It has been a world wind start to 2014. This year I have a Y5-6 class (as opposed to my Year 3's I have had for the past 1 and a half years). My initial thinking about this was I was very nervous due to my lack of knowledge surrounding their curriculum / national standards level. I have had great support from everyone in the school, and slowly but surely I am becoming increasing confident with the way I am doing things.
The first week or so back at school I have been taking very slowly, in terms of making sure I really get to know the kids. I feel the only way I am going to get the best learning out of them is if we have a mutual trusting relationship. I cannot expect them to do the best work with me / for me / for themselves if they are not comfortable in the classroom environment.
I have set about achieving this trusting relationship by taking to the kids as a whole group and one on one to try and get a feel of what makes them tick. From day one I have set clear behavioural and bookwork expectations so that they know that I expected a high standard of learning to be happening in Room 12. I feel if you set high expectations for the students this gives them the drive and opportunity to strive for their very best.
My aim this year is also to develop and open and trusting relationship with the parents / caregivers of my students. In a bid to achieve this, after the first day of school I sent a letter home with the students introducing myself and letting the parents know that I fully endorse an open door policy in the classroom if they ever feel they need to come in / email me about something. This letter also requested their best contact details as I like to keep in touch with them throughout the year, simple things like acknowledging if their child has received an award / certificate at school. I am a firm believer of promoting positive behaviour / achievements in the classroom as well as notifying parents/caregivers about any negative behaviour that happens to occur.
It has taken me some time this year to put together my maths / reading / writing rotations. As I have never had this year level before I wasn't entirely sure about the level of independence of the students. Initially I feel I was guilty of expecting the students to do / complete too much in quite a small amount of time. As a result, I have decided to not so much have a 'reading / writing / maths' rotation, but to state the things I expect the students to have completed by the end of the week and I am trusting them to manage their time wisely to ensure that this all gets completed.
Nothing has been finalised yet, but at this stage I am thinking I would like to make my inquiry student, a particular student in my class who I believe is mildly autistic. Although he is capable of reading, writing and is at stage 5 for maths knowledge, he tends to be quite disruptive in the classroom and requires a lot of motivation and assistance to complete any work set. Already I am making a conscious effort to develop a positive relationship with him, and show an interest in his likes etc so I know the best way to approach his learning. I feel that if we can develop a positive relationship based on trust, and mutual academic achievement expectations, his learning and classroom behaviour could benefit greatly. This may include things such as, rewarding him in some way if he achieves a certain amount of work. The steps to be put in place to achieve this need to be mutually agreed upon for this to work.
I will discuss my plan / progress with the rest of my team to make sure I am taking the best approach to things as possible.
4D is for Dyslexia:
I have two students in my class that suffer from dyslexia. I would be the first to admit I am unsure about the best way to motivate, encourage and get the best out of dyslexic students. It is for this reason that I have been reading about simple ways to adjust the learning environment to include dyslexic students. The following points are things I feel I can initiate in my classroom immediately:
- Take my time giving instructions and make them clear and explicit. Ensure plenty of time is given for the instruction to be followed
- If possible, break testing of any kind in to two parts
- Any work sheets should have wide margins to leave room for 'picture thinkers'
- Text should be in at least size 14 font in comic sans with 1.5 line spacing
- Use pictures / diagrams when explaining things as much as possible
- Accept work in different formats (mind maps, power-points, photos, diagrams)
- praise, praise, praise - be specific about the strength you are praising
- Do not place a huge focus on handwriting or spelling - an exciting word spelt write is better than a boring word spelt wrong
- Focus on 'Big Picture' success
- Include the family in the communication loop
- www.4d.org.nz/school/steps.html
Tuesday 18th February:
Today was a real wake up call to the change in age group that I have made. I was guilty of expecting to much too soon from them. This was recognised when Stephen came in to observe my writing lesson (recounts) with the students. In a bid to motivate the students to write recounts (which is typically something that they do not like writing) I gave them the choice of choosing to write a recount in the form of a letter, a diary or about something that has already happened.
