Reading Practice Intensive - 2024 - Day 1

 

Day 1: Reading is Core

Today I began 3 terms of professional learning and development about Reading. What a huge day - pleased I worked from home so I wasn't able to be interrupted because I am feeling a little brain dead now!

I have enjoyed the opportunity for discussions not only in our bigger Google Meet but also in my smaller group with Georgie, Kelsey, Wayne, Fiona, Jo and Mel throughout the day.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of the kaupapa and pedagogy of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme ?

One of the quotes that Dorothy Burt shared with us this morning resonated with me because of the connection between Reading and wider life outcomes.

“Reading ability has a considerable impact on both educational attainment and wider life outcomes. Research finds robust associations between reading ability and educational success, and reading enjoyment and reading behaviour appear to be key mechanisms in this relationship.”

(Mulcahy et al, 2022)

What did I learn that could improve my capability and confidence in teaching reading?

I enjoyed looking at what makes a good reader - looking at the skills, attributes and characteristics that a good reader has. Both word knowledge and world knowledge are highly correlated to reading success. I am looking forward to collecting information about my students as readers, being able to have a holistic look at each reader as a person.

“Gathering student voice is a vital part of teaching. It gives us a clear picture of where our students are at, what they're thinking and what we need to do to allow our learners to make their individual connections to the learning.”

Robyn Anderson,

Panmure Bridge School 2022

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

I am excited to gather student voice from my Reading class (will plan for this next week) and then be able to use this within my programme.

I will also investigate some things I can incorporate into my programme with our regular Library visits (which we do during our Reading lessons).

As a staff we have already begun to introduce Ground Rules for Talk (see poster below) so I will continue to focus on this with my Reading class. It was great to see these in action in the video shown (Danni Stone at Point England). I will try the Toss & Talk game with my class - I think they would enjoy this.

What did I learn that could be shared within my wider community, with either colleagues, or whānau/aiga?

I will be sharing a lot with my other two team members. Rather than just survey my Reading class (who I may only have for this term) I will survey our whole Year 3 and 4 hub (73 students). I think the data will be beneficial to the whole team not just me.

There were also several ideas that I could implement in our Library - having senior students read to younger students at lunch times - some ideas to get the Library used more during break times while also developing tuakana-teina throughout the school.