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ILE Inquiry - Term 3, Week 4

8/16/2016

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PMI Reflection Charts

M - up 2 levels to level 10 
A - up 3 levels to level 10  
S - up 2 levels to level 10 
J - level 7, back after extended leave
A3 -  up 1 levels to level 7
M3 - doing better with HFW, now up to level 5. Will remove from target students as a year 0, tracking above.

Interesting
D - solid letter sound knowledge and is now reading his name consistently, as well as Mum & Dad. Will start him with 30mins 1:1 a day on LLI programme focussing on building his sight words as he is very motivated by words at the moment. 

Minus

Nothing comes to mind

Next Steps

Comprehension Strategies & Fluency 
This term I have switch the goal to raising reading achievement through teaching comprehension and fluency. After some deliberation and research I have decided to focus on Reciprocal Teaching and am currently researching how to best do this with 5 year olds. 

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Pedagogical Dilemma

6/30/2016

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Through the end of last year and over the school holidays, I have been ruminating over an area of cognitive dissonance that our teams collaborative goal to raise reading achievement buts uncomfortably up against. 

I want to believe that I am powerful and necessary as a teacher. That the very personal act of connecting with a student and actually causing new learning is an act of humanity, of caring in action. I want to believe that I CAN do this and even more that I NEED to do this for the good of the student. 

However, last year, I had an intake of New Entrants (5 years old) that comprised a large group who had very low levels of developmental skills. Oral language was around 2 years below norms. They had no fine motor control, and almost no understanding of books or the concepts of print. 

I wasn't the only one. The other NE teachers had a similar experience. Try as I might I struggled over 6 months to build the missing foundations for these students. I worked collaboratively with my colleagues to regroup students and try to create a more developmentally appropriate programme. 

At the end, these children really hadn't moved anywhere towards the national standards, which now just seemed cruel and inappropriate. They were fairly oblivious to letters, didn't know any HFW and had no 1:1 pointing. In all ways they were still operating at the pre-reading level. ​On the flip side they had settled into the routines of school and formed friendships, they sat well on the mat, came to group teaching and played well with their peers. 
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Academically though, I finished the year feeling that I had failed these students, but also angry at a national standard that doesn't recognize just how varied student learning pathways were. I felt that these children were not developmentally ready for the early reading and writing programme of school. They need 2 years more in the sand, construction and the dress-up boxes. 

On the other hand I felt there was a huge professional and pedagogical danger of just blaming developmental readiness. Doesn't it give us the perfect excuse for a student's failure to achieve. This is just victim blaming and at the end of the day, they are only 5, and I am the experienced and trained educator, so the responsibility for their progress or not is all mine. The research above has spurred me to accept my responsibility to engage in deliberate acts of teaching that cause learning. 
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ILE Inquiry - Term 2, Week 9

6/28/2016

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PMI Reflection Chart

Positives
Mostly good results for weeks 5-8 teaching. Collecting data this week. 
M - up 2 levels to level 8

A - up 1 level to level 7  - struggling with retelling and comprehension. Language processing disorder is affecting outcomes.
S - up 2 levels to level 8
J - away on extended leave
A3 -  up 3 levels level 6

Interesting
After the big jumps earlier in the term a number of children appear to be consolidating - I need to be vigilant that this is the case and that it doesn't become stagnating. Looking for that next deliberate act of teaching that will move students forwards again. 

Minus
M3 - not progressing with sight words
L - new student, very immature, been away a lot already
D - not establishing concepts of print, especially around words, 1:1 correspondence or HFW. Developmental delay. Letter-sound knowledge growing but it is arbitrary, not connected to letters in context but seem to be just rote triggered i.e. the beginning of the word. 

Next Steps:

Thinking about Comrehension Strategies & Fluency as next terms goal ​
Research Comprehension & Fluency strategies - possible Reading CAFE and Reciprical Reading. I like the focus of 4 key strategies only. Keeps it simple as children still so young. I think Reciprical reading will marry well with Read to Partner expectations from Daily 5 which I want to get established well.

