Reader Profile Data - RPI

The previous Manaiakalani Reading Programme Intensive (RPI) session left us with the task of implementing the key practices covered in the professional learning.  This included completing and analysing the results of a class reading survey, and introducing "ground rules for talk" with one of our reading groups.

While introducing the ground rules, I was observed and recorded by my RPI mentor Robyn. Having a video of my session means I am able to look back and assess the areas I need to improve on, as well as areas of strength I can draw from - a major benefit of having 'rewindable' learning. I feel that the lesson was effective in that the learners received, understood and applied the ground rules quite well considering it was our first 'go' at it. The students were rather familiar with extended discussion from their previous years of schooling at PBS - so the conversation was well managed and connected by the students. I've linked the lesson I went through with them here. Below you will find the results and analysis of my class' survey.

My co-teacher Daf and I are both apart of the RPI cohort so we decided to carry out the survey as a whole class. We have a total of 56 students.  51 students took part in our survey. We adapted the template as we have a composite class of year 4, 5 and 6 students. Looking at the data you can see we are predominantly a year 5 class. Our year 4 students are brand new to using chromebooks, whereas our year 5 students have mixed levels of ability in using a chromebook for their learning. I wondered if this would have any affect on the students' perception/experience of reading. Below the slides are some aspects of the data that I found particular interesting or meaningful for my professional learning.

I was glad to see that majority of the students (72.5%) enjoy reading at school. It was interesting to see the difference between these results, and the results of students who said they enjoyed reading books in their own time - where the group who answered "very like me" were only 33.3% of the class. There was a large amount of learners (31.4%) who did not enjoy reading at all in their own time. This is going to be a large focus for this year to see if these results change by the end of the year. I wonder : 

• What are the differences between the students who enjoy reading at school, and the students who enjoy reading at home?
• How might enjoyment of reading books at home affect enjoyment of reading at school?
• What practical things can I implement in my reading sessions, to see a shift in the efficacy results by the end of the year?

As a beginning teacher, I was most looking forward to seeing the results of the efficacy prompts the students were given.  Our data reflects that 74% of our students believe their teachers think they are good at reading.  Majority of the students believe this, while some (26%) do not.  I believe the results from this prompt, is something I definitely have the capacity to shift - as the prompt stems mostly out of a positive teacher - learner relationship.

We were glad to see a large proportion of students in our class have a high self efficacy (80.4%) compared to the smaller group of students (19.6%) who have a lower self efficacy.

Our data also shows that just over half (28) of the 51 learners who took the survey think that reading books in their own time can help them.  There are 7 (13.7%) of the group who do not think reading books can help at all.  I am keen to see how the responses to this prompt may change overtime.  I wonder : 

• How can I use the students' belief that reading can help them to develop their own self concept?
• How important is self-concept to a learner's progress in reading?

Overall, collecting the data has given me a great overview of what my learners currently believe about themselves, and their relationship with reading. I look forward to implementing what I learn from the remaining RPI sessions with my learners.  I hope that my professional learning will allow me to create opportunities for accelerated and meaningful learning in my classroom this year.

BT Talanoa - Week 4

 During this week's meeting, we focused on the importance of a classroom environment.  The classroom and the things it displays should provoke students to feel a sense of ownership of the classroom.

Students from LS2 were able to tell myself and DW a story of what happened at the Treaty of Waitangi using the different symbols on their classroom wall.  This showed very clearly how students should be able to connect with the things that are in their classroom and that the things that are displayed should serve a purpose and a function.

My biggest takeaways from this week's BT talanoa were :

- It is important to have a good mix of teacher and student work.  Things co-created by teachers and students may have higher engagement than things a teacher may have just made and put on the wall.  

- Student work will promote a sense of ownership and belonging in the classroom.  In order for students to engage deeply in learning for their sake, not ours, they need opportunities for ownership and responsibility.

- The walls in a classroom have the ability to be a record of learning - rewindable learning.

- Things like probing questions and provocations will allow for student discussion when the teacher is not present, or when visitors might come in and talk to students.  Engagement is the key to a lifelong love of learning.

- The images used in a display should prompt discussion.  

- Having key vocabulary on the wall will help students if you talk to it when you are teaching.  Eg : When you are introducing a task for the day, reference the wall!  In doing that, students will read it when they are working on the task.

- Your displays have the ability to show and help a student's learning - make the most of that!

Kawa of Care : Cybersmart Facilitation

Monday mornings in my classroom see Mr Matt Goodwin facilitating a Cybersmart session with my students.  This week's was the first of the lessons to happen due to the state of Aotearoa in the last two weeks.  The lesson focused on the Kawa of Care, specifically in helping the students to connect with the Kawa of Care as a document and an agreement that they have a stake in.

The Kawa of Care is an agreement between students, parents and schools in the Manaiakalani Cluster to ensure the best care and responsibility of the device is exercised during each student's time in the Manaiakalani Programme.  If you would like to know more about Manaiakalani's Kawa of Care you can click here.

I was interested to see how my Year 4 and 5 students who are 'brand new' to chromebooks would respond to content from the Kawa of Care.  They were all able to connect the dots after Mr Goodwin made connections to simpler things they would have all experienced - (eg. paying someone to mow your lawns - contract - 2 people needing to hold up their end). I know that the lesson also served as a well needed reminder to some of the 'veteran' Year 5's in my group.

