysis of existing poetry

Having explored and written their own poetry, students could work solo, in pairs or in groups of 3 to work through an independent inquiry into Patricia McCarthy’s Football After School. This is a long poem with some challenging imagery to unpack and shifting narrative viewpoints – I have used it with senior classes and it has been a text for Cambridge in the past.

The Year 9s initially panicked because of the length and then were encouraged to use the same processes as they had used for the lyric and writing activities (task 1 & 2). They found that once they had each chosen 3 lines that hit them for some reason, then unpacked the small ideas, that they understood the larger whole.

Responses to the inquiry were thoughtful, mature and sensitive. Extended PEEL paragraphs were detailed and interesting but sometimes forgot to focus on the techniques/language features as they focused on the emotions instead. This was addressed on feedback – I would use a longer period of peer reviewal with success criteria to improve this next time.

Student A (male – the free thinking but non-completist from above)

student B (female)

student C (female, has lacked confidence)

 

Final Reflection

At the end of the project, the students were hugely positive about it.  I asked them to give me some feedback on rough paper at the end. Comments included:

• I liked the chance of being really creative and trying new things
• Not having people see my work makes it easier to write about private things
• I hated poetry before but this was fun and interesting
• It’s hard to write about yourself but thinking about a film helped me get into it without feeling stupid
• I like writing songs and things at home.
• Its easier to write poems because you just focus on the ideas but with stories you have to work out a lot more background stuff so this was a lot better to make me think about my techniques more.

I will adapt some of the activities to work with my senior classes – the basic idea of building up from quick-shot lines was particularly effective.

As ever, it is a massive shame that students are too self-conscious to share their writing outside of their own friendship circle (and many were too self-conscious even to do that – especially boys).

 

Ako, Inquiry, Self-Management and Personal Connections at Year 10 (male student focus)

With both Extension and Standard Year 10 classes I want to see how different students respond to a challenging text and how their inquiry-based learning affects their understanding. Having come late to the school, I missed the initial ako study but have tried to catch up on this, encouraging students to problem solve and explore together.

From looking at assessment data, there is a clear gender gap in terms of achievement. Having just spent 4 years in a boys’ school, I have had experience in developing boy-friendly ways of raising attainment and want to ensure that the self-managed, ako focus re-engages boys (who are not typically the best self-managers in writing-intensive subjects) and enables them to develop detailed, high quality work.

I want all students to feel engaged and enthusiastic about English and about themselves as learners – this is particularly important in Term 3, which can feel like hard work and a bit of a slog to get to the end of the year.

Initial obstacle:

• limited text choices – few Year 10 texts that will appeal to both/either class. No real bicultural choices.
• Making the texts relevance and for the students to see real world applications.
• Assessment data clearly shows boys have struggled with extended writing, specifically on developing convincing detail or showing perception. Texts will need to be meaty enough to encourage this kind of response and progression of learning will need to develop necessary skills.
• Resulting decision Julius Caesar for my rather apolitical 10Extension class (although this met with the usual groans I tried to sell it through relevance and the need to challenge themselves). For the mainstream 10GL, who can be over-focussed on stereotypes, Divergence by Veronica Roth. This text was an easy sell and available as a ‘streaming read’ digital copy, bypassing the limited physical choices (there is also a decent teen film).

Skills I want my Year 10s to develop:

• self reliance
• time management
• curiosity
• reading between the lines
• making links between a text and its relevance today
• valuing and building on each others’ ideas

Outcomes I am aiming for:

• Engagement and seeing the relevance between texts and what they can say about our world today and who we are as people
• being able to discuss challenging ideas
• developing detailed, specific analysis of the text with personal responses
• making real-world connections and thinking about the world they live in, rather than seeing the text as an isolated and abstract ‘task’
• some links between the presentation and māori public speaking

Genius stroke of luck

I wanted to find something that would be really different and encourage personal, transferable skills rather than focus on content-specific knowledge.

In a Wednesday morning PD session, Linda Reubens spoke about her Apple Education conference and mentioned Swift Playground (for IPad).

I have therefore decided to create an extension/enrichment task for both classes, where they will create a 3D environment to represent key aspects of the language, plot, characters and themes of the text. These virtual environments or games can then be shared with the rest of the class as a learning sandbox.

Although I have used Scratch, I have not used any of the 3 platforms I am offering, which will put me at an equal level with my akonga and enable me to learn with and from them. The increased equality and flexibility of learning opportunities and choices will enable a more personal connection with the texts.

 

What students will do

As well as learning how to analyse and develop detail in their exploration of key aspects of the text, my akonga will work on a variety of self-managed tasks where the learning process itself is of key importance (not just the end product). They will choose what they want to work on and manage time appropriately.

