Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Many of the learners who I teach for reading, I also teach for Numeracy.  We are making connections in Reading by chunking words out, and reading for meaning in the Maths problems.  We are using reading in Maths by using a digital lens.  Explain Everything is allowing learners to read and listen to the maths problem. Learners are applying their understanding by solving word problems in Maths.

Wahoo!! Look at this shift in data Our Y1/2 learners are making progress.  Term 1 we had 12 learners who were below National Standards. Term 2 we have 4 below the National Standards.  Really excited, and hugely motivated to continue to create this shift in Reading.  In Hub Wai we are taking a collaborative approach to reduce the barriers in reading.

Particularly focusing on reading and writing we are closing the gap through our collaborative approach in our hub. A midpoint check to reflect on what shift is our impact having on our learners. Also, identifying that all our learners are target learners. 

After that great visit to Khismira last week she shared a great way for learners to take agency and practice words that are commonly spelt wrong in writing and can get us stuck in our learning.  Now as an option in learners reading they can click on the tab and hear the spelling word to write it out.

Using the whole body to learn, creating compound words with our hands, reading about counting in two from a big book, supported with a number grid, Memorising our sounds and blends by jumping on the correct on a learner can hear.

Wow! What an awesome experience with the Year 1's Room 18 at Point England School.  Taking the collaborative approach I visited Khismira (CoL Across School Leader). She was great!, the experience was invaluable. I took away so many fabulous ideas to support student agency in Literacy and numeracy.  It opened up new possibilities to integrate into my design for learning.  Thinking about using School Talk as the driver to incorporate more digital learning to increase student agency and hit that sweet spot! 

For many of the learners I have they are involved in the STEPS programme. The most effective approach of this programme is to develop all of the underlying processing and cognitive skills at the same time as teaching the literacy knowledge. This is done by ensuring that the learner sees and uses the word in a wide variety of contexts. The learner will do a whole series of activities in the order specified to make sure that he/she can: Read the word confidently and without hesitation Recognise the word instantaneously Put the word into context Spell the word Break the word into individual sounds Blend the word together (from sounds or chunks) Define the word Type or write the word The carefully designed structure means that a non-specialist teacher/teacher-aide or parent can use the program effectively, even if they don’t have an indepth theoretical knowledge of this field. The graph above shows the accelerated progress made in 20 weeks for these specific learner...

Learners using their bookmark to provide them with strategies to chunk words out.  It is an effective way to create learner agency.

Elkonin Boxes - sound boxes are working for my readers.  They now have the template on EE and use it at their own pace and when required. The learners have found a fun way learn to chunk their words out.

Keeping the connection between reading and writing strong. For reading our WALHT was to read with expression focusing on the punctuation to help us read fluently.  In Rev it up Writing we were putting the capital letters and full stops in the correct place. Great way to record evidence and up load to school talk.

Teaching reading and viewing Guide for Years 1–3 October 2010 Excited to find some more research with practical ideas and strategies to be mindful of been thorough and highlighted what I am doing in green and what I could do more of... see next post.  

This information from NZC Reading and Writing Standards for Y1-8 has been communicated with parents making these points explicit through using school talk learning progressions. Looking to run another Reading together workshop including and extension on how to teach HFW, phonics, decoding and comprehension activities.

This is our aim for a majority of my readers. Two Readers have just moved to Green. Working on 16 more learners to be reading at green till the end of the term. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR... parent voice collated, parent connects, learners more familiar with school talk and understanding where they are at with reading, knowing next steps.  Looking at how to decode (work attack) daily.  Comprehension activities regularly set during Guided Reading time.  Also, linking movement to literacy and gearing phonics programme to cover learning intentions.  WHERE TO NEXT... generate student agency for learners to take ownership of their learning and be intrinsically motivated to read. Listening to the voice of parents and their learners interests.  

Following on from Graeme's talk on his scanning research it is apparent that we reflect on the middle part of this model.  It is not about what our learners need to change, it is a about what can I change in my practise.   Become a vehicle for appraisal - this model is an ongoing process.  How can we move beyond this thinking that our inquiry is one big idea to a more collaborative approach not only within our hubs but across schools. I am reflecting on what is going to make our learners buzz! and have fun in their learning.

Here is a strategy I have implemented... these bookmarks are to support readers as prompts on how we can read.  The WHY? behind this .. Reciprocal teaching accelerates effects on Reading Comprehension, summarising, questioning, clarifying, predicting these elements make up Reciprocal Reading/Teaching. I used these elements and our Stonefields School Learner Qualities to access how to read through giving prompts.

Been a positive impact! Hi Ms. Anita Thank you so much for your email. I am so pleased that you are proactively asking the parents to support their children. I am really impressed with your teaching- learning strategies. I am mother of ****** and she recently started the school from this second term onward. When she arrived from India two months back, she could only read few words. But during the past one month, I have observed that she has improved her reading skills and all credit goes to you and other teachers in HUB 10. So thank you so much for your fabulous support to my daughter.  With regard to your questions:- What do you think are some of the barriers in reading for your child? -  She may not be able to read new and complex words.  *  What do you think would help your child make progress in reading? Probably assisting and teaching her how to read the words by identifying the alphabet's phonics .  Since English is her second language, s...

It has been great to get the insight of the parents and work closely with our parents and learners to create a partnership.  Dear parents, Hope this email sees you all well. I just wanted to communicate with you that your child is in my reading group now. It has been great connecting with you during LLC or at different times of the term by either three of us teachers, so you are aware of what level your child is reading at, and have some next steps in place. I just wanted to collect some parent voice from you, to best inform my teaching and best suit the needs of your child.  I have three questions *  What do you think are some of the barriers in reading for your child?  *  What do you think would help your child make progress in reading? *  What further support do you need to help you child progress to the next colour in reading? If you could please take a few moments to answer these questions it would be greatly ap...