CoL 2022 first PLG

 At our last CoL teachers PLG we were asked the question: 

"How do I have present, happy, healthy, engaged tauira who are learning in the “Goldilocks Zone” 

This was an interesting question because initially looking at my inquiry this year I was so focused on how am I going to accelerate reading in my classroom rather than thinking about how to integrate learners back into a learning environment.  I think that this was a really great question to be asked because it really change my though process and what is the most important thing to inquire into this year. 

This shifted my focus from an inquiry perspective. I was already thinking about how to do this with my classroom
teacher hat on but I didn't think of it with my inquiry teacher hat on as well. This question made me reflect on how I have started the year with my students and the focus was on making school a happy place to be considering all of the things going on in the wider community. 

We were then asked to reflect on how we were feeling as this has such a large impact on our students in class and how they are feeling coming back in. This was another great reflection on what we have been building as a school, team and then as an individual classroom teacher. It was a great reminder that we can look at as much data as we want and try and change outcomes but if we don't have the happy and healthy tauira then how can they be engaged and showing shift in reading, writing or maths. 

This completely changed my focus for my inquiry to making sure that my learners are engaged and wanting to learn. Some of my students haven't been at school since August last year so there is anxiety of coming back to school. So this is what I have changed my focus to for my inquiry - how can I make students feel safe, happy and wanting to come to school? While also having that engagement focus on wanting to learn. 

This CoL PLG has given me a lot to reflect on and think about in my inquiry. It has made me look at my original focus and think I need to focus on learner success in feeling safe and happy and engaging i school which will then filter into that overall focus of shift in reading. Without being happy and engaged at school how can we expect our learners to focus and make shift in subject areas?

Looking at 2022 data

 2022 Focus

This year my inquiry focus continues to look at reading and raising reading achievement. This year I have identified my target group as those students who are reading between the ages of 8-9 years. This group of learners are either currently considered to be at where they should be or just below. I have found looking at previous years data of my own there tends to be a group of students who finish year 5 and are still reading at this level when moving to year 6 and they almost seem "stuck" (for lack of a better word) at these levels. This year I would like to try and find out why this is and what I can do as a teacher to help my learners make this shift before falling behind as they go up the school. 

Hunches

I have been thinking about this for a little while now and with some discussion with some of my other colleagues these are some of the hunches that I have so far that I will need to look into:

• Students are having to pass 2 reading tests (levels) in order to make it to the next year bracket in reading. I have noticed that some of my students may pass one of the levels but stay reading at the same age and then seem to get stuck getting to that next level. 
• The questions to pass are increased at this level of text, applied knowing and inferencing becomes a big part of being able to pass the text. They now need to pass at least 6 of the 8 questions rather than 4 of the 6 questions in previous texts. 
• Vocabulary and inferencing are areas that need work. Looking at the test data and what areas the students are needing work on these are gaps and struggles with inferencing and understanding what the vocabulary means in different contexts. 

I will look into these hunches in more detail throughout the term. This target group so far has been obtained from just looking at the data from last year, I will reassess and look at this data once I have the students in front of my in the classroom and see what areas are needing the most attention. So watch this space!