10GT – quick picture

• Self-managed inquiry project into different performances of Marc Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral, looking at symbolic and ambiguous language. This will make links to politics, including the recent controversy over a Trump-esque production in New York and encourage students to make links between the language and real-world issues. Self-managed directed-inquiry tasks link to key aspects of the text; class discussion/peer to peer learning and improvement to follow.

• Solo presentation based on ideas from play (a leader has to persuade and convince the public) and a short study into public speaking and performance by US Presidents. Students will deliver and video a US Presidential speech addressing the nation (war, natural disaster, mars exploration, zombie apocalypse) (click below).

10ENG – quick picture

• Students will work together to creatively show their understanding of the world of Divergent by creating a new ‘Faction’ (like a clan) for Divergent. They will show their understanding of the text through the detailed ideas they create, presenting as a group with visual aids. They will also have to develop a ‘killer move’ – something unexpected and creative to encourage a more interesting approach to presentations.
• Feedback will provide a second assessment opportunity through the same Presidential speech task as 10GT, given a focus on inspiring leadership like Triss in Divergent.

 

• Students need support in moving ‘beyond the text’ to develop interpretative skills. They work at their own pace to develop comprehension responses that scaffold skills from on-the-lines to between and beyond the lines. Having completed this, students will work together to identify symbolic, key quotes that show how the main character develops and then use divergent (no pun intended) thinking to come up with a range of interpretations. These will be discussed as a class and form the basis for developed analysis, which is a skill they have struggled with.

 

Both classes – Creative challenge/Self-Management project

Students will need to show their understanding through at least 1 of these choices:

• Creation of a 3D computer generated environment reflecting key ideas and events in the text (see above).

Process – specific breakdown

Students in both classes had several strands to their learning:

1. Personal inquiry tasks, which students could work through at their own pace, directing them towards key elements of the text.
2. These were then used as flipped classroom approaches, where we would use group and class discussion about key language, techniques, symbolism and what the thematic relevance might be. I also used these sessions to build on the foundations of what they had learned individually and collectively. Students enjoyed the ako approach, where they also became teachers to the whole class (including myself) by making observations or building on the ideas of others. I was not only impressed with their high level critical thinking but also with their original ideas and I made it clear that they were also teaching me new things about the texts. These sessions enabled collective exploration and learning, emphasising the importance of self-management to complete the inquiry tasks.

• Y10 Shakespeare Flipped Classroom and Writing: Daniel
• Y10 Shakespeare Inquiry Daniel

These show Daniel’s flipped classroom preparation and note-taking, task responses, performance inquiry, supported paragraph writing and independent paragraph writing. He had really struggled with developing formal writing and with analysing texts clearly. Daniel showed incredible self-management and thrived on the independent learning. 

3. Following on from these collaborative learning sessions, I supported their essay writing by modelling and deconstructing my own writing, using a version of their PEAL structure. I then gave them a series of cloze procedure paragraphs, which had a basic framework needing to be completed through applying their own understanding. This helped them to develop critical analysis skills and make their writing more formal and sophisticated. Each paragraph became progressively more ‘open’. Eventually, students self-selected a totally independent writing task, which was differentiated to provide Supported, Guided and Independent choices. Most students chose the medium task (Guided), while about a third chose the Independent task. I encouraged the small number of students who chose the supported task, similar to class-level writing, to then try the Guided paragraph afterwards, which most did (Hugh, below, is a good example of this and he worked hard to redraft and improve ideas).

Student writing exemplars: 10 GL (Divergent writing)

Despite having great ideas in class and putting a lot of effort in, Ben typically got high Achieved. He needed help using specific evidence, developing ideas and making the real world/thematic discussion relevant and personal. Y10 Divergent Writing progression Ben shows examples from different stages of writing, clearly showing his progression in skill and confidence to a convincing Excellence (below)

y10-divergent-writing-jackson  This shows the final framework that students had for their independent paragraph. While Jackson’s paragraph is far less developed than Ben’s it shows a convincing understanding and a connection with the purpose/relevance, bringing him to Merit from his NA/Achieved initial writing.

Ella was very good in class discussion but self-management, concentration and effort were not her strong points. Y10 Divergent writing ella shows the progression of her skills, following the same tasks as Ben. She moved from the NA/Ach borderline to Merit and found the specific focus and ‘building blocks’ of the paragraphs helped her to concentrate and expand on her ideas.

