RPI Session 9: Sharing

 RPI Session 9: Sharing

I can see several links to this common practice model of 'reading for pleasure' with the reading survey I administered at the beginning of the year. This may be a good way to understand my learners at the beginning of each year and will give insights into how to ensure there are ways to engage learners so they are reading for pleasure. Whether that means have specific texts or series' in the class, finding text types they have indicated they enjoy and so on. 

It was interesting hearing about the difficulties with the authenticities of blog posting. We are just getting into blogging so I have never considered the motivations and repetitiveness that may come in the older levels. It is important to remind students that they share their learning, they are sharing what was most valuable for them - give them the space to share their voice. 

As we start to get into blogging I will ensure that students are given agency over what learning they share, because I want them to know that it is for them to decide what learning they do and don't share. 

Feedback:

Good reminder that the learners need to know and be able to say where they are now as well as what they can work towards next. Interesting to see the variety of ways we can give feedback.

Interesting to see the differences between the describing prompt, the scaffold prompt and the example prompt. We know what learners need what kind of feedback, I hadn't thought about the differences between the feedback, but this is something that I do anyways. 

Collaboration -  I am currently trying to include more activities across the board of all curriculum areas as well as student agency. This is something I also try to work on when sharing on the mat. 

- I would like to incorporate students to listen and respond to each others reading into my programme. 

I intend on doing my reading survey for the second time at the beginning of Term 4. I know that I can't squeeze it into the remainder of this term. 

I have been enjoying including more vocabulary focus into our independent activities during the week and students confidence in sharing new words has grown which is great. 

RPI Session 8: Creating

 RPI Session 8: Creating 

Today's RPI session was all about creating in reading. 

A good reminder about all the different variety of what creativity looks like. I am not the most artistically gifted person and I seem to connect creativity to art, but this is evidence that it is not restricted to visual art.

Building on creating well rounded strong readers, taking part in a create activity related to a text proves that you understand the text well. 

Create task register: It is always awesome to see the different activities that others come up with and I look forward to digging into those to see different ideas. 

Explore different create tasks:

- I want to get students to create a video using drawings to retell the story. 

Awesome idea for students to be able to see themselves in the create activities. 

Creating the book trailer: I loved the fun activity. It was a little bit uncomfortable but a good challenge and interesting way to share and recommend a book to someone. I look forward to including this into planning and it will be great to offer students the opportunity to collaborate while doing this review, will be nice to get different perspectives of the text. 

Piggybook - extended metaphor. I am going to look in our school's library to see if we have it and read it to my class. 

Overall I am excited to plan reading going forward as now I feel like I have a wider range of ideas for different create activities that incorporate different resources and materials. I am looking forward to getting children to record themselves reading so they can hear themselves reading with fluency and expression. 

The padlet activity was a nice reminder that everyone is working on different things and to not feel overwhelmed with all of the resources provided and shared today.

RPI Session 7: Thinking

 RPI Session 7: Thinking

Awesome visual of the different levels of thinking. It was interesting to hear this being unpacked and to think about what my different ākonga are doing when they are thinking and reading texts. Interpretive and evaluative are the higher order thinking skills being referenced throughout the day. Reminder to push students to read between and beyond the lines, and show don't tell. 

Really interested in reading this text as a whole class - will implement it in my planning for shared reading next week so that all students can experience higher order thinking, whether it is a students personal idea or thought/ what they hear another peer share. We saw some awesome vocabulary based activities with words plucked from the text so that will be handy to have those resources already up my sleeve. 

Analysis vs summarising:

- Summarising paraphrasing into fewer words

- Analysis: examining subject from different elements, or breaking it into different perspectives - supports to extend and deepen understanding

Important to note that at all levels need to be looking at and unpacking language features.

 

Activity - provocation: "To be brave you have to be scared." 

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity debating this with the breakout group. There were two sides to the argument but it was clear that either side could completely understand the other groups perspective, and collectively we were in agreement with a slightly different definition of bravery and the feelings including, but not exclusive to being scared are closely linked with bravery. 

I have found it difficult to find a provocation in the any text I chose for ākonga next week - likely due to the level of texts. I look forward to incorporating a provocation and discussion into the programme when we are reading texts that have strong themes which would inspire an appropriate and provocation. 

Today's session was a good reminder that we need to continue to push for extended discussion and critical literacy. I think my next step is to figure out what critical literacy will look like in my classroom and how I can simplify/adapt activities to suit Year 3 & 4 learners. Continuing to push the vocabulary focus I have been maintaining since Day 6 as well as extended discussion with a focus on critical literacy will certainly keep us busy!

