RPI Day 5 - Planning a Reading Programme

Today we had day five of RPI which was titled planning a reading program. There were some really interesting ideas and new tools that have come out of todays session which I am excited to share as well as take back with me into the classroom. As always with RPI day's I love gathering all of this new information and trying to think about how I will add this into my following weeks planning. 

Reflections
At the beginning of todays session we were asked to reflect on the homework tasks and share what is going well and what we might need support around. As I shared in my breakout group I have found a new passion and excitement from reading planning since our last session. I have been adding and trying things in the classroom that were not too dissimilar to what I was doing but I feel a bit more inspired about them and thinking about how I can include student voice and really have students delve deep into topics and have discussions around what they are learning. I have had some really great conversations with Toni my mentor around adding in novels and other texts to really extended those readers which I am also excited to continue to put into practice. 

Class Sites
We were fortunate enough to have Fiona Grant join us this morning to talk through class sites and to think about the progression that these have made over the years. It was really great to be reminded of the four key goals for class sites and thinking about how we can ensure that our learners know how to navigate the class site as well ass sharing this with whānau. This has been a really good reminder for me to check that the class site is functional and that all of the links are working and to ensure that during parent teacher conferences this term that whānau do know how to access the class site. 

Looking at the bigger picture
The key focus for today was around linking reading and writing and finding ways in which
we can integrate the two. One key thing that stood out for me in this particular part of the session was having workshops and conferences with my groups. I think I so often focus on getting those guided reading sessions done and pulling out the key ideas and listening to the students read I often forget to check in with the learners and give them the opportunity to share their learning in a group setting. So this is definitely something that I am going to be adding into my timetabling going forward.

Teacher Timetabling
I eluded to this a in my previous paragraph about making time and ensuring the time for conferencing with the students. I do try and make time for this during our literacy rotations and I do always manage to get through my groups and see them enough times however sometimes these sessions can take longer than expected and it takes away from the conferencing time with the students. My big take away from this part of the day was to be intentional with my timetabling and add in these times. I think by having more detail in this timetable will make sure that I stick to it and that I have time for all of the things I want and need to complete in the classroom. So watch this space on this one! There never seems to be enough time in the day!!

Mahi Tracker
I currently have a turn it in sheet that the students use and we have been working on getting better at adding things this term. I have seen some really amazing ones today that are really clear and show the progress that I would like to try out in my class. So I am very much looking forward to revamping my current turn it in sheets to be more user friendly and visually appealing. 

Digital Reading Apps
This was a really interesting part of today looking at some of the digital apps in more detail. I currently use EPIC! in my classroom but I have discovered today how many amazing features it has that I am definitely going to be using going forward. I have added the students into groups and will be trying from next week to give them specific books to look at. I am also really excited to try out https://readalong.google.com with Fiona Grant recommended, I will be adding that into my choice board from next week!

Skill Builder Inferencing
Again another incredible skill builder session today all about inferencing. I am really looking forward to trying some of these tasks in the classroom. I always forget about how powerful it is to just use an image for inferencing and using that as a starting point. This part of today also reminded me of the key into inference workbook that we have a school so will be adding this into the mix as well. 

Read like writers and write like readers
This part of todays session was by far my favourite by looking into different ways that we can use journals and texts to model the way in which we want our learners to explore language and features in their writing. We read the opening paragraph to the story "Great Beginnings" which has a lot of really beautiful language to describe the opening to the story. From this we were then given some prompts and questions to eventually write our own paragraph. This is something that I am very excited to try in my classroom. It also happens to be a part of our homework for our next RPI session, so I hope to reflect on how that goes before my next session. 

As always I have really enjoyed my RPI session today and have taken away some key things that I am really excited to explore and use in my classroom and literacy rotation. I love that with reading and writing there is always something new to explore which is why I think reading is such a passion subject of mine. I have lots of things to explore in the next few weeks and I can wait to see how they turn out and to share my findings on here, so watch this space!

Academic Readings

It has come to that time of our inquiry where we are looking at academic research and readings to see what changes that we can make to support our hypothesis and inquiry. I have been fortunate enough to take part in RPI this year where we have been able to look at some academic research into reading and the changes that we have made so far to our practice in the teaching of reading. For my inquiry this year I have also sourced some academic research to have a deeper look into changes that will make to my practice to raise reading achievement for my learners this year. I had a look at three pieces of academic research will I will outline below in this blog post. 