 

Student exemplars: 10 GT (Shakespeare writing)

• Y10 Shakespeare writing Keisha medium Keisha really struggled with the kind of detailed analytical writing needed to break Excellence. The medium framework helped to structure developed, specific writing and in making some phrasing more powerful.
• Y10 Shakespeare writing medium Rebekah
• Independent paragraph – Hugh (below) Hugh is very good at Humanities and Science, strong in Maths and much weaker in English. He dislikes the personal response/interpretation side of English and is prone to finding/making distractions. Self-management is a real problem for him, unless (by his own admission) he is interested in something. The historical side to the text was certainly beneficial but he thrived on the challenge of self-management as he knew he would fail if he didn’t sort himself out and that would be “really embarrassing”. He chose the hardest task and worked through two drafts, responding well to feedback (particularly on making his personal response more emotionally powerful through stronger phrasing). He was incredibly proud (and relieved) to reach his goal of Excellence, especially given he had chosen the hardest task. While not naturally strong at this type of writing, the combination of structure, freedom of choice and a strict deadline really helped him to focus.

• Independent paragraph – kyra (Māori student)
• Independent paragraph – kate

4. Students in the 10GT group also had an additional, personal inquiry into the dramatic presentation and ambiguity of Marc Antony’s character, making personal responses to different actors performing the same scene and applying their knowledge of the text to make directorial choices, explaining their decisions. The play was also made specifically relevant to investigation into a recent Trump-like Caesar in New York and responding to different opinions about it, as well as making up their own minds. Below: a range of Inquiry projects from the lower, middle and top end of the class. Interestingly, Vanessa really came into her own here and displayed the most mature, sophisticated understanding in class discussions by the end of the project.

• Daniel’s Shakespeare Inquiry
• Hugh’s Completed Inquiry Task
• y10-shakespeare-inquiry-vanessa
• Y10 shakespeare Inquiry Kate

5. Students in the 10ENG Group had a collaborative project where they developed their own ‘faction’, applying their understanding of the world of Divergent and linking it to real world issues, exploring stereotypes as a result. The boys in the class seemed to particularly enjoy the ‘world building’ aspect as can be seen in Jackson’s presentation below, which supported his expanded spoken ideas really well

Y10 Divergent faction presentation Jackson

Y10 Divergent Speech Writing Jackson

Riley is typically disengaged with English, distracting others and being reluctant to read or write. However, he threw himself into the creation aspect here, researching intensively to incorporate ideas about spirituality and karma into his faction. While he did use ideas from other sources, he has applied them to his own imaginative ideas and showed incredible focus and effort. Riley’s English Faction – Sacris

 

6. Both groups looked at presidential speeches, exploring language (supported by exploration of their text), delivery and performance. They then chose a situation to respond to in character, where they will use similar devices to appeal to the American People and video it: this way they could focus on the content and delivery skills without the worry of a live audience, although this choice was available to those who wanted it.

Although not a major component, I think it is important to bring in elements of biculturalism so for one lesson, we discussed what they had noticed about public speaking in Te Reo Māori and how we could use similar ideas in our presidential speeches. Students noticed the similarity in Shakespeare, Kennedy’s speeches and Te Reo Māori in the use of triple structures, repetition and second person. We also talked about how public speaking was crucial in Māori culture to not only communicate but to bring a feeling of community and shared identity.

Student Presentation exemplars – Y10GL Mainstream Class

Click the thumbnail to link to the task.

Jackson is typically a shy, quiet student who will usually only talk to one other student. He can become very anxious about speaking infront of an audience and has tended to only get Achieved previously. Similarly, his writing has been at Achieved for the whole of Year 10 but the speech writing for his ‘Create a Divergent Faction and present them to the class’ task shows a huge improvement: Y10 mainstream – Divergent Speech Writing Jackson

Click on the image to view Jackson’s video.

Karlos’ Zombie Invasion speech

Student presentation exemplars: Y10 GT Class

Click on the images to view the videos.

Hugh was dreading the speech. Being passionate about history, he chose the ‘why we fight option’ convincing the public about involvement in a moral war (based on Roosevelt’s speech on war with Germany). His comment when he uploaded his presentation to Google classroom says it all but he shouldn’t have worried:

 

 

Andy was the first student in the class to upload his finished video. He is able and responsible but has typically been stuck on Merit for creative tasks as he tends to err on the side of caution and want to ‘play safe’. He threw himself into the task because of the opportunity to use ICT, his own interest in current politics and the freedom of choice about tasks and when to work on them. His excellent self-management skills really helped him throughout the term.

Andy’s speech addressing an America over-run by Zombies and post-apocalyptic social breakdown:

Below – Daniel, who thoroughly enjoyed the creative aspect of the project:

Below – Dylan, who has some learning support requirements, overcame his absolute dread of public speaking (even in video form), largely due to his strong interest in astrophysics and space.

7. Both groups had a range of choices to develop as personal extension projects, which could be worked on when they had completed other work and set as homework. These projects focussed on transferrable skills and NZ Curriculum Key Competencies.

Basic outcome: Building key sets for a performance of Julius Caesar (the capitol building, where Caesar is assassinated). These examples are from Ricky, one of my Māori students. He researched the real building and then added his own ideas to accentuate a more dramatic, regimented and facist-looking interior.

