NZEI Pasifika Teachers Fono 2024 - Day 1

 During the first week of the school holidays, I had the privilege of attending the NZEI Pasifika Teachers Fono. It was held over two days at Waipuna Conference Centre in Mt Wellington. This is a slideshow sharing some of my highlights during the first day. I attended with Ms Va'afusuaga, Mrs Ilaoa, Ms Teleso, and Mrs Sio. Mrs Tele'a also attended. I am very grateful to our school and Board of Trustees for helping to subsidise the cost of the conference. 

Inquiry Focus 2024 Part 2

 After analysing the results from my students Term 1 STAR Tests, I have noted down some of the key areas that I need to work on when planning for literacy in Term 2.

Teaching and Planning Strategies:

• Vocabulary:
  • Varied activities (image matching, writing definitions) based on reading and topics.
  • Build a word wall and hold regular quizzes (e.g., Kahoot!)
• Sentence Comprehension:
  • Focus on inference, vocabulary, and diverse texts.
  • Practice cloze activities, multiple choice, and writing for mechanics (e.g. proper grammar and punctuation) and clarity (e.g. sentence structure to ensure their writing is easy to understand).
• Paragraph Comprehension:
  • Teach strategies: skimming, summarising, identifying key words, and testing logical flow.
• Vocabulary Expansion:
  • Explore synonyms, antonyms, and word families.
• Decoding Advertising:
  • Discuss persuasive language techniques used to influence consumers.
• Writing for Audience:
  • Analyze titles, identify audience, and understand formal/informal styles through diverse writing exercises (fairy tales, news, job applications etc.).