Meeting with Principal booked for Appraisal - Term 3, week 1
  • Ensure I have links to all documentation prior to our meeting
  • Bring examples of student learning from target group and 3 other students (Analsyed writing samples, running records and BSA data)
  • Bring any other relevant information/learning examples/student voice/agency (Collect student voice about reading, workbooks)
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Twice Termly Data Collection

6/27/2016

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Twice a term, mid-term and at the end of the term, I ensure that I collect and analyze assessment data in reading and mathematics. A writing sample is a collected and analyzed at the end of each term. 

The photo opposite shows my initial data collection from mid-term running records. These are particularly pertinent this year as our ILE goal is in raising achievement in reading. The exact means by which I attempt to raise achievement changes each term as the children's need develop. 

These data sheets are collected and pinned together so I have a flow of progress through the year. 
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I then take this data and plot it on two separate graphs. The first graph shows students achievement against their number of weeks at school. This is the graph I have traditionally used. The data points connected by pencil are my target students. ​Pleasingly it shows significant progress across the class, with most children tracking on or above national standards. 

​However, this is somewhat misleading, as some of my students turned 5 last September but did not start school until February. They are doing very well according to their weeks at school, but I wanted to check their progress against age norms. This is the second graph.  

I am currently collecting my end of term 2 data and am very interested to see how my new term two starters have progressed. 


Picture
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ILE Inquiry - Term 2, Week 4

5/30/2016

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PMI Reflection Chart

Positive
Testing by Mum of Word Rings is working really well. ​She has asked for a helper, so now I am setting up a second parent to support her. 
Big jumps in reading this first 4 weeks of the term, some moved 4-5 levels. Not as large a jump with the target children but still steady progress and all tracking well towards national standard. 

M - up 2 level, level 6 
A - up 2 levels, level 6 
S -up 2 levels,  level 6 
J - up 1 level, level 2 . 
A3 - up 2 levels, level 3


Interesting
By the end of the term there will be 6 children on spelling, and I will remove them in term 3 and add spelling to the Friday session with me. This way I can do both a test and a mini teach on spelling strategies. 
Halina is doing some great work with word family monsters, which is showing great results in hearing and generating rhyme. I would like to add these in but need to prepare the resource. 


Minus
Too much testing - doubling up. i.e. Word rings and Target words. Good to push both sets in class, but only need to test 1. I prefer to keep the Word Rings as the children are very motivated by these and there are only 15 in each colour, so the chn experience success quicker. My colleagues are more keen to let the Word Rings go and use the Target words for the color wheel. Our Dean suggested we could trial different approaches and report back which worked afterwards. Collaboration does not always mean doing the same thing - it is supporting each other to critically inquire into our best practice to make it even stronger. 

Observations & Concerns

J did not test well. He is doing well with his guided group on Level 3/4 readers and presents as confident, however he bombed in all running records. Too nervous in 1:1 situation. Leaving him with Level 4 teaching group.

Next Steps:

Video reading lesson ILP week 9 for peer feedback. 
Consider how am I accelerating and motivating children's reading achievement through clarity of next learning steps .
Complete appraisal to current and share with Dean.
Introduce Word Family Monsters
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ILE NE Inquiry Goal - Term 2

5/2/2016

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How can I increase retention of early HFWs and beginning sounds to accelerate reading achievement. 

Intended Deliberate Acts of Teaching
  • Daily flashcards for beginning sounds in guided reading sessions
  • Daily use os target sight words (colour wheel) in guided reading sessions
  • Early words book - unison reading, one word a day
  • Early words follow-up
  • Teach onset and rime through  word family poems
  • Introduce new HFW games to reading and writing rotations
  • Introduce use of PM readers on the class computers
  • Introduce reading games for sight words and alphabet sounds on the iPad
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Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) Inquiry

4/12/2016

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This year I am working in a collaborative professional inquiry of 3 teachers. We are documenting our meetings on a shared google doc as well as documenting data and analysis in a large scrap book. At times it feels like we are repeating ourselves, doubling or trebling our workload as we are recording data in multiple places. On the other hand, the scrapbook in particular is helpful in focussing the data on our target students, rather than the class as a whole.

