Baseline Data

I have been thinking about my baseline data and how I will measure progress in my inquiry this year. I have decided that the best way to see if my implementation will lead to change will be to base this on my beginning of the year reading data, student confidence in reading, student enjoyment and engagement as well as my well being data that I collected at the beginning of the year. I will outline this data is greater detail in the post below.

In order to have baseline data I needed to select my target students. Below are my target students showing beginning of the year reading age with a comparison of their actual age. I do have three other students that are on the cusp of this group as well who are reading at level 25 that I will include in the data as well. 

As you can see from this data set my target students are just below where they need to be for their age. Looking at this data at the beginning of the year was why I chose this as my inquiry focus. They are only just below where they need to be at the moment but if they stay at these levels they will fall further behind when they enter year 6. 

My hunches again are around vocabulary and seeing how this can have an impact as well as comprehension specifically looking at inferring. I will add graphs to this data at a later date when I am looking at comparisons for now this is the raw data from the start of the year which I will use as a baseline for my end of year data. 

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 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!

Term 2 Inquiry Update - MIT 2019

This term has been one of trial and error and trying to figure out the best way to use digital tools in the classroom with reading. This term is report time so I am currently underway with completing running records. Hopefully this data will show some shift so watch this space as I will update this as soon as I have all of this data.

Text to type:

Text to type has been working with some of my learners with their reading. I found learners were able to find the words they had said incorrectly while they were reading however they weren't really doing much with this after. This is still something that I will continue to use in the classroom throughout the year as an extra activity. I liked the idea of the students going away and reading the text again and being accountable for this reading. I wanted something along these lines that would also be something they could revisit so I decided to try something else.

What is the something else?

I decided to try and use screencastify and record themselves reading the story or article again after they were reading with me and their group. Along with this they needed to listen to themselves reading while following along with the journal that they had read. The results so far have been fantastic. They students are very engaged and loving this activity, they are also loving the ability to listen to themselves back. I have been using this for a few weeks now and have very engaged readers in my classroom. This idea has evolved over the weeks as I reflected how it was presented to my students and this might have been too much. They were having to reflect what their reading was like which was a challenge so what I have changed it to is answering a few questions about how they thought that they read. There are examples of this in the slide deck below. One is a completed screencastify recording and the other is a completed text to type presentation.

Where to next?

I want to continue to try and use these types of activities into the reading session. One thing I am trying to start is that the learners are then able to go and listen to the story read by someone else. On TKI many of the newer school journals level 1 and 2 and junior journals have this feature. This allows the students to pick up on the words that they may have got wrong both during our guided time and their time reading and this helps confirm the new words and make sure they are reading them correctly. This is another activity that they are enjoying. This is meaning that the learners are exposed to the text in three different ways and they are always needed to use the journal to follow along. This is something that I will continue to work for the rest of the term and into next term. Other work ons are to complete my site where the students can have access and these extra activities. I would like to have this ready for my learners to be working on by the end of this term. So watch this space!

MIT Hui Session Two - MIT 2019

Today we had our second session at the MIT hui for 2019. Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet up with my other colleagues today and start our first session. In our first session we have looked at the vision of Manaiakalani and where we will be heading with our inquiries. We had the opportunity to have a look at some of the innovative ideas that other teachers from Pt England have implemented over the years and how much of an impact they have had on our learners. 

Today's Session:
Our first session today was one which challenged my whole proposal and why I am doing what I am doing. I had to really think about what it is that I am trying to achieve but before I could even do that I needed to articulate my problem. I thought that I had already outlined my problem fairly well but when looking at it up on the big screen and looking at it from an outsiders perspective I realised that it hadn't addressed any problems and wasn't very informative at all. After lengthy discussions with other colleagues about how to actually write down what I was trying to say I think I finally have a concrete problem that is readable and accurate to what I am trying to achieve. We were given our original problem and we had to think about how we could articulate it better to make it into a problem that we can focus on. 

 

So what's the problem?
The problem that has stuck with me know has given me a clearer direction for where I am going and has also made me realise that this is what I am trying to do. I am not just trying to make something that is innovative I am actually addressing a real problem that is in my classroom. Without this process I don't think I would have had a solid idea or understanding of what I was trying to achieve. 
So the problem I have identified is: Poor progress and achievement for year 6 learners who are reading between the ages of 7-9 years.  
This is what I will be inquiring into this year and what can be done to raise reading achievement. I am so glad that we were able to complete this session because it has given me a a sense of purpose for my inquiry as well as a direction for what I am hoping to achieve. 

Welcome to 2019 - MIT 2019

This year I am lucky enough to be apart of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers (MIT) program. I will be inquiring into reading and how I can make accelerated shift for my learners who are reading below the age of 9. I am a year 6 teacher at Pt England school and I share an innovative learning space with two other teachers. When looking at my class data last year and looking ahead into 2019 I noticed that there is a large number of year 6 learners who are sitting below the reading age of 9. 
Looking into the shift with my 2018 learners some of them made shift however there were still some suck (for lack of a better word) between the ages of 8 and 8.5 years reading age. This is trend that I have seen in my class over the last 2 years and then looking at the data for this year I could see the same trend. My big question is why is this happening and what can we do to help these learners. I hope with my inquiry this year that I am able to understand what is happening with this reading level and also how I can help my learners have accelerated shift in this area. I am currently writing up my proposal to share at the MIT hui in a few weeks. I will be updating my journey throughout the year. I am very excited for this year and to see how I can help my learners. Moonshot coming soon.