Secondary Archives - Page 6 of 6

Engaging reluctant readers: some ideas for upper primary and junior secondary classrooms

Deb McPherson has advice that will allow you to enthuse even your most reluctant readers…

What might truly grab your reluctant readers?

Background

Research detailed in “An Exceptional Schooling Outcomes Project 2001-2006”(AESOP) (Sawyer, Brock & Baxter, 2007) into what happens in effective classrooms had something to say about “Lower ability” students in English. It showed that such students in those effective classrooms were not confronted by a sole diet of functional literacy, pen and paper activities, comprehension and vocabulary work, but also (my italics) “engaged with IT, media, novels, poetry”.

Classroom strategies

Dr Jackie Manuel at Sydney University has highlighted the importance of choice — the need for students to have some say in the texts selected for study and enjoyment. Her paper, Effective Strategies to Address the Needs of Adolescents 13+ Experiencing Difficulty with Reading: A Review of the Literature (2003), is available online at http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/middleyears/assets/pdf/jmanuelres.pdf and sets out a range of excellent strategies to “enable” students in the classroom. If, as teachers, we give students the opportunities to write their own texts, to find some of their own texts (using book boxes, library visits/displays and web searches for example), if we position them as writers, readers and viewers worthy of respect and give them time to explore digital and multi-modal texts as well as print texts then we should see increased engagement.

Letting students hear from their peers or older students about the excitement and joys of literature can also really inspire engagement. One strategy is to invite students from other classes who have read or viewed engaging texts and ask them to promote those texts to your class. Such a strategy can also provide models of articulate speaking for younger students. It could also provide a great link between primary feeder schools and their high schools. Using audio versions and book trailers are a key way to increase student interest as well.

Below is a grid showing a small selection of old and new texts that could be effective “hooks” in the classroom in engaging disaffected or resistant students. Texts can move up and down the school years based on the needs and interests of your students. The table is prefaced with a few reviews as a start in opening up the list. Other reviews are available online at the BOSTES site at http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/suggested-texts/ or in the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) journal English in Australia.

Digital text for Years 6-9 students

Inanimate Alice http://www.inanimatealice.com

Inanimate Alice represents an epiphany of sorts for me; a turning point in my understanding of the amazing appeal of the digital text.

Inanimate Alice was created to be read and viewed online. This interactive novel was created as a story that unfolds over time and on multiple platforms. As the website says it, “uses text, images, music, sound effects, puzzles and games to illustrate and enhance the narrative.” Education Services Australia, Bradfield Company Productions, Promethean Planet and Everloop are some of the players involved in its creation.

Inanimate Alice is the story of Alice at different times in her life as she travels with her parents around the world. Her story is told over increasingly interactive and complex episodes. As Alice grows older the story’s duration becomes longer and more sophisticated and the interactivity becomes more demanding. In episode one, set in China, Alice is eight and the episode lasts five minutes. Alice’s father has gone missing and she and her mother set out to find him. In those five minutes you share Alice’s anxiety about her father, you travel in the four wheel drive with her mother through confusing and intimidating landscapes, your sense of time is challenged and you too can seek refuge in the games and puzzles Alice plays as the journey continues.

In episode two, set in Italy, Alice is ten and the viewing time lengthens. In episode three, in Russia, Alice is growing up. She is thirteen and hiding in an apartment from some sinister figures who are making trouble for her father. It feels like you are in the closet with her. It takes at least fifteen minutes to participate in this episode. In episode four, Alice is fourteen and the reader/viewer finds her in Great Britain. In this thirty-minute episode Alice is settled in a school and delighted that her school has boys, lots and lots of boys! As I read, viewed, listened to, (and participated in) the episodes I felt quite drawn into this new medium for storytelling.

