How do my responses to behaviour influence classroom climate?

 Professional Growth Cycle (PGC)

Focus: Maximising Learning Time Through Proactive Classroom Management

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Year Level: Year 4

Cycle Timeframe: Term 1 to the end of term 4, 2026.

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1. Inquiry Focus

How can I reduce time spent managing behaviour by implementing proactive, structured classroom systems that support engagement and self-regulation for all learners, particularly those with ADHD?

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2. Rationale

In my Year 4 classroom, a significant amount of learning time is lost due to managing low-level disruptions and supporting learners with ADHD and behavioural needs. These interruptions impact the flow of teaching and reduce opportunities for sustained engagement.

This inquiry aims to shift my practice from reactive behaviour management to proactive systems that create a calm, structured, and predictable learning environment. This aligns with the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum (2025), which emphasises wellbeing, belonging, and inclusive practice.

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3. Teaching Council Standards Links

• Learning-focused culture: Creating a safe, inclusive, and predictable classroom environment

• Design for learning: Planning for diverse learners using structured and accessible approaches

• Teaching: Using effective strategies to maximise engagement and minimise disruption

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4. Baseline Data (Weeks 1–2)

Summary of initial findings:

• Average time lost to behaviour per block:

• Most frequent behaviours:

• Times of day with highest disruption:

Reflection:

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5. Action Plan

Strategy 1: Strengthening Routines and Transitions

• Explicitly teach and practise transitions

• Use consistent signals and countdowns

• Display visual expectations

Strategy 2: Reducing Downtime

• Implement “Do Now” tasks at the start of each lesson

• Ensure materials are prepared in advance

• Provide early finisher options

Strategy 3: Chunking Learning and Adding Movement

• Break tasks into manageable steps

• Include short movement or brain breaks

Strategy 4: Clear Behaviour Expectations

• Co-construct class expectations (kawa)

• Regularly revisit and reinforce expectations

Strategy 5: Pre-Correction

• Remind students of expectations before transitions and key moments

Strategy 6: Targeted Support for Priority Learners

• Use non-verbal cues and proximity

• Implement “First–Then” strategies

• Set short, achievable goals

Strategy 7: Teaching Self-Regulation

• Teach and model calming strategies

• Provide a calm/reset space

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6. Evidence Collection

Quantitative Evidence

• Reduction in time lost to behaviour

• Transition speed improvements

• Frequency of key behaviours

Qualitative Evidence

• Student voice

• Teacher reflections

• Observations (self or peer)

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7. Mid-Cycle Reflection

What is working well?

What needs adjusting?

Impact on priority learners:

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8. End-of-Cycle Reflection

What changes did I make to my practice?

What impact did these changes have on student behaviour and engagement?

How has this improved learning time?

What will I continue or refine next?

Growth Cycle Inquiry 2025

My inquiry this year is based around the CPA approach to teaching, and how implementing it within my practice will enable students to gain a greater mathematical understanding of the concepts being learned.  

What is the CPA approach to teaching?

The Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach is a means of scaffolding learning that uses physical and visual aids to help students understand abstract topics. Students are introduced to a new mathematical concept through the use of concrete resources (e.g., Multilink cubes, Base Ten Materials, Dice, etc.).

According to Third Space Learning, "Pupils achieve a much deeper understanding if they don’t have to resort to rote learning and are able to solve problems without having to memorise". 

How will I document this journey?

Throughout this inquiry, I will utilise the use of IRIS recording to capture my math lessons. The recordings will be a great way for me to reflect on, plan from and eventually compare back to when looking for signs of progress. Ideally, they may end up being a source of rewindable learning for other teachers to use. I expect the first recordings to show me reading from the textbook quite a bit, whilst I become familiar. I believe this will change somewhat over time as I acclimatise to this style of teaching and it becomes the norm.

Third Space Learning

Term 4 reflection

 As another way to encourage inclusive, thought-provoking discussions within the classroom, we also use Talk Moves in other curriculum areas, not just for reading. This helped build the student's confidence when it came to talking about their learning. It became more routine and familiar. They still need prompting to get going. I have noticed they have also become better listeners. We have concentrated on thinking about what is being said and what is being asked before blurting out a response.

Term 3 reflection

During term 3, we used more reflective discussions. These types of discussions encourage students to think and talk about what they have observed, heard or read during a reading session. Sometimes, I did the reading rather than the students. I found it gave them more freedom to think in-depth about the text and their discussions, rather than worrying about reading as well. 

The students still often need prompting to have discussions. This is something we will work on where they initiate the discussions, not me.  I want for it to be a natural part of their lesson, but at this stage, they still require a lot of scaffolding.

The video below shows a good example of how a teacher has implemented using Talk Moves within her class.

The journey so far....Term 2.

How the journey is going.

