Bursts & Bubbles

Last week I had the pleasure to present my CoL inquiry at Bursts and Bubbles which was hosted by Panmure Bridge School. I have just added in the video recording of my pretension incase you missed it and want to check it out, I have also added in a previous blog post my script if you would prefer to read than watch the presentation. 

Reflection - Bursts and Bubbles

My inquiry question for this year was: Will implementing talk moves and collaborative activities during guided reading sessions enhance my students' confidence, facilitate meaningful group discussions, and improve their reading comprehension? I identified this as my focus after noticing many students were reading below their expected reading level and often couldn’t explain what they’d just read to their peers. This made me ask the question: what is really holding these students back and what can I do in my teaching to help these students become more confident readers.

To build a picture of my students' learning I looked at a range of different data such as Running Records, Probe, PAT’s, Anecdotal notes and reader profile surveys. I've broken this down extensively on my blog. 

The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling stage was that while students understood what they were reading, they struggled to put it into words for their group. These students were also able to answer literal questions from the text but got stuck on anything that required deeper thinking or making inferences.

From speaking to other colleagues, I found that many of our students encountered similar obstacles—building confidence and engaging in extended discussions was challenging for them. I was fortunate enough to be part of the Manaiakalani Reading Practice Intensive this year which provided me with a range of tools and resources to explore. After exploring research, I discovered strategies that could make a difference, such as using open-ended questions to encourage students to elaborate on their thoughts or respectfully challenge each other’s ideas.

The changes I made to my teaching was first introducing ground rules for talk, giving students a safe space to share, talk, and be heard. We started things off with light-hearted “Would you rather?” questions to ease students in and build their confidence. Gradually, we moved on to sharing their thoughts about what they were reading. I also added activities where students recorded themselves reading, completed response to text tasks, and worked together on vocabulary activities. We even used picture prompts to practise inferencing and discuss what the students had observed.

One of the easiest changes was creating structured follow-up activities for collaborative work after guided reading. Some of the challenges included building students' confidence to share with each other during small group reading. We spent a lot of time working on smaller, approachable conversation starters as a group. 

Overall, I would rate the changes in my students' learning as successful. My students can now confidently discuss texts with each other, leading to richer, more meaningful discussions. My mid-year data showed that most of my students made at least six months' progress. The small end-of-year data that I have available so far indicates a further year's reading progress for some of my students. 

A highlight from this year for me was comparing students' reader profile surveys from Term 1 to Term 4. Most students now genuinely enjoy reading, both in and out of school. The majority of my students also now see themselves as good readers—and believe their teachers and whānau share this view.

So what's the most important learning I made about my inquiry? Confidence and conversation are powerful tools in engaging students with their reading and helping them make inferences. My target students are now excited about reading and eager to share their ideas with each other.

Summary Student Learning

My focus question for this year has been:

"Will implementing ground rules for talk and collaborative activities during guided reading sessions enhance my students' confidence, facilitate meaningful group discussions, and improve their reading comprehension?"

In this blog post I am going to summarise evidence about key shifts in the problem of student learning that I have seen so far. We will be completing testing this term and I will be able to evaluate some other key finds from this in another blog post later this term.

One key thing I have noticed is the confidence students now have in their reading, there is a lot more engagement and students are excited to have guided reading sessions as well and start reading the texts that have for the week. There is a lot more student agency and my class have really loved completing the reading challenge that was created by Robyn Anderson from Panmure Bridge School.

Another thing I have noticed is the students willingness to share with each other and have discussions after guided reading sessions has also greatly increased. I think from having the reading tumble this has helped students to have a visual representation of what they should be doing during that time and has lead to more focused literacy classes as well a guided reading sessions.

Students are really enjoying their follow up tasks in reading and are really putting in a lot of effort with their create tasks that are associated with this follow up activities. Students attitudes towards reading have also changed which is great to see. I am looking forward to completing the reader profile survey again this term to see if there have been any more changes to the way students perceive reading at school and their own reading.

It’s been really rewarding to see the shifts happening in my students’ confidence and engagement with reading this year. Implementing ground rules for talk and focusing on collaboration during guided reading sessions has truly made a difference, from boosting student excitement around reading to encouraging meaningful discussions and stronger group connections. The reading challenge has been a big hit, and I’m so proud of how much effort the students are putting into their follow-up and create tasks.

Seeing their positive attitudes towards reading grow has been a highlight, and I’m excited to check in again with the reader profile survey to see if more changes have taken root. I know there’s still more to learn and build on, but so far, it’s been great seeing the impact these changes are having in our classroom. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with my students and keeping their love for reading alive!

Summary Key Changes

In this blog post, I’m going to summarise some of the key changes I’ve made in my teaching practice and explore other factors that have influenced student learning from my inquiry so far this year. It’s been a journey of reflection, observation, and tweaking to find what works best to engage and support my students. I’ll be sharing some of the shifts I’ve noticed, what’s had the biggest impact, and where I’m heading next.