Stage two outcome: building a large Minecraft town based on the key places and symbolic language in Julius Caesar.

 

Youtube walkthrough showing the sheer scale of Daniel’s amazing Minecraft city based on Julius Caesar. As well as researching the historical buildings, he used Minecraft to make representations of key imagery and ideas from the Shakespeare text:

Y10 Shakespeare extension Minecraft Daniel – Daniel’s pdf of a small section of his Minecraft project. A small selection of images from this are below:

 

 

These shots are from Jamie and Hamish’s collaborative project (Y10 Shakespeare Extension minecraft hamish jamie).

 

 .  

Stage three: Coding

Deciding that the Windows ‘hour of coding’ in Minecraft and the Apple Swift coding options were too simple, Leroy taught himself java coding totally independently. He wrote 51 pages of javascript to make a basic program setting up a Rome-themed marketplace game where people invest in products, build political statues and haggle. Unfortunately Coded files can’t be uploaded but the screen caps are here:

 Measurable outcomes

How students achieved:

10GL

10GL wrote convincing, developed responses. A third of them wrote detailed, perceptive responses. This class made the most notable improvement in skills, particularly at Excellence and Merit. All students who submitted passed. However, of the 4 students who did not Achieve in the Term 2 test, 2 of them failed to submit the Term 3 self-managed work – both boys. This indicates weaknesses with self-management and would need to be specifically addressed and support strategies developed.

• Excellence: 4% Term 2; 30% Term 3
• Excellence-Merit: 48% Term 2; 87% Term 3
• Merit: 44% Term 2; 57% Term 3
• Achieved: 36% Term 2; 13% Term 3
• Not Achieved: 16% Term 2; 0% Term 3 (all students who submitted passed)
• Did not Submit: 4 students in Term 3 (self-managed deadline)

10GT

This class wrote incredibly detailed responses. All students submitted work and all gained either Excellence or high Merit. Their essay writing improved from Term 2 to Term 3 in the following ways:

• Excellence: 23% Term 2; 65% Term 3
• Excellence-Merit: 63% Term 2; 100% Term 1
• Merit: 40% Term 2; 35% Term 3
• Achieved: 30% in Term 2; 0% Term 3
• Not Achieved: 2 students (7%) in Term 2. No students in Term 3

 

Outcomes for Boys

This approach made a huge difference to boys, particularly in the mainstream class.

10GL

In Term 2, 46% of all boys were at Achieved, while only 23% were at Excellence-Merit (and only 1 of 13 boys reached Excellence). In Term 3, the number of boys on Achieved had shrunk down to 7%, while 69% were at Excellence-Merit (and 5 of 13 boys reached Excellence). Comparative performance is interesting here as 5 of the 7 Excellences were from boys.

• Excellence-Merit – Term 2: 30%; Term 3: 69%
• Excellence – Term 2:  7% (1 boy); Term 3: 38%
• Merit – Term 2: 23%; Term 3: 31%
• Achieved – Term 2: 46%; Term 3: 7%
• Not Achieved/DNS – Term 2: 24% (NA class test); Term 3: 24% (DNS)

10GT

Again, a huge increase in Excellence, with 0% boys reaching the top mark in Term 2, while 62% achieved this in Term 3. No male students achieved lower than Merit in Term 3.

• Excellence-Merit – Term 2: 62%; Term 3: 100%
• Excellence – Term 2:  0%; Term 3: 62%
• Merit – Term 2: 62%; Term 3: 38%
• Achieved – Term 2: 23%; Term 3: 0%
• Not Achieved/DNS – Term 2: 15% (class test); Term 3: 0%

Priority students

Māori/Pasifka

In 10GT, the 2 Māori students did well, completing all tasks at E-M standard. While Ricky attained straight Merits, his work and self-management improved dramatically from the previous term. Kyra had some serious family issues which affected her writing task but it still showed clear insight. In 10GL, Jade, my only Māori student, failed to submit any individual work, despite having the option to use his guitar (which he is obsessed with) and despite writing good quality paragraphs in class – much smaller deadlines would be needed in future as his self-management is very weak. However, he contributed effectively in group work, showing strong presentation skills in the Divergent Faction task, using ICT, drama and humour effectively and gaining Merit. The 2 Pasifika students in the class did fantastically and clearly enjoyed the creative choices and ability to select when they worked on different tasks; both achieved Excellences for their presentation, while Dani moved from Achieved to Merit+ for her writing and Karlos moved from Achieved to Excellence in his.

Students needing Learning Support

In 10GT, Dylan overcame serious self-esteem and anxiety about work (especially presentations) to get straight Excellences. In 10GL, Amber moved from NA/A to low Merit. However, Anya did not submit individual work, despite writing well in class, contributing ideas and attaining Merit for her Divergent Faction Presentation – again, this indicates a need to explicitly teach self-management and use smaller deadlines with some students.

