Increasing learning conversation and literacy through blogging and commenting | Teacher Inquiry 2020

Accelerated learning, the holy grail being sought by schools in the Manaiakalani cluster. At Panmure Bridge School, our data has shown acceleration particularly in Writing. This acceleration has been aided in recent years thanks to a flattening of the 'Summer Slide', related to implementation of the Summer Learning Journey (SLJ). Grant Oglivie and Greg Wong's joint teacher inquiry for 2020 is to increase students' other forms of literacy, i.e. reading and oral, by leveraging learning conversations through blogging and commenting as used in the SLJ. The first step in this process is to codify and teach a system for blogging, then do the same for commenting.

The system for blog posting has been decided as using the recount, information report, and explanation text types taught in the Writing curriculum. There are several reasons for using these text types rather than developing another structure. Using these text types will compound on Writing lessons, providing students and teachers with more opportunity to refine students' writing techniques and find areas needing improvement. Working on these text types so frequently frees up Writing lessons to be dedicated to the grammar, style development, and the remaining text types (narrative, persuasion, and procedural). Finally, areas to be commented on are made available when students have written their posts in a well structured and thought out manner.

Evidence from students' drafting process will be used to inform the exact teaching points needed and when to continue to each phase. This process is likely to take a whole school year and possibly reach into 2021 to establish good routines in this year's year 5 students. Small scale improvements are likely to be seen by mid 2020, with long term improvements appearing as students reach Years 7 & 8.