While Stephen was in my classroom he asked a number of students what their learning intentions were and what the focus of their writing is. Unfortunately a few of the students were quite unsure about what this was, despite my best intention to talk about what makes up a recount. We brainstormed it together as a class but I feel that because I allowed them a too wide breadth about what they could write their recount on meant that I didn't unpack each form of recount adequately.
Based on this reflection, and Stephen's feedback I have decided that, to get the best out of the students writing (rather than just scratching the surface) I have refined the type of recount to a diary entry about a significant event in their life. This will allow me to complete the appropriate guided writing required for the students to develop a totally understand and success criteria of the recount I am expecting of them. This will also make it easier for them to peer share their ideas and writing drafts with each other. Children's ideas and feedback is often underestimated. It is by talking to each other, not to me (or listening to me) that they learn the most. Hopefully my refined recount plan with allow this to rise to the surface and I will get top quality writing from them.
Although this requires me to really slow down my teaching and make sure that I unpack the recount appropriately, I feel it is definitely worth it and will be recognised in the quality of the writing produced.
Tuesday 25th February:
I feel after completing all of my running records today and the majority of my Gloss testing, I know the next steps for learning for both reading and maths with my kids. At the conclusion of each running record I discussed what the data in the running record showed and based on this, asked them to give me a next step / reading goal. While I personally had a goal in mind for the students based on the reading I was really pleased that the majority of the time, the students own goal matched mine. This mutual understanding a acceptance of the next steps to learning will hopefully motivate the students even more to achieve their goal as we will be working towards a common goal. The majority of the students have the goal of improving their summarising / retell skills so I plan to use a variety of Sheena Cameron Reading Comprehension summary skills to combat this. Ideally these will be a creative yet effective way for the students to develop their comprehension as I want to appeal to the students who like more of the 'hands on' work and move away from the 'worksheet' approach.
Tuesday 11 March:
I have had a very productive day today. This morning my goal was to complete all Gloss testing with my students and upload their results to EDGE musac. While I was completing the Gloss testing with my students, at the conclusion of the test I asked them to tell me one thing that they would like to work on in maths this year - this is going to be their maths goal. I allowed them to form this goal themselves as this gives them a sense of ownership because they know what it is they need to work on. It is now my role as the teacher to make sure that I incorporate their goals in to my mathematics planning so I make sure I am meeting the needs of the students as best I can. Whether it be something I include as a started activity or something I focus a bit more on while teaching a strand I will aim to do everything I can to ensure the students reach their goals.
Meeting with Stephen:
This afternoon I met with Stephen regarding the students in my class who are 'below' or 'well below' the national standards. Our aim was to come up with a range of strategies to get these students meeting the standard by the end of the year. My three lowest readers (Kelly, Sophie and Danika) I have decided to create reading boxes for them that will have easy readers for them to read to develop their confidence in decoding and reading high frequency words. It is my aim that through this developed confidence they will then be able to focus on their goal of finding information and understanding what they have just read. We decided that it is too bigger expectation to expect them to decode a text at an instructional level as well as achieve the expected level of comprehension. I aim to buddy these three up with three confident readers in the class and at the conclusion of reading the story they can retell the story to them or me.
For Sophie in particular my aim is for her to be 'at' the standard by the end of the year. To track her progress I will get her to read me a story and record it on the ipad (from level 22). I will then film her again at the end of the term so she has hard evidence of her progress. My aim through this is to increase her reading fluency so we are less restricted in her goal to achieve a good level of reading comprehension.
Writing:
Anthony, Danika and Kelly
Tuesday 25th March:
Yesterday during our staff meeting Destine spoke to us about the numeracy framework and how to use it to determine the stages of your kids in maths and what kind of strategies they should be using / know how to use by now. I found this incredibly useful as, having made the jump from Y3 to Y5+6, the different maths levels is the curriculum area I have struggled with the most. I have therefore spent this morning, figuring out the next steps for my students based on this framework. It made me realise, that I must check whether my students have the necessary multiplication and basic facts before we move on to things such as doubling and halving. It has also made me more confident to accommodate appropriately for the differing levels of learning in my class.
