Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

          Such a great experience to share our Inquiries across the cluster.  Thoroughly enjoyed learning from other CoL teachers and their.  Thanks to the support from our leadership team who were present. Was nice to meet people who had been following my blog and talk to others about how they reducing barriers in reading.     I 

Was wonderful to share my Inquiry amongst the cluster and get other's perspectives and make so many connections with other teachers. Even meet people who had been following my blog and in the process of arranging a visit to learn from each other.  A real Collaborative Inquiry approach!!

These graphs show the shift in reading colour levels. Seen huge shift already with our new Year 1's joining Hub 10.  The interventions that I feel are the key here are:  The regular connects with parents in regards to where their child is at and their next steps. The sharing of this information in school talk. The specific learning on Work attack skills through reading and phonics.  Collaboration between teachers within hubs and across hubs on how we can teach the learning progressions in reading and how our design for learning is meeting the needs our our learners.

Catering for our visual learners, by showing the configuration of a word eg... sm blends activity The idea of configuration of a word works in conjunction with sound boxes, this U Tube clip shows how we can teach learners to part a sound. Or segment a word. This is supporting visual learners see the shape of the words and break up the consonants and vowels. Planning on extending our sound boxes to looking at word configuration.  Thinking outside the square now... Outside chalk writing to look at word shape and using cars to hook in our boys to park our sounds.  Looking forward to trying this my new learners group of 1 magenta , 1 Red , 10 blue and 5 Green readers.

Email conversation with a parent... Teacher Email Great news!! We tested -- today and he is now a Orange Reader. He has skipped green and moved to Orange. We are so excited.  Thank you so much for coming on board and supporting --- with reading.   Parent Response  Ohhhh Anita, that's really made my day!!!  Thanks - wonderful support from you guys! We really appreciate all the input and encouragement you've given him - great stuff.  The interventions to make this happen Phonics - using sound boxes Using bookmarks with reading strategies reminders. Using praise charts, and rewarded with time for literacy games Guided sessions teaching how to read buddy reading listening to the story Extra reading milage with support from a parent. Regular connects with parents

      34% of our learners are on our school English as a Second Language register.  I am digging deeper into my Inquiry about the best ways to support ESOL learners.  Elkonin boxes has been a successful tool for some of learners. Now the challenge is to see how this knowledge in phonics can be transferred into reading and writing. 

Time to dig deeper in my analysis and ask myself... "what happens in the classroom when I apply my learning" Dimension 4.    What is adaptive expertise? Adaptive expertise is about being self-aware, having agency over your ability to make a difference, and striving for the best outcomes for your students. Engaging in effective professional conversations can support you to. This video has made me look at my own practise and looking at the agency and urgency I have developed in making a difference. After having many conversations around 'Am I really making a difference". I am now able to dig deeper into my inquiry.   When reviewing Helen Timperly's research on the spiral of Inquiry I am at the checking phase now. So I am thinking about which learners are still struggling and facing some of the barriers in reading I have found.  I am wondering if my deliberate tools and strategies created and using are successfu

Feedback and feedforward is a way for learners to take ownership and be accountable for their learning.  After a discussion with my TE coach we thought that it is important to take into account John Hattie's research about purposeful feedback and feedforward.  So learners can indicate what learner quality did they use to find the learning progressions.  For example 'I needed to think about where the blends were in my book'. Feedback is a powerful way to affect student achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Research consistently ranks feedback as among the strongest interventions at teachers' disposal (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). But feedback is a complex construct with at least three distinct components, which we call  feed up ,  feed back , and  feed forward . 

After several parent connects last week.  The big thing was learners building their confidence in reading.  So using Explain Everything I created a reward card for learners to put stickers on the learning progressions they achieve as we are doing our guided reading sessions. At the end of the week they will aim to have 12 stickers on all progressions and will be rewarded by reading by choosing a learner to read to from another hub and have time on hub computers playing a literacy game.  We will discuss rewards as a group, so learners are intrinsically motivated to want to achieve these learning progressions.   These progressions are identified from school talk and looking at the gaps in word attack skills. add school talk here

The beauty of being in a collaborative space, we can regroup according the teacher strengths and learners needs.  I now have a large chunk of blue readers.  This is an exciting new challenge to continue putting into practise the design for learning to cater for these learners and try new things.  Watch this space for the impact I have to shift these learners.