As a beginning teacher of digital learners in the Manaiakalani cluster, my takeaways were : 

• The Kawa of Care is something that is beneficial to reference in things like Class Treaties when starting the year.  I have added this into our working classroom set of rules.
•  When I talk about chromebooks in class, I can refer to the Kawa of Care to help use the language to create a shared understanding of it.
• What I hope for my students is that they can take ownership of their chromebooks and look after them in a way that upholds what they and their whanau agreed to in the Kawa of Care.

Some of my student's takeaways were :

• Beginning to understand that using a chromebook at school is a right and a responsibility that their whanau have agreed to, that their schools has agreed to, and therefore something they need to agree to honour as well as their part.
• Their "part" is to follow the Kawa of Care.

Here is the DLO the students worked through with MG.

MG provided a template that has been designed to help break down the Kawa of Care document into a basic reading response style task.  The template is what is linked at the top of this blog post.  My notes from the session are here. 

If you would like to know more about Manaiakalani's Cybersmart programme you can click here.

BT Talanoa - Week 3

During my first BT meeting with my mentor teacher, we went over the following things :

Like all kura, Panmure Bridge School have set values they seek to uphold through the teaching and learning that happens in their place.  PBS created these values in consultation with their community of local residents and parents. These are summarised as CARE values : 

Confidence - about taking risks, and giving things a go.

Attitude - Participating, having a good attitude, making good choices.

Respect - We respect all opinions (may not agree with them but still respect them)

Excellence - set goals for ourselves, sharing of ideas.  About thinking about learning.

These values are separated across the school as follows : 

Years 1-6 : Can be "caught using CARE values" and receive a care ticket which they need to take to the office, where they go into a draw where 6 names are drawn out on a Friday at a formal assembly.

Years 7-8 : Care badge system - Silver / Gold.  Students complete tasks that are signed off by Intermediate teachers.  These students then email Mr Johnston (school principal) and then go on to receive a badge during the assembly.  My mentor teacher explained that this enables her to prompt students in their learning by asking things like, "Who can show me confidence?"  

All in all, the CARE values are what "make the school go around" as a shared message of instruction.  The CARE values are learnt from New Entrants up to year 8 students.  They are reinforced everywhere, and in every context.  From learning this, I have made a note to myself to use these values when I am teaching students in a group setting.

We've agreed that my BT release days would be more effective and beneficial for my teaching if I split them into 3 blocks that need to cover : Planning - Growth - Reflection.  I recognise that having this structure will enable me to complete the BT requirements while continuing to develop my professional learning.

Planning is a way to organise your thoughts.  Planning should allow you to connect to what you are teaching.  Ultimately my planning needs to show clearly : How am I going to do it? / How am I going to get it across?  Planning is a very important part of being a teacher. It helps you to : be well organised, to have a clear idea about what you’re teaching, when you plan you have a chance to rehearse the lesson/go through it, and identify the resources you need. Planning also allows for continuity in learning if I am not there.  It should be done in a clear concise way so that any teacher should be able to pick it up and teach from it. Planning is not a decoration - nor it is a chore ; but it is the recipe for the how to.  My mentor teacher emphasised the importance of always referring to the planning.

From our discussion we have set the goal for me to : 

- Split my release days into 3 blocks : Planning reading (in accordance with RPI) -being observed / observing - blog reflections.

- Post once a week to my professional blog related to the mentor's focus.

Reading is Core to Learning - RPI Session 1

Link to RPI website.

Tuesday the 14th marked the first of nine sessions I will be attending as part of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme Intensive.  The Reading Programme Intensive (RPI) is facilitated by members of the Manaiakalani Programme Research Team and hosts teachers from eight different schools.  While we have differences about what we believe as kura, there are things we hold in common.  The facilitators stated that the nine sessions, have evolved out of that.  Day 1's theme was "Reading is core to learning."

I enjoyed listening to the kaupapa and pedagogy of Manaiakalani's RPI, namely how big of a focus they've always had on reading.  They are very firm in the belief that reading and being literate provides more access to all other curriculum areas. Even more than that, reading is absolutely key to our life outcomes and everything we do.

We discussed how essential it is for our learner that they experience acceleration this year.  Many children will need to make more than a year's progress in order to catch up with the 'norm' - this is something we've also discussed at school staff meetings.  Research has shown that where a young person has been in a Manaiakalani school or class where the teacher has taught using Manaiakalani frameworks and used effective teaching practice - that is where progress (therefore acceleration) is seen.

Initially I did feel that I didn't have much to contribute to reflection discussions considering I have only been in the classroom as a teacher for a week now.  However I definitely learnt a lot that will help improve my capability and confidence in teaching reading.  This is specific to teaching students how to 'talk' using 'ground rules'.  This borders what my school currently practices within their 'Extended Discussion.'  

A resource I saw that I am keen to use with my learners is a digital modelling book.  On placements and relief teaching, I have really enjoyed teaching small groups with modelling books.  This is mostly only ever seen within Junior classrooms, so it was not something I thought to use with my senior primary students.  It will be interesting to see how one of my small groups may respond to using a digital modelling book.

One of the segments showcased a reading model created by the research team in 2021.  It covers a cycle of reading instruction from beginning to end - "designing learning with the end in mind."  Under one of the pillars (Plan to Use Diverse Texts) it details different ways to cover multi-genre, multimodal text sets both inside and outside of the classroom.  I found this particularly interesting as outside the classroom is not something you usually are considering when planning for reading.  This is something I feel I need to talk to other colleagues about to gain a better understanding of how they might have catered to this area in previous years.