I have started trying to utilise provocation as a way to promote critical thinking as well as leading into critical literacy. 
"Critical literacy is the term used to refer to a particular aspect of critical thinking. Critical literacy involves looking beyond the literal meaning of a text to determine what is present and what is missing, in order to analyse and evaluate the text's complete meaning and the author's intent". (https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/program-planning/cross-curricular-and-integrated-learning/critical-thinking-and-critical-literacy).

April, Term 1

Throughout the term, I have made a concerted effort to incorporate more discussion time across all curriculum areas. For example, during maths we have been focusing on being active listeners and doers, using Talk Moves and giving and taking others' opinions. Reading time we are focused on reciprocal teaching and building thought-provoking, rich conversations. 

Growth Cycle inquiry for 2024

My inquiry for 2024

For my Growth Cycle inquiry for 2024, I decided to revisit one I did previously. This is to incorporate extended discussions within reading through Reciprocal Teaching. My reasoning behind this is to accelerate students' overall comprehension of multimodal texts, therefore building students' communication skills. My focus is on developing their ability to explain and justify their thinking, elaborate on their ideas, and build richer communication skills and comprehension.

Target students

My target cohort is a small group of students who are at their expected level for reading. I chose these students as I feel they lack some of the communication skills required to progress more and that it is holding back their ability to confidently move ahead. 

I also strongly believe these particular students will pick up the reciprocal teaching strategies quickly and we should soon see positive results. These students will then be able to become mentors within the class to help establish reciprocal teaching and extended discussions with their peers.

How will I document this journey?

Throughout this inquiry, I will utilise the use of IRIS to record reading sessions. The first recording will be a baseline. A video for me to reflect on and plan from and eventually compare back to when looking for signs of progress. I expect the first recording in particular to contain a lot of off-task conversations while students are learning their new roles.

Resources in my teaching environment which help me

I have created several resources to have in my teaching environment to support me on my quest to use more te reo māori. These rauemi (resources) are mainly posters with kupu and phrases that we use often in class. Some are questions, some are instructions and some are lists of common everyday kupu to incorporate more. I have found it very handy as a quick reference when my memory fails me, but also the students in my class refer to them as well. 

The importance of building relationships with tamariki and whanau

According to Te ako i te reo Māori - Teaching and learning te reo Māori the characteristics of effective teaching and learning
"Effective teachers of te reo Māori actively build strong relationships with students’ whānau and communities. They manage the classroom environment well and develop relevant and carefully sequenced learning tasks that provide multiple opportunities for learning and enable students to make links between their new learning of te reo Māori and their prior knowledge and experiences" (https://tereomaori.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-guidelines/Teaching-and-learning-te-reo-Maori).

This article also mentions that many of the tasks undertaken within the class are social. This has been a focus for me within my teaching practice, and specifically in my learning journey for incorporating more te reo Maori. What we are learning for te reo Maori we do in a social manner. There are a lot of conversations, role-play, and banter. I believe this has helped to engage students and to embed the learning that is taking place, not just for them, but for myself too. It has been instrumental in helping develop my confidence and understanding.

 

September reflection

My goal is to build a culturally responsive classroom based on respect and connection. I am finding the best way for me to do this is to initiate more korero and establish classroom communication practices that include te reo Māori. One example of this is our morning routine. We do daily taumata. After taumata we do the role and each child is asked how they are feeling and then respond and ask another student the same question (in te reo māori). When we first started this routine it took a while. Students stumbled with the asking and answering. They were also clearly nervous. Now it has become second nature to them. They are starting to experiment by responding with new kupu, instead of the standard e pai ana ahau. This routing has been beneficial for me most of all. It has helped build my confidence and I can also see that the children appreciate my efforts as well.

Here is a list of things I have noticed when I use more te reo māori within the classroom. 

• Our confidence has grown.
• Our pronunciation has improved.
• We are more willing to give things a go.
• We are supportive of each other.

Hattie's 8 Mind Frames

 

These are the 2 mind frames that resonated with me the most.

I teach through dialogue not monologue.

It's my role to develop a positive relationship in the class and the staff room.

July, 2023 reflection

This term I have been very focused on introducing and using more kupu and instructional te reo Maori on a regular basis. I have found the delivery is coming across more naturally for me. The bonus is, the students are following suit and using and understanding more instructional phrases. We regularly use greetings and topic-specific vocabulary.

I will try to get some video evidence for my next post, to show my progression.

Term 2, 2023 Reflection

This term for my week of running assembly I had to run a Powhiri. I ensured I was organised by having notes so I would remember what needed to be said. I feel my pronunciation and phrasing went well despite internal nervousness. I met with Raechel who guided me on some corrections that I needed to make beforehand. 

