Discussion Starters

Starting week two I am going to introduce the following scaffold to my target students. At the moment their responses to text are short and at a surface level. By using this scaffold I am hoping to hear more in-depth discussion and dialogic responses where students are replying to each other, rather than just to the teacher. At the moment the scaffold has been created by the teacher but, as we get familiar with the responses and comments using I am hoping to include more student created prompts.

The Chain of Events

Our expert partners at Woolf Fisher shared this diagram with us to help put into perspective where our intervention sits.

My inquiry fits under our Kahui Ako Achievement Challenge 4 -

A rewording of this would be:
Increase the achievement of years 7-8 in reading, as measured by agreed targets.

The outcome I hope to achieve is improved comprehension through evaluation. Allowing students the opportunity to make evaluative judgements by having dialogic discussions about decisions faced by characters and then relating them to their own ideas and experiences.

The specific language outcome includes being able to re-organise text as well as make inferences. Being able to justify their evaluation using information from the text. This dialogic discussion with an elaborated response, with explicit reference to the text, is a focus of Talk about Text.

Talking about Text

Interesting to read the article in Tukutuku Korero from Aaron Wilson and Jacinta Oldehaver. I am looking at elements of this that I can transpose from the secondary context to the year 7 and 8 students in my class.

Raising Reading Achievement

One of the readings I have looked at last term was from Jo Fletcher et al. about Raising Reading Achievement. My three main take aways that I want to implement in my reading programme are:

• Students collaborating with their peers to develop their understandings.
• Repeated interactions between reader an text, between teacher and reader, and between readers themselves.
• The meaning of the text is debated and interpreted, to enhance comprehension.

Data from Running Records

I have completed Running Records on my target students and have observed the following areas to target: Vocabulary (this is a continuing area of weakness), and Evaluation. I am currently reading 'What every Primary School Teacher should know about Vocabulary' by Jannie van Hees and Paul Nation, so I am hoping to come up with some good vocabulary strategies. I plan to address the area of evaluation during Talk about Text discussions in teaching sessions next term, where students can talk about decisions faced by characters and relate them to their own ideas and experiences.

Digging Deeper into the Data

Testing has been completed on the students and now it is time to dig deeper into the data. First of all here is a look at the reading comprehension PAT scores with an expectation band identified. This is a year 7 / 8 composite so each year group is sorted separately. From this, classroom observations and STAR testing, I have identified my target group of students.

Once identified I have looked at the individual reports for all of the target group in STAR and PAT reading comprehension and identified their needs.

What I need to do next is to look into my planned teaching and learning. What is going to best support these (and other) students make the next steps in their learning, based on their identified need.

Tairawhiti Writing Moderation

Yesterday I was hosted by the lovely team at Tairawhiti Cluster in Gisborne. Leading some writing moderation. A fantastic experience getting to meet some of our new outreach people, and sharing the Manaiakalani knowledge and experience. Thanks to the lovely Maria and Cheryl for their help and support.