Ground rules for talk

By implementing this with my students this year I have found that the majority of my students have gained the confidence to share their thoughts and ideas during guided reading sessions as well as when completing follow up tasks with their peers after guided reading. This has not just had an impact during reading but has had a flow on effect to other subject areas. I will continue to use this in my classroom for the rest of the year and will build on this again next year in my reading program. 

Picture prompts

I have found this to be a really great starting place to get students thinking critically about a text. By having a single image and then asking inference questions the students have started to think beyond the text and using clues from what they can see to infer deeper meaning. Also having would you rather questions at the beginning of whole class reading or guided reading sessions has allowed the students the opportunity to share their own opinions which has then had a follow on effect with reading. 

Response to text tasks

These have been working really well. It has been really clear to see the link between what we have been learning in guided reading and then focused on after reading either independently or as a whole group. By having the create element to this task the students have had the opportunity to explain key pars of the text in a different way that is meaningful to them.

Reading Tumble

Yes I have brought back the reading tumble and I wish I had done this sooner. It gives students clear direction of what they are needing to be doing during literacy time. This has also given the students the opportunity to read the text before coming to guided reading sessions where they have the opportunity to ask questions and it also means that we can delve deeper into the text during these sessions.

Reading Challenge and Library Time

By having the reading challenge alongside our reading program this year has allowed students to explore different types of texts and well as choosing what they want to read. I have also loved having the students visit the school library more often this year which has given the students more reading milage as well as finding reading exciting and interesting again. 

It’s been an exciting journey to see how these changes and approaches have shaped student learning this year. The ground rules for talk have boosted student confidence across different subjects, and I’m keen to build on this even more next year. Picture prompts have encouraged deeper thinking and made students more confident in sharing their inferences, while response-to-text tasks have let them show their understanding in meaningful ways.

Bringing back the reading tumble was a game-changer. It’s given students clearer direction and helped make guided reading sessions much more focused and productive. The reading challenge and increased library visits have also helped reignite a love for reading, giving students more freedom to explore and discover texts that interest them.

I’m proud of the progress made so far and am looking forward to continuing this journey, building on what’s working and staying open to new ways of supporting our students to grow as readers and thinkers.

Quantitative data & Qualitative Data

For our next PLG we have been asked to look at our data and evaluate what types of data we have used. In this blog post I will outline the key quantitative and qualitative data that I have used throughout my inquiry this year.

Quantitative Data

• PAT Reading comprehension - I used this data at the beginning of the year to see where the students were at with reading comprehension. I will then compare this to the data at the end of the year when students complete this test again. 
• PAT Reading STAR - This data was analyzed at the beginning of the year and I will again analyse this data at the end of the year to see if there is any shift. 
• PROBE - For our mid and end of year testing we use running records until students pass level 30. What I have done this year was use a probe test with my students in term one and I will then complete another probe test at the end of the year and compare the data. 
• Running Records - I have looked at 2023 running records for all of my students and then compared this with the running records that I completed for mid year testing. I will then compare this with running records that students will complete at the end of the year. 
• Student survey - So far I have completed two learner reading profile surveys and compared the results in a previous blog post. I will then complete this again in term 4 in order to have a full overview of students attitudes towards reading. 

Qualitative Data 

• Teacher Reflections - After each guided reading session I have completed detailed teacher reflections on the group as a whole as well as individual students. I will use this data to compare students learning throughout the year as well as their overall confidence in reading. 
• Observations - I have kept a record of observations from my RPI coach Toni. As a school we have also started to record some of our lessons and then put these recorded lessons through a program called Vosaic. This tool uses AI to analyse the lesson and from there we can generate our own prompts to gain feedback on our lessons and next steps. I will use this data to compare my teaching for the rest of the year. 

I have used a range of different types of data throughout the year and will continue to use these different tools to see if there has been shift in my students reading as well as my own teaching practice. 

RPI Day 9: Sharing

Connecting
This is a part of the day that I really love being able to connect with what I have been doing in the classroom as well as hearing some thoughts and ideas from other colleagues who are part of RPI. This week Georgie gave us a would you rather link to check out which I'm really excited to try in the classroom as a warm-up activity or a way to facilitate extended discussions. Another thing I am excited to look into in more detail is my reader profile survey. I just had a thought that I would really like to look at my target group and see how much change there has been with their views on reading.

Manaiakalani: Sharing in reading
Sharing creates a connection, this really resonated with me from this session as it really shows the importance of sharing and giving the students that opportunity to share with each other and on their blogs. One thing I am keen to try in the classroom is creating a vlog style post where the students show a video of their learning and are able to be reflective on their learning. This is really powerful as it gives voice to the students and allows them to really share, I am thinking this could also be quite cool to do as a podcast where the students are able to share with each other and ask questions. 

