Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Today I observed one of my learners during reading and he had his tools ready from his toolbox. He knew to draw his sound boxes, had his blend card and high frequency word list and he was away! Creating the culture to empower learners to take ownership for their learning. 

  A milestone for share:       What happened for the learners?    What evidence do I have for this?     What did I do to make this happen?    Wonderings about what next Felt rewarding to share the act of change created this year. To celebrate the raise in student achievement. I look forward to continuing to share my experiences and knowledge to influence other practitioners.

I am excited to get the feedback from my hub team to see what impact I have had on my team to influence the change this year. 

Below is one of my learning goals for this year. The image is taking from school talks rubric. Under each goal shows evidence of how I have achieved my goal to date.  DESIGNS REAL LEARNING PART OF ME Intuitively uses the teaching cycle and the learning process to design deep and engaging learning experiences before, during and after being with the teacher. The teacher reflects, justifies and adapts practice to deliberately move learning from surface (BK) to deep (MM) and transfers (AU) during learning experiences.   1.  Learners using a road map to drive their own learning, knowing their next steps. This is a visual         support to work alongside school talk.  2. Learners immersed in passion led reading, based on their break through groups.  Images taken from learners slide show used or their presentation.  3.  Using the three level guide to comprehend the text, using oral language skills (Janie van Hees)    4.  Learners  Engaged i

A way of showcasing our Stonefields Values. An opportunity for us to collaborate together and change up the timetable, be immersed in authentic learning and have an enriched literacy programme.

I am excited to see the buy-in. There is a need here and I hope to continue to influence others.

The learners have been part of this process to co-construct what it means to drive your own learning. Here is the rubric we created. We are in the process of learners finding photo evidence to show that they are and can be intrinsically motivated to be agents of change. 

Akomanga Tahi contributed a whole day of celebrating our cultures tied into  'Whoever you are, wherever you are' by Mem Fox  We looked at what connections were relevant and related to our cultures and others.  This was linked to school talk progressions of diversity (graduate profile) Rich, authentic learning task

Co-constructing the success of reading fluently. These slides were designed alongside with the learners as tools for them to use so they know they know they are successful in reading fluently. We are using the progressions of feedback and feedforward to mark off against in school talk.

Thinking about what next... Making poetry come alive with my literacy group. Learners listening to their reading through Speakpike. By learners reading poems to increase their fluency and confidence. Learners were asked what their poem interests were, a majority said the liked humorous poems, so that is what we found through  Poems 4 Kids . Above is the school talk view outlining the progressions for this reading exercise and how we are going achieve these reading goals. Maori Student Voice: 'I like reading poems because I am good at reading them'.

By sharing our Pepehā's we can embrace our cultures, feel a sense of belonging. A way to accelerate Maori achievement Whānau coming together to listen to their children's Pepeha, our Māori learners growing in confidence through oral language.

My Inquiry in a nutshell, with next steps outlined.

I set up my Inquiry as a mini expo, to showcase the impact I have had on my target learners. I was able to show case the strategies and how to get the buy-in from my learners. 

It's about collaboration between the teachers and the influence we have on each other. By sharing our knowledge, being willing to change things up in our timetable and having a growth mindset, can create agents of change and increase student achievement. 

I think of my Inquiry as an image of a bridge. In 2017 I had a huge impact on how to build learners Word Attack Skills. This year my impact is to increase comprehension levels, by Empowering learners to do this. My next steps are to build the vocabulary learners have and use through not only comprehension  but oral language. This is how I picture my inquiry as an image now...