Monitoring Change

By further developing students interrogative skills through the integration of Process Drama into the Reading / Literacy program will Reflective Discussion and Critical Literacy improve? Will this improvement be reflected in the their inferential and evaluative scores in Probe? Or just in their ability to verbally, during audio recording, offer multiple deep responses to one question? Will, adding in a new form of Process Drama (MoE) be advantageous for the students or benefit only the teachers desire to continually invigorate practice? 

I do believe adding in Mantle of the Expert (MoE) will not only give another avenue for development of interrogative skills BUT also another method of inquiry AND a starting pathway into the new Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum.  I have created a presentation where the history of Bastion Point is researched and discussed looking at the use and misuse of power. Following the input and understanding of this historical information, how it has affected Auckland (know) the students become the experts (MoE) (do) and re-devise a plan for the area that would have allowed Ngati Whatua to retain their Marae, their whares and continue to live in a community that is healthy, safe and supportive of Maori tikanga. It is at this time MoE and other forms of process drama will be inserted to allow the students to share their information / research / planning from the perspective of the 'expert'.

To keep track and monitor any changes there will audio recordings of three different sessions: beginning, middle and end. Following these I will code each recording according to each question, the number of reiterations from a single question and the increased use of topic appropriate vocabulary. At the end of the inquiry students will be re-Probed to see if there is any significant change in reading levels. 

During the process if, anecdotally, the iterations and topic related language being used is not improving tweaking will be made and more types of process drama added (like Hot Seating) to areas where it can be used to bolster and support the MoE. Fortunately, MoE does allow for a fluid use of differing processes dependant on the level and understanding of the student and if they may need more support for understanding and perspective. 

During each session interesting ideas, vocabulary and wonderings are written on the white board. These are always photographed and added to the Slides being used. This allows me to not only reflect at a later time but also acts as a resource bank for the students to use as a follow up. Notes are also added under each slide in 'speaker notes' as a reflection of the lesson, the positives, negatives and changes that need to be made or considered. 

The implementation of this new inquiry method is going to be an excellent way forward for my practice and understanding not only of how to successfully plan and implement MoE but also but also getting my head around the new Aoteroa NZ Histories curriculum.