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. 

Term 3 Update - MIT 20!9

Term 3 Update - Raising Reading Achievement

This term I have been working hard to try and get my site up and running to the class so I am not double handling my work as I am currently putting this on my class site as well. I still haven't had this go live to my class BUT they have been using many of the activities that I have been working on after guided reading sessions. So I am making progress! This will be a school holidays top priority so that I will have it ready for day one for term 4. Although it is double handling of work for me at the moment I feel that this is the best way to see how the activities work in my classroom and I would rather that than having a half finished site in action from my students. 

Data:
Last time I posted I talked about my data making improvements which has been great to see. I have added a graph of my students data and how much progress they have made this year. 

This is from my mid year testing which has shown an increase in reading age for my target group of students. I am hopeful that this trend will continue with my end of year data as well. 

Highlights from the term:
One big highlight from this term has been the attitude of my students towards their learning. I had one of my students ask to have a reading test as she felt that she had made progress in her reading. She had intact moved from reading at 8 years to 8.5 years which is great progress. However the biggest highlight out of that whole thing was this student taking ownership of her own reading and wanting to see how she was going. She has been working really hard and it has been great to see that her hard work is paying off. 

How is my reading site going?
It is getting there it is still under construction and I do have a little bit of work to do over the holidays to make sure that it is up and running ready for week 1 of term 4. Here is a little look at one of my pages that is complete and ready to go:



This is for comparing and contrasting. My overall vision is that I will have this as a guided reading session in class and we will learn how to compare and contrast as a group. Then instead of having to come up with a task that is directly related to the story or article that they have read they will be able to pick an activity that they will enjoy and be able to continue the learning from our guided reading session. 

The comparing reading log is one that can be used across the term and is an activity that can be used every week to strengthen the reading achievement objective. So that leads onto my where to next which is adding more activities to this site and having it ready to roll in class next term! So watch this space to see when I finally go live with my site! 

What value have I added to my children?

Term 3 Inquiry Update:

What value have I added to my children so far and how can I accelerate this going forward?

This year my focus has been on getting my learners to use and understand mathematical vocabulary. I have struggled with trying to figure out how I can measure this and be able to show progress. However this term as a class we have already had several breakthrough moments with our vocabulary in mathematics and also using this language in other areas. 

Although some of these moments in the classroom have been incorrect I have still seen my learners try and use this vocabulary in other curriculum areas. An example of this was the new word perimeter that we had learnt about during maths. This was a new word for my of my learners not very many of them knew what it meant and were quite puzzled with the word when we first talked about it. As the week went on I incorporated this word more and more often during our maths lessons and tried to use this in literacy as much as I could to. The breakthrough moment was when we had a kiwisport squash lesson where the coaches asked what the top line was called on a squash court and the first answer my learners gave was "the perimeter" this of course was incorrect but it was great to see they were trying to use this word in another context.

By using this word in many different subject areas my learners have been able to add this new word to their own vocabulary list. It has a main use in mathematics however it is an important word to help us understand thing. I am turning my focus this term on how I can use these words with my maths and literacy learners who are with me all day. I am hoping to see that by the learners being exposed to this language more often and in multiple curriculum areas they will be able to retain the words and their meanings. 

I have also noticed a huge increase in my learners confidence in being able to share their ideas with each other and explain how they got the answer to a problem. They are no longer using words like "plusses" or "minuses" they are using terms like addition and subtraction as well as multiplication, making tidy numbers and rounding and compensating. By using this vocabulary they are able to understand what it is that they are being asked to do and also how to solve a problem in the best and most effective way. We have come a long way since the beginning of the year and I am excited to see how this inquiry unfolds for the rest of the year. Hoping to see that there will be an increase in vocabulary due to using the language in maths and literacy. Watch this space!