Reflection and next steps

This has been a successful exploration of how increased choice and collaborative learning can support students, particularly boys.

I would offer a stripped-down version to some students struggling with time management but it is interesting to see some students who usually find self-managing difficult, especially academically weaker ones within 10GL, succeed and improve. Earlier detection of those struggling through mini progress dates would be a way to do this, rather than reinforce low expectations and have students pick a more limited option.

The extension task worked well for creative students, those interested in ICT and those who were open-minded about the focus on transferable skills. Most of the 10GTs created something, often of very high quality (with 2 groups choosing boardgames rather than ICT and one student writing sonnets in iambic pentameter). Those who did not had trouble buying into the larger skills focus and wanted to focus only on writing. In 10GL, where self-management skills were far weaker, nearly 1/3 of students did not complete the extension task. This was surprising, given that many of them are artistic or musical, yet did not pick these choices. Therefore, teaching students how to self manage and how to organise time would have to be taught. Group work would also help to support students and I would encourage this in future – I suspect that students are less likely to want to let down others, whereas they may be less worried about not submitting themselves.

No students submitted screencaps of the initial work done on Swift Playground so I am unable to judge the effectiveness of this. Minecraft was the favoured choice for 10GT, though more of them needed to engage with the metaphorical imagery instead of a historical recreation. I would give far less time for the extension task in future – as my own children use Minecraft, I know roughly how much time students put into their submissions and some have just not used time effectively.

The cloze procedure/fill in the blanks paragraphs, where support gradually became reduced, was a really successful way of improving writing skills. Interestingly, more students in the 10GL chose the hardest task, whereas the top set 10GT were more risk adverse, with only 1/3 choosing the hardest task. While the self-differentiated choices certainly helped the mainstream class, I feel it limited the skill-growth and understanding of the top set; I would therefore remove this choice for them in the future, just giving targeted students the option to choose.

Level 3 students: last-minute cramming and responding to tragedy

With two Internal groups for Level 3 English, I wanted to explore what they considered the major obstacles to self-management and overall achievement and create useful resources that reflected student-driven needs.

 

With the Close Analysis (visual) assessment beginning, I asked students to discuss and compile reasons why time management was difficult. The expected issues of balancing work, social and whanau commitments with school certainly came up but students were very outspoken that they felt that too many assessments for different subjects were due at the same time.

When asked how they balanced this, they said they prioritised on ‘hard’ subjects like Maths and Sciences or on subjects that they liked best (like PE or Outdoor Ed). They felt that English was basically the same skill that they’d done for years (essay writing) so they could cram at the last minute and do the night before.

I asked them what they found most difficult about English internals ,when they finally did sit down to do it. Students worked individually and then in groups to compile a whole-class list on the board. Some of the issues that students faced were:

• mind-blank (don’t remember anything in class and notes make no sense)
• teachers put too many resources in loads of different places on Google Classroom – too many things to search through and can’t find anything
• Don’t know how to select good examples – how do you know they are good?
• No idea how to really structure the whole essay
• Too many teacher examples are too difficult and aimed at Excellence
• Too many teacher examples are too basic and aimed at people trying to get Achieved
• They keep saying PEEL but how do you really write it?
• I know what I want to say but don’t know how to start it off
• Can write the ideas in rough but can’t put it into a proper essay
• Don’t know the techniques for film
• How do you write an intro
• How do you write a conclusion that doesn’t jut sound lame and repeat stuff
• Critical thinking and theme is too hard/don’t really get it/seems random
• How do I know what grade I’m writing at? How do I know it’s good enough?
• Everything

With this in mind, I wanted to create a support pack that would help my akonga self-manage, would make it easy to find everything in one place, and would help them refine structure and writing styles. While I didn’t want to encourage the ‘last minute’ attitude and tried to explain why it really wouldn’t work for this assessment, the reality was clearly that most of my students were going to leave things to the last moment.

I needed to create something that would be useful, easy to follow and support a variety of attainment levels. This could then be used in lessons by the students while I circulated and gave one-to-one support and feedforward.

As I was writing the pack, the twin sister of one of my students died suddenly. The resulting shock and grief across the year group was notable. Absences and an understandable lack of focus made it imperative that the support pack be really comprehensive in order to help students get back on track when they were ready so that they did not feel behind and even more confused.

The resulting 14 page pack can be seen here.3.9 close analysis how to do it

Outcome:

Although students were really positive about the pack and seemed surprised and genuinely grateful at the effort, only about 50% of each class made the checkpoint assessment deadline. Some of this is linked to bereavement (either directly or indirectly through the general shock), while some is a reflection of the prioritising previously discussed and/or just lack of time-management.  In the latter cases, whanau were contacted; however,  I made it clear to students that rather than being a punishment, getting involvement from home was sometimes the only way to balance independence with motivation (as someone who barely scraped through Y13, I speak from experience here).  I also shared the support pack and feedback comments with whanau so that they could support their child and be involved in their learning.