In the weeks leading up to it, I had practiced daily in class, so it flowed quite well. I didn't feel lost at all and was able to look up and make eye contact with students, etc without losing where I was at. I think this shows my developing understanding of what the protocols and tikanga are. Therefore displaying growth in my capabilities and comfort in speaking te reo māori (Standard 4: Learning Focused Culture).

How things are going so far...

So far I have included more reo into my planning. I have mainly done this by altering my planning to have common classroom phrases and questions as part of our daily routine. It has become more habitual for both me and the students which in turn has created a more natural delivery of these 'mini-lessons'. My confidence has grown quite a bit due to this (Standard Building Relationships: 

The main area I have changed thus far is the Classroom Screen which is on display most of the day. I have incorporated greetings, asking the day of the week, and asking about the weather. When the students answer the question I type it in the text boxes and/or drag the corresponding images to the correct places.

Another area I am utilising is our behaviour rewards system Class Dojo. There is an award value for students using te reo in normal classroom situations. They are awarded 5 points for 'korero'.

Professional Growth Cycle 2023

The focus for my Professional Growth Cycle for 2023 is to integrate more te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into my classroom programme (Standard 1: Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership. Practice and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori). The reasoning behind this is for implementing the strategy ‘Building an inclusive, culturally responsive classroom environment’. (Standard 4: Learning Focused CultureCreating an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities).

I feel that incorporating, for example, classroom communication practices that include te reo Māori, will help to include and engage all students, and build mutual respect and connection with my students and their whanau (Standard 3: Professional Relationships. Engage in reciprocal, collaborative learning-focused relationships with learners, family and whānau).

So far this year, as a syndicate we decided to have our daily taumata together. This was in part a way to grow and bond as a team but also as a way to build relationships across the classes. The students and teachers who have a stronger understanding of culture and protocols can share what they know and support others.

My question at the moment is how do I measure whether this will be successful or not? I can collect assessment data from Te Reo lessons to see if there is an improvement in students' ability to use the instructions, etc. I can use IRIS to video myself to show any growing confidence in the delivery of lessons. I will post regular reflections to share how things are going.

https://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/supporting-akonga-maori/consider-ways-to-integrate-te-reo-maori-and-tikanga-maori-into-your-classroom-programme/

Guided reading session (with other students added to group)

 

For this guided reading session, my focus was to include other students, not from the cohort. This allowed me to see if the original group would model extended discussion behaviours with other peers.

Also, I wanted to guide my deliberate acts of teaching by using the teacher support materials. I hope it will become more of a natural progression as time passes.

Google form for getting feedback from cohort

I created a Google Form to get feedback from the students involved about how they felt about extended discussions and how it impacted their learning.

Here are the responses from some of the students involved.

Term 4 data and update

Recent assessments have shown an increase in all cohort students' reading levels. Comparing terms 1 and 4 shows a significant jump of 7 to 8 reading levels. There has also been an increase in the stanine level achieved in the most recent PAT Comprehension assessment with some of the cohort.

Guided reading behaviours have made some positive changes too. For example, the students are reading questions more carefully than they used to. They are not rushing to complete work as they used to, therefore taking their time to understand the text on a deeper level. 

This week during guided reading sessions I noticed if I use wait time the students tend to extend their discussions without prompt. 

Revisiting Extended Discussions

After a really busy term, we have finally gotten back into extended discussions. What I have noticed is that the students needed quite a lot of prompting and scaffolding. It appears they have forgotten some of the strategies we were using.

I think what would be best is to go back to revisit what extended discussions and reciprocal teaching are, to remind the students in hopes to get it happening again. We need it to become a naturally occurring strategy in order for them to benefit the most with their reading comprehension and higher-order thinking. Using these strategies will in turn support them in making connections by applying their knowledge to real-world scenarios.

"Teachers who plan to teach and extend students' higher order thinking skills promote growth for their high-ability students. Higher order thinking is often used to refer to 'transfer', 'critical thinking' and 'problem solving.' These can be defined as:

transfer - the student's ability to apply knowledge and skills to new contexts (for example, a student in year 5 learning about fractions applied her knowledge to a real world scenario)
critical thinking - the ability to reason, reflect, and decide what to believe or do next
problem solving - meeting a goal that cannot be met with a memorised solution (Brookhart, 2010, 2011)."

(https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/high-ability-toolkit/Pages/higher-order-thinking.aspx)

Needing to refocus

For the past 8 weeks, I have had a student teacher in my room. This has been an interesting experience and has made it difficult to maintain any type of routine for myself and my students. Therefore I haven't been able to focus on my target cohort as much as I had anticipated. I do not have any Extended Discussion documentation for this time frame. Although I have been able to observe their reading habits, I have noticed they have reverted back to working independently of each other and in the cases where there are discussions they are not using the strategies we had been working on. 

I look forward to getting routines back and a reinvigorated reading group time with documentation and data collection for my inquiry.