Participating in a community of readers
Linking back to the why was really  important because it shows  where we are needing to make that shift in reading.  I would really like to set up text recommendations from the children to each other as part of our literacy rotation so that they're getting exposed to more text sets. One thing I'm really keen to check out is chapter chat. I think this will be a really cool way for me to be able to find new texts to share with the class as well as a way to find books that might be exciting and interesting that are relevant.  and another thing I really took away from this part of today was making sure that I'm planning for sharing I definitely need to update my classroom timetable to allow the opportunity  for learners to share their work on the blogs with each other with the class so that's definitely something that I will be working on in the next few weeks.

Visible reading and learning 

This was a really cool way to think about why students post on their blogs and it gives them a record of learning over time.  I think it just really reminded me of the importance of being able to share and also learners being able to share on their blogs and it's not just a blog post it's something that they can refer back to. I really liked this quote “When paired with affected instructional design, their review found that blogging can promote students' self-expression and create opportunities for higher order thinking.” It was also a really good reminder to have a blog checklist so that we are focusing on quality blog posts as well as giving me the opportunity to think about what I want the learners to blog on their blog each week.

Feedback and reflection
We looked at feedback and feed forward and the quality of feedback not the quantity. This also give me an opportunity to think about learner feedback I'm constantly giving feedback to my students on things that they are doing but I often forget about giving students the opportunity to give feedback to each other.  This is definitely something that I'm going to be adding into the classroom. Another thing that I'm excited to use is Google read and write to be able to give voice notes as feedback. Georgie also made a good point about having a writing doc for the term and being able to add new tasks each week so that feedback is still available for students so they can refer back to their writing the following week.

Collaboration and connectionI am definitely going to be adding a collaborative element into my response to text tasks where the students are able to collaborate with each other and be able to have those conversations as part of their follow-up task. Thinking ahead to next year I would like to have more opportunities for my students to read with other students within the school. Maybe set up a buddy reading system or give students the opportunity to read aloud in the library at lunchtimes. 

Whānau engagement 
This is definitely an area that I would like to work on in order to link school and home reading. I do send books home with some of my lower readers but I often forget about my high level readers and how I can make sure that they're reading at home as well and whānau are engaged with what they are reading. There were some really cool suggestions from this part of today that I'm excited to check out and use. 

Skill Builder
The skill builder today was looking at creating a kete of resources. This is something that we have as a team but it’s not currently viable. I am thinking that we spend one or two team meetings creating tasks that focus on specific skills where we have a bank of resources for ourselves  as well as our learners. 

I really enjoyed today's session looking at sharing as well as pulling the RPI together. I am very thankful to have been given the opportunity to participate in the reading practice incentive this year. I have learnt so much from all of the 9 days and I am excited to keep using this in the classroom. I am also really excited to share back with my team and think about how we can all use this going forward into next year. Huge thank you to Noami, Anna and Georgie for delivering the RPI to us over these 9 sessions, I have learnt so much! Special mention to Georgie who was my breakout group facilitator, the discussions and suggestions were really helpful, so thank you! Also massive thank you to my school leaders for allowing me this opportunity and my mentor Toni Nua who has given me some great insight and feedback onto my teaching practice in reading.

Monitoring - Check in

After our last PLG we were asked to describe and explain the changes of tweaks that we have made in our practice along the way. This blog post will outline some of the tweaks and changes that I have made along with another observation that I have had from my coach from RPI and what changes I made from that observation.

Ground rules for talk
I have continued to work on tweaking and changing this to fit in with my students. We have spent a lot of time during guided reading sessions talking about how we can make this work effectively. I have listened to what my students have shared and changed up how we use this so that all of the students are feeling successful. One key thing I have added in is a reflection for the students to fill in as a group and rate how well they have done with this for the week. From there we have had group discussions around how we can make this work more effectively in the classroom. I have also continued on with either a picture prompt or would you rather question at the beginning of guided reading sessions so that we can go over ground rules for talk and getting the whole group involved. 

Response to Text & Vocabulary Tasks
I have continued to shape and develop these tasks each week for after guided reading. I have now incorporated the vocabulary tasks into the response to text task. With the spotlight task I used to have the students do this collaboratively but was finding that some of the students were reluctant to share in a larger group so I have made this an independent activity for each of the students to complete before coming to guided reading sessions. This then allows the students to think about it before we come together as a group and ask questions if they need clarification. After reading the students then work together to find the meaning of each of these words from the text. 

Observations
As part of RPI we have been asked to have our coach come and observe lessons and provide feedback on what we can focus on in our practice to make guided reading sessions better. From one of my observations I found that there were a few students who would sit back and allow the other students in the group to answer all the questions. They were focused during these sessions they just didn't have the confidence to share with the rest of the group. One of the key things Toni and I talked about was gifting these students some of the questions as they are reading so that they have had time to frame their answer and are not just put on the spot. One change that I have made it writing down some of the key questions for these students to have in front of them while they are reading to see if that can help with confidence in sharing with the rest of the group. This as been working with some of the students but I will continue to do this so that all of the students feel confident to share in the group.

Next steps
I will continue to implement these changes to my practice and monitor some of the things that are working and some parts of this that might need continued change throughout the rest of this term and into term 4.