Create in Reading - RPI Day 4

Today saw the 8th session of the Manaiakalani Reading Practice Intensive (RPI) course. The primary focus of the day was to delve into the "Create" aspect within the Manaiakalani pedagogy—an area I've been eager to learn more about.

Dorothy's introductory session set the stage by emphasising the role of creativity within the Manaiakalani pedagogy. She stressed the importance of fostering student empowerment through creative contributions rather than passive consumption. The resonance of James Gee's quote underscored the significance of nurturing creativity to foster critical thinking and innovative skills. “You don’t empower people by just being consumers. Teaching people to read and not write, teaching people to play and not design is the way to make customers and consumers and not producers and creative thinkers” 

I also learnt about the concept of 'SiSoMo'—the amalgamation of sight, sound, and motion —and how it is used to capture the essence of creativity. This concept highlighted the potential that lies in student responses. Our exploration extended to AI tools such as Craiyon.com and Adobe Firefly, demonstrating how technology can facilitate swift yet meaningful creative projects that lead to deeper insights.

Naomi's session highlighted the beauty of collaborative learning, both 'outside' and 'inside' the create. This approach opens doors for peer co-authoring and co-constructing, nurturing a sense of ownership and pride in their creations.

We got to try out an example of a Create task we could set our students to complete which was creating a 'Book Trailer.'  Here are the instructions we received. I chose to reference the text 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

We also created our own visualisation of the poem 'Te Marama' by Kelly Joseph which you can find in the blog post prior to this one.

Before today's RPI session, during my most recent talanoa with my mentor teacher Robyn, we discussed ways I should start teaching reading "deeper" and "wider."  So when we began focusing on teaching and learning over units today - I was pleasantly surprised!  We were shared examples of Google Sites that teachers had created to do a whole novel study.  Instead of viewing my reading sessions as isolated lessons week by week, this approach emphasises continuity and depth.

This approach encourages students to make connections between different concepts and ideas, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.  As students progress through these units, they have the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge and apply it to new contexts. This method not only promotes in-depth learning but also nurtures critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and the ability to see the bigger picture. Overall, teaching and learning over units, modules, and concepts provides an engaging educational experience that equips students with both knowledge and the skills to connect and apply that knowledge effectively.  I am looking forward to creating opportunities for myself and my students to learn across units in the near future.

Here is an image of the Padlet we as a cohort created to indicate what we felt we needed to work on.

I am looking forward to implementing some new 'Create' tasks into my reading sessions, as well as teaching and learning across longer units. Ngā mihi to the Manaiakalani RPI team for today!

Te Marama by Kelly Joseph - RPI Create

Today we imagined we were book illustrators using the poem "Te Marama" by Kelly Joseph. We compared our illustrated poem with the published version.  One of the differences between my poem and the published one is I have used much less colour. Another difference is the published version uses illustration to fill the space.  On the other hand, some similarities with my poem are the readability of the font.  I made use of an AI content generator Dorothy introduced us to which is craiyon.com to generate the image of the moon sitting on the ocean.

The parts I like more about the published version is that it uses more illustration to fill the space, which would probably appeal more to students than a minimalistic version such as the one I have created.  Below are some of the other versions my cohort created.  The images are linked to their professional blogs. Ngā mihi Mrs Lagitupu and Mr Hughes for your work. 

Teaching for PB4L

As educators, creating a positive learning environment is crucial. At Panmure Bridge, we are a PB4L school.  This means we teach for positive behaviour for learning.  Teaching for positive behaviour lays the foundation for an empowering classroom where students thrive academically and emotionally. As a beginning teacher, I recognise that I have much room to grow in terms of intentional and deliberate acts of teaching that reflect this.

• Setting clear expectations for behaviour and reinforcing positive actions is crucial. Recognising students' efforts and celebrating their achievements helps foster a positive and encouraging atmosphere.
• Being a role model for students and encouraging self-reflection supports their personal development.
• Integrating social-emotional learning and restorative practices equips students with valuable life skills.
• Open communication with students and parents builds a strong partnership. Collaborating with all groups involved can enhance the sense of unity and shared responsibility.

One aspect of PB4L I will need to explicitly work on is providing feedback and fair consequences for problem behaviour.  Understanding the different response strategies will be especially important : prompting, redirecting, reteaching, conversing with students and providing choice.