Running Record Meeting with Judy:
I have a student in my class who is currently on rap reading. She is bordering between non-fiction and fiction texts. We have made the decision as a school to use non-fiction texts for all data but Judy and I have decided that for Sophie's case in particular we feel she would benefit from using fiction texts, just to enhance her knowledge of high-frequency words and self correction rate etc. At the moment we feel that the content of non-fiction texts is just way beyond her and is proving to be a further barrier in her reading strategies.
Tuesday 8th April:
Today I have been trying to think of ideas of how to keep Anthony and Sophie (my two inquiry children) engaged in their writing. Although the both have very good ideas in their heads, they struggle to get pen to paper. After a discussion with Destine, I have decided to try co-operative writing, to see if they are able to bounce ideas off their peers and then write their story from this collaborative plan.
Tuesday 6th May:
My big area of focus in the classroom at the moment is making sure I am meeting all of the students needs in mathematics. Admittedly this is the area I lack confidence in so I have been studying Book 1 The Number Knowledge Framework that outlines the stages and strategies that the students should be using. The majority of my students are on Stage Five and Six so I have been practising the strategies required myself to ensure that I am covering what they need to know by the end of the year.
The area of fractions in particular is something that I have had difficulty with in the past but after having read through the content of this book I feel I have now developed an understanding of how to work out the fractions problems required for both Stage 5 and Stage 6. I feel quite excited at the prospect of teaching these to the particular groups as I now feel as though I can do their learning justice.
Note:
To work out for a fraction of a total is eg. 2/5 of ? = 18
- divided the numerator and times by the denominator
- 18 divided by 2 = 9
- 9 and 5 = 45
- 2 / 5 of 45 = 18
To work out a fraction of something eg 3/4 of 24
- divided the denominator and times by the numerator
- 24 divided by 4 = 6
- 6 times 3 = 18
- 3/4 of 24 = 18
If it doesn't divided evenly then you use place value:
- 20 divided by 4 = 5
- 1 divided by 4 = 0.25
- 5 times 3 = 15
- 0.25 times 3 = 0.75
- 15 + 0.75 = 15.75
I completed a running record with Sophie Ash today (currently reading at 8-8 1/2 reading level) and was really pleased with her progress. She is beginning to sound words out well and recognises when she has made a mistake and does her best to fix these. Her comprehension and retell of the story has improved dramatically. This is obviously been helped by her developed fluency when reading. To encourage this continued rate of improvement I am going to read with her for 5-10mins each day after lunch. I will get the rest of the class to read silent too while I don this and then finish the day with a shared book rather than straight after lunch like I have been. I hope that through this regular reading, we will continue to see a great improvement in her reading.
20th May 2014
This morning I completed running records with Kelly and Danika. These two are on the verge of meeting the standard by the end of the year so I just wanted to check their progress. In terms of their word recognition, fluency etc I was quite pleased with their progress. Kelly is beginning to use a ranging of decoding strategies independently to work out unfamiliar words. How he still tends to misread high frequency words quite often and does not self correct. His comp and retell have both improved which re-assures me that the work we have been doing in class around this is paying off.
Danika is still quite a reluctant reader. She lacks fluency and expression when reading and although she reads most high frequency words very well she looses her knowledge of chunking sounds etc when trying to work out more difficult words. Her comp and retell is very poor which tells me she is focusing too hard on actually reading the text for her to really understand anything she is reading.
To ensure these two continue to improve I will do more regular one on one reading with them and then ask them comp questions following the reading. If it is just one or two pages of a book they should still be able to retain some information about what they have just read.
Tuesday 21st May 2014
I am really enjoying watching the kids work together to practice their Mihi's. As part of our Technology of the Maori inquiry this term, I thought by each putting together a Mihi it would give the chance to learn a new aspect of the Maori culture and more about themselves that they may have not got the chance to do before. I also thought it would be a good chance for the Maori students in Room 12 to shine. Isaac, Orion and Anthony have really stepped up to help their peers with pronunciation and enjoy contributing their knowledge about the Maori culture others in their class.
