Inquiry Plan - Literacy Focus 2023

 

This year for my inquiry I want to continue to focus on literacy. I am concerned about the low reading levels of at least half my literacy class who are all in Year 6 this year. The reading levels range from 5 to 8 years. I want to focus on increasing student engagement in reading while improving reading levels and achievement in literacy. 

My Inquiry Question is: How can I raise students engagement and achievement in literacy?

Manaiakalani Reading Practice Intensive - Day 1

Focus for the day: Reading is Core to Learning

Reflections:

There were some good reminders of the kaupapa and pedagogy of the Manaiakalani reading programme. We looked at what makes a good reader. We were also reminded that effective teaching is important for accelerated learning. We need to know who our learners are and what their needs are. A class survey to find out informal information e.g. student interests is important as we tend to focus on what the data tells us e.g. reading age and PAT scores.

Reading Pillars of Practice: This exercise was useful. I identified areas where I needed to focus more on e.g. I need to spend more time planning for Vocabulary as well as Comprehension. I need to look at how I can engage whanau more, especially with the lower literacy group.

To be used with my learners: the class reading survey to check informal information about my students interests and attitudes towards reading etc. Establishing the ground rules for group talk was interesting. Something that I might do a little differently is to provide a little more student choice during reading sessions e.g. task selection.

What I intend to share with others: Whanau - encourage whanau to make reading a focus at home e.g. share learning goals. Colleagues - share information gained from reading practice intensive.

Literacy group and reading levels.

For the past week I have been testing most of the students in my literacy class to check if they have made any progress in their reading levels. I used running records which is one way that our school assesses reading. It's a great tool to use when not only testing whether a child has made any progress, but also to observe reading behaviours of individual students. 

I found that only 3 students out of a class of 25 had failed their running record test. Since the start of the year the levels of progress have been very different. Most of the students are reading below or well below their age. Here is a list showing the progress of students so far:

3 months progress = 2 students

6 months progress = 12 students

9 months progress = 2 students

One years progress = 6 students

More than one years progress = 1 student

We have 2 new students in our class since the tests were done. Some students attend the AWS reading programme with Ms Timmi and Ms Squires. Quite a few also attend reading support with Mrs Clarke and her volunteers. 

Inquiry Focus in Term 3

 This term I have decided to focus on a small group of students in my literacy class. These students are achieving below the norm in reading and writing. I see each student for guided reading at least twice per week. Some of them also attend AWS (a specialised literacy programme) and Reading Support. 

We tend to focus on writing first thing in the morning. As most of the students in my literacy class are achieving well below in writing, it is important to build mileage by providing many opportunities to write. We often start with a discussion around a topic or interesting image, then we continue with a whole class brainstorm. The writing is co-constructed and sentences are written in large writing on the whiteboard. The class reads what is written out loud,  then students copy this into their writing book. This is then typed into their copy of the writing task which is usually on a Google Slide presentation. 

It is often difficult to find the time to conference for writing during the week. However, I always make it a priority to see my reading groups. Here are the reading ages from Term 1 and the start of Term 3 this year. 

Inquiry PD @ PES Term 1

 This post is based on an activity we did together during a staff meeting in Term 1. We had to think about our goals in a mask on and mask off world. 

Inquiry Action Plan - Literacy Focus

 

The Manaiakalani CoL Achievement Challenge that I want to base my inquiry around is:

1. Raise Māori (and Pacific) student achievement through the development of cultural visibility and responsive practices across the pathway as measured against National Standards and agreed targets for reading Years 1-10
2. Lift the achievement for boys' writing Years 1-10
3. Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1-13

The core learning areas that I am inquiring into is Reading and Writing.

The lens that I intend to use is (all 4 of them):
1. Learning Behaviour/ Managing Self/ Setting of Norms
2. Cultural Responsiveness
3. Wellbeing/ Hauora
4. Language Acquisition

Inquiry Focus Inquiry Question

How to accelerate reading and writing achievement for students reading between 5.3 and 7 years in 8 months? (From Rooms 6, 7 & 8)

Inquiry Reflection 2021

 This has been a very unusual year for everyone. It's been a relief to finally get back to school. This is the final week that learning opportunities will be made available online for our students in Team 4. We had our final Google Meet for the benefit of our students at home, last week on Friday. Reports have been completed, which was also an interesting task as we did not get to see quite a few of our students during the lockdown.

Inquiry: It was hard to assess students as most of my literacy class did not attend the meets or return to school. It was interesting to note that during the lockdown, the students in the higher ability literacy groups attended the meets more regularly and more often than those who were in the lower reading ability group. I did wonder if this was due to more parental support at home, or whether they were more independent and able to access their learning. Many students from the lower ability group also had behavioural and/or self management issues as well, so were probably less inclined to join the online learning meetings. A few were also ESOL students. 

On Thursday we look forward to our end of year Awards day for the Junior and Senior School. I was actually surprised to feel quite relieved when I heard that both events would be held during the day. The Senior Awards are normally held in the evening so that our parents could attend. This year, it will be held outside under Te Kapua (sheltered structure) and will be live-streamed. 

Our teachers have worked incredibly hard this year and I am so proud of our team.