Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Manaiakalani Teachers Inquire into the CoL Achievement Challenges This is the achievement Challenge I am working on this year... "Lift the achievement in reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1-13" We have a Y1 learner who is NZ Maori this is her progress in 2017. This learner has been at school for 1 year and 6 months.  She started at Stonefields at the beginning of the year. From the graph above you can see that she has made steady progress.  She is now reading at Green .  We want her to be at Orange to meet National Standards and be 'at' her level. The goal now is to get this learner to Orange level by the end of the year 8 weeks to go!! Steps taken to make this progress Regular parent connects twice a term. The content covered in these connects... How to use the Reading Prompt Cards at home and in association with the home readers. Sharing content from reading together ...

What have I tried?                                    What was successful?                   Where to next? Ocean Phonics Student Voice: “The balancing is helping me hold my pencil and write and not get squiggly lines, I can write up and down.” “The jumping the words out because it helps me read and remember the words better.’ “Eye tracking it helps me to get to the words and concentrating and not just taking to my friends “Jumping on the words is cool, I can remember the words better.’ Noticings: Creates student agency. Next steps: How can we collect evidence through school talk, maximise progressions eg learner qualities, graduate profile, work attack skills in Reading… Learner video ea...

What have I tried?                                    What was successful?                   Where to next? Reading Together workshops Reading together blog post Had a great Parent turnout, helped to build relationships with parents too. 18 Parents came. Parent Voice “Thank you for explaining so clearly how we read with my child.’ “This has been great for me to see how take the pressure off, and have less battles at night.’ ‘Broch really hits home, now I see why my child would struggle.’ Next Steps Timely to do another one now that we have new learners and learners at a higher end now so it’s about modifying the workshop to cater for both extremes.   Core 5 and STEPS professional developmen...

What have I tried?                                    What was successful?                   Where to next? Hitting the Word attack Progressions Creating student agency through making learning choices to cover word attack strategies. Student Voice “I knew where to go and what to do when I am not with the teacher.’ “I have about 7 work attack progressions which I work on in the week.’ ‘I like taking charge in reading, I am doing really well.’ “This is fun because I can tick off what I have done.’ Noticings: Learners who find it challenging to work independently, need one on one support to maintain concentration.  This way learners are taking more control of their learning and are accountable fo...

What have I tried?                                    What was successful?                   Where to next? Learners are beginning to use the prompts now to help them with making inferences about the text. Student Voice “These bookmarks help me when I am reading. I like the learning pit one because I say to myself I feel…, and then I can say I want to feel…’ ‘When I am self aware in reading I think about what the characters could have differently.’ Learners who have moved to a strong ‘Orange’ level are more confident to use the bookmarks. Where to next? More scaffolding required with learners who are blue and green readers. Re-create a bookmark with the learning process broken up and verbs - e.g....

          What have I tried?                                    What was successful?                   Where to next? Reading Strategies Bookmarks Blog post using bookmarks Learners have a tangible resource to support them when they are in the learning pit with sounding out a word and making meaning of it. Student Voice: “It reminds to look at the pictures first and not sound out each letter, like I use to’. ‘ it helps a lot, it’s getting easier and easier every day.’. “If I don’t know a word I just get my bookmark and it reminds me what to do when I am stuck on a word.’ Parent Voice: ‘Helps with Ruby’s confidence to have something there to help her.’ Noticings For...

This term is not about trying new initiatives, I feel as though I have created a range of ideas that are evidence based to help reduce barriers in reading. The main sources of evidence from student, teacher and parent voice, and shifts in data. Which have been shared in this blog. Below shows is a critique of the initiatives; looking at how successful they have been which   Which students did this work for? What else do I/we need to do? Elkonin boxes (Sound boxes) Learners applying this learning in their writing, if come across a tricky word I see learners clapping out the CVC Student Voice: “I get to hear the sounds and put them in either 2 or 3 boxes”. “When I see these words in my book I think in my mind about how they would fit into a sound box” “When I am stuck in a word and there are two or three sounds in that word  I know how to sound them out.” When I have trouble sound out a work I can  picture the boxes in my head”. ...