Inanimate Alice is a sure-fire way to engage and stimulate students. Students will enjoy and be challenged by the text that will also support their literary, cinematic, and artistic literacies. With edgy music, mesmerizing video and graphics, embedded puzzles and games, and an invitation to participate in the story, how could it miss? This digital text comes with extensive teaching ideas and materials that are freely available online. Set aside some time to read, view and experience Inanimate Alice and you won’t be disappointed. Neither will your students. There is now an exciting new episode to explore in which Alice is sixteen and an aspiring game designer. She finds that the, “so-called stable hometown life she yearned for is far from perfect. Bored and restless, she skates into deep trouble.” A trailer is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvQ09_nm09Q and there is a facebook group of teachers from all around the world sharing ideas on Inanimate Alice online at https://www.facebook.com/groups/316194721922364/

Fiction for Year 7/8 students

Patrick Ness: A Monster Calls (2011) Walker Books

Ever since I picked up A Monster Calls and read it I have not been able to get it out of my head. It has joined a special company of unforgettable books in my life. I can remember the time and place when I first read it, the profound emotions it evoked and the desire it provoked to tell everyone I knew about this magnificent book.

In the novel, thirteen-year-old Conor’s mother is dying but Conor will not admit this terrible truth and suffers headaches and nightmares because of the conflict in his heart and life. One night, Conor hears his name being called. Gripping his bedroom window is the yew tree from the graveyard on the hill that has transformed into a massive and menacing monster. The extended illustration on pages 14-17 showing the force and frightening dimensions of this monster is amazing. But is Conor frightened and overcome? “Shout all you want” he says, “I’ve seen worse.” And of course he has — as he watches his mother decline into the grip of her disease. But the monster is not finished with Conor, and, over several combative nights he tells Conor stories – stories that lead him and the reader to the final, exquisite line in the book.

Irish writer Siobhan Dowd had the idea for this book but sadly died of cancer before she could write it. The publisher asked Patrick Ness if he could write it and his author’s note and dedication to Siobhan adds another aspect to explore in this remarkable book. Myth and life and death have rarely been so powerfully combined.

Jim Kay’s illustrations, his black and white drawings and washes, sometimes extending across three pages, other times a smudged fingerprint or a tangle of lines, are just extraordinary. His partnership with Ness and the great care and respect Walker Books have taken with the production of this text add to its magic. This masterpiece of storytelling won both the Carnegie and Greenway medals in 2012, the only book to do so. A haunting trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEX5g6c7ueE is a wonderful way to hook them. An audio version, read by Jason Isaacs is currently available from Book Depository for $15.87. There is also a podcast of Patrick Ness reading a part of his book and answering questions at http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/audio/2011/may/05/patrick-ness-childrens-book-monster-podcast

Addictive thrillers for Years 7 and 8

Gabrielle Lord: Conspiracy 365 Book One: January (2010) Scholastic Book one of a series of twelve books: January, February, March, April, May, June July, August, September, October, November and December.

This series has just about everything you have ever seen or read in a thriller and then some more! I started Book One: January on the 3rd of January 2011, as it seemed appropriate, and I was hooked! Over the following few days I managed to get ten of the twelve read. The series provided a relentless ride through murder, kidnapping, mystery and a staggering number of chase sequences that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Callum Ormond is on the run, accused of the attempted murder of his uncle and sister. But in reality it is a criminal gang who are after him and the secret his dead father tried to communicate to him in drawings just before his death. The Ormond Riddle entails great wealth, danger and death and Callum has to survive for 365 days to find out the answers to the clues his father has left him and solve the Ormond Singularity Puzzle. His good mate Boges is a constant support with technology, food and shelter and the mysterious Winter plays a sometimes ambiguous role as a fellow seeker after truth and ultimately good friend.

Gabrielle Lord also wrote the riveting novel Fortress, about a teacher and group of school children that turn against their sadistic attackers. She has lost none of her edge.

These novels are brisk, accessible and persuasive, including multiple cliff-hangers and enough tautness to keep any reader happy. They would be a great series to entice disengaged readers in Years 7 and 8 but good readers love them too. Buy multiple copies and watch the reading and discussion begin. It’s all over the top but well written and very exciting.

