Reflections and tweaks explained

 Explain the reflections and tweaks you have made along the way and the reasons why you made these changes. Share your evidence for these decisions.

This year has been interesting with my inquiry and I have found that I have needed
to be adaptable along the way. While my focus question has continued to look at reading achievement I have also focused on well being as well as reading for enjoyment. The reason for this change was looking at term 1 and all of the changes and interruptions we were having the most important thing for me and my class was student well being and trying to get all of my students to come back to school. I made this the focus for the whole of term 1 as it was a very uncertain time for everyone and I wanted to make sure that my students were doing okay and felt comfortable to come back to school. So I guess you could say reading took a bit of a back seat, we were still reading as a class just in more spaced out groups with masks on and it was hard to have those detailed conversations. 

Through this change in direction I also found myself thinking about reading for enjoyment and enhancing this. As it was a lot harder to have reading groups and being able to share it became really important for my students to want to be able to read by themselves and select books for enjoyment rather than just being told to read something. Social distancing meant that my students were working a lot more independently so therefor the change to my reading program came about. We started going to the library and students had a lot more choice. Reflecting on this has shown a really great outcome my students now love going to the library and ask for SSR (Super Silent Reading) as it is a change for them to unwind and explore what they are reading. 

I have continued to focus on linking reading and writing which was another thing that came out of the all of the changes this year. I think this has had a great impact on literacy for my class and I am finding that my students are able to link these together and begin to use different vocabulary in their writing. 

I have made all of these changes to ensure the best for my learners. I think by being able to be flexible and reflective at every step has helped shape my program this year and although it might have not been to plan for my original inquiry I have found some key things that I would add into my inquiry next time and would really like to explore this in a lot more detail again with my class next year.