Final blog post of 2020

What a year 2020 has been! It has been one of many exciting changes and challenges in my teaching practice. 

Reading PD

I have benefited hugely from the reading PD that we have had as a school. It has given me a clearer understanding of how to help those in my class who are reading between the levels of 6.5 and 7.5. I have found recording notes after each session for each individual learner to be extremely helpful with how I plan for the next session. 

I am really looking forward to continuing on with this next year and using these prompts in my reading sessions. 

Word Work

For the last part of this term I have continued to focus on the word work aspect for these learners. Not only have they loved completing this activities I have noticed a difference in their ability to find these words and use them when we read harder texts. This is something that I will continue to develop and work on next year. 

Next steps

I am really looking forward to the new opportunities that I will be taking on next year. I am going to continue to work on and develop all of the things I have worked on this year and strengthen them in my teaching practice.

Dreaming of 2021

The achievement challenge that I am considering as an area of focus in 2021 is 

 

“Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1-13. “

 

I am passionate about reading as I believe it is an important curriculum subject which leads into maths and writing. Reading can have an impact on learners ability to access these other curricular areas and succeed in them.

 

This was a focus of my MIT inquiry in 2019 which I have continued to inquire into throughout this year. My MIT inquiry focused on my learners reading between the ages of 7-9 years creating a digital tool for reading levels purple, silver and gold. I have continued to use this tool in the classroom this year and as a team have used many of these generic templates while working with our reading groups. Looking ahead to 2021 the data of our year 5’s currently show we have a large number of readers who are reading below the age of 7 years and many stuck in that 7-8 age bracket. 

 

As a school this year we have been having in-depth reading PD which has been valuable in my own teaching practice and working on this with my learners in the classroom. 

In our reading PD this year I have learnt many skills in how to work with our learners who are considered to be below and well below in reading. I believe that continuing to focus on this as an inquiry for next year will benefit my learners in reading achievement and help strengthen my teaching in this area. 

 

I have looked into some of the other CoL teachers from this year and their inquiries. One which stood out was Latini’s inquiry looking into raising reading achievement in her year 7 and 8 learners and getting them ready for high school. Looking at her data many of these learners are reading between and below that 8-9 age bracket. By inquiring into this next year I think it would be helpful in order to get our year 5 and 6 learners to accelerate learning past these levels in order for our year 7 and 8 teachers to focus on other areas for our students to be successful in high school. 

 

Christine’s inquiry has also shown that vocabulary is an important area in reading to focus on which I will take on board into my inquiry next year. Vocabulary is an area that my learners also need to focus on in order to make an accelerated shift in reading. 

 

Focus on acceleration of reading using learn, create and share. Having the students share reading which is giving different ways of sharing reading and in a context that is familiar to the learners. This will focus on having 1.5 x acceleration in reading through the learn, create and share model. 

 

Woolf fisher research has shown that we need to focus on explicit teaching of reading and not just have follow up tasks that are questions straight from the text. We have worked as a team this year to use generic reading tasks which allow us as teachers focus on deliberate teaching of skills. The learners can then take ownership of their learning and read other journals and then have tasks that are generic and able to be completed without deliberate teaching of that particular journal article or story. 

I would like continued PD on reading and how best to teach this in the classroom. Being involved in CoL PLD will help with my learning and knowledge in this area and think critically about what I am doing and why I am doing it.  I got so much out of the PLG from MIT and new ways of teaching and collaborating ideas with other teachers with the same purpose of teaching and learning so I think that it is an important part of sharing and learning with others. I hope to be able to share not only with my team at school and others within my school but also with other teachers in the CoL. 

Reading Inquiry: Term 3 Update

What was the focus? 

This term I have been focused on reading for my inquiry. I have been looking at a specific target group which is my learners reading between the ages of 6.5 and 7.5 years. These students are reading from level 17-20 which is the purple and turquoise on the colour wheel. Over the term I have been reading with each of these learners and recording the areas that the need to work on and what extra assistance they need to make shift in this part of their learning. 

Reading Prompts 

As a school we have been using the Gwenneth Phillips in our reading sessions. These prompts allow the learner to be able to think about what they have read wrong and a chance to fix this on their own rather than just looking to the teacher for the answer. I have noticed that during the course of the term my learners are becoming more comfortable with the prompts that we are using. I can see that some of my learners are thinking of these as they are reading and constantly thinking about whether it looks right and sounds right in the context of the text and sentences. 

Word Work 

I have also been using the sight words for each of the colour wheel groups and giving these learners the opportunity t practice and learn the high frequency words. The presentation that I have created for each of these learners is able to be edited after each time we have read together to add in the high frequency words or words that we have come across in reading that they may have struggled with. I have added a screenshot below of what the task consists of.  