There is a Conspiracy 365 website to explore at http://conspiracy365.com.au/index.php and a television series. The use of graphics, texting and blogs within each book provides a contemporary context and added teaching and learning opportunities. The reader follows as the pages count down to 3, 2, 1. This is a timely reminder of the tension in the book as you are always racing to the finish as if a bomb is about to go off — and quite a few do!

Fiction for Year 9 students

Louis Nowra Prince of Afghanistan (2015) Allen & Unwin

It’s wonderful to see another young adult novel by Louis Nowra. His Into that Forest was one of the best books in 2013 and Prince of Afghanistan is a terrific read, especially for those less engaged boys in Years 8 and 9.

Nineteen-year-old Mark and Prince are alone in Afghanistan after a combined Australian/American mission goes badly wrong. The three kidnapped doctors are safely helicoptered away but Mark sees his friend Casey killed as the second helicopter sent to pick up the remaining soldiers explodes under Taliban fire. Casey’s dog, Prince, is alive but wounded and Mark decides to find a way back to base through enemy territory for both of them.

Prince is a Doberman pinscher who has been trained to detect buried mines and he and his handler Casey had a close relationship. The explosion deafens both Mark and Prince and Mark must use the sense of touch to try and bind Prince to him. Their journey back under cover of darkness will take days and as they are both wounded and have few rations it will be difficult and dangerous as well.

Nowra is a wonderful writer and the tension and drama of Mark and Prince’s story never slackens. Mark’s memories provide flashbacks to his growing up and teenage years. The death of his mother, his own adolescent drug addition to marijuana and the retreat of his father are succinctly conveyed. Nowra captures the tough life, despair and daily rituals of people in a war-torn country and his ability to create such a convincing setting adds verisimilitude to the tale. This is traditional storytelling at its best as Nowra charts the growing bond between the wounded man and his dog. Evocative full-page photographs of Afghanistan introduce most chapters and there is one of Prince that is very appealing. From its opening line, “I am falling from the sky” to its powerful ending this is a text Year 9 students will be happy to explore in most classrooms. It could also be used towards the end of Year 8.

View a table of texts for disengaged students

Deb McPherson taught English in NSW government secondary schools for twenty-eight years as a classroom teacher, Head Teacher and Deputy Principal. She was a member of the committee selecting texts for the Higher School Certificate English courses for over fifteen years. She worked as a Senior Curriculum Officer, English, at the Board of Studies and as the Manager of English for the NSW Department of Education and Training. She has been a lecturer and tutor at the University of Newcastle and at the University of Wollongong. She is an author of four anthologies for schools for OUP and co-authored Choices for English, a collection of recommended texts for the 7-12 English classroom with Helen Sykes and Ernie Tucker. Her review column, ‘Reading and Viewing with Deb McPherson’, appears in the AATE journal, English in Australia.

Shakespeare Video

CPL Shakespeare in the Classroom from NSW Teachers Federation on Vimeo.

Engagement and Mathematics: What does it look like in your classroom?

Catherine Attard continues her guidance about making Maths come alive in your primary classroom…

What does it look like, feel like and sound like when your students are deeply engaged in a mathematics task? What is it like when they are disengaged? In my previous article for the JPL I provided a definition of engagement as a multidimensional construct, consisting of three domains: operative, cognitive and affective. The coming together of the three domains leads to students feeling good, thinking hard, and actively participating in their Mathematics learning (Fair Go Team NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006; Fredericks, Blumenfeld & Paris, 2004).

I also provided a discussion on the importance of establishing positive pedagogical relationships as a foundation for student engagement in Mathematics. In this paper I will move beyond pedagogical relationships to discuss what happens in practice – the pedagogical repertoires that promote positive student engagement.

The following figure (Figure 1) is an excerpt from the Framework for Engagement (FEM), (Attard, 2014), which provides a summary of the critical elements of engaging pedagogies.

In an engaging Mathematics classroom pedagogical repertoires mean:

there is substantive conversation about mathematical concepts and their applications to life;
tasks are positive, provide opportunity for all students to achieve a level of success and are challenging for all;
students are provided an element of choice;
technology is embedded and used when appropriate to enhance mathematical understanding through a student-centred approach to learning;
the relevance of the mathematics curriculum is explicitly linked to students’ lives outside the classroom and empowers students with the capacity to transform and reform their lives.