Reading One:
The first piece of academic research that I looked into was "Improving pupil group work interaction and dialogue in primary classrooms." This research outlined how structured group work can make a big difference in student engagement. When teachers set up group activities in a thoughtful way, students get more involved and have better discussions.

What I learned from this reading is that I need to be more intentional about how I organise group work. So, I’m planning to mix things up by giving students specific roles in their groups and creating tasks that encourage them to think critically and talk to each other. 

With being part of RPI this year I have also been able to implement ground rules for talk which aligns really well with what I have found in this academic research. 

Reading Two:
The second piece of academic research that I looked into was "Fundamentals of inferencing during reading." This article emphasises how important it is for readers to make inferences using their background knowledge. Good readers connect new information to what they already know, which is key for understanding what they read.

What I learned from this reading was the need to focus on teaching inferencing skills in my classroom. I plan to introduce lessons that help students practice making inferences while reading. I think the key thing to start with is gathering students prior knowledge using topics I know they are confident with to start discussions and make those connections. 

Through RPI we are given a range of different graphic organisers that can focus in on this skill. Another thing I would like to try in the classroom is continue to use key into inference as well as using images in follow up tasks so that students are able to make inferences with images and then transfer this into what they are reading. 

Reading Three:
The final piece of academic research that I looked into was "How Can Teachers Facilitate Productive Talk?" This article highlights how the way teachers talk can really impact small-group discussions. It introduces a lot of effective teacher dialogue and moves to help students engage more meaningfully with what they are reading. 

What I learned from this that my role as a teacher in leading discussions is super important. I want to start using specific questions that encourage deeper thinking and conversation. For example, I’ll ask open-ended questions that prompt students to elaborate on their thoughts or respectfully challenge each other’s ideas. I want my classroom to be a space where everyone feels comfy sharing their opinions and using evidence from the text to back them up. Again this links in really nicely with ground rules for talk from RPI.

I’m really excited about these changes and can’t wait to see how they impact my students learning. These articles have been helpful in shaping my next steps, and I’m looking forward to trying these strategies out in my class. With a little tweaking along the way, I hope to create an even more engaging and effective learning environment for my students!

References:

Cook, A. E., & O'Brien, E. J. (2017). Fundamentals of inferencing during reading. Language and Linguistics Compass, 11(7), e12238. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12238

Wei, L., Murphy, P. K., & Firetto, C. M. (2018). Improving pupil group work interaction and dialogue in primary classrooms: Results from a year-long intervention study. The Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 568-588. https://doi.org/10.1086/697175

Wei, L., Murphy, P. K., & Firetto, C. M. (2018). How can teachers facilitate productive small-group talk? An integrated taxonomy of teacher discourse moves. The Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 589-608. https://doi.org/10.1086/697176

Baseline Data

We have been asked to think about what we will be using as our baseline data to see if our intervention has shown shift at the end of this inquiry. I have decided that I will use the following as my baseline data and use this again at the end of the year to see if there is any shift. 

PAT Reading & Star
I will use data collected from both of these tests and again analyse in detail at the end of the year to see which areas have shown improvements. I will be able to compare beginning of the year data to the end of the year data. 

Running Records
I will be able to use this data also to see if the intervention has made shift in reading age
and level. This will also be good data to use in the middle of the year to see how the students are tracking and what other changes might need to be made. Our students are also tested on running records at the end of the year so will be able to compare this data (often this is not ready before bursts and bubbles so will need other data for that). 

Probe Tests
Because I have tested the students in term 1 using probe (all but one as attendance can be a bit low) I will be able to complete probe testing at the end of the year to see shift. This will be something that I can complete early on term 4 and will be able to use for bursts and bubbles. 

Attendace
I have been looking into this as well, I will have a blog post that will show trends in attendance as I wanted to know if this will have an impact on students reading. I will be able to use of attendance data to see trends in this data.

Student Voice Survey
I will complete this again at the end of the year to see if there is a change in students perceptions in reading and see if there is any shift and if there is shift where this shift has come from. 

Observations
I have been taking notes during guided reading with this group of learners and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. I think this will be a good way to gauge confidence in these students and to see if there is any shift in that area.