Personally I am really enjoy this topic as it is not area of expertise so I am finding it to be the perfect opportunity for me to really encourage ako learning (reciprocal learning between students and elders). The content included in the Mihi also allows me the opportunity to get to know the students on a deeper level. I gave them the choice of included or excluding any members of their family as I completely understand the everyones family makeup is different and it is important to recognise this.
After a discussion with Destine (who I approprached for guidance assistance in creating a mihi due to her extensive knowledge of the Maori culture) I was also made aware that there is no one right way to create a mihi. There is a who variety of information you can include in it (river, mountain, area etc). I made the decision to restrict the one we put together in class to members of our family and the school simply so it was something all of the students could feel comfortably completing in class. However, I ensured that I made it clear to all the kids that if there was another aspect of themselves they identified greatly with that they would like to include they were more than welcome to.
Tuesday 3rd June 2014
Today I completed the Raap exit data on Sophie. I am so pleased with the progress she is making in her reading and writing. She is becoming increasingly confident to use the strategies she knows to work out unfamiliar words independently. I have also been looking at the construction of the Y5/6 narrative writing. As I have never taught this level before I feel as though I need to familiarise myself with the content before I am comfortable with teaching it to the class. Because our class has done so much independent writing through speech writing, I have decided to allow the narrative writing to be done in their collaborative writing groups. After discussing these groups with the students it is clear that they really enjoy working as a group as it is a time that they can share ideas and bounce ideas off each other and make the most of each others strengths. I would also like to give the more reluctant writers (Orion, James, Anthony, Sophie etc) a chance to develop their confidence to write by having access to their peers ideas. I hope that by working in these groups they will develop confidence in their own writing when writing independently.
Tuesday 17th June 2014
As part of our PRT development, myself and the other PRT teachers at school have one meeting a term with Laura Snowden to talk about anything that is bothering as, discuss various strategies that are working / not working in our classrooms.
She has given as a reading to complete and reflect on before our next meeting. Reading title:
'Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum in Years 4-6 Increasing Progress'
The biggest things I took away from this reading is:
- the importance of getting to know your students specific learning needs and combining these with the literacy learning progressions.
- trying to incorporate writing into all areas of the curriculum
- Engaging with the students to find out their prior knowledge / interests to help base your lessons around. If the students have a general interest in their learning they are more likely to stay motivated.
- Give the students plenty of examples to work from so they know where they are and where they are going
- provide the opportunity for peer share discussions with their fellow students
- give direct and relevant feedback to the student
- Encourage the students to have a inquisitive minds. You are there to learn with them.
- Make sure you adapt for any specific learning needs in the classroom.
- Provide real life, relevant topics for the students to create a piece of writing about.
Tuesday 1st July
My focus for next term is working to provide an even more positive and inclusive classroom environment. Over the last few days I have really tried to focus on recognising the positives in someone or address a behavioural issue from a positive angle rather than a negative. My hope is that this will rub off on the students and will create an overall positive environment in the classroom.
New Classroom Structure:
During our team CRT day we went and visited Jenna's classroom. Jenna has just started a new approach to teaching where she focuses on one topic peer day and increases the time she spends working with each group. The idea of this is that you will get more quality learning and teaching time with the students rather than feeling like you are having to rush through groups and not give the best quality teaching because of time pressures. When the students are not working with the teacher they are completing independent activities during the week. I set them 'Must Do's' and 'Can Do's that they work their way through during the week.
From a teaching perspective I am really pleased with how this is going, but the independent tasks for the students have taken a bit longer for them to settle in. Self management is another big focus on mine at the moment and completing these activities to the expected standard is calling on a lot of self management from the students, which some have adapted to and stepped up to the challenge more than others.
Just this week I have seen a real shift in the students and their willingness to complete the activities independently. Every so often I still have to remind them about being on task etc but my ultimate goal is that within the first few weeks of next term, I will barely have to address the class as a whole class apart from when I am wanting the groups to be swapped over.