Use of assessment checkpoint info

Students who submitted work were given specific embedded comments on Google Docs and were given a personalised feedback pack, where they were assigned numbers which corresponded to specific feedback/feedforward targets and tips. This can be seen here:3.9 Close Analysis feedback. This can also be used for self and peer assessment in class and at home to monitor progress and set goals for improvement. I used the record of their targets and support areas from the checkpoint assessment to inform skills boosters in lessons, working with individuals and small groups to improve specific areas.

Next steps

As of writing, the final turnitin date is 19th June. I am hoping that the pack will help students who have previously identified themselves as Achieved students will get Merits as a result of the support pack, while students who have identified themselves as NA/Ach borderline, will get solid Achieved. Concerns for students who do not seem motivated to pass the internals continue but I am hoping that support, relationship building, talking with them as young adults,  and involving whanau will help.

 

Final Outcomes/Reflections

Class 1

DNS: only 2 students did not submit – one student was overseas for sport.

NA: Out of 17 submissions, only 3 did not achieve the standard. 2 of these students had long-term extensions due to missed work for either bereavement or health. – the lack of class time had a clear effect here.

Achieved – Merit: 14 of the 17 submissions gained A-M (82%). Of these 50% Achieved; 50% gained Merit.

Final breakdown & Reflection for Further Teaching

DNS – 5%; Not Achieved – 16%; Achieved – 41%; Merit – 41%. This is a great result, especially for an Internal class with many students who do not see themselves as academic.

• This class had the highest number of Merits for the standard out of the 4 Internal classes. The support pack definitely helped develop the specific analysis and critical thinking needed to get Merit. Interestingly, 71% of the Merits were gained by female students (including one with Learning Support needs), who stuck very closely to the guidelines and used them to structure all of their writing. It may be that a much more simplified Merit-focussed guide would benefit more male students.
• The pack was also felt to be of real benefit by other students who struggled (and/or left things until the last minute) and clearly followed the differentiated guidelines to get solid/high Achieveds.
• Of the 2 Priority Students, 1 Achieved, 1 Did Not Submit. Of the 2 students with Learning Support needs, 1 Did Not Submit, 1 gained Merit. This is inconclusive, with 50% of all of these students gaining credits. However, I would make a really stripped-down version of the support pack (as a totally different file so everything is easy to find) in the future.

Class 2

A very different result.

DNS: Only 2 students didn’t submit – one student was the brother of the student who died and one student was undergoing medication changes for mental health reasons.

NA: 8 students did not achieve the standard (a huge 42% of the class, which was surprising and frustrating). However, of these, 6 submitted less than half a page (in effect, the true number of DNS was therefore really 8 or 38% of the class, while the true number of students who attempted but did not achieve the standard was 10%). Of the 6 students who wrote so little, 3 were closely affected by bereavement.

Achieved – Merit: Overall, 11 students gained either Achieved or Merit (57% of the total class). However, when examining the success rate of students who truly attempted the standard (ie wrote more than half a page), this increases to 84%. Of students who passed the standard, 8 of the 11 gained Achieved (72% of the total passes);  3 of the 11 gained Merit (27%  of the total passes).

Final breakdown & Reflection for Further Teaching

• This class seemed to be more affected by the bereavement, probably as a result of the family connection. This certainly affected the mood of students and from an academic standpoint, affected the progress of work within class, making it difficult to give them the kind of one-on-one feedback and advice that they needed.
• Of the 4 priority students, 2 Achieved the standard, 1 did not achieve, 1 submitted less than a paragraph. The student who did not achieve did not follow the support pack and failed to respond to the feedback when resubmitting. Of the 2 students with learning support needs, 1 did not achieve, while 1 (who is also a Priority Student) Achieved. As noted above and below, I would help these students in future with the choice of a more stripped-down support pack.

Analysis of why so many students did not work on the standard:

some time after the marking, I was chatting with the class about the standard:

• In addition to the emotional trauma, the general perception was that it was too demanding for only 3 credits and that they could pick up 3 credits more easily from other standards on different courses, so chose to work on those instead. They felt that essay writing on 2 films was just too much of a commitment in terms of time and effort and found the task, which focussed on auteur theory and style, just too difficult.
• To improve this in future I would ask my HoF to move away from the designated task (as some of my colleagues had done) and design one that was more accessible.
• On further reflection, I feel that the level of detail of the support pack may have actually contributed towards the feeling that the essay was demanding – in future, I will delete of the content and will also suggest that people who feel overwhelmed follow the stripped down version (which will unofficially be the one that learning support students can follow).