I think that this will be enough baseline data to have ready for the end of the year to see if there is any shift in reading age due to the intervention being made. 

RPI Day 4: Guided Reading

In today's session we have taken a deep dive into guided reading and some of the key components and elements of guided reading, the learners role and the teacher role. I really enjoyed this session as it added a lot more tools that I am excited to add into my guided reading program. 

Background to guided reading

During this part of the session we were given background information into guided reading
and how it has evolved to what we see in classrooms today. I learnt a lot in this part of the session on how to use screen cast for writing as well as reading. Also thinking about an anchor text for our guided reading. This has made me think about having a background text as the starting point for the week which allows the students to explore and understand the topic in more detail before we start deep diving into the other text of the week. I have also thought of using this as a way to add more non fiction texts into my sessions as this is something that is lacking looking at my text coverage so far for this year. I have also had discussions this week on how to extend my readers and I think this will be a perfect way to add this into guided reading. 

Introducing Text and Purposes
Discussing key vocabulary before reading sessions can be really valuable in allowing

students to understand new words that they might come across. This is something that I always forget to think about during my planning time and is something that I will make sure to add into my planning from now. I also need to work on making the vocabulary visible. It was really helpful to see some ways this can be done in guided reading sessions and I have a lot of takeaways from this especially having these words written on cue cards to discuss as a group. The image of the bridge of how we are scaffolding our learners really resonated with me and I think it is really important to keep remembering this as we are planning for guided reading. 

Observing

For this part of our session we were looking at how valuable observations of reading can be in the classroom. It has given me some new ways in order to see and hear my students reading more often while they are in front of me so that I know they are still reading. We looked at some ways in which we can take anecdotal notes and it was also a great chance to reflect on how this looks in the classroom. 

Fluency

I really enjoyed this part of the day as we had the opportunity to deep dive into our

students who had recorded themselves reading as part of their follow up activity. It was a really good chance to see how the students are reading when they are away from us and looking at the fluency scale. I am really excited to take this back to the classroom and have the students analyse their own reading and reflect on how they were reading and what they can improve on. I think it will be great to set up conferences where we can compare what we are seeing and work on how we can improve fluency in reading. 

Discussion and teaching points after reading

Another thing that I want to work on between now and our next session is to use my digital modelling book better. I have created one for each group but I often find it just sits there. I think this will be a really great place to keep a record of the discussions that we are having as a group as well as a place where we can keep vocabulary visible during and after our guided reading sessions. This part of today has made me think about how I can change up my task boards, so watch this space! I have some exciting ideas and things that I want to try in the next few weeks. 

Skill builder and independent practice

This week for our skill builder we were given some incredible resources that I cannot wait to add to my resource bank going forward. As I have also mentioned it has given some great other ideas on how to add vocabulary into my follow up tasks and reenganing some create ideas as well. 

I really enjoyed today's session and I got a lot out of it, with some great reminders of what I can add to strengthen my guided reading program. I am very excited to get onto my planning for next week and implement some of these ideas. As always I have a few extra readings that I would like to look at in more detail to strengthen my understanding.

Responses to my hunches

During our CoL meeting last week we looked at our hunches and were able to share these with our other colleagues with this meeting. I thought I would just add in the suggestions and things that I discussed at that meeting incase it is of interest! 

Hunch One: If I encourage my students to share their ideas during guided reading sessions, then they will gain confidence in their reading and be able to answer questions related to what they have read. 

Give the students to have conversations as a group that are not necessarily related to what they are reading. These could be random topic prompts to get them talking and discussing ideas with each other. 

Hunch Two: If I focus on extending discussions with my group using strategies such as ground rules for talk they will be able to manage themselves to have group discussions. 

Go through ground rules for talking with the group and set this up really well. This will need to be teacher lead for a while. This will allow the students to know the roles and rules for sharing. 

Hunch Three: An emphasis on using images and specific generic tasks to show what inferring and other reading comprehension skills will enhance my students ability to understand more complex parts of the text and answer questions that require inferring and referring back to the text.

• Key into inference
• Sheena Cameron resources
• Images from online and websites to have the students think about the picture and what is happening from an objective lens. 

Hunch Four: An emphasis on understanding how to have basic conversations as well as teaching social skills and norms will enhance my students ability to share during reading sessions. 

Show how students can have a conversation, this may need to be demonstrated for the students and practised.