RPI - Day 3 Text Selection

Today was a good to keep thinking about the affordances of technology and how we can leverage these to provide better experiences for our ākonga. There’s a tension or challenge there around keeping up with/ahead of the game.

Some brief reflections ...

It’s good to be thinking through systematically the teaching progression/logic and being mindful of the need to keep connecting to writing.

How do we continue to grow capacity throughout the school around critical thinking …not waiting until our kids are in the Senior school?

I liked the template for considering text types being used across a time period  …I wonder how conscious we are in reflecting on this?

I also came away thinking about how redundant our Library has become in terms of it's core purpose. It is a hugely under-utilised resource How can we make better use of this space and encourage people to use it properly again??

Reading Programme Intensive - Day 1

Today has been a great opportunity to reflect on practise. What works? What do we believe are those critical components of a Reading Programme? How can we cultivate good, motivated, engaged readers in our classrooms - and just what a hugely complex business it is!!

It's been great to think through the various components of what makes a good reader, what we as a school are doing well, and what we really need to hone in on to make a difference.

I'm excited to be led on this journey and to have something clear and explicit around a common practise model, with the ability to tailor it to your particular school and context.

I am really looking forward to seeing more of our homegrown content in this area. And how we can continue to enhance the mana of our tamariki in terms of their self efficacy in Reading. 

My wondering is around how closely this will align with the MOE's Curriculum Development?

BSLA - Is it the Magic Bullet??

 In 2020 as part of my studies I wrote ... According to the detailed ‘Best Start Literacy Approach’ (BSLA) website “The approach is based on several years of research trials investigating the most efficient and effective methods to support children’s early reading, writing and oral language success.”  For any teacher on a passionate quest for the answer or the magic bullet, it does sound just like that. The programme and accompanying resources, the ‘Ready to Read Phonics Plus texts, have recently been released by the Ministry of Education.  The programme is presented as a 3 pronged approach encompassing ‘evidenced based’ literacy teaching, monitoring assessments and whanau engagement. So is it the answer? 

The BSLA has been designed and developed particularly for New Zealand children and the NZ context,  researched by both Massey University and  the University of Canterbury. The research of Gail Gillon and others, provides compelling evidence to suggest that this ‘one size fits all’ approach is part of the answer.

This structured approach does not appear to have regard for ‘exploration, risk taking or agency’ and is prescriptive in nature. In fact the texts are specifically designed to be “constrained in word and sentence structure” (BSLA Summary) and one would have to question how engaging these could be?  Furthermore this approach seems to diminish the importance of all the other skills and knowledge or competencies that the child brings as a reader, explicitly teaching the learner to focus at the phonemic level to decode words first and foremost. This approach could see the learner overly focus on deconstruction of a word rather than meaning making. While this resource and pedagogy clearly builds on the known it does not appear to consider the ‘funds of knowledge’ that the child brings to the classroom. Gaffney & Jesson (2019) explain “Each child’s existing expertise, reservoirs of knowledge, and ways of knowing and doing, are their unique resource base to contribute to their continued learning” and this approach does not seem to harness this resource effectively.

After A critical examination considering both learning principles, theory and literature... I concluded,

When reviewing the literature for the BSLA, two themes or features of the research resonate. Firstly, the resource and research that underpins it, appears to have a rather narrow focus on phonological awareness and the importance of the development of these skills to set children up for success. Secondly, the initial research on which this resource is based was done with children that had SLI (Gillon et al., 2020). Therefore, I am brought back to the question raised by Gaffney, Smith, Commack, Ash, Mackie and Mudgway (2019) “Which ones are worthy of children’s time?” (p.5). In considering this resource the research that is missing is a longitudinal study to examine whether children who have acquired the sequence of skills and learnt to decode books are set up as lifelong readers? As Nicholson (2006) states “ long-term success is the litmus test of every intervention” (p.33).
This programme, in conjunction with the PLD offered, (which provides for teachers to develop their own linguistic, content, and pedagogical knowledge) along with the texts that support this curricula, is a positive resource for teachers doing their utmost to be responsive to the needs of their learner. However, there is an element of caution which suggests that we may be inclined to ‘throw the baby with the bathwater’.