 

Conclusion: did the pack work?

• In short, yes. It enabled students to do better than they expected, with some really high quality work (close to Excellence). Students who followed their choice of differentiated support gained at least Achieved, with several students who were convinced they were ‘only’ Achieved at English actually gaining Merit.
• It was a really effective way of letting students know that they were cared for and supported and they were certainly grateful. I think it helped establish a good relationship after the handover between teachers and in parent-teacher meetings, parents were really positive about the impact of the pack in terms of supporting their child and in enabling them to actively support their child at home too.
• However, I also need to respond to the perception that it is a hard standard which is not worth the time by simplifying the support pack and choosing a different task.

 

Empathy Building to Develop a Supportive Learning Environment, aid Critical Thinking and to help students understand a challenging text

TAI: Encouraging empathy and making texts relevant to the real world

The Problem

In class discussion, I have noticed that students often form simple prejudgements about people. I am also aware that students are from a wide variety of cultural and economic family backgrounds.

As a way of connecting akonga to the wider world and encouraging them to look beyond face value, I feel they will benefit by exploring texts which encourage empathy. These texts need to be relatable to their own understanding of the world so they can develop a connection to real-world issues.

Obstacles

1. Lack of awareness of the world beyond their own experiences
2. The thematic area that has been chosen by their previous teacher for the Connections internal assessment is ‘overcoming adversity’. As well as considering the right text choices that fit with this theme for the Connections Internal (one text also needs to work for the Studied Written Text external), I need to consider how I will develop a perceptive and mature response from them.
3. A high level of critical thinking will be needed. This will help them to connect with the text on a personal level, aiding student achievement as well as supporting their own understanding of the world around them.

What Students did

Students worked in groups to consider open questions which I hoped would build empathy and challenge assumptions and judgements. This should encourage a more open-minded approach to the world around them and to many of their texts studied throughout the year and as potential choices for their Connections Across Texts internal for Level 1. The intra and interpersonal approach to exploring ideas should make it much easier to engage with the character and ideas in this text.

5 questions were written on the board at the start of the lesson. For each question, students had solo thinking-time followed by small-group discussion. This was then followed up with whole class discussion (directed questioning across a range of students). Some of the feedback was recorded on the whiteboard (image below).

• What types of anti-social, violent or destructive actions do some people take?
• Why do some (smart) young people make apparently stupid, destructive and self-destructive choices?
• What external reasons might there be for this?
• What internal reasons might there be for this?
• Why did I write (smart) in brackets?

Student responses to open questions designed to build empathy and link to a Level 1 English assessment

 

(1) What types of anti-social, violent or destructive actions do some people take?

Students found it easy to identify and judge this behaviour. Initial responses were concerned with the environment: vandalism, tagging, trespassing. Then illegal activity: stealing, drug taking, under-age drinking, fighting. Initial ideas largely focussed on violent, physically destructive anti-social behaviour and that these were ‘bad’ kids.

Then class discussion deepened as a student focussed on self-destructiveness, beginning with self-harm; another added anorexia. Interestingly, students then began to categorise drugs and alcohol as actions to self-harm, without prompting. Once they had begun to develop this more perceptive response, they found it much easier as a class to engage, with more students wanting to voluntarily take part (in addition to directed questioning).

(2) Why do some (smart) young people make apparently stupid, destructive and self-destructive choices?

This encouraged students to look beyond the behaviour and at the person.

We initially considered why young people engaged in the specific activities already listed.  Clear expectations on Manaaki were established at the beginning and this only needed gentle reinforcement once. Discussion was thoughtful and picked up momentum as students gained confidence in expressing themselves and felt listened to. Ideas included:

• The idea of tagging being about gang identity moved on to the idea of leaving a mark, of being visible, of being an ‘I am here’ shout
• Drugs/alcohol were linked by the students initially as a fun escape, to an escape from boredom or a depressing environment.
• High risk criminal activity like stealing, trespassing or shoplifting was initially linked to need and the thrill of danger but eventually to questioning why people do it if they know they will be caught – this was unresolved but the idea that someone else (police, social services) would notice and that they would get attention was discussed by several students.
• The most interesting discussions were on self-harming behaviours (physical harm and drug/alcohol related) and vandalism. Students were encouraged to consider what types of places were vandalised: initial responses considered places local to the young person because they lived in rough areas that were already run-down and they didn’t care. Further prompting led to the observation that vandalism was often in child-centred such as play areas and primary schools, which puzzled them. Students explored this idea further, eventually noting that these places were linked with the desire to protect and help young people and that children were ‘even lower status’ to teenagers. They felt that these places were chosen precisely because it was about showing status over others and that it was especially shocking to a community as young children were considered defenceless so it was more noticeable.

2b) What external reasons might there be for this?

