Back to School on Monday and looking forward to it! Just before lock down, I managed to do a running record on Alex, one of my priority learners. The data showed me that he needed to go into another reading group. 

I was very happy to move one of my Priority learners "Paaka" to the yellow group so I am hoping that this lock down has in no way had a negative affect on the gains we have made. I have now inherited another 2 students that are L4 Red readers. 

Jeremiah who has come rom L3 Red.

Mia who has come from L3 Red.

Some things we have done so far are; Break up words, end sounds/middle sounds, and word families.

All the above strategies were very valuable for the students however on reflection, the most beneficial one was indeed word families. The rich conversations and the different activities that could be explored were ample.

So my next steps,

I will continue with deliberate acts of teaching,. Looking at words we read, word parts, phonic sounds word meanings and like sounds. During my teaching sessions I have begun to implement more deliberate act of teaching (these deliberate acts of teaching include modelling, prompting, questioning, giving feedback, gifting words, telling, explaining and directing.

Continuation of my reading Inquiry for 2020.

I have managed to really FOCUS on my 6 individual children. There is a question mark over 1 of them as he is new, and I need to conduct a running record on him (to make sure he is in the correct reading group).

I will be focusing on Red group, Level 5. Before I could implement any reading strategy I had to test my students to see where their knowledge gaps were. 

 

By applying the Gwyneth Phillips strategies for reading with my children -I will be expecting to see some positive results. I have tried to break my lower groups into 4-5 children. 

As a beginning teacher, this will help me manage my children and ensure their path to success.when I was So I guess the first thing I need to put out there (being totally transparent),is that when I was first told about Gwyneth Phillips and her reading strategy I wasn't sure HOW and IF any of these strategies would work on my children. But I have been very lucky and got to observe Mrs Nua in action with 3 of my children. The way that Mrs Nua managed the reading group was really successful and you could see the progress being made going forward. 

As a Beginner teacher for my own growth and development ( so I am not too overwhelmed and what I learn really sticks) I am Questioning all gross errors that the children make when they read to me, for example "You said..............., what would you expect to see for............?" I realise this will take me a lot of practise. It is not an easy task to do especially when you are in the midst of it all, ( LIVE and it's all ACTION) with 5 little humans reading their books at the same time.

After reading their books I got to see follow-up Wordwork. We focused on the word "Look". Mrs Nua had the letter b, t & c. Gwyneth Phillips uses the word "MAN" in the below example,

So my next steps are,

1. Running record on Alex

2. Take smaller groups (with my red GROUP

3. Implement Gwyneth Phillips strategy of Questioning children's gross errors.

Pt England's FIRST Week back at school AFTER lockdown.

                                                 AJ making Origami fortune teller!

Morning Assembly!

Morning Karakia run by Sione!

making Snowflakes in Creative Arts!

                                                     

                                  Making an Erupting volcano with Mrs Carter for Living World!

                        Mrs Carter, Sione and Persayus using cut out hands to measure things.

T2 PENN Learning from home.

 

Online Teaching/Teaching from a distance during the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Fun science experience that Dad has put together. My brother and I are taking turns shaking the bottle to create mini tornadoes! then I'm going to write about it!

On the 23 march 2020 our Prime minister announced that NZ was going to Alert 4, which meant the entire country was in lock down mode. Of course this meant that I would not have the face to face contact with my children or be allowed to visit the school or my classroom.

I must admit I was quite anxious as a beginner teacher with how our team was going to deliver a package that was going to meet every individual child's learning needs. The concept or idea of not being there with them on their learning journey to guide them and encourage them was a frightening thought.

But I have a wonderful team that was able to make up physical learning packages and deliver a robust, flexible digital platform, (which we had already created, but we were able to tailor this to meet the learning needs of our children) . This platform enabled our children, their whānau and others in the community  to access learning tools to carry on with their child's educational development and growth-without interruption. Thrown in the mix is of course  "Faith" and "Hope".

Over the past 2 weeks I have not only been amazed with the "comaraderie" amongst teachers  but the extention of this word "comaraderie" goes out to whānau and the community as a whole.


Which just proves "we are all in this together"

A big Thank you to all the teachers and staff who put these learning packages together for our Tamariki!

         Learning goes from the classroom to the Family Home.

Doing Aerobics with the family.

Doing some maths with my brother.

 

                                               

Just amazed with some of the learning that children are sharing with me, and how involved and engaged their whānau have become.............Huge Pakipaki with all my aroha!

2020 Learning inquiry Question.

Focus: With my Inquiry this year, I wish to focus primarily on my bottom reading groups. I want to improve the reading level for my students who are currently sitting at Red Level 5 & yellow Level 6 which is (well below their reading age) and raise their level of achievement.

My hunch is that my learners need strategies to assist them in decoding. Decoding is the key skill in learning to read and it will help my students apply letter sound relationships and to correctly pronounce the written word in their text.

I realise as a beginning teacher that one of the strategies that my year 2 learners have is to look at me for some sort of support. Of course help is the first thing you want to give them, as I hate  to see any of them struggle, but is this the right thing to do? Will it help them?

The beauty of every child having these skills is that the power will lie with them and they will require less support from the teacher. After all is this not our ultimate aim in all subjects, for our learners to become a better version of themselves as opposed to when they first walked through those school gates to begin their schooling career?

Plan: Before I can implement any reading strategy I need to test my students to see where their knowledge gaps lie. this can be done with "running records". In the running records I've done so far I noticed that they were still looking to me for  answers to unknown words. In doing this I have decided to follow Gwyneth Phillips prompts and in applying her techniques into my teaching practice it will in turn allow me to equip my learners with the necessary skills to achieve success and advance higher with their reading abilities.

PENN T1 The fun we have at school.