Day Three

Choosing Appropriate Text

• Want rich varied texts
• Look at different perspectives
• Think about the book is at the Independent/ Instructional/Frustrating  level
• Look at the different genres
• Think about the vocabulary- Tier 1,2 and 3
• Consider the different cultures you have in the group but also what you don't have - Watch  
  
  

Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University

Groupings

There are different ways to do this and there are pro and cons for the different ways. Sometimes you don't have much of a choice on how this is done but when you can I think you should try the different ways. Always consider the children though. 

Summarising

This was useful as I find this can be hard for many children to do. I am grateful for some new resources in this area. I do plan to look more into Timothy Shanahan for more information on how to teach this. It was a good reminder to break it up slowly in your approach to this reading strategy. The summarising matrix will also be very handy to look at as this has been set up with the new curriculum phases. I also think the reminder to articulate as I am teaching this strategy, is helpful. I don't do this enough. This section is a good one to pass on to my colleagues who might want to improve their skills in teaching summarising. 

Text set selection

This is the start of me collecting for the text selection for possible work around monsters and mythical creatures. It would be good to read a novel around the same topic so will have to see if can do this. I generally find some topics easier than some to find reading material on. I will continue to work on ensuring the children get a range of types of books. 

Day Two-RPI

 

This diagram states clearly how it can be helpful to gain a better understanding as to what your children's needs are. Finding time to dive deep into the data once you have done the testing is beneficial. 

Getting this information from the survey and from just observing and allowing time to talk about reading and their thoughts on it etc can also be very helpful.  

I have delved into the PAT results a little but have not really dived deeply into specific children. I think because we change children around every term this has been challenging at times to stay onto what the group you are taking needs are.  I did like how it took you to some ARB resources to help with specific things in the testing. I will definitely go back and use this and check my colleagues are aware of this. Inferencing has long been an area of weakness in these tests and I have tried practising this. I did like the strategy of just using only a short paragraph or sentence and inferencing from that would be a good activity to do.  Also getting them to practise multi choice questions approach as they will come across this for the rest of their schooling as an approach in testing. 

Reading Survey

 After reading through the reading survey there were a couple of interesting things. Looking at the first section many of the children liked reading which was good to see. However, there were still some children who rated liking for reading low which is something I would like to look more into. Most children who liked reading at school also like to read for enjoyment. There were children who did like it at school but not at home and visa versa. I guess this would need further investigation to have a better understanding of why this is. 

It was great to see so many reading for enjoyment. I think once they find the right book many of them do actually enjoy reading 

The type of books the children like is no surprise chapter, funny books and graphic novels. I have definitely seen an increase in graphic novels being read and I wish they had some of these when I was younger. I was into comics and I think that this would of been a good stepping stone for me to get into chapters. 

Overall the survey has a mixture of results and a few things would be interesting to discuss with them but I think it probably reflects the age of the children and not really many surprises.

Reading Programme Intensive

 Day One

The above is what we are aiming to achieve with the children. There is a reciprocal relationship between reading and oral language.  To get extended discussions you need to have the right environment. This needs to have four aspects

1. Classroom Culture

2. A Framework of Support

3. Opportunities

4. Quality Reasoning

Setting the ground rules does allow this to happen in a safe and supportive environment. I like the video of the guy going through this with his children as this made it nice and clear what we are trying to achieve. He did stop the group which was beneficial as this was a perfect teaching time. I plan to do some work on this particular task at the start of the year while I set up my group norms. Although I do like the reflection I may make some small changes.

I have done the survey with the children before, although have never looked at with the children. So that will be an interesting task to do. 

I will be using the 'Good Fit' activity or one like it as this is something I have talked about for years with the children ( ever since I came across Daily Five reading ) but have never done it digitally. I am thinking about the Modelling Book online that I came across in the planning. Not sure am quite ready for that as tend to do it more in an actual book but will see. So a few things to think about and try.