The time for discussion and questioning this new set up is allowing is really valuable for the students as they seem to really enjoy the time to engage with each other and learn off each other as well as my own input.
Focus Two:
Professional Reading:
How to Get Students Talking!
Generating Math Talk That Supports Math Learning
By Lisa Ann de Garcia
Improving the quality of mathematics discourse in the classroom:
- Re-voicing: as the students to re-state what somebody else has said about a question / topic. This not only makes sure that the student has understood the comment, but reaffirms their own knowledge and understanding of what we are talking about.
- Value the importance of WAIT TIME: often we as teachers are too quick to answer our own questions if no body else does it for us. By setting the expectation that you are happy to wait for a response shows that you do expect someone to respond and you are happy to wait until somebody does.
- Encourage questioning: does that make sense? can you prove that? can you make that? etc etc These types of questions are designed to help students think mathematically.
- Sitting in a circle helps to promote discuss between peers. If the students are reluctant to engage with each other while the teacher is part of the circle, simple remove yourself and what from the outside.
- Have related vocabulary / language related to the topic easily accessible and on display for the students to use and refer to.
- In peer / share discussion provide a lens for thinking.... today when you are sharing I expect to hear the words....
- Provide a lens for listening: 'today when you are listening to your buddy
- The students should be encouraged to support each other, particularly when someone that doesn't usually contribute to class discussion makes a worthwhile contribution. Similarly, students should feel that they can quietly let someone know when they feel they are becoming quite overbearing in the discussion.
Tuesday 29th July:
Accelerated Learning Meeting with Stephen
This morning I had a meeting with Stephen to discuss the steps I am putting in place to meet the needs of the students in my class who are currently 'below' the national standard / not on track to meet the standard by the end of the year.
We had a really good discussion about how to meet the needs of Orion - who is currently below in writing. We also discussed how to increase the reading fluency of Danika, Kelly and Sophie.
The main thing I took away from the meeting was the importance of understanding and recognising the impact my teaching has on the progress / achievement of the students. Additionally it is important that I recognise that the students are just as capable (if not more) of learning from each other as they are learning from me. I need to make sure I give the students plenty of opportunity to work in groups and feed off / help each other.
If I / the below students are going to achieve accelerated learning they not only need to know where they are going, they need to know what they can do to get their and what it will look like when they are there. For this reason I have put together success criteria for Orion and my reading group to use to track their progress. As a means of taking ownership of their own learning I would also like them to use this criteria to peer assess. This will prove that they know what they are working towards and what they need to be doing to achieve this.
Research suggests that peer-tutoring is a very effective technique for raising student achievement in reading.
I hope to see the benefits of this by putting together the Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) in reading. This requires a more able reader to read with the struggling readings to help them through the reading process using the strategies of Partner Reading, Paragraph Shrinking and Prediction Relay/
My aim is that by implementing this program, the students will not only develop their fluency, but also their comprehension and summarising skills.
Student Achievement Discussions
Tuesday 29 July
Annabel
Examine the data/information of two learners selected by the teacher who need to accelerate learning.
