Clarifying Behaviours

Provocation: What can be done individually and collectively within our teams and learning communities to build learner dispositions together with improved learning for all children.

Educators are engaging as learners and researchers in order to be intentional in their practice and to inform the children’s learning. Educators consider how to frame the learning, invite curiosity and begin a dialogue with children. It is the responsibility of the educator to identify how to pose the learning experience.

We use our research as a basis for thinking to inform action; staff meetings are democratic places to share and debate ideas, hypothesise and collectively agree to our commitment to action. Dedicated time in teams was scheduled at the staff meeting this week to provide educators with the space to consider and share the what:

• what we have done throughout the latter part of 2017.
• what we are learning through our focussed professional development, recently in relation to meaning making and comprehension.
• what we will go after in 2018.
• what we will implement in our learning communities over a the next 4 week period.

Teams are constructing abstract goals for 2018 using the clarifying behaviours tool; the challenge is to be specific and narrow the ‘what’ before moving to the ‘how’ of the actions and practices that will become the focus for our work.

Intentionality is the emphasis.

Educators are given time in teams to:

• reflect on the evidence of children’s learning thus far;
• consider current research;
• identify the practice that will be implemented to improve learning;
• hypothesise about what will be seen in terms of our children’s learning.

Our abstract goals for what we want to achieve across each learning community have been developed as follows:

• Children to see themselves as capable and competent readers.
• For children to make meaning from text.
• Children and families identify as readers and demonstrate their meaning/understanding of text.

The intent is to revisit these goals each month and sharpen our focus as we strengthen our inquiry and reflect on the documentation of children’s learning. Watch this space.