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. 

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!

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.