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