Inquiry Update

 It's been two weeks since the start of the term where we decided to cross group for reading. The first week was really about finding out where all the students were at in terms of reading in their new groups. 

I have 6 reading groups (31 students) whose reading levels range from Red/Yellow level reading books to Purple/Gold readers. I see at least 3 reading groups once a day, so each reading group sees me for guided reading at least twice a week. So far my bottom three reading groups have started to take their reading books and spelling notebooks home. 

What has worked well so far?

* Consistently being able to have all students reading with me at least twice a week. 

* Students being engaged and focused on their reading during guided reading with me. 

* Testing spelling words on a Friday. 

What is not working too well so far?

* Monitoring what students are doing when they are not reading with me. 

* Getting the reading/writing tumble up and running properly with the new groups. 

* Lack of consistency with the Vocab Building activities across the groups.

Next steps: Look at resolving the issues above. 

Inquiry Focus 2021 - Cross Grouping for Literacy

In Term One the reading data for Team 4 was quite interesting. Across our team of around 150 students, we had quite a large group of students who were reading 'well below' and 'below' their expected reading age. This was a definitely a problem so I decided to base my inquiry around this issue. 

Rooms 6, 7, and 8 is mostly made up of Year 6 students with a large group of Year 5 students as well. During Term 1 the students all stayed in their home class for literacy throughout the day. In Term 2, I asked my colleagues if we could cross group our reading groups so that I could work with the students in my target group. 

Today was the first day meeting with my 'new' literacy group. We tried writing about todays immersion assembly and that's when I realised how much help most of the students needed in this group. Tomorrow we will start with the guided reading lessons. It's going to be an interesting term. 

Team 4 Reading Data and Stats March 2021

Team 4 is made up of Year 4, 5 & 6 students. There are mostly Year 5 & 6 students in our team. When I looked at the reading data for Team 4 I did not differentiate between the different year levels, I only looked at the actual reading ages across the team. After collating the data, I created a couple of graphs based on the overall reading ages of the students in Team 4. 

The first two graphs show that we have a large number of students who have a reading age of 8 years old. There are quite a few students reading above the age of 8, but also quite a few reading below 8 years. 

The next graph is a pie chart showing percentages of the different reading ages. I grouped the reading ages into 4 main groups:

* reading between 5.3 - 6.5 years

* reading between 7 - 8.5 years

* reading between 9 - 10.5 years

* reading between 11 - 12.5 years

The pie chart shows that:

* Less than 20% of students in Team 4 are reading above their age
* Around 20% of students in Team 4 are reading AT their age
* Just over quarter of students in Team 4 are reading Well Below their age
* 35% of students in Team 4 are reading Below their reading age

This means that around 60% of students in Team 4 are reading Well Below or Below their expected reading age.

Having said that, I have not accounted for the actual age of each child, as we have a few in Year 4. But it is clear that we have a problem with reading in Team 4. 

Pasifika Fono @ PES

Last night I attended a Pasifika Fono (PELP - Pasifika Early Literacy Project) which was held at school in our staffroom.  We were there to talanoa (talk) about the  Pacific/Pasifika dual language books that our children’s teachers are using in the classroom. The purpose was to help support our parents and to grow the literacy skills of our Pasifika students.

We were really lucky to have Dr Rae Si’ilata joining us to lead this Fono along with the following cultural leaders, some of who are ex-teachers:

• Gagana Samoa: Deborah Meafua-Siafolau

• Lea Faka-Tonga: Luti Tafea

• Te Reo Māori Kūki 'Airani: Peta Ravlich

• Vagahau Niue: Lino Nelisi

Dr Rae Si’ilata presented an amazing presentation about why it is so important to use our 'heart' languages and for Pasifika children to be able to hear their own stories in the books that they read. I was fortunate to spend time with Lino Nelisi who has written many books in both English and Niuean.

Manaiakalani Create Staff Meeting 2020

Yesterday teachers and staff from the Manaiakalani Cluster of schools attended workshops at Tamaki College. The focus was on the 'Create' part of our Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. 

Naomi Rosedale (from Woolf Fisher Research) opened the meeting with an interesting presentation around student design for learning. Apparently slide presentations are used far too often as DLOs (Digital Learning Objects) but there are opportunities to amplify learning through the use of this medium if used effectively. Screencasts could be used more widely in subject areas other than maths. MAPIC was also an interesting concept that was introduced: Multi-modal mapping of ideas, Amplification, Personalisation, Interaction and Coherence. 

Teachers were then able to attend two workshops based around the idea of create to learn. Andrea Tele'a and I presented one workshop based around PENN (our Pt England News Network). PENN is an in-house news programme produced by staff and students and has been broadcast throughout the school four days per week since 1988. It is an opportunity to develop presenting, scripting, movie making and movie production skills. 

The following movie showcases some of our talented teachers who attended our workshop. They did not have time to practice and were literally in front of the camera on arrival to the workshop. Thank you teachers!

I then attended an amazing workshop about how to use MineCraft on an ipad. Thanks to the teachers from Stonefields who led the workshop. 

Reflection about Blogging

The number of posts on my personal inquiry blog has been pretty minimal so far this year. I still have a couple of reflections to post about my experience during the lockdown levels and its impact on teaching and learning experiences for students at our school. However, when I make comparisons between how much I am blogging and how much my own children (both in Year 6) are blogging, I am put to shame.

Recently my children (boy/girl twins) reached a milestone of 200 posts each on their blogs. 200 posts!!! As a mum and teacher I was blown away by this. I noticed that a huge number of posts took place during the months of May and June. My daughter (Julianna) has been quite consistent with blogging during the year. However my son (Kristopher) somehow managed to post 230 times in the space of two months!

Something had changed for my children and I wondered why. I guess that with the changes forced upon teachers during lockdown, they had to do things differently and students had to adapt to the change.

For the first time students connected with their teachers from home via Google Meets. Students were forced to become more independent and lessons were modified and adapted to suit the interests and needs of the students. I noticed that a high level of multi-modal learning opportunities were consistently provided. Then when the students returned to school, this new style of learning and the expectation to post evidence of learning on their blogs (minus the Google Meets) continued.

Another factor for the high level of engagement that I witnessed was that my children became more competitive. They soon realised that their teachers, parents and friends were beginning to take more notice of their posts which encouraged them to post even more. They’ve even decided to challenge one another to see who can do the most blog posts. I’m looking forward to seeing how many posts they will end up with at the end of the year. I’m so proud of them. In the meantime, I need to up my game and put up a few more posts of my own.

Target Group for Inquiry Term 1 Results

10 out of 42 students in the Year 5-8 Extension group achieved at Stanine 5 or at Stanine 4 in the Term 1 Reading PAT Test. That’s quite a large number, but this might be due to the fact that there are now 21 students in each of the Extension groups instead of the usual 18. The three Year 5 students identified are new to Extension. The others have been part of the Extension group for a while now. 8 out of the 10 students achieved at Stanine 4. 

The Goal for this group of students is to achieve at a Stanine 6 or above in the next PAT Reading Test in Oct/Nov 2020.