Update of Inquiry Topic for 2023.

 Last week in our Staff meeting we were able to get together as a group and discuss our Inquiry topic that we are planning on doing. My original idea was my interest. in supporting my readers in making connections btw graphemes and phonemes to accelerate their reading.

As I cross group for reading with Miss Scanlan, my reading groups have changed. Which is a good thing I guess because that means that from the beginning of the year till now-the children have made progress.

Now the class are steadily moving toward the upper end of the colour wheel, but now we are more interested in just how much the child 'understood' about the text they are reading. So we are moving from decoding, chunking, to comprehension.

How can I support my learners to develop critical thinking skills and apply these when answering inference questions?

T1 PENN Room 14 2023 Welcome to our beautiful world.

 

Reading Inquiry for 2023.

 Yes, it is 2023-we are back in the classroom for what I am hoping to be a more "normal" year. These few weeks has proved to be most challenging with many of the children who are in year 3. The last 2 years have proved to be very disruptive and irregular for these little ones in regards to their learning, routines and expectations.

I commend the children and parents for facing these challenges, straight on, showing their resilience. 

whakamataku!

My inquiry question was very pertinent to some of my children, and  it had me thinking.  After some light reading and looking at some research, I had more of an understanding of why there was such an emphasis or importance held around the relationship between phonetic knowledge and reading. This relationship is important as it requires our readers to notice how letters represent sounds and this gives readers a way to approach sounding out and reading new words.

So my question is 'How can I support learners to gain phonetic knowledge to accelerate their reading progress?

Room 26- Film Festival-The day the Crayons went on Strike.

 

Room 26 took this Wonderful story and Message by Drew Daywalt and  presented it in a 3 minute film.

We thought it was such a lovely message about “Empathy”- that we wanted to share and teach others.

“Empathy” is all about how it feels walking in another’s shoes.

Each crayon signifies the  emotions of people and this concept has been displayed in an easy and relatable way.

Thank you to everyone who made this movie come alive.

Especially Mrs Adina!

What progress has been made with my Gold Reading Group!

 During these past few weeks I have had the opportunity of reading with 4 exceptional young students. All four of these young students are now reading at late Gold, early silver.

As I have struggled with attendance issues over the past few weeks with my students, I would have liked to have seen teach child in this group to progress to silver, but sadly this has not been the case. 

My Goal has been to to keep these four individual (or how ever many I have during that day)  engaged,  with their inquisitive little minds running. I have gotten this group to read a wide variety of text types and discuss their features with me and between themselves, which has worked really well. 

From plays (where this group gets to perform in front of others), listening to others read-and being able to comment themselves on what needs improving, reading Fiction/Non fiction and seeing the similarities and differences between the text features, watching informative videos on "whatever" they are learning about ie Tour de France, making items from "whatever" they are reading about-all of this has sustained their interest. Even giving them a print out of a Non fiction article that I have asked them to study with questions to follow (which is a change from a book) -this delivery has been a great success and has given this group an appetite for wanting more.

So if I continue with this group in term 4 I will continue on the same path and keep on engaging my class with entertaining activities.

T3 PENN MOVIE 2022 What is Creativity?

 

Reading Inquiry for 2022

 During the last few days that have just passed, I have come to the realisation that I need to create more exciting "Reading classes" for my Gold group. Their reading needs will be very different to the lower groups I take For example Yellow, and Blue.

I guess my question is "What things can I do to make my children more engaged in my reading classes to bring the very best of them to that 1 hour session each day and therefore attain results" This question is a work in progress for me.

 

PENN Movie T2 2022

 This is what my year 2 class have been learning this term.

PENN Movie T2 2022 Position & Orientation.

 

PENN Movie used as a learning tool.

 This year Room 26 has been fortunate enough to experience the making of our PENN movie. Usually in previous years I have not had the opportunity to  engage in the process of movie making with my class. It has been a great experience filled with lots of learning.

I was able to get one of my year 3's to read a 2minute script. He was the voice of our PENN movie.

