What works? (for me in my context)

We have been thinking a lot about what works and how we can make accelerated shift the way we do in writing in all three subjects.

Reading 

Over past two years teaching I have seen some good shift in reading. 

What have I done to make this shift:

Milage: Children had 3+ book a week which they were expected to reread multiple times to get millage. 

Fluency: Children were prompted and provided time while working on millage to build fluency. During guided reading fluency was an expectation. See 2016-2017 inquiry for why this help and was important. 

Carefully planned follow up: Children engaged in level and interest specific follow up activities. Activities prompt rereading, personal reflection, finding of specific information from the text. Here are a few examples:

This activity focused on finding key ideas in the text. Students had to make choices about sports that they wanted to learn more about: Level 26           

Focus on prepositions and using them in sentences. This was a huge part of the text and then students had to apply their knowledge: Level 17          

Focus on retelling, finding answers in the text: Level 10        

Maths 

What has worked for me in Maths:

Purposeful use of mathematical vocabulary, in the writing of problems, in the discussion with children, in the activities and around the classroom. See 2018 inquiry. 

Inquiry update term 3

This term I have been focussing on bring the fluency ideas we build through video modelling into our small group lessons. I have done this through modelling of small passages of the text during group sessions and getting children to read aloud and reread fluently. We have also be considering the different uses for the digital tool (screencastify) that we used for video modelling and students have been creating review video as well and screencasts of presentations to make digital stories.

The interest part for me has been how my teaching now reflects the key ideas emerging from my research.

These ideas are:



Well my inquiry has somewhat taken a back seat to the writing of my research this term. It is clear that developing the ideas of fluency is still happening in the small group setting.

The reading of our Penpal letters shows how far the class have come. Over half of my class wanted to read their letters out loud to the class and those who did read fluently and the rest of the class supported them in doing this.

Next term I want to draw on the term theme to integrate fluency. We will be doing a lot of song reading and listening and we will talk about how phrasing is achieved. My goal for next learn is to embed the fluency criteria in multiple media and transfer this into silent reading. I believe that this will increase comprehension for my class.

I will also be looking at how paired warm ups can support basic facts development in maths. This has come from the professional development that we received from Jo.

Many Hats

This term I have been both a researcher and a teacher. Taking on these two roles and considering what they mean for me and my class has been a challenge and a privilege. At times it was challenging changing hats and looking at my teaching and my learners through two different lenses. However it was also very rewarding. Having the structure of a research design and thinking carefully about how information was gathered and what action I took, why I took them and exactly what impact they had more critically as a researcher reminds me of the importance of stepping back as a teacher and looking at yourself through a different lense. You can't expect the same actions to produce different results so it is important to be very reflective and even critical of yourself to make sure what you are doing is the very best for your students and what they need to learn at this point and time in their life.

My two hats are important and having them in such a formal way this term has reminded me that if not in  a formal way I will always be a researcher as I inquire into my practice as a teacher.

By en:User:Eric Bouliane [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) 

Inquiry Update Term 2

This term my Inquiry has been focused on video self modelling to increase reading fluency. You might as why fluency. Research suggests that fluency is a key element that impacts comprehension. Reading fluency combines many elements and I believe understanding, thinking carefully about these will help the learner to develop these skills and use them effectively to build understanding. 

During this term learner have been recording themselves, watching these recording and self reflecting on their fluency.  I have noticed that engagement in this has been high however those learner who struggle to decode are less motivated to record. Overall I have seen an increase in understanding of what fluency is as why as reader it is important from a majority of my class. 

Next steps: Next term is our school production and film festival filming. During the term I want to focus on reading of plays and poems to father build fluency for all learner. The element I believe we still need to focus is expression. While phrasing and speed have had noticed changes the level of expression in reading across the class is still low. 

Term 2 Inquiry

Fluency

Much research suggest that there is a strong link between fluency and comprehension in reading. The literature explains that while this link could be present for a number of reasons. One is that when reader read fluently drawing on sight word knowledge and context to make meaning less mental energy is spent on decoding which allows mental processing to focus on comprehension. The other come from phrasing. Often the meaning in more challenging texts is aided by the phrasing of the text. By reading the punctuation correctly and using expression while reading readers gain more from the text.

This term I will focus my inquiry around how my teacher action can support the development of fluency for my class and how video modelling and self review can support these learners to become fluent readers. This inquiry also links to the research that I am doing for my Honours degree at Auckland University.

This week I am developing the self review criteria with the class and building their knowledge of fluency so that by the end of the week we can create and review our first videos.

I am excited to engage in this study of my practice as I think that an understanding of fluency has the potential to support many of my students to develop their reading even futher.

I am a voyagers and research helps me on my journey!

Today we gathered as a cluster in the Tamaki College hall to listen to the findings and future focused ideas presented by the researchers.

Before starting the presentation Russell Burt announced that Manaiakalani is now a COL (Community of learning) however while this official COL recognition is great it made me think that since I arrived last year I have already been part of an amazing community of learning and that while this would change in some ways the role people have it will not change my feeling of being part of something bigger than myself.

It is together that we innovate, learn and do more for the future.

Sitting in the hall I was reminded of something that has come up a lot for me in the weeks leading up to this presentation. A simple statement with a real and lasting meaning that is backed by the story and Movie Moana. The ideas is that We are voyagers, who need to know where we have been and where we are chart and plan where they are going.

Today's discussion started with Aaron Wilson talking about where we have been.

He took us through the data. My big take way was that we have done a lot in the past especially to improve writing in which we are getting accelerated shift against the norm however there is still much to be done and our progress must be maintained as we venture on with the aim of seeing the same accelerated shift in reading and maths.

This discussion was followed by Stuart McNaughton discussing with us the interpersonal skills and key competencies our learners need. He discussed critical literacy and suggest that we see low rate of achievement in critical literacy. The best place to teach critical literacy in the act of being literate.

We should also encourage learners to be critical of their action and reaction. Ask them to think why is it that my actions had a negative effect on my group? We should be thinking critically about our social skills as well. We need to think about how we build arguing and critical thinking skills in groups.

Another area Stuart discussed was self control. He suggested that children are much more aware of needing to be self controlled online however we need to give the learners strategies for building self control.

He also talked about the interpersonal skills of empathy and compassion. He said that

children who read more books tend to be empathetic. this is because well written narrative text help learners to consider others views. It seems that many of our learners have strengthens in this area.

We do however need to consider how we help learner to put themselves in others shoes when online. To make digital personal again so that learners learn to tell when someone is upset online and think would I like it if.....How is the best way to interact and react to others online.

Lastly he suggested that teaching of these skills needs to be part of teaching other curriculum areas.

I have to admit it all seems like a huge challenge one that I am ready to take on but first I need to decide on a starting point. Listening to expert researchers present challenges reminds me how very privileged I am to be in an innovative school and community. A community that is not afraid to look at itself and say that failed lets try something different. A community that invites others to give input, to be critical and to challenge us. It is because of these researchers along with many others that I feel challenged to alway do better, try harder and keep going on my voyage no matter how rough the sea is.

So thank to all those who are part of the Manaiakalani community setting expectation high for both learners and teachers!

Future-focused learning in connected communities

Yesterday was the first day of our university summer school paper. As part of our first day we had to share an activity related to one of the readinging. I choose the report Future-focused learning

in connected communities. This report discusses the need for changes in our education system to make sure learning is future focused. This report has 10 main goals, it suggests that some of the goals should be met by 2017. As part of the activity we discussed what we had achieved as schools and as a system. Below is the presentation we created as a group.