Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

This table summarises the 6Year Net data. N/A learners have not turned 6 yet. 2016 indicates learners turned 6 last year. The Red (names been deleted) are learners who are below National Standards in Reading.  Of these 17 learners,  7 are boys. Below pie chart shows a snapshot of the data and their stanines and totals ( 3 – 4 struggling, 4- 6 average, 7-9 achieved).

This T eacher effectiveness Rubric is to achieve vision aspiration. Teachers build learners through integrating and interconnecting the elements of Capacity to Learn, Capacity to Collaborate, Capacity of Making Meaning and Teacher as Inquiry. My focus areas are from Teacher as Inquiry and Assessment Capable. The green highlights where I currently and the yellow is where I want to get to.

For my Yellow Group here are our WORD ATTACK AND WORD VOCABULARY activities.  

Using Explain Everything to cover the word attack learning progressions, while I am running guided reading sessions with each group. This will take some modelling and scaffolding.

Guided Reading sessions are three time a week: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. This is the same for Ocean Phonics so we are getting a double hit of Word Work.  This is going to support our Target learners who are below in National Standards for Reading.

Using 'Schooltalk' I can see where the gaps are in general word knowledge and attack strategies. I can see the gaps for all my four groups.  They are highlighted yellow to indicate we are working on these daily through Reading Choices and Guided sessions.  The green highlights the learners can do this. I am working towards all learners with green and attached evidence.

After completing our Term 2 Running Records we have now regrouped our learners to support their needs in reading.  I don't have green and orange level readers now.  I have the early stages from the colour wheel.  Of these 17 learners 12 learners are below the national standard.  Looking forward to a new challenge, by using my learning through my CoL TE Inquiry and applying my understanding.

I am planning for authenticity in my design for  Learning, by using 'Work Attack Skills' as foundation for my lessons.  We will cover the learning intentions covering 'work attack skills', which is teaching phonemic awareness. From the research and wonderings I have had, I proposed a way of teaching phonics in the hub. We are trialling this initiative which will cater for all our learners in a visual, kinesthetic and auditory manner. Watch this space for it in action. Hub Wai Ocean phonics Phonics in the sand Diving into the sea Deep down in the ocean The idea is that each station will be monitored by a teacher while learners are using student agency to decide on which learning will help them to progress through learning intentions.

I have been making connections to my learning, by making reading multi-sensory, and teaching to the needs of all learners. This group of learners are building their eye strength to help them concentrate and work on their directionality for reading. I think about the whole child and what I can do to best help them how to learn.

Had such a great in debt conversation with the Reading Recovery teacher at Meadowbank School.  She reiterated the benefits of using the data from 6Year Net results.  Fluency is a big umbrella in reading, that is where we want to get our learners - reading fluently.  Fluency is such a big thing, if learners are fluent will know what is going to fit in there (the unknown word) straight away. For some we need to change the mindset of texts that may not be seen as easy or one level lower than instructional level, as these texts are important for fluency and using strategies to read tricky words. This is s o important when you get up the higher levels. My take aways were using Elkonin boxes, creating fluency boxes, and getting the buy in from learners finding out about what are their passions. As of next week I will be taking the yellow and blue readers so I can continue these strategies with these learners.

Using  Elkonin Boxes  to support learners to chunk words out.  Using digital tools to modify effective use of the sound boxes.  Learners have locked in there boxes and can write the works in their boxes to help with  spelling, building vocabulary and chunking the words out.

Bookmarks in action.  Green group are using these bookmarks shown in an earlier post to help us with strategies for sounding out a word.

My take  aways from here are.. *  Positive praise based on achievement and success of learning intentions, both written and verbal feedback. This will include time to reflect on the learning from the lesson.  This can be done on EE. *  Include an element of competition. *  Brisk pace of lesson. *  Variety of activities, including movement in learning. I am already well underway with linking movement to literacy.

Bookmark template link   Introducing this bookmark for learners to use when reading and getting stuck on a tricky word. 

Keep Kids Reading Such a great website with activities for teaching reading strategies Decoding and Comprehension.  Have recreated a book mark to support my readers. Shared this with other colleagues in my hub.  When making connections about what is relevant to the needs of our learners.  Below are the progressions for decoding we want to cover at a green level.  This website provides a great range of practical resources to help cater for word attack strategies.  I am in the process of using these resources with my reading groups. Watch this space...

After having such a brilliant conversation with a college who does all the testing for the 6 Year Nets, and passes on the information, I learnt a numbers of trends to be mindful when teaching learners to read. 1.  The knowledge of HFW learners in difficult for some. 2.  Learners reading all the sounds and not chunking the words out, perhaps its about not        knowing how to. 3.  Gaps in knowing blends. This has made me think... using magnetic letters to show chunks, physically moving the words. Continuing to support parents with how we teach reading, running more Reading Together Workshops for parents. Explicit teaching around Reading Strategies. 

Here are some of the key trends of barriers teachers are faced with in teaching their learners to read.

Marzola 2014: Barriers of Reading, comprehension. Word identification, limited vocabulary, prior knowledge, word attack skills, comprehension strategies, thinking skills, lack of stamina and memory, lack of confidence and sense making is what I take from this.  My Inquiry looks into how to best cause shift in learning to reduce these barriers.

The possible problems of lack of Comprehension are a lack of strategies.  At Stonefields School our learning progressions support the opportunity to learn strategies for reading comprehension.   Making Meaning: Comprehension Strategies Connecting, Comparing - I use my prior knowledge to make connections to what I am reading Connecting, Comparing - I make text to self, text to text and text to world connections and discuss my responses Connecting, Comparing - I can compare ideas and information in texts that are the same or different Making Meaning: Thinking Critically Predicting - I make predictions about what will happen before reading and refine them during reading Predicting - I find evidence in the text to support my predictions Predicting - I find and talk about ideas that are explicit in the text or illustrations Self Questioning - I ask questions about the purpose for reading and what the author wanted me to understand Self Questioning - I ask my self question...

When I brainstorm all the barriers in reading, they can be grouped under the headings above. By grouping the barriers it is helping me to research about how these barriers occur and what strategies we can use to cater for the learners needs, and reduce these barriers in Reading.