It was most interesting to see how his confidence grew over the time that we were making our movie. At first it was seen as a chore for him to stay back 10 minutes after lunch, but then he was offering to, and his reading and fluency got better and better!

This motivated all the other children who wanted to be part of the process in some way. They would want to show their face in the movie and would constantly ask "Am I in it!"

But it wasn't just a great experience for them it was a great experience for me. I have never had the opportunity in the past of "working together" with my class to produce a quality movie about what they are learning inside and outside the classroom. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Inquiry for 2022.

 What an interesting few weeks we have had so far! It has certainly been filled with challenges. In todays staff meeting we talked about those many challenges that we as teachers faced in the classroom. We looked at the disadvantageous of  "mask wearing" The constant looking from the children as they struggled to understand what you were saying. This has an effect on the building of relationships which in turn has an impact on trust.

Wearing a mask certainly seemed to hinder the performance as a teacher. It has had a huge impact on "connectivity" not only with students but also with the wider community. I have been very lucky because I teach Year 2/3, which means wearing a mask is not mandatory when working with my children, but communication with whanau (& the wider community) is more difficult.

We know that this current situation will not be with us indefinitely and it has prompted the question, what future goals do I have for my learners? What did I want my classroom to look like in a "mask off" classroom/environment?

We know that in the near future "connectedness" will certainly be a theme (no matter the year group) that will be at the forefront of every teachers mind. We know that in the classroom it is the teacher who plays such an important role in their learning, social and emotional growth.

This idea or theme of connectedness certainly makes me wonder how as a "teacher" I will be able to foster relations between the children, the community and myself moving forward? This is certainly something I plan on exploring more as the year progresses.  

Update on Inquiry for 2021

 

For the past few months I have been  trying to lift the achievement in reading for my 6 priority  learners as well as a few of my lower readers.

I have  6 priority learners who since the beginning of the year have made great progress. Two of my learners have travelled from Yellow 5.7yrs to Orange 6.5yrs. Another one has moved from Blue 5.1yrs to Green 6.0yrs, then the last two were both on Magenta on Magenta 5.2yrs to yellow 5.6yrs.

But I also looked at moving the achievement level in reading for the rest of my class not just my priority learners. I implemented the GPhillips prompts, using these prompts  not only routinely but consistently have really improved the engagement  and focus of the children. I have found that the GP along with magnetic letters that are used for word work have really made a difference.

I also looked at my lower learners and while the results are not as positive as I would like them to be, there are obviously circumstances outside of my control that have impacted these learners reading results. High absenteeism, is the main reason. I am happy to say that at the beginning of this year I had 8 readers on magenta. To date I now have 3 readers on Magenta.

The data above can be confirmed through evidence collected. In June this year I conducted testing to see what shift had occurred in reading ability. I am so happy with the children. However we are currently halfway through the year and we know by the end of this year the goal will be to work at Turquoise at 7yrs.

Day 9-DFI-Reflections.

 Today is our final Day of DFI. My Learning has increased with so much knowledge. These last few weeks have been really invaluable and I have enjoyed myself along the way. We have sat our DFI exams and although I do not have access to my results so cannot see if I passed or not-I would be happy either way.

I feel much more confident now if I had to work with any of the Google Platforms. I also feel that I have had the opportunity to connect with others all over NZ who have gone through this journey with me. Not only have we collaborated together on how best to use this technology/devices in our classrooms- but there have been some great friendships made.

I have really enjoyed working with my bubble group, I have found their ideas/suggestions, to be really helpful. I am so thankful to have been in a group of individuals who have offered their support and their own knowledge.

I had no suggestions to how the DFI could improve it's agenda, I thought that the organisation  of this event was all good. The only thing I would have liked is more time to revise things with our bubble coach.

In the future I can apply some of my new skills not only to my classroom but I can also apply these new skills to my own personal inquiry/portfolio.

