Reading Practice Intensive - Day 3

Day 3 - Text Selection

Another full on day of professional learning! Great to start the day with some reflection on our "homework" tasks as I got some great ideas to take back to school for our mahi on Extended Discussions from my breakout group.  Loved the idea of Accountable Talk based on an enlarged picture (for students to study) and the students having the discussion stems ("I noticed...", "I agree...", etc) to really focus on getting the talk (discussion) flowing.  I also enjoyed seeing everyone's slide decks and will make time to look at these in-depth during the holiday break.

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

Today Dorothy talked about print text vs digital texts.  I found this interesting as recently I have read  online about recent research showing that "using devices has been shown in some studies to contribute to some kids becoming short sighted; particularly if they use devices for long periods of time without interruption." [Charity finds shocking number of New Zealand children with eyesight issues, optometrist blames screens - Grace Thomas - Newshub - 29/12/2023]. Another online article "found that the reading comprehension skills of children who read printed text were six times better when compared to children who read the same content on a digital screen. ['New research shows kids learn better from books over screens" NewstalkZB 17/12/2023].  I guess with everything in life there needs to be a balance but it is something to certainly keep in mind.

Some thought provoking learning about reading in a digital world - reading apps, tools and approaches.  What do we use? What don't we use enough? What about AI? Do we use the technology available to its' full potential? How can we work smarter not harder?  How can we use digital tools to support reading? Tools like - voice typing, Google Keep, transcripts from YouTube, Screencast to develop oral fluency, and assigning tasks using comment function.

Accountability (which I will come to again at the end) also made me think about my students learning.

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

Going over Rudine Sims Bishop's concept of 'Windows, Mirrors and Sliding Glass Doors" was good.  I knew a little about the concept from being involved in the Manaiakalani Reading Observations and also our cluster data feedback sessions.  But it makes a lot more sense to me know, especially how "mirrors" can give students a false sense of what the real world is actually like.  I love this quote from the end of the Youtube clip we watched "I mean it's not just children who have been underrepresented and marginalized who need these books. It's also the children who always find their mirrors in the books and, therefore, get an exaggerated sense of their own self-worth and a false sense of what the world is like because it's becoming more and more colourful and diverse as time goes on." [Rudine Sims Bishop - Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors]

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

Accountability came up in discussion several times today - how to I track what my students are doing? How could a Mahi Tracker (spreadsheet) where students link their completed work, or record how many chapters of their library book they read today, etc so I can see all this information in one place without having to open Hapara and checking work has been organised into their Reading folder on their Drive, and just relying on a high trust model that they are infact reading their library book during silent reading time.  Sure, this will take time to set up and for students to learn "how" to do this but they do need to be accountable for their own learning.  

I'm thinking now about how we group our students for reading.  The last two weeks of this term my students are in mixed groups reading, learning and (hopefully) performing plays to each other.  I have mixed my Blue/Level 9 readers in among my Emerald/Level 25 readers but I have never thought to do this for "normal" instructional lessons.  I really enjoyed watching the Flea in the Glass Jar Experiment Youtube clip (which I have seen before) and thought about my lower readers when I watched it today.  Am I limiting their ability to have rich extended discussions when they are just with their group of four?  How can I group my students according to the gaps in their learning (from my assessment data) and have a group focusing on Summarising and another group focusing on Inferring? 

I gained a lot from our work on the The Three-Tiers of Vocabulary Framework. 7000 words in Tier 1 (a third grader likely knows about 8000 words). A literate person would know Tiers 1 and 2.  We need to ensure we teach Tier 3, which makes sense when learning the specialised subject matter.

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

Things to share with my team and the wider staff: Smart chips (something I didn't know about at all), Screencast (and how to do this on a chrome book and a Mac book), using ChatGPT to modify a texts reading level,  the 3 tiers of vocabulary, and probably more that has slipped my full brain at the moment!

I also got a nice little "to purchase" list for the school library today!