RPI Session 6: Vocabulary

 Vocabulary (and decoding)

Listening to Dorothy talk about different apps for vocab. It would be awesome for students to create some vocabulary activities to be used when we start our Tuakana-Teina library sessions with a new entrant class. 

- A good reminder that there are lists of interesting vocab used in all school journal articles. Need to tap into this when planning guided reading follow up activities. 

- Using smart chips to insert a map so they can understand where the place they are reading about is located. 

- Using the explore tool to unpack unknown words. 

I am really looking forward to using the word knowledge organisers both before and after reading next term. 

I am going to add the cambridge dictionary to our site and just.prounounce as well. This will be awesome to support children to break down the barrier of how to say these words - after they have been explicitly taught it. 

I would like to start doing wordle with my class at the beginning of everyday to integrate that problem solving and understanding letter combinations in words - as well as discover the definition of unknown words together. I think it will be tricky to begin with but after we do it a couple of times the students will become familiar with the process of it. 

Rebus patterns - these activities were awesome to do together - it could be interesting to do with smaller groups and watch them figure it out together and convince each other why. I wonder if this is an activity that we could do with buddy classes. 

Robust, interactive vocabulary approaches reflection: This was a great activity to force you to consider things and related it to your own personal experiences. I have made copies of these and will plan to use these relating to the texts we read in shared reading so that all learners experience those words and activities. 

Decoding:

Such a good idea to share this with students so they can self-assess their reading. Will look to begin this next term. 

The resource register is awesome and there is a wide range of very helpful activities. I have made copies/notes of some which my ākonga will benefit from. I plan on sharing these with my team. 

RPI Session 5: Planning

RPI Session 5: Planning a Reading Programme

Sharing ideas from feedback - game for extended discussion - 3 lives, they lose a life when they pause for too long - such a good idea so I will definitely be using this with some groups. 

Personal next steps:

- Reading timetable for ākonga to view

- Look into how to use LTR further to reap all the benefits of it. This will link nicely to the spelling rules we are looking at, as we have just started following 'The Code' spelling. 

I am interesting in looking into tracking sheets to monitor independent work. 

Purpose of independent activities:

Mileage

Comprehension

Vocabulary

Discussion

Tracking

Differentiation

Empowerment

Engagement

This was a good reminder to me about all the different factors that independent activities should provide. In the next coming weeks when planning, I will be checking that all groups have activities which integrate all of these aspects in some form, naturally not all at the same time. I am not sure if discussion fits into all groups independent activities, this is something to look at - but doing this in a way that the guided reading group is not distracted by it could be a challenge I need to factor in.

I did not realise that you can assign texts of a specific genre or theme on epic - this is great and I will definitely be using that tool for the epic app.

Buddy reading is something I have been wanting to fit into my programme for a while, I am hopeful that trying to do this in the library may be a suitable time, I will trial this in our next library session.

Linking reading and writing:

We did an activity today to be used as a away to integrate and push ākonga to imitate interesting writing styles, looking at interesting beginnings. 

Here is the poster our group (1) came up with.

I am looking forward to integrating this into my writing programme planning, in some way!

RPI Session 4: Guided Reading

 RPI Session 4: Guided Reading

Processing side and comprehension side to guided reading. Engagement to text, emotional side, intention of the author is important too. But we need to explicitly teach and model how to process the text and comprehend what the text is telling us. 

Learning intentions - aiming for 1-2 in a week. Naturally some learning intentions take longer to unpack than others, and it is good to refer back to last week's learning intention so that ākonga continue to use the skills that we being explicitly taught. 

The context of a text can be a challenge if students are not familiar with it. Good idea to front-load the context through an independent research activity or a vocabulary challenge so that we are ready to unpack the text and not spending our precious guided reading time doing the introduction. Using an anticipation guide is a good way to set students up for success while reading the text which doesn't take away from teaching time. 

Background vs prior knowledge

- Background knowledge enhances reading experiences.

- Prior knowledge is students own experiences with the context. 

Need to be careful about the questions we are asking so that we don't ask for prior knowledge. 

Fluency scale

 

Really interesting to see the different aspects of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace layed out in a table like this to see the progression. There is a learner-friendly fluency scale to use with learners so they can self-assess their fluency. 

Integrating into self assessing in partners using this would be beneficial, particularly looking at punctuation. We can link this to how we look at punctuation in our reading and self assessing for that. 

I am interested to see how it goes using the LtR to track a learners reading. 

Our adventure to donate picture books to our community library box...

Kia ora everyone,

As I analysed the results of the reading survey, my mentor and I realised that our local library is quite a distance away and one would need a family to access it. We then reflected and wondered if there are many picture books in our local community library box which is very near our school.

