It's taken me a while to consciously put pen to paper when it comes to my inquiry. I'm very much a thinker and talker when it comes to my reflections and where I'm at with something in my teaching practice, however, see the benefits of having these things on paper to track the growth and change taking place in my teaching and learning journey.
My inquiry and focus has somewhat evolved throughout the year. To be honest at the beginning of the year my focus was getting used to a different style of teaching (part time) with someone new and doing all this has a Mum. In terms of my inquiry I was initially interested in looking at motivation for learning especially in boys, which then changed to boys motivation in literacy and then more specifically my class's motivation and engagement in writing. Based on a particular group of boys in my class, there was definitely the need to have a literacy focus as in both reading and writing they were academically low and in particular less motivated when it came to writing. So while this group of boys are the main 'why' of my now inquiry focus, I still have been looking at the engagement and focus of my whole group of students when it comes to their writing.
Today Sarah and I spent time reflecting on our writing journey with this class throughout the year as we weren't following any particular set plan but more going with the flow of what we thought would suit etc. Looking back from the start of the year to now we have noticed how dramatically the planning and WTN of our learners has been solely led by THEM. So yes some of our pen to paper planning was done in 'retrospect', really everything we have actually done has been because of the needs we've seen arise. With boys motivation in writing at the back of our minds we have designed a writing programme this year that so perfectly caters to OUR learners and THEIR needs. So no, we probably couldn't/wouldn't carry on this plan to another class but definitely would carry on the idea that our learners should be driving this planning, especially if we want them hooked and engaged.
I have found that giving our class ownership and choice in their writing and also creative freedom has worked WONDERS for their motivation. Never have I taught a class so engaged in writing creative stories. It's been great to see them sustain motivation for more than a week on one piece of writing and allowed for plenty of teaching moments based on what we were seeing in their writing. In terms of purposeful teaching that arose from this piece of writing, our learners have been so successful at meeting this criteria because the initial engagement and focus was there.
So in summary our writing programme throughout this year so far as been strongly catered to needs we've seen arise but also the interest of our learners and our planning and teaching has been directed by both these things.
Writing Plan - our working document
