Reading Practice Intensive - Day 5

 

Day 5 - Planning a Reading Programme

Due to our cluster Teacher Only Day this Friday, today we joined the Tuesday cohort for our Day 5 session meaning that we don't miss our professional learning at the end of the week.  The Tuesday cohort were a lovely group of teachers and we were made to feel very welcome by facilitators Naomi, Kiri and Sharon.  Thank you team!

Like we do each session, we began by looking at how we have gone with our homework tasks.  Unfortunately since our Day 4 session I have had a week off work sick and then once back have taught for a total of 4 days due to release for other commitments.  I have had a coaching conversation and I have been using some AI generated texts for my less able readers related to our hub Inquiry theme, and this has been going really well.

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

In Dorothy's absence we had a session with Fiona Grant today around sites - one of my favourite things!  I wondered how long I have been using Google Sites - after a quick investigation I found our site from 2016, and man, we have come a long way since then!  I think these students will be 16-17 years old now - goodness me!

It was good to be reminded that our site should reflect the Manaiakalani Programme priority goals:

• Engagement
• Personalised Learning
• Accelerated achievement
• Empowerment

I am confident that our hub learning site does tick all of these boxes.  I am proud that our Year 4 learners all have our learning site bookmarked and they picked up really early on in the year how to navigate their way around.  Recently when I was away sick for a week I was thrilled to watch a Year 4 group of readers showing their self management skills and getting stuck into their learning without me there.  If we can achieve this with more of our learners this frees the teacher up to actually get on with the act of teaching.

I am a little disappointed that our current cohort of students don't access any of their learning from home and I couldn't confidently even say that any of our parents have even looked at our learning site.  This is quite different from our Covid lockdown learners from 2020, and this is something I want to promote more throughout our hub.

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

Today has made me think more about a few tweaks we could make within our hub, for example, having the same students for both Reading and Writing, and using mixed ability groups.  I really enjoyed the two sessions Naomi led today about "Read like a writer - Write like a reader."  I cannot wait to see what my students produce using the template that we used today using sensory imagery to create suspense.

We have recently looked at how many minutes a day we teach Reading and Writing so when we looked at timetabling it was good to compare with the suggested 90 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week for Literacy, and 45-50 minutes, 4-5 days a week for Reading.  Our hub coverage is Reading 86 minutes daily and Writing 69 minutes daily.  In Years 3-4 the ideal is three groups per teacher per day, 20 mins each group session - this is what we aim for, with one group working independently each day.  At Reading time teachers should be:

• Teaching groups
• Conferencing with students
• Roving around the space
• Tracking/monitoring learning (digitally via Google Classroom/Hapara, with Mahi Trackers or otherwise)
• Observation notes while working with students (e.g. Guided Reading; formative)

Something to think about: Do I give my students enough choice for their Can Do activities? Am I making their learning less fun by taking this choice away?

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

I loved all the examples of Hand It in tracking spreadsheets, with percentage bars and emojis appearing when tasks are completed but I need to keep in mind if this would work bridging the gap between Year 3s on iPads and Year 4s on Chromebooks.  I hope to try one out with my Year 4 group.  I am also keen to work out how I can lock the spreadsheet so that each student can only edit their line on it, and also work out how to hide tabs from students.

I am excited to trial both ReadWorks and Literacy Planet in my Reading programme.  I already have my students use Epic but haven't yet set texts for them to read or used the quiz function this year.  

The session about Reading apps was thought provoking - are the apps engaging, do they cost money, is it too much screen time, and is the app fit for purpose? The "why" is more important than the "what" when it comes to Reading apps.  In a digital world it is also important that we don't forget about the non-digital activities: word work, paired reading/listening, wide reading, and writing/creating.

Very soon our Year 4s will begin blogging and I am excited to add this into my Reading programme for those learners.

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

• New Reading Apps that I learnt about today
• Inference Matrix from our Skill Builder session
• Narrative Beginnings (and Endings) Mentor Texts posters that each break out group created

Reading Practice Intensive - Day 4

 

Day 4 - Guided Reading (& Comprehension)

Term 2 - Day 4 - and we are back into it again! Although attending online, I'm not well and my brain is not functioning at full capacity today. But here goes!

We begun in our smaller breakout groups to go over our home work tasks, and although they are complete I still have a few things to do on my "To Do" list (long term plan of text coverage on my teacher workbook and my digital modelling book).  It was great to share a tip about using Canva for the Year 3 students to record themselves read - that way all of my readers can do the same task with half on Chromebooks and half on iPads.

No insights from Dorothy today as she is at my school at the Manaiakalani Convenors hui, and I miss all that excitement working from home.

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

We started by going over the Manaiakalani Pillars of Reading Practice again. Last term (on Days 1-3) we focussed on the first two pillars. Pillar 1 - Planning for Ambitious Outcomes and Pillar 2 - Planning to Use Diverse Texts. Day 4 (today) will continue to focus on the second pillar with more of a focus on Guided Reading. Guided Reading is still considered to be an important part of a classroom Reading programme in NZ but it is only as good as the teacher's knowledge brought to each session. That includes - a pre-identified small group of learners; shared learning needs of the group; and , texts selected to support the learning needs and engagement considered. Guided Reading should not be taught in isolation but with integrated links to other instructional approaches like shared, buddy and independent reading.

The gurus of Guided Reading are New Zealander, Dame Marie Clay, and American women Irene Fountas and Gay Pinnell. Irene Fountas and Gay Pinnell have extensively developed the work of Dame Marie Clay in the United States, and created substantial Guided Reading resources.

While we are focusing on Guided Reading in today's session, it doesn’t happen in isolation. There are also read aloud (which we would call reading to) where the teacher reads to the learners, shared reading, and independent reading. All reading learning does not happen through Guided Reading only, learning will also happen during these other important reading opportunities as well.

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

I enjoyed the learning about Prior Knowledge and Background Knowledge prior to reading a text, this is something very important at our school with our second language learners. Seeing this in action with the video and the transcript from Whaea Anita was really good. It was interesting to learn about the two different approaches of introducing the learning intention (purpose) - something that makes so much sense but goes against what I've always done!

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

I love the idea of using the student's recordings of themselves read to observe their reading behaviour - the LTR-WWW Protocol (Listening to Reading - Watching While Writing). Also love the Fluency Scale rubric - and this is something my more able students can assess themselves on. It was a little tricky without the actual text in front of me and on my screen instead, meaning I had a screen split in 3. In my trial one it was good to be able to stop and start the recording if I wasn't sure what the student said. Background classroom noise is something I need to talk to my students about this though. I do also wonder how much time this would take to do each student once a week, and would this get faster as I got better at doing it?

I have further work to do on my Digital Modelling book. It was good to see how this connects with everything else in today's session.

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

What will I take back to my team? So much! I think today's session has connected some of the pieces of the puzzle/elements of the previous days. I will share ideas around prior knowledge/background knowledge, when to share learning intentions, the Fluency Scale, the LTR-WWW Protocol, and some graphic organiser ideas.

But in a few days when I am feeling better and a bit more human!