After being gifted a pile of picture books, we decided to donate these to the community library box and show students where they can access this wonderful resource. 

Today in our reading session we walked down to the library box to donate some books. Attached are some photos of our ākonga doing so - we also encouraged them to tell their whānau about this too! 

Jasmine

 RPI Session 3: Text Selection

Homework sharing: wonderful to see a range of examples of how the task board has been implemented. I have made a copy of this slide deck as it will be awesome to hold onto further down the line. 

Digital text enables us so many opportunities we miss out on in print texts. The collaboration and deep-dive opportunities are incredible. Good reminder that there is a place for apps in the right time and right place - children need to be digitally fluent so they can tap into these resources. 

I had never heard of the concept 'mirrors, windows and glass doors.' Mirror texts, window texts and sliding glass doors - this is the reason the diversity needs to go both ways. All children need these - not just children who have been underrepresented instead of always seeing mirror texts. Good reminder about our own personal bias while we are selecting texts - need to provide choice so we don’t bring our assumptions.

Reminder to tap back into emotive side and finding the appropriate buy in particularly with our reluctant readers. Aiming for integration across the curriculum - it is funny this has been brought up. In our Numeracy we have just started looking at algebra and patterns, this week as our big book during shared reading we are looking at a patterns book. 

Levelled groups and mixed ability groups. Levelled - get better at reading. Mixed - talk about the text, make inferences about the author's purpose. Think about why texts are at what level - is it accessible or not? Is the context relevant to all learners? What is the learning intention? How can I remind myself this when creating ambitious outcomes - in mixed ability grouping - can I change the learning intention and text type in a way that is still accessible to all learners? How can we cater to interests but help expand interests at the same time?

Vocabulary - scan TSM online to find tier 2 words - point these out and explicitly teach these. How can we use that word in a different sentence to the way we have used it in the text? 

Choosing a text set: To link to our inquiry - Tūakiri (Identity)

1. A rock and a hard place - School Journal Part 3, N 2 - 2011. Y5 - a boy must choose which rugby team to support in the world cup. 

2. Becoming a Kiwi - School Journal Part 1, N 2 - 2006. Y4 - Recount written from Joshua’s perspective, he has just moved to Aotearoa from Korea. 

3. Flying the flag - School Journal Part 1, N 1 - 2006 . Y4 - Report around the New Zealand flag and the debates surrounding it. 

4. Suipi - School Journal, Level 3 - October 2013. Y5 - A Grandmother has moved to NZ because she is unwell, but misses playing cards in Samoa with her sisters. Her grand-daughter learns her favourite card game to cheer her up.

Next steps:

1. Use the text set that I put together next term. 

2. Find and set a time to read a class novel starting from Term 2. 

Reflection: Data analysis to inform design for learning

 Reflection: Data analysis to inform design for learning

I teach in an ILE with Year 3 and 4 students. In my reading class I have 1 Y4 reader and the other 25 readers are Year 3. We have just introduced chromebooks to the Y3 students and a PAT reading comprehension assessment can not be administered to this age group. 

Reflecting on PAT comprehension data is not something I can do with my current reading students. To form a goal for each reading group - I looked at their current reading level and listened to them read a book (at least one level below instructional) to hear them read aloud and make goals from there. 

Then I used the reading survey data to look at common interests across groups. I then tried to link these common interests to our focus in our writing programme. This week and next we are looking at procedure writing. This week the structure, and next we will look at precise language. For one of my reading groups (L17) I chose procedure fiction books 'How to Build a Race Car' through arts and crafts. We could make connections across the structure of the text we unpacked as a group and the structure of a piece of writing about 'How To Make Toast' earlier that day. 

Linking across the curriculum in this way means children can make connections inside and outside the classroom. I appreciate this may not be the way this data analysis was intended to inform the design for learning but I feel it has benefited me in a different way, which is always positive. 

I am looking forward to seeing how others utilized their data. However I have transferred the skills demonstrated during the walk through of the NZCER-assist site in our last session to analyse my class' Maths assessment data. 

RPI Session 2: Know your Learners as Readers

Cognitive focus on characteristics readers as learners. 

Effect size - I wonder how we could measure effect size of students reading following Hattie's effect size. It is interesting to know that 0.2 effect size happens naturally due to students maturing and growing. 0.4 is a good effect size - but how can we measure this using the variety of types of assessment to understand this in a true form - remembering we all have bad days etc. As per the image below - how do we get an effect size higher than 0.4? 

Looking at different types of assessment tools and how we use these formatively and summatively. How can we use these to understand the effect size?

