Causal Chain

My focus question for this year is:

"How can the deliberate use of extended group discussions enhance learner confidence and improve engagement and achievement in reading?"

One thing that I have been working on when looking at my inquiry is creating a casual chain. Below I have shared my casual chain where I have looked at my inquiry focus question in detail and have thought about how I can show changes in my students achievement. A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. During the process of my inquiry these year there have been several events that have occurred that have lead to changes in my focus as well as my own practice. Below I have completed my casual chain of events that have led to changes and improvements to my inquiry. This also outlines the roles that I as a teacher play in these changes as well as what is expected from the students and the changes in their roles.

I have added in my causal chain below:

In some of my previous posts I have talked about why I have chosen to look at these areas as well as what I might try differently in the classroom to have accelerated shift in reading. I have outlined these in a lot more detail in my casual chain above. Through these implementations and changes I have been able to solidify my inquiry focus and my next steps in order to see if these implementations are successful. I hope that the changes that I have made throughout this inquiry will continue to show results in academic achievement as well as the confidence to participate in extended discussions and for students to think more critically. 

Mid Year Reflection

During the holidays I looked at my data and regrouped my learners. What I have decided to do it make the groups smaller (6 max per group) which will allow everyone to be able to share during guided reading. This has also given me a chance to see if I can extend the learners with higher level texts as we progress through the term. 

After having conversations with colleagues in how to make it possible for students to share ideas with each other it was suggested to give the more reserved students a question that they know they are going to have to answer. So what I am going to do is create little cards for fiction and non fiction texts that have generic questions and give these to the students before the see me for guided reading. I will also get the students to read the text with the cards before they come and see me so that they have more time to think about what they will say. Hopefully this will help build confidence. 

Another thing that I want to bring in and focus on again is ground rules for talk and reintroduce the ideas of having everyone share. We will start this with basic conversation starters that are really easy things like what superhero would you be and things like that. 

I think the key thing I have taken away so far is the need to build confidence and I am going to try and do this in as many ways as I can. I will also be implementing key questions that focus on inferring, applied knowledge and vocabulary. 

Mid Year Data

I have just completed my running record and probe tests for the middle of the year and have analysed the data. I have created a graph to show the reading ages from the end of last year in comparison to the mid year testing reading ages. 

From the graph and looking at the data I can see that most of my students made at least 6 months to a year gain in reading age. There was a small number of students who had made no progress in their reading ages. From looking at this data and my reflections and anecdotal notes one thing I can draw from this is the students who are less likely to share their reading learning are the ones that showed no shift in mid year testing. 

One of the other things I have noticed is the jump from PM to Probe testing can have a bit of an impact on reading ages. When looking at a couple of my students and previous trends I can see that they may have been tested too high at one point and have needed to be tested back so look like they have't made shift in reading age but I can see improvements in reading groups. 

Key Takeaways
Inferring was an area where many students struggled. Applied knowledge was another key area that needed to be developed. Vocabulary and unpacking new words was also another area that I need to focus on. From the probe testing I have decided to make sure to include a range of the types of questions each so that students are exposed to these not just during testing. Decoding is really good its unpacking the text and understanding more complex ideas.  

Observations

This year we have continued to use Vosaic to upload videos of our teaching which is then analysed by AI to provide feedback and next steps. What I really like about using this is it also provides articles that you can read which can make you delve deeper into next steps. 

What I have done so far this year is I have uploaded my teaching videos as well as some videos I took of students while they were working independently and having their own discussions. 

From one of my guided reading sessions I was provided with a summary of teacher taking time and student talking time. From this video it showed:  
Teacher talk time: 66.67 %
Student talk time: 33.33 %
From this I could immediately see that I am talking too much during our guided reading sessions and I need to ensure that there is more student voice. From looking at the notes of this lesson it has shown that I am trying to set up student lead talking which is why there is more talking from me that the students but it is a good gauge to see what my next steps are. 

This was the feedback and next step suggestions that I was given:
"The teacher could incorporate more student-led discussions to enhance engagement and ownership of learning. The teacher might also consider using more visual aids or hands-on activities to cater to different learning styles and keep students engaged. Additionally, providing more wait time after asking questions could encourage more students to participate and think critically about their responses."

After I read with this group I kept the camera recording to get a clear picture of what the students were doing after guided reading sessions and how they were able to have discussions themselves. For this video it showed:
Teacher talk time: 38.5 %
Student talk time: 61.5 %

This was the feedback and next step suggestions that I was given:
"The teacher could incorporate more structured group discussions to ensure all students participate equally. The teacher might also consider using visual aids or multimedia resources to enhance engagement and understanding of the topic. Additionally, implementing a system for students to share their thoughts in smaller groups before discussing as a whole class could foster more confidence and participation."

From this feedback I was able to create a direction of my next steps and what I can work on. One of the key things that I have taken away from this is having a set of generic questions that can be given to the students while they are reading and this will be a question they need to answer. This will ensure that everyone is able to share an answer to a question and participate in discussions. 

Mid Year Stocktake

It has come to that part of our inquiry where we have been asked to stocktake what we have done so far. I have used the questions below to help structure this blog post and have kept them in here as well just so you know what I am answering and why. 

Have I used a range of sources/ tools/ evidence about the students to understand their learning in a really rich and detailed way? Do these include: standardised assessments, student voice, whānau voice?

In my previous blog posts I have outlined some of the tools and evidence that I have used about the students in detail which has allowed me to really understand their learning in a rich and detailed way. Some of the key tools and evidence that I have used are:

• PAT Reading Data 
• PAT STAR Data 
• Running Records and Probe Tests
• Observations from guided reading
• Reflections from guided reading sessions
• Reader profile survey (student voice)

Do I understand their strengths at least as much as I understand their areas for development?