Distance Learning

Well, this has been an unexpected adventure but overall I have enjoyed the challenge.  Following the Learn, Create, Share approach has made things easier. My experience on the DFI course helped heaps and I have been able to use some of the skills I learned from that course. After reading some articles and information on various sites about what is important during distance learning. As I have always said that relationships are important and making connections with the children you are teaching is important so the challenge was of course how to ensure this happens during distance learning. The main way we are doing this is through Google Meets and this seems to be helping with the relationships. The children I think are enjoying it as they are coming back each week. This way of forming a relationship has helped to ensure we make connections with the children and support the children to complete their work.  I realise that not everyone can make the meetings as there are other things going on but I found I got quite a lot of children coming to the meets.

As a teacher I found that I am gaining some more computer skills but also the skill of refining more of my lessons and adjusting lots of resources to suit the situation.  It has been great to see teachers and companies were helping each other out by providing resources and assisting with lessons.

What I find interesting is that some children have really taken to this type of learning and seem to be showing a certain amount of self-management and independence. The children I am teaching have had to learn quickly some computer skills and are taking on this challenge well. Other children are  doing well with the support of their parents or siblings. There are some children who enjoy the social side of distance learning and enjoy coming to Google Meets and less about the work. However, overall I think the experience for the children is a rewarding one where they are learning many things and should be commended on their effort and skills that they are learning.

Cultural Responsiveness

I thought I would have a little look at this word and what it means. I read a piece from Helen Verney who wrote 'Accelerating Learning Through CulturallyResponsive Teaching Practices'. Helen wrote this as part of her sabbatical year and she had a look and asked staff on their thoughts on being culturally responsive and other aspects around this. What she learned from her study was not really a great surprise to me.
I liked how she explained how cultural responsive can be shown in 3 ways as surface, shallow and deep. Obviously, we ideally want to have a deep understanding of culture. It is important for the teacher herself to have a deep understanding of their own culture.
Schools have a responsibility to connect with the community and to gain more about the cultures they have. Having an understanding of the cultures within the school helps to accelerate the children's learning. Building connections with others in the community helps us to understand where the children are coming from.
An environment that is accepting of others thoughts, beliefs and actions allow students to be themselves and bring their culture to their learning. Which definitely benefits their self-esteem and their learning.

Key points I got from her were that everyone connected to the learner is important and play an important role in educating a child. Teachers knowing themselves and their learners helps us to be culturally responsive. A very important aspect is relationships and this is backed up by Russell Bishop who spoke on Ed Talks Educators talk about learning-A Culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. He talked about some of the same aspects that popped up with Helen Vinery. By allowing children to bring their own experiences to their learning and accepting their ideas and culture helps to improve engagement. Relationships with the children and whanau are very important to improve the children s learning.  Caring for people and creating a learning relationship is paramount for being culturally responsive.

Using flexible learning groups within the curriculum

Today I listened to Marc Gibson from Wilgrim school for a toolkit session. His topic was 'Using Flexible learning groups within the curriculum'. He teaches year 3/4 so this made it particularly interesting to see as this is the same level I am currently teaching. 

The maths at the school was done similar to what we currently do it in the hub. However, probably a change was that the children choose the workshops they go to. This is something we could have a think about and discuss how to do this and how to ensure that the children are attending the workshops they need to. We would need to discuss with the children more closely what progressions they need to achieve to ensure the children can choose the correct workshops for themselves.
A few years ago I trialed having flexible groupings for reading and found it affective although the children didn't choose their workshops instead it was me. I would be keen to explore this more and of course, would make some changes about the children having more voice in their learning. 

There were many aspects I liked about how this school runs their flexible groupings and I agree that it does help the children to have a better understanding of their education and also helps with their confidence. I am interested in where to next in our hub with these flexible groupings and how to make it manageable.
Here is a video I enjoyed watching that helps understand why flexible groupings is worth having a go at.