Organising and unpacking data was good to be able to refer back to those filters on google sheets in the workbook.  

Logging into NZCER and and looking at the PAT Reading comprehension data was helpful in terms of wrapping my head around the tests and types of questions. Unfortunately, the data I had access to was 2022 data of Y4 students. I no longer teach these students so there were only so many practical takeaways I could have from this session. In saying this - I will be able to analyse the PAT reading comp data for my 2 Y4 learners that I teach for reading later on when they do it. The rest of the students I teach for reading are Y3 and we cannot administer this assessment for that age group. 

A good reminder is to read the text and then read what answers the students selected, looking at which answer students chose (incorrectly) thinking what did they miss? How can I teach them to correctly seek the information that the specific question is asking. 

The quote by Michael Absolum was a refreshing reminder that we don't overdue WALTs and SC. 

Next steps: 

- Adapt and use the workbook as my new form of reading planning from next week. 

- Begin to co-construct success criteria for some of my groups 

- Introduce our adapted co-constructed ground rules for talk to other groups

- This was a good reminder to me to ask what the senior team are doing for reading as I have one student working at reading age 10-10.5 

Reading Survey Analysis and Reflection

 Mõrena, 

Attached is a slideshow of my findings of the Reading Survey I adapted and carried out in my ILE space with Y3 & 4 students. It was very interesting to see this information presented in one place, thoughts and next steps are noted on each slide. 

I am curious to see what others think! 

Jasmine Bhula

RPI Session 1 Reflection: Reading is Core to Learning

Session One: Reading is Core to Learning

After attending the first RPI session of this programme I have walked away with confirmation of many ideas and concepts I already believed and followed, as well as tangible next steps and pedagogy to share with my ākonga and colleagues. This session was based around 'Reading is the Core to Learning.'

Reading is the core to learning, we expect children to learn 11 different curriculum areas yet literacy and being able to read is essential for success in all of those other areas. We need our children to be accelerated in reading learning this year, they need to learn 2 years of content in a year. 

Understanding the wide range of different characteristics of a 'good reader'.

Learners need opportunity to read in all areas of the curriculum as the NZ Curriculum is expecting us to do. A reminder that reading and writing is linked, if you can read it, you can write about it in some way. 

During our case study session we saw some fantastic learn, create, share examples to encourage students to read during the holidays. Reflection on this activity is below: 

1. How did Robyn create opportunities for cross-curriculum connections?

She created cross-curriculum activities starting by getting students to participate in a reading survey online, this is linked to Cybersmart, reading, self-reflection and statistics. After that students analysed all the data and graphed the results - more statistics. They then came up with different activities to encourage students in their school to read, this is reading, and inquiry and some of them also stepped up and volunteered to read to junior students at their break times - which is delving into leadership and mentoring roles. She gave the students agency by letting them create their own activities to encourage others to read, as well as allowing them to analyse data their own class completed. Writing a reflection on their blogs flows into the writing aspect of literacy. 

2. How were learners positioned to take ownership of the reading intervention?

She gave the students agency by letting them create their own activities to encourage others to read, as well as allowing them to analyse data their own class completed. Students explained and led other students through different activities to encourage reading across the school. They also had ownership writing their reflections which they put onto their blogs, and speaking and presenting to a group when sharing results of the reading survey.

Increased my understanding of kaupapa and the pedagogy of the reading programme:

The 'Reading Pillars of Practice' activity was particularly useful and helpful to have all of those steps across the structure set out in one place for us to reflect on what is already taking place in the classroom and what needs to be strengthened and practiced more. It is exciting to see a roadmap of what the next 8 sessions will cover. 

Learning to improve capability and confidence in teaching reading:

It was nice to be reminded to share my own reading passion with my students. 

Link between text-based discussion and oral language. Taking specific language that was in the text takes the words off the page and into real life, hopefully leading them to expand their personal vocabulary. This can also be linked into our numeracy programme we run at school and encouraging group roles and set out protocols for talk. 

Next steps with learners:

Sharing and setting up those group protocols for having text-based discussions, these can also be linked to all dialogic discussions we have in the learning space. After that is set up, sharing LIs and SC and reflecting on these with one tangible goal for the next step. Further on in the year - co-constructing LI and SC. Continue to link literacy and the texts we are reading/viewing with the Mitey programme. 

Next steps with community:

Share the 'Activity Quest' taskboard that was created for the Kākāpō reading group with colleagues and see how we can adapt and use this on our own. Something that stood out for me is the concept of providing choice, but doing it in a manageable way so that we are not creating more work for ourselves. The taskboard as mentioned above has many ideas.