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.

What is a Futurist?

A group of Manaiakalani educators met Roger Dennis for a discussion about trends for the future.
Roger was really interesting to listen to as he has done work all over the world looking at patterns and trends for the future.
While not an exact science it was fascinating to hear what could be coming in the next 10 years.
As educators Roger believes that the skills our students need most for the future are 'soft skills' - collaboration, empathy and communication.
A huge thank you to Pat for organising and hosting this event.

Link to Roger's site

Manaiakalani Staff Meeting - Term 1

Robyn, Chantal and I led our first Manaiakalani Staff Meeting for 2018. The focus for the first term is always 'Share'. One of the questions posed was to reflect back on our own professional learning last year. What did we discover during our spiral of inquiry that was effective in making a difference?

For me I did a lot of work getting my students using Reciprocal Teaching strategies, I probably could have gone further using our digital skills to record and reflect on sessions. However I was really pleased with the students confidence in talking about text and their results in our end of year assessments.

My suggestion for teachers starting out this year, and choosing an achievement challenge to focus on, based on their data, is to look at what was done last year across the CoL. 2017 CoL Inquiries. What worked and what didn't? What could you build on, adopt, or adapt to meet the needs of your 2018 learners?

Manaiakalani School Leaders - Term 1

Chantal and I at the Manaiakalani School Leaders Day.
A fantastic opportunity for rich discussions about data, achievement, and barriers and successes over the past year.
Looking at:
Language Acquisition.
Robust discussion about how we set up our 'Spiral of Inquiry' for the year.
Data Narratives