I continue to update the slides after each time I meet with a learner and try and give them 2-3 new and challenging words to work on. I have started to do this with some of our other learners who are reading at green, blue and yellow levels and they seem to enjoy being able to complete some of these tasks. 

Where to next? 

Continue to work with using these prompts in my reading lessons and giving the learners the confidence to know these prompts well. This gives them the ability to think about what they have read and and make sure that it looks right, sounds right and makes sense. I will also continue to build on the sight word slides for my learners and continue to try this with my lower readers. I will also make sure to record some of my sessions so that I can refer back to my own practice on what went well and what I could do better to help my learners make sense of what they are reading. 

Reading Target Group Update

 Before we entered into lockdown level 3 in Auckland I had been reading with my target group every day. To start with I began by just listening to each of my learners from this target group read to see what were they key areas that each of these learners needed help with. I started to add details from each of the sessions that I read with them to kind these key areas and again look to see if there were trends with my learners reading at the same level or if it was something that all my learners need to work on. Below is some of my notes gathered during reading sessions. 

A	03/08 - Puppy at the Door B and p sounds need to work  Sounding out names of people in the story needs work When reading a bit faster will add in extra words  Needs to look at word endings and read in correctly.  Is able to comprehend what she has read and answer questions about it.  27/07 - Dad, the Bird Caller  Needs to work on sounding out new words. Is able to reread when she comes across a word that doesn’t seem to fit into the sentence. Needs to work on rereading in new vocabulary that she comes across.
B	03/08 - Puppy at the Door Read as scraping word is scratching  Sounding out names of people in the story needs work Discovered instead of disappeared  Is able to comprehend what he has read and need to work on making summaries shorter and just the right amount of detail.  27/07 - Dad, the Bird Caller  Needs to work on sounding out new words, will just come to a word and pause. Needs to work on reading in new vocabulary for meaning. Will add in words when unsure of the words in the story.
C	03/08 - Puppy at the Door Sounding out names of people in the story needs work Needs to focus on looking at word endings and making sure that she is reading them in correctly. Will look at word endings.  Needs to work on comprehension of what she has read.  27/07 - Dad, the Bird Caller  Vienna adds in extra words as she is reading if she is unsure of the words. Needs to reread sentences for accuracy and clarity. (He made the in the (his) bedroom). Needs to work on reading in new vocabulary.
D	03/08 - Bend, Stretch and Leap  Tries to sound out words that she is unsure of. Need to check word endings to make sure that she is reading in the correct ending. If unsure of a word will look for pictures as clues to help with new words.  Victory instead of visitor - knows the meaning of the word victor but couldn’t figure out that it was visitor.
E	27/07 - Why People Should Visit Uluru  “When the sun is rising (When the sun rises)” He reads what he thinks makes more sense to him rather than what makes sense in the text. When unsure of how to read a word adds in extra words. Needs to work on reading in new vocabulary.
F	03/08 - Bend, Stretch and Leap  Word endings  Reading for meaning, work on stopping and correcting if the sentence doesn’t make sense. Good at making predictions on what will happen next and finding literal meaning of the story.  27/07 - Why People Should Visit Uluru  Needs to work on reading new vocabulary into sentences.  Also needs to work on making sure what she has read makes sense in the sentence and also what is going on.
G	27/07 - Why People Should Visit Uluru  Needs to work on sounding out new words will just pause when he gets to a  word that he is unsure of.  Needs to work on reading vocabulary into sentences for meaning.

After looking at what each of my learners needed to work on I was able to see that some of my learners had similar needs with their reading and others needed a different focus. As a staff at Pt England this year we are going to be looking at the Gwenneth Phillips prompts so that we are all on the same page with teaching reading and also our learners no matter what age and stage they are will know the prompts throughout the school. I will be working on using these in my group teaching sessions specifically with my target reading group. I hope after a few sessions my learners will be able to understand and notice these prompts and think about them as they are reading. 

I will continue to document reading sessions with these learners to see if I can notice improvements and changes in reading areas they need to work on. I will also try and record a reading session to see my own teaching practice and what I need to work on to make sure I am using the prompts correctly and effectively. 

Lockdown Learning

Learning during Level 3 Take Two 

This team as a team we have been learning about different countries around the world. We are exploring location, people, culture, food, sport, animals, wildlife and even popular culture. We started out learning looking at the continent of Europe learning about France, Italy and Belgium. The we started looking at Brazil. When we were looking at Brazil we moved into level 3 lockdown in Auckland and as a team we decided to keep our learning looking at countries and locations so that we would have some normality for our learners.

During level three we started by looking at Canada. Our team have introduced ideas and parts of the countries and continents to our learners so that they are aware of different countries of the world and exposing them to the outside of New Zealand. I am going to give a brief outline below of how we have been running our online learning during level 3 and term 3 as a whole. 