Already I am seeing changes in my practice that appear to be contributing to strong gains in reading, our gaol area. The biggest challenge now is to find ways to support a similar growth in reading for my newbies who have just arrived into a very different classroom environment than the initial children experienced.    
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ILE Inquiry - Term 1, Week 7

3/22/2016

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PMI Chart

Positive
  • Two groups are now tracking towards level 5 at the end of the term.
  • I am realy pleased with the growth of their sight words.
  • The whole class is very sight word motivated, always grabbing a set and pretending to be me by checking the classes reading.
Interesting
  • Students introduced to the sneaky y, last week - they are now getting lots of practise identifying and explaining the roll of y in words like Mummy, daddy.
  • Lots of y's in Big Book this week, including in the middle of words like anywhere, everywhere.
Minus
  • Can't think of anything ​

Resources & Ideas

  • Went to veiw Jordan's Modelling books for Reading, especially Magenta and Red readers. Got several ideas to start me off. Shared in team modelling book so far. 
  • The new readers are an excellent follow-up for Whai Wahi reading around level 2, 3, and 4.

What's Worked/What Hasn't

On Monday I do phonics in the afternoon as it gets bumped for Whai Whai, but on Wednesday I can't as I need to take the children to Library. I have instead been doing two letters in the Thursday morning to compensate.

Observations & Concerns

A - huge improvement in confidence, HFWs and attention to beginning sounds. Now will take the lead in reading and confidently disagree with others rather than follow their errors.
M - Very very motivated with his HFWs and his handwriting of letters and numerals. Is dedicated nd practising over and over from his own initiative, he wants to do well.
M2, A2 & S - Making slower progress with HFWs but still moving forward. need to follow up with Mums and Dads at BSA meetings next week

Next Steps

  • At end of Stage 2 now - moving onto digraphs this week and review in week 9.
  • Retest all stage 2 in week 10 along with Running Records. ​Continue to develop Modelling books for reading groups and trialling using the Willowbank Progressions in Reading
  • Take a .pdf of Jordan's Modeling books
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ILE Inquiry - Term 1, Week 5

3/8/2016

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PMI for the Week

Positive
  • One group has started level 4 this week. 
  • They are doing really well acquiring and remembering HFWs. 
  • Lowest group is now pointing more consistently 

Interesting 
  • I enjoyed the first Whai Whai sessions this week. 
  • The students are motivated and fully engaged. 

Minus 
  • I was sick and missed the follow-through with my kids 2 days last week. Thankfully Dee was the reliever and she kept the programme running.

What has Work/What Hasn't

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Children are establishing nice stamina in maintaining bubble space during Read to Self times. 
Sentence frames and using environmental print are working well in helping students take ownership and independence in writing.
I need to ensure a enough choice but also enough structure, so I am providing 3 varied frames for each sight word and Early Word card. 
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ILE Inquiry PD

2/23/2016

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Here are some note regarding the purpose and benefits of using Collaborative Inquiry for Teaching as Inquiry. I think we will need to come back t the principles and guideline at various times during our inquiry. 

Providing opportunities for professional learning and collaborative Teaching as Inquiry
  • teacher strengths
  • specific goal setting
  • clear and respectfully honest communication
  • relational trust

Supporting the development of evaluative, teaching and leadership capabilities
  • using initiative
  • volunteering
  • mentoring and/or coaching someone 
  • taking risks
  • leadership units
  • using soft and hard data effectively to make changes for a student
  • working in ILP of 3-not one leader
  • going into ILP with a question to ask-so everyone is contributing and finishing with 3min reflection from each person

Facilitating the sharing of reflective practice to mobilise the experience, skills and knowledge of the group
  • planning and time to do it
  • haring observations
  • mindset or pedagogical change
  • risk taking
  • asking questions-has it shifted the outcome?


Committing to open and respectful interpersonal interactions

  • allowing everyone to talk
  • being positive
  • allow thinking time
  • not talking with others about difficult conversation with another colleague-no judging or gossip
  • respectfully disagree at times
  • being open

Effectively analysing qualitative and quantitative data and using it to identify possible areas for improvement
  • triangulating soft and hard data
  • child centered 
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    Renee Stewart

    Forever curious, always learning, deep thinking teacher. I am a Year 5 teacher this year and am enjoying the transition after 3 years with New Entrants.

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