Session 6 - Vocabulary (& Decoding)

So much learning!  I have loved all the new different ideas of how I can introduce vocbulary building into my reading programme.

It is not to late to still be introducing some of these structured teachings around the 7 syllable types to my Year 7 and 8's I know that there a gaps with a number of my learners. I am going to work through the Morpheme Matrices and make a long term plan to help fill some of these gaps. This is a fantastic resource to use as a starting point.

I have picked up so many fantastic ideas today and wonderful resources it is going to be timely to sit an look at these carefully and how I can build them into my classroom programme. Over the holidays will be a perfect oppourtunity to do this an build into a LTP. With changes in my hub it will be a great opportunity to introduce something new and have us all working on the same page. In order to do this i will make some reflective changes to my classroom timetable. I think I am better to do this over the holiday break when I have time to think and implement it properly.

This is a really valuable quote which I would like to share with both my class and the teachers in my hub as I feel sometimes by learners become a little complacent when learning new words. Also as a teacher I am now reflecting on how I have been teaching vocab. I now think I have been doing a 'token gesture' and not providing deep rich tasks.

I really like the word knowledge graphic organiser. I can see this being a fantastic task to be using in modelling books with the students. It really builds a picture of what learners know. Thank goodness the holidays are coming and I can take some time to really delve into all these amazing things and modify my planning and pracitce! I am looking forward to seeing it in practice with my class in Term3 :)

Session 5 Reflections ( Planning a Reading Programme)

This week has been very timely and reflective for me with regards to adding more interesting and engaging ideas into my weekly planning.  I love the reading apps that we were shown today which I had not heard of and it was awesome to get a chance to explore these.  Also finding out that Epic does so much more than I thought!  Definitely some 'play time' requried for me to see how I can best utilise these within my class.  The idea of making text sets really appeals to me at present, as there is a huge range of texts in there around what we will be moving on to next week around cultures and traditions leading into our schools cultural festival in week 9. 

 Literacy Planet is definitely one I would like to explore, in particular the Parts of Speech components.  To add a new dimension into my Word Work. 

The biggest learning takeaway for me this week is the importance of keeping things fresh.  We often can become comfortable in the familiar as teachers but we need to keep changing things up for the learners to keep their engagement.  Not only in the tasks that we are wanting them to complete but also looking at the groups with which we are teaching.  There is definitely a place for much more fluidity with my groups.  Next term will be potentially a great time to be trialling this with some possible changes happening within our teaching hub.

My big take away and try from this session is the scaffolded writing task that we worked on with Naomi.  We are concentrating on narrative texts at present and I can see this working really nicely to support some of my more reluctant writiers but also be taken a step further for my more creative students.  I will be sure to blog some of their creations! 

Tomorrow I am attending a PLG around reading and I will be sure to be sharing some of the new Apps from today to inspire my colleagues on how they could possibly implement these to change up their reading programmes. I am excited to see how these changes engage my learners.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of the kaupapa and pedagogy of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme ?

• What did I learn that could improve my capability and confidence in teaching reading?

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

• What did I learn that could be shared within my wider community, with either colleagues, or whānau/aiga?

Session 4 Reflections: Guided Reading (& Comprehension)

• Over the course of the day I have had many opportunities to increase my understanding. I have reflected on what I am currently doing within my planning and what it is I actually want from my learners. I believe I need to dedicate a good chunk of time to getting myself better planned and prepared to get myself into a routine and implementing good systems. At present it is not working for me so I need to look at how I can imbed the pedagogy better.

• Preparation is the key. It is not a subject that we can teach effectively and meet the needs of our learners without putting in the ground work. It is important that we can spend the time to prepare in order to get the desired outcomes. This is definitely a key point I need to take back to my team whom I feel could also do with a refresher around this and the planning for the students and their learning needs element. How can we set ourselves up for success both for ourselves and pur learners?

• So many learning opportunities to develop reading responses. The idea of setting up a 'one stop shop' of graphic organisers and set out under each reading strategy is a fantastic idea for developing independence and self directed learning. This would have to be built up over time as each strategy is taught and revised. I am also going to develop an on line modelling book that the learners have access to which reflects our learning. I need to put the time into developing my planning and linking these all together to have the desired outcomes I want. I have so many ideas floating around in my brain - now to implement them!

• Within my hub I would like to share the ways in which we can enhance our planning. The text from *Fountas and Pinnell offer ‘strategic actions’ to teach, prompt and reinforce skills. This is a great resource for drawing out key questions within our planning. This will become a key feature with our hub planning as I know that this is an area that has not been happening so well.

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• So much food for thought today. To make myself a to do list and tick things off around my planning. I think that this will make me feel that I have more organisation and control over my reading programme. At present I feel that I am doing things but no necessarily doing this well! Watch this space

Week 3 - Text selection

Week 3 - Text Selection

For me this week I feel that I have solidified a lot more around the 'why'. The importance of taking the time to select the text for our learners, what is actually going to help us to meet our learning objectives? Gone are the days where we go to the bookroom and take the next books on the shelf because thats where we are up to (baring in mind I teach Yr7/8). What Dorothy talked about - documenting and recording what we have read digitally daily. I do this for my basic facts so why am I not doing it for the independent reading? It seems so obvious upon reflection. Will definitely be starting this next week!