Four Facts
Each day we introduce a new part of the topic or country with videos and facts related to that particular part of the county. We create different tasks daily, allowing them to use their chromebooks as a research tool to find new information about the different countries we learn about weekly. We start off with a video of the day that leads them to finding 4 facts to write in their own words about the learning for the day.They need to watch the video and create four facts that they have learnt. This allows all of our learners the opportunity to post something on their blog and feel success for the day. 

Reading 
Each day our reading leads on from the four facts and the information that they have learnt already. Reading is time to build upon the original facts. Each day for reading we look at a different aspect of the country whether if be landmarks, animals, popular culture, sports or food. For reading we create our own texts using research from online to make the reading accessible for all of our learners. We also provide extra reading resources to challenge our readers who need this. We have a supported reading section as well which provides audio and extra assistance for our lower level readers. 

Supported Reading 
We also provide extra reading resources to challenge our readers who need this. We have a supported reading section as well which provides audio and extra assistance for our lower level readers. I looked at how to make reading more engaging for our lower readers so created a fill in the blacks activity which we have continued on each week. The response to text is to ensure that all of our learners are engaged in the reading and reading every day. For the supported learners this is exactly the same audio is just added for assistance. 

Writing 
Next on the site is writing. Writing is also linked to what we are learning for the day. With a focus on what our learners need to work on in writing. At the moment we are working on paragraphs so that is the learning intention for our learners however each day we add in a different type of writing to make it interesting for our learners and also relatable to what we are learning about. 

Maths 
For maths I have been creating problem solving actives that are related where possible to the topic we are learning about. We have also been making a big push for our learners to learn their times tables which is now a daily task for our learners to practice each day. With being at home some of them may not have access to pencils and paper however they are still able to practice using a digital tool. We have been looking at fractions at school so I have continued this on into level three. Some of these problems are related to what we are learning about I try and make the word problems match as best as I can. 

Design Task 
We have decided to incorporate a design task in each day for our learners so that they are able to practice using google draw and other digital drawing tools. Each week we start of by having the learners design the flag of the county that we are learning about, this is a great way to have them practice using the drawing tools as a well as being able to recognise the flags of each of the countries in the world.  

Chapter Book 
During the first lockdown I started reading a chapter book to my class. I recorded myself reading the story for them and they loved it. This gave them a chance to hear a story read and be exposed to new and interesting vocabulary. Since coming back to school we have kept this as a part of our site with listening to the David Walliam's stories. It gives each of the learners an opportunity to have a brain break and restores calmness back in the classroom and opens them back up to learning. 

Checklist
Each day we provide a checklist which allows the learners to see what they have achieved and also hold them accountable for their own learning. It is a quick and easy way to see what activities they have completed and what they need to do.  

Check out our Team 4 site here :)

Reading as Inquiry

This year our school management team identified the need to focus on learners reading well below the expected reading level for their age. Because of this, I have changed my target group. Last year I focused on accelerating my learners reading between the ages of 7-9 years. In my learning space with two other teachers we have found there is a need to continue on focusing on these learners at these levels for the rest of the year. 

My new target group will be looking at how to facilitate shift and learning outcomes. The group of learners that I will be looking at are reading between 6.5 - 7.5 years. My target group is a mixture of year 5 and 6 learners who are reading between these ages. 

The first thing I did was identify these learners from my class and then have a look at the data for their reading over the last few years to see if there were any trends in the data. I looked not only at the reading age of each of these learners but also at the PM level they were reading at. Some of the PM levels require learners to pass more than one test to go up a reading age. Below is my initial look at the data. I have tested each of these learners in Term 3 to make sure that these are the right levels and reading ages for them. 

Over the next few weeks I will be reading with my learners focus on what key areas they need to focus on in their reading. This data is something that I will continue to focus on and refer back to in order to see if there is any change and shift in the data and what we are implementing. 

Name	2018	2019	2020 (As of Term 3)
A	Not at Pt England	6yrs (12)	6.5yrs (15)
B	6.5yrs (16)	6.5yrs (15)	7yrs (18)
C	6.5yrs (15)	7yrs (17)	7yrs (17)
D	6yrs (14)	7yrs (18)	7.5yrs (19)
E	6.5yrs (16)	7.5yrs (19)	7.5yrs (20)
F	7yrs (20)	7.5yrs (20)	7.5yrs (20)
G	6.5yrs (16)	7.5yrs (19)	7.5yrs (20)

Reading Inquiry 2020

Change of direction

With the change and things happening this year I have changed the focus of my inquiry back to reading for the second half of 2020. For this half of the year I am going to be building on some of the things that I have already put in place in the class and where I can make the next impact for my learners. I have selected a reading group to focus on which is my learners reading at levels 18-20 reading ages 7-7.5 years. 

