I really enjoyed todays session as it allowed us to be creative as well as to think about what create does look like in the classroom. I often spend a lot of time trying to come up with the prefect create task that I sometimes forget about that simpler create tasks that can be just as effective with learning and also makes all students to be able to feel successful in their tasks and their own learning. I am excited to make some changes to my create tasks in the next few weeks and gain student feedback on the types of tasks that they enjoy doing.
Reflecting
It it always really good to start our RPI sessions looking at the homework and reflecting on what has been working in the classroom. As part of our homework we needed to have an observation of one of our reading sessions looking provocations and having group discussions. For this I was able to record one of my sessions and then go through it with my mentor Toni Nua and talk about some of the things that I could change to make sure that all of my students are sharing with each other during reading sessions. I have a small group of girls who tend to sit quietly and not engage with others during guided reading and will let others share so I was able to share this with my group this morning and gain some other ideas to try in the classroom. Thankyou Georgie! I am looking forward to trying out the post it notes with this group next week. I was also able to reflect on my own teacher wait time, I often will just answer the question and move on without giving the students the chance to agree or disagree with each other or add in something new. So I am going to be going back to basics with my ground rules for talk and allowing the students the opportunity to share during guided reading. These students are moving into the reading to learn phase of their reading journeys and we don't need to go through every single question or part of the text when we meet during guided reading they are able to be more independent with their reading and my focus for the next little while will be fostering those critical thinking conversations.
Create
Dorothy Burt came to talk to us about create this morning and made us think about why our learners create. This was a really great part of RPI today because it brought it back to the reason that we do create in the classroom. It was really interesting and positive to see that New Zealand has ranked 5th in the world for creativity with our 15 year olds! I think this really highlighted the importance of create and why we do it.
This morning we were asked to read a part of the poem and then design our slide with what the poem was showing. I used Crayon AI to come up with these images. It was a really interesting process as I couldn't quite get exactly what I was wanting from the images. It was really fun at the end to then compare what we had done and the imagery that was given from the poem. I do get a bit nervous with creativity myself as I feel like I am not very artistic but being about to use these tools made me feel a lot more confident in being able to share my take on the image.
Routine Opportunities
We looked at a range of different create tasks and were able to create some tasks that were asking the students to design and create. This was a really nice time to be reminded that not all of these create tasks need to be elaborate but we can do this smaller design tasks that I think will allow the students to be able to feel successful in what they are doing in reading. I love the text Sunday Hero and it was really fun to come up with a stencil task for this. I am really excited to do this in class and see what the students can create.
Choice
I really enjoyed looking at some different things that we can try in the classroom and have students to use to create. I often forget about the great tools like "Storyboard That!" and using quizzes for students to be able to create. I have been looking at this as a follow up task using a doc and having students ask each other questions but I really like the idea of making this into a activity where students can create their own quiz to share with each other.
Book Trailer
This was a really fun activity, we were able to create a book trailer for a book that we really like to be able to sell to someone else. I actually really enjoyed doing this and this is definitely something that I will try and do in the classroom. It will be really interesting to see students recommending books to each other.
Longer Create Tasks
I really liked looking at the novel study sites and am thinking how cool this would be to have in our space as a resource. I always have good intentions to start a novel study but it never comes to fruition we get half way through and stop. I feel like creating a site where the students can go will keep me accountable in being able to complete this until the end of the book.
Overall I really enjoyed today and I got so much out of it to bring into the classroom in the next three weeks. I am looking forward to implementing some of these create tasks and seeing how the students go. I am also looking forward to working on the collaboration aspects with my students because I know they love to work and share together so it will be really fun to see what types of things we create in the next few weeks!