Encouraging the Oral fluency of our readers is huge. I would like to include in my weekly task board that students need to rcord themselves orally reading at least twice a week. Chooseing one of those scripts for them to analyse. I am not sure how this will look yet, but definitely food for thought. It might be a great independent task for my release teacher. I can see this as a fantastic tool to help build the confidence of some of my more reluctant readers if this is promoted in a safe non threatening way. So many valuable takeaways with resources. ideas. I love the sharing and reflection time, I always come away buzzing. A huge takeaway I am taking back to my team tomorrow is the termly overview of text and the year text coveage. Since starting the RPI I have been tracking my own text coverage but it is definitely timely to be looking at my team and what we are covering and looking forward into Term 2 with where to next. Building/creating/sharing multimodal text sets no only helps us to reflect on what we are using within our teaching but helps us to formulate a valuable resource.

Soooo many useful pieces this week and lots of food for thought!

Week 2 Reflection - Know Your Learners as Readers

This week has been a huge week of reflection for me.  Do I actually know my learners?  How am I using my data to the greatest effect?  In a nutshell I don't think that I am utilising it to its fullest.  So what am I going to do 

My biggest take away from todays session is the tracking sheet and having a comprehensive collection of data.  How am I going to use that data to create next steps?  My goal before our next session is to really unpick the PAT data even more closely and look at the common factors.  Having the progressions and all planning information in a one stop shop is amazing.  I think that it not only helps with planning but also keeping us on track to ensure that I am giving due diligence to all areas and not more focus on the areas that I may feel more comfortable in.  

For me as part of my takeaway rom today's session I would like to really unpack the data that I already have and fill in what I can on the tracking sheet so that I can build up a clearer picture for myself. I am the person who loves analysing data to inform my practice so I would feel that I have a

The LTP is definitley something that I will be utilising sooner rather than later, so helpful with future focused planning. I am excited to give this a go! Albeit a little daunting at present.

As part of our Kahui Ako this year we have a major focus on Formative assessment so the reflection on this and creating refined LI and SC is timely. This will help me when I take my learning back to my team and I can tie it in to what we have a our Kahui Ako goals. The next 3 weeks are going to be busy, but I am excited for the challenge and I look forward to seeing where the data leads me!

What kind of Reader are we in Totara 1?

The implementation of the reading survey with Totara 1 was a very interesting exercise.  A very large number of my students don't see themselves as readers and have a real barrier towards reading.  75% of my students indicate that they don't like reading at school.  This correlates to the 78.6%of students who have indicated they don't like reading for enjoyment in their own time.  

The majority of students in my class do not actively borrow on a regular basis, therefore their personal reading over holidays and for enjoyment is low.  A large number of students see themselves as good readers which is a positive.    

The tamariki see themselves as good readers but were unable to explain how that reflected within our data.

One thing we implemented immediately was a refreshed approach to our 'library corner' within our classroom.  I am very fortunate to have a double classroom space and a breakout space in between.  The first thing we have done is create a space where the students want to be - it is a work in progress!  We have moved our library space into the break out space.  We have taken all the books and sported them into genre.  One of the big takeways we discovered from completing our survey was students felt overwhelmed when selecting a book.  We decided to store our books in topics/genres to help takeaway that stressor.  The students were the ones who categorised them and we spent a good chunk of time working together and deciding on what went where.  We had a few tricky ones that they could decide so as a class we shared the blurbs, discussed the covers and brainstormed where we felt they were a 'good fit'.  This excercise was amazing!  So many of my reluctant learners were exposed to books that they didn't know we had.  I bought out my collection of books from my own children and added them.  Lots of rich discussion were had

Fair to say the 'Reading Nook" is a hit so far!  With comfy cushions and bean bags and a fluffy blanket why wouldn't it be!  Children are asking to read in there, work in there or just pop in before school.  In my eyes this can only be a win win.  They may not have a text in their hands but they are sourounded by literature!  We are looking forward to continuing to make our space our own.  Next step is to buy containers to store each topic to make it even easier to find what we are looking for.

Manaakalani Reading Practice Intensive - Session 1

I can see the next 3 terms being a fantastic journey into my reading professional development! So many inspirational take aways already, now to prioritise them and make it functional in Totara 1.

This quote about reading, eqity and outcomes particularly resonated with me as not all whanau see the value of reading for enjoyment.

A thought for discussion is taking back to my class - "Makes a good reader?" What do they see as someone who is a good reader. Ask them to complete a reading profile about themselves. I really liked the idea from Panmure Bridge and turning the data we collect into a Statistics task. This ties in nicely with the statistics unit we are doing within our class at present. Sharing the video clip shown  about readers and what they enjoy about it.

I need to think about how we can use these in our class. Create a display behind the  Maybe even using emoji’s instead of numbers to help.  Initially start with 2 key questions.  For some learners I could potentially use laminated sheets or cut these out and use within groups modelling books

Many inspirational take aways from today.  Time to sit back, reflect and prioritise my where to from here?  How am I going to inspire Totara 1 to see themselves as readers............