Mathematics lessons regularly include a variety of tasks that cater to the diverse needs of learners

Figure 1: Engaging Repertoires (Attard, 2014)

What do these elements look like in practice? I will expand on each of the points illustrated in Figure 1, and provide some practical advice on how the pedagogies can be applied.

Firstly, how do we provide opportunities for substantive conversations between students and the teacher, and amongst students? If you consider a traditional approach to teaching where the Mathematics lessons are based on a drill and practice approach, it is difficult to see where important mathematical conversations can take place. However, consider an approach where collaboration is encouraged through problem solving and investigation, and where student reflection is an integral aspect of every Mathematics lesson, regardless of the types of tasks and activities implemented.

We must also consider the Working Mathematically components of our K-10 Mathematics Syllabus (Board of Studies New South Wales, 2012). Promoting substantive conversation allows students access to each of the five components: Reasoning, Communicating, Understanding, Fluency and Problem Solving, and provides teachers with opportunities to assess them.

The provision of tasks that provide opportunity for all students to succeed can be a challenge for teachers. It is often difficult to differentiate activities to ensure the diversity of academic ability is not only addressed, but provides sufficient challenge. Learners need to experience success and a sense of achievement if they are to develop a positive attitude towards Mathematics. One way of ensuring all learners are challenged is to provide open-ended, rich tasks rather than closed problems that only have one correct answer or limited opportunities to apply a range of strategies.

Allowing student choice in the Mathematics classroom is an important element of engagement and sends important messages relating to power and control. You can provide choice by having alternative activities within a specific mathematical content area, or you can have students choose how they present their work. Perhaps students may choose to work with concrete materials or interact with appropriate technology. This does not have to occur in every lesson, but allowing students the freedom to make choices every now and then can contribute to their overall engagement.

Technology has become an integral part of contemporary life, and as such, our curriculum requires us to use it meaningfully to enhance the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The challenge with using technology in Mathematics lessons, however, is to ensure that we promote a student-centred approach. If you take for example, the interactive whiteboard, consider how it positions the teacher. The whiteboard is fixed and usually located at the front of the classroom. Any interactivity usually occurs between one person (often the teacher), and the whiteboard. The teacher has control and students are generally passive (Attard & Orlando, 2014). How can this engage all learners?

Many schools have introduced 1:1 laptop or tablet programs, however there is a danger that the devices may be used simply as a replacement for a traditional textbook or as a word-processing device to replace pen and paper. Online Mathematics programs provide some functional improvement to textbooks, however the opportunities for students to collaborate and become involved in substantive mathematical conversations is limited.

Fortunately, the introduction of mobile technologies such as tablets has now provided us with rich opportunities to develop highly engaging, student-centred mathematical activities and tasks.

The use of contemporary technologies in Mathematics lessons provides opportunities to illustrate the relevance of Mathematics and bridge the digital divide between the school and students’ lives outside school. However, it does not necessarily mean students will be engaged. Caution must be taken to ensure the use of technology is driven by good pedagogy, rather than the technology becoming the focus of the lesson. Other ways to illustrate the relevance of Mathematics is to, where possible, embed mathematical concepts into real-life contexts and allow opportunities for students to apply Mathematics in meaningful and purposeful ways. This not only deepens mathematical understanding but will enhance engagement. Of course, as mathematical concepts become more abstract in the senior years it is not always possible or practical to apply all concepts to real-life contexts, however if students have developed a love of Mathematics through quality practices, their engagement will be sustained.

The final aspect of the FEM relating to pedagogical repertoires refers to the provision of variety within Mathematics lessons. Although young students do require some structure, variety can be provided within that structure. For example, in the primary classroom children can be presented with a range of tasks that use a range of resources. Sometimes Mathematics lessons can be conducted outside the classroom – consider running a maths trail at your school where students can participate in interesting mathematical investigations based upon their physical surroundings. Explore the use of tools such as Thinkers’ Keys (Attard, 2013) to provide Mathematics tasks that are open-ended and creative, and set homework that takes advantage of the Mathematics in students’ lives, rather than drill and practice activities.