This year I have been lucky enough to be trained as a facilitator for BSLA and mentoring a teacher in our school so that we can together look at how effective this intervention is in our context for our learners. The most current research shows promising results so I am excited to see what impact we can have on our tamariki. So we are learning by doing and in the process continuing to put a critical lens on everything we do so that we can find what works for our kids.

Watch this space!!

T- Shaped Literacy

 On our continued journey to improve Literacy for our tamariki, this afternoons PD was delivered by Dr Rebecca Jesson from Woolf Fisher. This focussed on Literacy for Juniors particularly our Yr 1 - 3s.

She revisited the 'T Shaped Literacy' hypothesis which is derived from the thinking or theory, that to learn about words and to learn to read, you need to read widely. If we are to produce life long lovers of reading and effective readers we need to ensure they are capable of reading widely.

We know we need to practise to read, as we know we get better at something by practising the skill frequently and repeatedly.   So are we Reading widely enough in our Junior classrooms? In her discussion of wide reading she discussed the idea of Reading 5+ a day books. A great reminder and somewhat of a checklist was provided for us around the various types of reading that should be happening in our classrooms everyday. Reading to, exposing them to both new word and world knowledge. Shared Reading, Buddy Reading and Independent Reading along with our Instructional Reading. This all contributes to building that reading muscle. 

The challenge for us in this is whether we are doing each of these on a daily basis and how we can use the affordances of the technology we have to support this!

How can we read more deeply and more widely at the same time complement, contradict, and support our learners to become more critical in their reading. Dr Rebecca Jesson carefully guided and cleverly unpacked T Shaped literacy at a Junior level by helping us to consider the Themes within and across texts and how with careful planning, these can be unpacked within a weeks learning. What a great foundation we will be creating for our tamariki who are learning to read if we start doing this when they are in the critical learning to read stage. By choosing text sets that both complement and compete with a theme, the teacher is able to really support and provoke learners at a deeper level to understand and think about the characters, what they might learn or how they develop. 

How do we plan for this learning? Start with a provocation and in doing so consider the NZC. To find out more - follow the link ...definitely well worth a watch and listen!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHH3nsyz1dQ

So where to now in 2020?

 In the first half of this year we agreed that we would focus our attention and PD around the development of, and ensuring schoolwide consistency in Maths. We took our new learnings and understandings from DMIC and looked at our use of a text to grow our capacity and ensure that we were clear in our shared understanding of continuum of learning across the school. And then along came COVID 19 which obviously meant that we had to hone our efforts and attention on our Remote Learning and ensuring that our Community was well served under lockdown.

On return we reset,  and as we had intended in the second half of the year our 'Teaching as Inquiry'  has been focussed on the Teaching of Reading. 

Our goals, as outlined in the presentation from our first Staff Meeting are ultimately to achieve a more cohesive schoolwide approach to teaching reading and literacy so that we can continue to raise student achievement. 

We are continuing to be guided by and to use the Gwenneth Phillips prompts that we know work for our tamariki and 'The Reading Book" by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey to help us to become more consistent and explicit in the way that we teach reading, and will be guided throughout by Rebecca Jesson from Woolf Fisher as our 'External Expert'. 

We have formed a Reading Committee and are meeting regularly to co-design this piece of work so that we get the best 'bang for buck' for our tamariki.

Sleepless in Studentland #1

Naku te rourou, nau te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.

During 2019 I was lucky enough to be awarded a Teach NZ Scholarship which enabled me to take some time away from my position at school to focus on some areas of interest that I am most passionate about, and to work towards gaining my Masters.
My expectations and goals for the year were to continue to grow and develop my professional knowledge and capacity so that I would be better placed to serve our school, tamariki and their whanau in the future. I wanted to focus most particularly on Literacy and Psychology, and gain a greater understanding around kids thinking, learning and behaviour. Each course that I chose and completed helped me to consider the impact of my learning for ....

So here are just a few very brief snippets from my learning journey in the first Semester...

In Semester 1 the Literacy Theory and Practice paper covered 3 different aspects - Bilingualism, Reading Comprehension and Writing.