Thank you to all the Coaches for all your hard work!!!!! and especially our Bubble Coach-Thank you Maria!

Day 8-DFI-Computational thinking

Our focus for DAY 8 was computational thinking. We talked about the empowerment of our children and how we are shifting from Passive consumers to be the creators of our stories, music and films. We do more than just interact with our devices we are actually involved in the process. We become the innovators, the designers and the creators. We also got to look at the different elements that made up Computational thinking

I actually found a lot of this language helpful for myself in regards to making sense of things I use or do sometimes everyday.

We want to get to a point where the Digitally Fluent student is working alongside of the Digitally Fluent Teacher. We got the opportunity to explore different coding apps that students could use.

I wanted to focus more on Scratch Junior as this is an app that my class tend to use on a weekly basis. I must admit I always say to my class if I have given them free choice that that does not mean they can go on Scratch Junior (as I do think to myself that its not productive and they are not learning anything.) Yet when I was given the opportunity to investigate various sites under Scratch Junior I was v impressed.

So the above is a screenshot of the different tools the user has available to them to help them create and code. But I have attached a link for you to look at that tells you all about this amazing app for children.

I actually love what MIT Media lab (Creators of this app) have to say about Scratch. They state how young children get to express and create with their computers. How being involved in the "process" helps them solve problems, design projects. It also exposes them at a young age to math and language that is meaningful. This idea or concept is very impressive and it has changed my whole outlook to scratch and how I will use it in the future.

T2 PENN Movie Room 26

Day 7-DFI-Devices

 Today Dorothy spoke about Ubiquitous learning. Removing Barriers: having young people expand opportunities. Back in the day school was between 9-3 but now thanks to rewindable learning and choice people can learn anytime, any pace and anywhere.

This learning worked well when covid hit us and everyone had to work from home. Today we focused on other children's devices with Ipads, Chromebooks,  Explain everything and Screencastify (Which I enjoyed) Although I use Ipads in my Year 2  class I did enjoy having the opportunity having a play with Chromebooks and I did enjoy the Digital Dig and keyboard shortcuts were really useful.

We also looked at Cybersmart. The importance of it in the classroom. Our brief for the afternoon was to CREATE a screen recording talking through a lesson. This was just a snapshot. I covered Smart relationships/ Quality blogging comments. As I was wanting my learners to become more engaged with this process.

I really enjoyed the session today as I got to try Screencastify- I chose not to turn my camera on, I just recorded my voice. Below is what I managed to record,

Day 6-DFI-Enabling Access, Sites Agenda

We had the opportunity to look at other teachers class sites from all different year levels and got to evaluate them with our Bubble groups. We got to look at the great things we could take away from these sites and notice the things that perhaps would not work with our year groups.

We learnt about 2 main criteria that make a google site successful-visual appeal and functionality. Thanks to Makaore who was quick to point out a few things that one needs to consider when building a site for your learners. He started the discussion by paying tribute to a wonderful quote by Stuart McNaughton who heads the Woolf fisher department and after analysing a lot of data, had the following to say........

Makaore points out that the purpose of a Google Learning Site is  to empower all learners in a digital environment. So when you are building a your class site you should keep in mind that learning is accessible anywhere, anytime, anyspace, it is rewindable (so you have the opportunity at anytime to view it) your planning and teaching is visible. There are weekly overviews and timetables. You can access your learning during lockdown. Your site should become a hub of information about events, groupings, and events and progressions for both learners and parents.

I am very happy with Team 2 site. This is a collaboration of 4 teachers (as we work in a ILE) Below are screenshots of our site for/our space

We have created big colourful buttons for these year 2's to access their work.

Then under every heading for reading, writing, and maths the children are in groups with group names, they push their group name and it will lead them to their activities for the day.

We have created a Home learning button where they can access videos, hangman, puzzles

The site is very compatible with the needs of our learners in this space and it is very easy to navigate. But this is T2 and any site is always a work in progress (as things are constantly changing) and as educators we are constantly evolving reflecting these changes in our sites.