Thinking - RPI

Day 7 of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme Intensive (RPI) focused on the aspect of 'thinking' and how we can best incorporate this into our reading programmes and planning.  I found this particularly useful for me to consider in the future when designing response to text activities.

As teachers of reading, one of our main goals is to foster critical thinking skills in our students. This allows them to engage with texts at a deeper level, analyse different perspectives, and make informed decisions. In Day 7's session, we talked about how response to text activities can provide opportunities for students to practice higher order thinking. We also explored the importance of moving beyond literal comprehension and how we can effectively design tasks to promote independent critical analysis.

Moving Beyond Literal Comprehension : Something I had never thought about before was the importance of moving beyond literal comprehension.  Literal thinking is an essential foundation for reading, but it is only the starting point. If we keep teaching students "on the line", they aren’t able to go to that level of reading intuitively where they read between the lines.

To fully engage with a text, learners need to develop the ability to analyse, interpret, evaluate, and create something from their new learning. These higher order thinking skills enable students to explore complex meanings, consider multiple perspectives, and form their conclusions.

Throughout the day we focused on three effective ways we can plan for learners to think beyond the literal : 

1. Modelling  (critical analysis of text, questioning & ‘thinking about thinking’)
2. Response to Text Activities (including higher level ‘Create’)
3. Extended Discussion

We spent a bit of time going through examples of effective response to text activities, as well as getting a start on some tasks that incorporated the different levels of thinking. When designing response to text tasks, it is important to provide a balanced range of thinking opportunities. We can use the "levels of thinking" approach to scaffold students' critical thinking. The levels include:

Literal Level: Understanding the surface meaning of the text.

Interpretive Level: Analysing and making inferences from the text.

Evaluative Level: Evaluating the text, questioning its perspectives, and identifying bias.

At first I had a moment of concern, as I couldn't recall a time I had deliberately planned for "interpretive" and "evaluative" thinking from my students.  Thankfully, I realised that I had indeed included opportunities for these levels of thinking, but had not realised that I had done so.  One major learning for me is that students would benefit from me being more deliberate in planning tasks that require more than just the literal level of thinking.

One part of the day that I feel helped to grow my pedagogy was when Georgie began breaking down Bloom's Taxonomy, in regards to analysis : 

We can consider analysis as the opposite to summarising.  Here are the key things about analysis I took from our session :

• Summarising involves paraphrasing to make a shorter version of the source text, reducing it to its main ideas or key information.  Analysis, on the other hand, involves close reading of the text to identify particular features that communicate or reinforce the main ideas i.e. noticing details in language, structure and other devices the author has chosen to achieve their purpose.
• A well understood strategy for understanding deeper, more complex meanings is breaking down the whole into its component parts. Bloom’s shows the bridge into synthesis and evaluation via analysis such as breaking a topic or idea into its elements or examining a subject from different perspectives.
• It helps us see how the “whole” is created from the “parts.” It’s easy to miss the big picture without seeing how the parts are connected. Analysis helps reveal the connections and relationships between the parts to extend and deepen understanding.
• Analysis can be used for two things
• To zoom in. “What word does the author use to show us…”
• To zoom out. “What other evidence connects to the big idea…?”
• This made me realise that I need to be more deliberate in "zooming out" with my akonga.

Here are some other key points I have taken away from Day 7  : 

• Incorporating critical analysis into response to text activities helps students develop metacognitive skills. They learn to question and evaluate the content they encounter actively. For instance, students could examine historical photographs, consider the story behind them, and reflect on the historical context.
• The ultimate goal is to build learners' independence as critical thinkers. Teachers can model critical analysis and encourage students to lead discussions independently. Creating a safe and collaborative environment for these discussions allows students to explore diverse perspectives and develop their ideas.
• Incorporating response to text activities into our teaching provides a powerful platform for students to develop critical thinking skills.
• By moving beyond literal comprehension and engaging with texts at deeper levels, students become more active and informed readers.
• Through the "Levels of Thinking" approach, they analyze, interpret, evaluate, and create, leading to a deeper understanding of complex texts and ideas. 

Meitaki maata to the Manaiakalani RPI team for Day 7!