This is a similar focus to my MIT inquiry last year but this year I will be building on the turquoise and purple part of my inquiry. Last year I was just focusing on reading mileage and having generic activities for the learners to complete on their own. This years focus is on my direct teaching in a small group and how I can teach the correct skills to my target group to make progress. 

Keeping it consistent...We are actually looking at reading and reading prompts as a whole staff so that we are all teaching the same tools that can be picked up and used anywhere in the school. This will mean that we are all on the same page on the prompts as well as the next steps and strategies that each of the students need to work on. 

The prompts that we are currently using a the Blue to Gold prompts where we are getting the learners to look at what they have read and think about if what they have read is right and accurate. 

I have been working with my new target group of students and spending the last few sessions observing key things that they are struggling with so that I can build on this after I have discovered with the problem for each of my learners is and what they need to build on. I will be continuing for the next few weeks to listen to what the learners are needing to work on and looking into the best way to teach these strategies. Watch this space!

Maths Observation

Today I was fortunate enough to observe Kent Somerville take a maths session. The session was introducing decimals as fractions and trying to solidify the knowledge between the two. This was an invaluable session and I learnt so much from this observation. I have learnt how to introduce fractions to students who know little to nothing about fractions. It gave me an opportunity to focus on key vocabulary that I should be using when discussing this topic. I feel that this has given me the ability to feel confident in the way I am teaching this in maths and the key vocabulary that will help strengthen their knowledge. 

This has given me a boost in my ability to teach maths. So far I have found with teaching that my maths views and ways of teaching have changed and I haven't felt as confident in this area of the curriculum. In having this observation with Kent it allowed me to see the key vocabulary that should be used in each stage and also what to do if some learners understand and others don't. 


It has also given me the opportunity to see this taught in a real classroom environment. Rather than seeing this done with a perfect group who have been scaffolded prior to this is was great to see the introduction of a new topic and how to teach learners at all different levels of knowledge and how to complete this during a lesson.

This observation has given me some key areas to work on in my knowledge of teaching maths and how to best teach this to as a new topic with students with a range of different abilities and prior knowledge. 

Lock Down Level 4

I thought I would take this time just after lockdown level 4 in New Zealand to reflect on some of the things that I did during lockdown to keep my learners engaged and wanting to learn. We had a template and way of how we were going to run things in our team organised if this was something that did end up happening. So with the change in alert levels it was a relatively fast transition from teaching in the classroom to teaching from my office from home. 

The first few weeks were about finding the right balance between what they learners were going to be able to achieve and how much work to put on the site to keep them engaged and wanting to learn. I tried to keep the content and flow as similar as possible to what my learners were used to in the classroom so it made the transition easier. Each day I would add a morning video to introduce the topic for the day and give the learns a chance to see what was expected of them before the first meet. 

As a team we decided that we should have at least 3-4 meets a day to keep the learners engaged and give the chance to offer help when needed as well as answer any questions that the learners may have had. We had set times for our morning intro at 9am and then the last catch up at 2pm. The rest was left to what we felt our classes needed. 

I was really impressed with the turn out of my class attending meets. I had about 65-70% of my learners on meets and engaging with the learning throughout lockdown. 

After the holidays:

We did have a period of time in the holidays to reflect on how we could make the work easier for the learners to access and how to continue teaching as much as we could from home. ANZAC day was during this lockdown so I decided to have an ANZAC themed week. I also wanted to give the learners different content and ways of writing to make it more engaging and fun. 

Parrant's Pantry

This is where the idea of Parrant's Pantry came from! I decided to show myself doing some baking at home. This was something that my learners could do at home as well and also give them a video to watch and follow and write instructions. The learners loved it. I did only create a few episodes as I didn't want it to be too repetitive however I know others in my team used this template for there classes too. Check out Parrant's Pantry ANZAC biscuits below. 

Once we moved to alert level 3 I returned to bubble school and Matt Goodwin took over my classes online learning. I helped to create some resources and attended some of the classes online google meets however my focus became my learners at bubble school. 

If you would like access to any of the activities and work that I completed during lock down please check out this link to see my weeks 1-3 where I was teaching from home. The rest of my classes work is under Mr Goodwin as this is where I retuned to school. 

2020 Inquiry Plan

This year I have decided to shift my inquiry to maths. This will look at my own knowledge in maths, how to effectively teach maths and how to find my learners next steps and how best to help them. 

This year I have been given the opportunity to have the extension learners so my biggest question is how can I extend my learners so that are getting the most out of their maths learning?

In order to find more out for this inquiry and how best to go about it I will talk with colleagues. I will also observe other teachers in my school who will be able to show me new ways of teaching and planning. 

I am excited to start this journey with maths this year. Changing my inquiry does not mean that I will stop my MIT reading inquiry. This is something I will still continue to inquire into and add to my site that I have created throughout the year.