DAY 5-DFI-Collaborative Teaching and Learning.

 

Click on the picture to see the google site I created today.

Dorothy reminded us how important it is to keep learning visible not only to us but to all whanau. This concept makes us fall in line with the Treaty of Waitangi, the participation component.

She stated that success had always been  measured upon the learners being able to jump into the teacher's head and be on "the same page" but she did counteract that "idea" further reinforcing "success" needing to be equitable and therefore accessible to everyone. 

Kerry Boyde-Preece mentioned that our class sites should be "Multi modal" for our learners. Multi modal learning is when teachers provide several different types of resources to enhance a lesson. By creating Multi modal google sites we basically  have the understanding that with learning it is not a 1 size fits all philosophy but  we are able to provide a number of different options to cater  for a range of abilities. 

This has other benefits as well, our learners are engaged, motivated and really excited about their learning.  The power that you have as a teacher in using this platform enables you to plant seeds to produce life long learners.

Kerry Boyde-Preece made a really cool analogy she stated that not only is your Class site an extension of your classroom but its very similar to a shop window-in the same way they are selling to the consumer -we too are selling what we have to our learners- it is our site that is our hook. 

DAY 4-DFI-Dealing with Data.

 Today Dorothy spoke about the Share aspect of the Manaiakalani "Learn, create and share" pedagogy.

She introduced the topic with such a cool analogy, she commented that "we have been sharing since time began" food, stories, our visions. To think through social media platforms, facebook, twitter, you tube these platforms empower us to communicate to the rest of the world our very own thoughts, ideas, learnings, and also being able to create collections of feedback and feedforward..Powerful stuff. Sharing is part of our DNA our social fabric.

Dorothy mentioned 'sharing with Purpose" allowing our learners to have an authentic audience, whether that be one another, the local community or beyond.

We use the platform blogger which allows our learners to connect with others which was not available before the digital age.

Today was a good day. I had a great opportunity to delve further into google maps. I saw how useful this tool would become with learners, if you simply wanted to show them their surroundings (like a geography lesson or a history lesson) it would be great to just be able to show my children around their community. Below is a google map showing all my favourite beaches in my community.

We also got to create a graph in google sheets. I have always wondered how people have been able to visually represent trends through graphs on their blogs. Well now I know! This is a tool I will be able to use in my teaching practise. Below is an example of how I was able to pull information from my google sheet and display the same information in a visual way.

Reading Inquiry.

 Now that I have been taking my reading groups on a regular basis and I have done a few running records (not an expert, by any stretch of the imagination)  I have got a better gauge of where my children are at, and where they need to be. But in essence I guess this whole journey has given me an indication of what strategies I need to implement to get them to where they need to be.

I was initially interested in letter-sound relationships to help my kids accurately decode words, but now  I have included more "word work" topics which have not only benefited my priority group but all of my readers, therefore I plan on lifting  the reading level not only of my priority learners but also for my other low readers in my class.

I have been able to identify through running records  the importance of vocabulary building for every child in my reading class. I have tailored what goes into my word work sessions depending on the particular needs of that reading group. This is a work in progress and is changing all the time. The challenge for me is that I have 6  reading groups and need to get through at least 3-4 per day.

There are many ways of building up ones vocabulary. But I simply want to be consistent with the rest of the school and use strategies and ideas that have been used on our kids before and have been successful in the past and that are going to be of benefit to our kids.

With my lower groups I focus on 1:1 finger pointing, DOS, and the making of a high frequency words from the text (made from magnetic letters) for the week. With my Higher reading groups I focus on Sight words, 1-2 comprehension questions, and Word families taken from the text. made from magnetic letters. Whenever the group reads the text I reinforce the Gwenneth Phillips prompts, I do believe that the progress I have made to date just confirms that my teaching practice is commendable as my reading results reflect this so far.

But it is important to realise that as stated before this is indeed a work in progress and as different people observe -my practice is constantly tweaked and improved.