I have provided a brief exploration of engaging pedagogies that are listed in the Framework for Engagement with Mathematics (FEM), (Attard, 2014). Engagement with Mathematics during the compulsory years of schooling is critical if students are to develop an appreciation for and understanding of the value of Mathematics learning. Students who are engaged are more likely to learn, find the experience of schooling more rewarding, and more likely to continue with higher education. How can you adapt your practices so that your students value the Mathematics they are learning and see connections between the Mathematics they do at school and their own lives beyond the classroom now and in the future?

References:

Attard, C. (2014). “I don’t like it, I don’t love it, but I do it and I don’t mind”: Introducing a framework for engagement with mathematics. Curriculum Perspectives, 34(3), 1-14

Attard, C. (2013). Engaging maths: Higher order thinking with thinkers’ keys. Modern Teaching Aids: Brookvale

Attard C, & Orlando J, 2014, Early career teachers, mathematics and technology: device conflict and emerging mathematical knowledge. In J. Anderson, M. Cavanagh, & A. Prescott, Curriculum in Focus: Research Guided Practice, proceedings of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia annual conference, pp 71-78. MERGA: Sydney

Board of Studies New South Wales. (2012). Mathematics K-10 syllabus. Retrieved from http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/

Fair Go Team NSW Department of Education and Training. (2006). School is for me: pathways to student engagement. Sydney: NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney, Australia.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59 -110

Dr Catherine Attard worked as a school teacher and proceeded to complete a PhD on student engagement. She has been a part of the Fair Go Project Team at the University of Western Sydney. She is also editor of the journal Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom.

Catherine Attard conducts a weekly blog at http://engagingmaths.co/about/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-3 that has a number of resources that teachers are able to access and use.”

Getting Passionate About Maths

Catherine Attard explores some strategies to increase student engagement in Maths …

“I like having a teacher who is really passionate about maths”: Getting students to engage with mathematics through positive pedagogical relationships

How often do teachers of Mathematics hear the phrase “why do I need to learn this?” or “I’m no good at Maths”? Many people attribute anxiety or a dislike of Mathematics to their experiences during the middle years of schooling (Years 5 to 8) and although students are influenced to some degree by parents and peers, it is the teacher who has the most influence on students’ engagement with mathematics. This article explores the construct of engagement as it relates to Mathematics, and suggests that for deep and sustained engagement to occur, positive pedagogical relationships, the interpersonal relationships between teachers and students that optimise engagement, must first be established.

Defining engagement

As teachers, we use the term ‘engagement’ often, but do we really understand what real engagement looks like? When we see students who are ‘on task’, are they engaged, or are they just involved in busy work, and in getting the task done? Consider the difference between students who are ‘on task’, and students who ‘in task’. When students are ‘in task’, their minds and bodies are focused on what they are doing. They might be participating in substantive dialogue about the topic, or they might be working in silence, thinking deeply about Mathematics they are involved in – either way, they are engaged.

Many definitions of engagement are found in education literature. Some provide a narrow view that relates only to behaviour and participation. Others provide a deeper understanding that is multi-dimensional. Fredricks, Blumenfeld and Paris (2004), define engagement as a deeper student relationship with classroom work, multi-faceted and operating at cognitive, emotional, and behavioural levels. In this paper, I draw on work of the Fair Go Project (Fair Go Team NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006) and define engagement as the coming together of three facets – cognitive, operative, and affective, which leads to children valuing and enjoying, and actively involved with school mathematics, and seeing connections between the Mathematics they do at school, and their own lives beyond the classroom now and in the future.

Pedagogical relationships and mathematics

This paper is informed by a longitudinal study on the influences on engagement (for a more in depth description see Attard, 2011, 2013, in print). In the study, data were collected from a group of 20 children across three years of their schooling from Year 6 to Year 8. The major selection criterion for participation in this project was that the students had to identify themselves as being engaged with Mathematics (through the use of a Motivation and Engagement Scale (Martin, 2008). Data were collected through individual student and teacher interviews, student focus groups, and classroom observations.