After looking at the apparent reasons, I encouraged students to think about what other feelings might be below the surface of the hard exterior of these young people. 

• Trauma – family trauma, death, being rehomed away from immediate whanau, moving around while in foster care, illness, being a carer and having to be responsible for another person/people.
• Stressful situations – not feeling accepted because they are somehow different (could be trying to hide this – confused about themselves), prejudice, being bullied/becoming a bully to take it out on others.
• Parent/whanau difficulties – parents split up, little contact with one or more parents (feel angry or worthless), violence, prison, addiction (students specifically identified drugs but not alcohol), mental illness, pressure to succeed – too much and can snap.
• School – not doing well, feeling it’s pointless, worried about the future
• Peer pressure – need to seem tough to fit in
• Local environment – low $, unemployment or bad jobs, future seems hopeless so what’s the point?

Students became very quiet at this point and seemed to be much more careful in the way that they phrased ideas – possible awareness that some of these situations could be being faced by people in the class or just because these were potentially more upsetting?

2c) What internal reasons might there be for this?

Interestingly, the majority of students seemed to be more engaged at considering sympathetic reasons (there was one comment that it was ‘for fun – the area might be boring’ – this was expanded on by another student who felt that this might make someone feel there is nothing to do or no reason to be better). This showed that students were much more likely to move away from more simple judgements when given time to consider other factors, becoming more empathetic as a result.

Other reasons included: low self-esteem, self-hatred, hated by others, depression, don’t feel part of anything, no good feelings inside them but can just feel anger and bad emotions – a way of hiding and not having to deal with things that make them feel upset. Wanting attention – any attention (negative was better than nothing) that would get them noticed.

3) Why did I write (smart) in brackets?

Discussion was free flowing here: because people think they are stupid but they’re not; they might not do well at school but that might be because they don’t want to; they might be clever but just not in way you can see in essays;, they might have been really clever but because of other things going on at home they might never have been able to concentrate or get help or do well at school; they might pretend that they are not smart because it’s not tough, because people think they are stupid and don’t see the real them.

Outcomes – Manaaki

By the end of the lesson, students were able to express themselves in more detail, listened more attentively to each other and built on each other’s ideas.

The initial viewpoint that it was basically bad kids, doing stupid things that were either laughable or pointless, were changed.

Students showed sensitivity and were able to empathise with life experiences that were different to their own.

Outcomes – Links to other learning

When exploring Carol Anne Duffy’s poem Stealing, students were able to discuss the character immediately, showing empathy and maturity. I was particularly impressed with the way that they gravitated towards ambiguous lines that showed both the persona’s toughness and vulnerability. The previous lesson certainly helped them understand the content of the poem but more importantly, it helped them to move beyond initial impressions of the language and read between the lines, using inference.

Discussion about where else we saw similar characters led to engaged students discussing Tupac, Eminem, The Script, Kendrick Lamar and Ellie Goulding. We developed the student agency shown here through whole-class discussion and study of The Script’s Superheroes, while the other choices were often used by students for their Connections Across Texts internal.

Additionally, students later found some interesting and perceptive links between Stealing and texts that had a more positive take on overcoming adversity, which were also used by many for their Connections.

Outcomes – attainment: Connections Internal standard

The increased choice and personal connections resulted in much more engagement. Students made perceptive, often insightful comments about characters and issues in their texts for the Connections Internal (4 credits). Almost all used the work we had done in the Stealing/Duffy lessons and almost all used the empathetic exploration of other texts in class as well. Additionally, they had to choose 1-2 texts of their own, where they were encouraged to independently explore the character’s struggles through the same emotional lens of the previous lessons.

Results

• 2 students did not submit. 1 is very disaffected, the other had an ongoing physical and mental health issue. Of the students who submitted:
• Not Achieved: 3% (student declined resub)
• Achieved: 37%
• Merit: 41%
• Excellence: 19%
• Excellence-Merit: 60%

Priority Students

• Both Maori students achieved at Merit+ and certainly stood a good chance of achieving Excellence if they had resubbed.
• My Pasifika student attained Achieved+ and the teacher marking indicated that they could gain Merit with minor changes.
• Both students with additional Learning Support needs did well, with one student attaining at Excellence and one at Achieved+.

Reflection on attainment

I was particularly proud of the way that students who were not necessarily traditionally academic achieved Excellence and Merit because of the sensitive, empathetic links they found about the experiences of their characters and the way that they were then able to develop relevance between the texts and the ‘real world’.

However, I was really surprised and frustrated with the lack of resubmissions. The Excellence-Merit rate should be much higher as many students were at the top of Merit/Achieved, with feedback encouraging them to resub for Excellence/Merit. Only 1 student resubbed (to move from NA to Achieved+). This indicates a lack of drive or motivation which needs to be addressed in the future.