In this paper I was challenged to consider just how truly culturally responsive we are and in fact
further to this, the degree to which we use culturally sustaining pedagogies in our school needs a thoughtful and critical lens. In digitising our spaces we have worked hard to accelerate learning, optimise engagement and let our children’s voices be heard but it seems we may have missed a unique opportunity to capitalise on the affordances of the technology, and coupling this with culturally responsive pedagogies to produce improved outcomes for our bilinguals, which make up such a huge proportion of our school population. We could do more to capitalise on the funds of knowledge and attribute even more value on the cultural capital of our learners.

With the lens on Writing, it would seem there is still much needed research to be done, specifically around the teaching of Māori and Pasifika students. As Gadd suggests if we can get it right for our struggling learners, the practise will benefit others. And, although research is much less abundant in the field of writing, there appears to be strong agreement around the complexity of the teaching of writing along with an acknowledgement that the explicit teaching of self-regulation is an important and critical factor for learners. Students don’t come to be self regulated without a careful well scaffolded approach to modelling that leads the learners to greater independence.
Throughout this literature around the effective teaching of writing, there is a recurring theme which highlights the complexities of the various aspects which all need to be present for raising student achievement. The body of research around writing only serves to highlight the complex nature of teaching writing effectively. It seems our learners struggle to generalise their writing skills and apply it to a similar or ‘related task’ with any degree of independence, suggesting that more extensive modelling would be an appropriate intervention with these struggling learners.

The Reading component of my studies lead me to consider carefully the reading proficiencies of a learner in the context of their classroom. It was great to have time to go back and consider the breadth of work done by Marie Clay and others. In 2005 Marie Clay wrote “... in the end it is the individual adaptation made by the expert teacher to that child’s idiosyncratic competencies and history of past experiences that starts him on the upward climb to effective literacy performances (p.63)”. This paper was a great reminder that pedagogy, knowledge and thorough assessment are all critical components to unlocking literacy for our hardest to teach.
Lai and McNaughton (2009) state “Understanding classroom instruction in relation to student achievement patterns is an iterative process of developing testing and refining hypotheses …” (p.93). This is affirming in the direction that we have taken with Teaching as Inquiry which if done effectively and thorough sees numerous iterations of this going on and when supported by research and effective pedagogy sees shift for the learner.

This ultimately had me reflect on what a complex business teaching is, where the classroom teacher is expected to be an expert or an in the field researcher and that we as part of the leadership, need to ensure that we provide the necessary support and scaffolds in the form of mentoring, collaborative teaching, and PLD to enable our teachers to grow their understanding and expertise in what is such a complex construct.

Along with this learning, came the realisation that I had grown very accustomed in my role at school to changing tack rapidly, juggling multiple balls simultaneously, whilst trying very hard not to drop any and never really having to focus my brain on one activity, much less an extended piece of text for any great length of time ... so this was perhaps my greatest challenge.

I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity that this year has given me and for those that seamlessly stepped in to the various responsibilities in my absence so that our Village continued to succeed!

DFI#8 Cybersmart and Devices

Today began with considering 'Cybersmart' and what that means for us as educators and the implications for our learners. At the heart of this is "empowering our learners as connected and confident decision makers".  Our kids are constantly facing challenges as they learn in an online environment and have to be equipped for the perils that they can potentially face.  When kids have ubiquitous access it is essential that just as we assess risk and any special circumstances that might need managing when preparing for  an EOTC experience, this needs to be approached with the same degree of forethought and preparation - "taking our kids online is one of the riskiest EOTC experiences that can be undertaken and the Cybersmart serves to ensure that they are well equipped for this experience".

Being proactive...
Cybersmart learning needs to have a schoolwide focus and should have an intentional introduction to each aspect of the Cybersmart Curriculum. If we are successful with the integration of this our learners will have a common learning language and a true understanding of the power and privilege of connectivity and online sharing.

We need to make sure that our learners truly understand that everything they do is visible online  and that they constantly consider what their digital footprint communicates about themselves.





Central to the Manaiakalani Development of 1:1 were the principles of the Treaty Of Waitangi ...Participation, Protection and Partnership and these resonate throughout the Cybersmart Learning.
The following Screencastify explores some of the content that sits within the Cybersmart Site.




Another great day of learning and challenges...