Name | Learning Area | Achievement level Learning Need | What is the teacher doing to accelerate learning? | Next Step | How will the teacher know the impact of the intervention? |
Orion | Writing | Able to plan & has good ideas but finds it difficult to correctly structure sentences & use correct tense | Direct instruction with Orion by: · Designing learning activities within context to target Orion’s needs – “Silly Syntax”. Context - Information reports for the Commonwealth Games topic. · Annabel has already observed success and Orion is now able to identify when sentences do not make sense. · Learning intention shared with Orion. · Annabel has had a very positive discussion with Dad who understood this issue because he has the same problem. Dad has been given ideas by Annabel to support Orion at home. · Learning from other students – Orion is gaining confidence writing with a partner or in a group – this strategy to continue as Orion watches and learns from the other students. | Provide Orion with success criteria – he will use this to self-assess. Suggest this is developed with Orion using his work/exemplars. Maintain the good contact with home. Suggest contact at least twice this term to advise progress/offer support. | Orion will self-assess sentence structure using the success criteria. Teacher observation of writing. Conferencing with Orion. |
Name | Learning Area | Achievement level Learning Need | What is the teacher doing to accelerate learning? | Next Step | How will the teacher know the impact of the intervention? |
Danika Kelly Sophie | Reading | Reading below expected standard Next learning steps: · Fluency · Summarising | · Using the ipad to record themselves reading · Annabel has researched and set up a peer-tutoring programme for these children in the class. · To date Annabel has: Organised the group Modeled the process Children have begun using material that is easily read. Approx. 15 minutes daily. | Children provide each other feedback on their reading. Prepare a guide with the children about what reading fluently sounds like and model for them how to give each other feedback. Further research to ensure the programme meets the needs of the children and there is clarity about the purpose/aims | Children self-assess using the reading fluency rubric/guide. Collect base line data now and then at the end of the term. Use running record. Self-assessment. Because looking at fluency look at recording on the ipad now and then a further recording in the future for the children to self assess and teacher use as a benchmark. |
Tuesday 12th August:
After a discussion with Caroline regarding whether my new rotation system is class was meeting the specific learning needs of my class I have altered the structure of it slightly. She directed me to the 'Blooms Taxonomy' method of thinking which caters for lower - higher order thinkers in a order of steps. With reference to this and 'Anderson's Model' - which is similar but in slightly different language I have put together a range of activities for the students to complete, which cover all aspects of their levels of thinking. Each reading group has to complete a certain amount of these activities - suited for their level of thinking. I have initially given them two weeks to complete 4 of the activities (level appropriate) with a major focus on producing top quality work. When introducing the template to the kids I emphasised the importance of self management and work ethic if they are to complete this work to the expected standard.
Readings that provide information on Bloom's Taxonomy Model + Revised Bloom's Taxonomy
http://www.utar.edu.my/fegt/file/Revised_Blooms_Info.pdf
http://thesecondprinciple.com/teaching-essentials/beyond-bloom-cognitive-taxonomy-revised/
http://www.gcssk12.net/fullpanel/uploads/files/revised-blooms-chart.pdf
Tuesday 11th November:
PRT Meeting with Laura Snowden.
Today we discussed our responses to a professional reading about the Modern Learning Environment Classrooms. This basis of this approach is an open plan classroom with a teacher / student ratio of 60 to two or 90 to three. I believe that for this teaching style to work effectively you have to explicitly teach the students the art of self management and a variety of thinking skills (graphic organisers) to use to adapt their learning to whichever way best suits their learning style.
Students learning and working in this MLE need to be encouraged to take risks and need to learn how to fail, and not be afraid to fail. By doing this I feel it would build a sense of independence, worth ethic and perseverance in the students - particularly for the brighter students who so often just float through school not really being challenged or extended. If students are taught from a young age how to combat difficulties or overcome challenges they will be able to use this life skill in a variety of situations throughout their lives.
We also discussed the importance of enhancing students creative thinking skills.
- sometimes it is important to give the students the opportunity to build, explore and brainstorm ideas to solve problems.
- looking at things from a variety of perspectives and thinking 'outside the book' should also be encouraged.
- In some ways I feel the constant reference to success criteria and exemplars is detrimental to students creative thinking as it is limiting how much or what they can do with a particular style of writing etc.
Ways I could encourage creative thinking in the classroom:
- provide playdough
- construction station
- problem solve with a limited about of materials
- roll of paper for the students to illustrate their own creativity on
- Imaginz blocks
- when constructing things - don't insist that the students use the instructions, allow them to give it a go themselves first.
Providing Effective Feedback:
During the year I have worked with one target student in my classroom focussing on giving effective feedback in an attempt to improve his behaviour management.
Providing feedback is important to allow the students to know where they are at, where they are going and how they are going to get there.
https://docs.google.com/a/dannevirkesouth.school.nz/document/d/1avO15-c1J74sSp1ZsAQFlr-GZRabwIn_GkIEx5WBu14/edit#
