Practice Analysis - “Encouraging students to talk about their learning to promote deeper understanding”

As part of our professional inquiry, our school uses practice analysis observations. We introduced these to Pompallier in 2015, as part of Literacy professional learning and development. At that time I was working as a Literacy facilitator with the University of Auckland. Practice analysis conversations were developed in the literacy professional development project which included over 300 New Zealand schools over a period of seven years. Pompallier School was one of those schools.
The conversations occurred in four phases:

• Establish learning goals and co-construct criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of practice prior to the observation.
• Observe using the criteria as a reference.
• Analyse relevant parts of the lesson using the criteria.
• Co-construct new ideas for practice based on the analysis.

Developing Teacher Effectiveness through Professional Conversations (Timperley, H. 2014) outlines the process.

As part of my reflective practice this term, my principal and I used practice analysis to investigate aspects of my inquiry focus - encouraging students to talk about their learning to promote deeper understanding. In particular I asked her to ask students about the SOLO poster tool and to discuss with them how it is helping with their learning. Kathryn is familiar with the SOLO poster tool. We have regular discussions about my teaching goals and the MIT journey. She recorded in her practice analysis notes that “you keep me up to date with your thinking and how you are changing your focus with the poster construction and the learning conversations. You seek input and feedback”.

Student voice collected during the observation confirmed a shared locus of control in the class, with students enjoying using the class Google site to make choices about their Literacy learning. They knew what they were learning, what they needed to do, and what would be successful. They were using group modelling books to help with this. She noted that my “think aloud” statements were good models for the target students.

The students were able to talk about the SOLO poster. They were most used to seeing it on the TV screen - when we have used it as part of our end of day reflections and plenaries. Some students could articulate their thinking more clearly than others.
Kathryn’s conversation with two boys is recorded below - Student A was a target student in 2018, and for the first half of 2019. Student B was a target student in 2018.

Kathryn - What is SOLO?
A - “digging deeper in your learning. Down the bottom (of the poster) you are cracking the work and you have deep thinking.”
B - “You can get better and better”
B- “Developing knowledge”
A - “Yeah - Developing knowledge”
Kathryn - Do you think this will help you
B - totally - it tells you what to focus on.

Our post-observation conversation led to the following thoughts about future actions for me:

• Continue to build on the locus of control through using the SOLO poster with the students;
• Add visual cues and colour to strengthen student knowledge and understanding of the poster (especially for target students);
• Add more blog reflections about the student use of SOLO.

I have created several updated versions of the SOLO poster to trial with students - including more clear colour coding of the different levels; inclusion of SOLO symbols to assist with understanding for students; and a "student speak" version for student reflection and goal setting. 

(see the new trial Teacher and Student versions below)