During the first phase of the study when the students were still attending primary school, they identified their current teacher as someone they perceived to be a good Mathematics teacher. They articulated several attributes directly relating to the pedagogical relationships the teacher had formed with her students, such as her ability to cater to individual needs through the differentiation of tasks, and her modeling of enthusiasm and passion towards Mathematics. Comments such as these were typical: “I like having a teacher who is really passionate about Maths” (Alison, Year 6), and “…while you’re doing the work she also has fun teaching the Maths as well” (Tenille, Year 6).

In the second phase of the study, things changed for this group of students. They began their secondary education, at a new school that was significantly different at the time from traditional secondary schools. At the time the school identified itself as a ‘ground breaking’ learning community in relation to its multi-disciplinary approach to curriculum, large open teaching spaces and a teaching structure that saw a group of Mathematics teachers rotate amongst classes, which meant each class group did not have one allocated teacher and saw each teacher every fourth lesson. These structures were not conducive to building relationships – the teachers had very limited opportunities to identify student needs and abilities, and as a result, students became disengaged: “everyone’s excited when there’s no Maths. I think it’s because, not having someone explain it to you and you don’t get it. If you don’t get it that means you don’t like it” (Kristy, Year 7).

Fortunately circumstances improved for the students in Year 8. Teachers were allocated a class group and the students were back on the path to engagement. They felt that they were now seen as individuals rather than a collective, and teachers cared more about their learning. They also felt that if they required assistance from their teachers, they felt safe in asking for help and felt the teachers now wanted to help them. The increased opportunity to develop pedagogical relationships also improved the level of feedback students received, which began to re-build their confidence as well as their engagement.

During the course of the study the students experienced a wide range of teaching and learning situations that resulted in significant fluctuations of their engagement levels. Although the data overwhelmingly confirmed the teacher was the strongest influence on these students’ engagement, this influence appeared to be complex, consisting of two separate yet inter-related elements: pedagogical relationships and pedagogical repertoires. Pedagogical repertoires refer to the day-to-day teaching practices employed by the teacher.

Results of this study suggest that it is difficult for students to engage with Mathematics without a foundation of strong pedagogical relationships. Positive pedagogical relationships exist when:

• students’ backgrounds and pre-existing knowledge are acknowledged and contribute to the learning of others;
• interaction among students and between teacher and students is continuous;
• the teacher models enthusiasm and an enjoyment of Mathematics and has a strong Pedagogical Content Knowledge;
• the teacher is aware of each student’s abilities and learning needs; and
• feedback to students is constructive, purposeful and timely.

It can also be argued that it is through engaging pedagogies that positive pedagogical relationships are developed, highlighting the connections between relationships and engaging repertoires. So what are considered engaging pedagogies in the Mathematics classroom? These will be explored in the next issue of The Journal of Professional Learning.

Catherine Attard worked as a school teacher and proceeded to complete a PhD on student engagement. She has been a part of the Fair Go Project Team at the University of Western Sydney. She is also editor of the journal Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom.

Catherine Attard, University of Western Sydney
c.attard@uws.edu.au

References:

Attard, C. (2011). “My favourite subject is maths. For some reason no-one really agrees with me”: Student perspectives of mathematics teaching and learning in the upper primary classroom. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 23(3), 363-377.
Attard, C. (2013). “If I had to pick any subject, it wouldn’t be maths”: Foundations for engagement with mathematics during the middle years. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 25(4), 569-587.
Attard, C. (in print). “I don’t like it, I don’t love it, but I do it and I don’t mind”: Introducing a framework for engagement with mathematics. Curriculum Perspectives.
Fair Go Team NSW Department of Education and Training. (2006). School is for me: pathways to student engagement. Sydney: NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney, Australia.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59 -110.
Martin, A. J. (2008). Motivation and engagement Scale: High school (MES-HS) test user manual. Sydney: Lifelong Achievement Group.