From the tools and evidence that I have collected I have been able to see the areas that my students excel in which is being able to decode really well. The students are also able to easily locate key information from the text to answer literal questions. I will continue to work on strengthening these areas as well as working towards filling the gaps. 

Have I developed a strong profile of their achievement based on sound theories from a range of relevant sources?

I have looked into some academic readings which I have written about in a previous blog post. I have also spoken to colleagues about changes that I can make in the classroom.  

Identify THREE measures you could use pre- and post- to compare students’ learning before and after your intervention.

I am going to be using a range of different tools to measure pre and post intervention to be able to compare learning. I will outline this below with a brief description. 

• PAT data - I will use Reading Comprehension and STAR to compare students data from the beginning and end of the year.
• Running Records & Probe tests - again I will compare this data from the beginning of the year to mid year to end of the year. 
• Reader profile survey - I will compare this data at three time points throughout the year to see if there are any changes to student voice on reading. 
• Observation data - I will collate this and see what trends I am noticing from observations. 

Academic Readings

It has come to that time of our inquiry where we are looking at academic research and readings to see what changes that we can make to support our hypothesis and inquiry. For my inquiry this year I have also sourced some academic research to have a deeper look into changes that will make to my practice to raise reading achievement for my learners this year. I had a look at three pieces of academic research will I will outline below in this blog post. 

Reading One:
The first piece of academic research that I looked into was "Improving pupil group work interaction and dialogue in primary classrooms." This research outlined how structured group work can make a big difference in student engagement. When teachers set up group activities in a thoughtful way, students get more involved and have better discussions.

What I learned from this reading is that I need to be more intentional about how I organise group work. So, I’m planning to mix things up by giving students specific roles in their groups and creating tasks that encourage them to think critically and talk to each other. 

Reading Two:
The second piece of academic research that I looked into was "Fundamentals of inferencing during reading." This article emphasises how important it is for readers to make inferences using their background knowledge. Good readers connect new information to what they already know, which is key for understanding what they read.

What I learned from this reading was the need to focus on teaching inferencing skills in my classroom. I plan to introduce lessons that help students practice making inferences while reading. I think the key thing to start with is gathering students prior knowledge using topics I know they are confident with to start discussions and make those connections. 

Reading Three:
The final piece of academic research that I looked into was "How Can Teachers Facilitate Productive Talk?" This article highlights how the way teachers talk can really impact small-group discussions. It introduces a lot of effective teacher dialogue and moves to help students engage more meaningfully with what they are reading. 

What I learned from this that my role as a teacher in leading discussions is super important. I want to start using specific questions that encourage deeper thinking and conversation. For example, I’ll ask open-ended questions that prompt students to elaborate on their thoughts or respectfully challenge each other’s ideas. I want my classroom to be a space where everyone feels comfy sharing their opinions and using evidence from the text to back them up. 

I’m really excited about these changes and can’t wait to see how they impact my students learning. These articles have been helpful in shaping my next steps, and I’m looking forward to trying these strategies out in my class. With a little tweaking along the way, I hope to create an even more engaging and effective learning environment for my students!

References:

Cook, A. E., & O'Brien, E. J. (2017). Fundamentals of inferencing during reading. Language and Linguistics Compass, 11(7), e12238. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12238

Wei, L., Murphy, P. K., & Firetto, C. M. (2018). Improving pupil group work interaction and dialogue in primary classrooms: Results from a year-long intervention study. The Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 568-588. https://doi.org/10.1086/697175

Wei, L., Murphy, P. K., & Firetto, C. M. (2018). How can teachers facilitate productive small-group talk? An integrated taxonomy of teacher discourse moves. The Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 589-608. https://doi.org/10.1086/697176

Hunches Response

During our CoL meeting last week we looked at our hunches and were able to share these with our other colleagues with this meeting. It is always a really helpful process sharing hunches and ideas with others as we often are given a range of different suggestions that can help with what we are trying to achieve. Below is some the feedback I had from my discussions on our meeting along with some things that I would like to try in the classroom. 

Hunch One
If I encourage my students to share their thoughts and ideas in pairs, then they will gain the confidence to share these ideas in guided reading sessions. 

Introduce ground rules for talk into sharing in pairs within the group then gradually move to the whole group. Use Vosaic to film guided reading sessions to see what I can improve in my teaching to facilitate this. Along with filming groups working on a follow up activity to see how much extended discussion the students are having when not facilitated by the teacher. 

Hunch Two
If I focus on setting up table groups and discussion points before guided reading sessions then the students will improve their ability to have conversations about what they are reading. 

Film students using Vosaic while they are working at table groups to see what types of discussion they are having and what I can work on. Filming groups working on a follow up activity to see how much extended discussion the students are having when not facilitated by the teacher. 

Hunch Three
An emphasis on using images and structured response to text tasks that always incorporate inferring and other reading comprehension skills will enhance my students ability to understand more complex parts of the text and answer questions that require inferring and referring back to the text.

Change my follow up tasks to be more focused looking at key elements of adding in inferring questions, could have a focus on adding in multiple choice questions so that they are able to learn how to answer questions like this. 

Hunch Four
An emphasis on understanding how to have basic conversations as well as teaching social skills and norms will enhance my students ability to share during reading sessions. 

Upload reading texts to Notebook LM then add in some key questions and turn this into a podcast for the students to listen to. Integrating conversations into guided reading sessions and involving students in more collaborative discussions.