Implement and Try #1: Leaders in the Library...

Last week during my weekly catch up with our student leaders, we discussed ways we can inspire others to read for enjoyment. After talking through a couple of a suggestions we all decided one way we could do this was to offer a weekly lunchtime reading opportunity. The plan is to invite one class a week on a Monday to join the leaders in the library for story time. There is no formal plan as we want this to be organic and evolve naturally.

To set ourselves up for success we introduced the Leaders in the Library idea to the school at our weekly assembly. Room 7, our Year 2 students were the first class to be invited. Even though I'm pretty sure they didn't fully understand, Room 7 were very excited to hear they had been chosen as the first class to take part. To keep the momentum going we will be announcing the name of the class who will be invited to join us each week at assembly. 

Fast forward to today... The students of Room 7 were invited to join our Leaders in the Library group for story time. Some students wanted to have a story read to them 1:1, some preferred having a story read to them with their friends in the same small group, and others want to read the book to one of our leaders themselves. My total input to this initiative was to unlock the library and take photos. Our amazing student leaders took control and created the most welcoming and relaxing reading environment. When I walked back into the library after chatting to a colleague I saw one of our Year 8 students helping one of our younger learners to choose a book. She was asking him all sorts of questions to understand what type of story he enjoyed so she could help him choose the 'perfect' book. Dotted all over the library were pairs or small groups of Year 2 students enjoying exploring stories with our Year 8 students. What truly amazed me even more was that apart from the murmur of the reading together session, there was absolutely no need for any behaviour reminders. All the students who were there wanted to be there. 

A shared love of books was the connection these students had today despite being a number of years apart in age. I did have to smile at my class who decided after reading the books they would have low key 'learning conversations' with their new reading buddies to check their understanding of the story and talk about the characters. I am excited to see where this goes as the experience was empowering for everyone involved.  

Qu 4: Collecting evidence and data...

Begin to collect evidence and data and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence.

Developing an intrinsic motivation to want to read for enjoyment is not something my learners will achieve on their own. To do this successfully we need to develop a class culture where reading for enjoyment is seen as the norm. Because of this, I have chosen to show a snapshot of whole class of the student data. To select only a small group wouldn't give me a true picture of the change I hope to facilitate. The presentation below is an analysis of our time point 1 data and paints a clear picture where we are at now.

Click here to access the presentation

From this analysis I am now aware that 29% of my Year 7 students are reading at 1.5 years + below their chronological ages, and 49% students 2.5 years + reading below chronological age. Historical data shows me there are no surprises with the Year 8 data. I do believe that the last two years of disruptions to learning due to Covid is one of the main reasons these students are continuing to struggle with reading. Many of these students did not engage with online learning and for some, continued absences this year are proving to be having an impact on their learning.

When looking at the vocabulary section of the e-asTTle writing the data between the reading ages and vocab scores in Year 8 aligns. These students are not being exposed to a wider range of vocabulary as they are not engaging in reading outside of the instructional lessons in class. I am surprised at the Year 7 results as the data shows 85% of our Year 7 students are below the expected level in vocabulary.

Sometimes the starting point is harsh to look at, however looking forward, a focus on reading for enjoyment will hopefully become a catalyst in effecting the changes in these levels I hope to see.

Mood and Emotions in Poetry and Art...

Last week Dianne and I introduced our learners to the way authors use words to evoke mood and emotions in poetry. We used ANZAC poems as this was both timely and sets us up for success in our upcoming unit. We began by asking our students to choose three emotions then match them to a colour before sharing their reasons for these colour choices with with their groups.

The challenge was to read each poem then respond to the questions below that were guided by feedback from Dr Aaron Wilson at our last PD session. We did the first poem together as a class. This was very much a guided teaching time. Our students then worked their way through the DLO below, choosing the order they read and responded to the poems in. 

• Use the highlighter tool to match a colour to the emotion or mood the words make your feel. 

• How did the poem make you feel?
• What words did the author use to make you feel a certain way?
• Did you want to feel this way?

Ours students were given the choice of who they worked with and were asked to share their thinking throughout the lesson with their peers. The time for talk allowed for ideas to be shared and gave our learners the opportunity to learn with and from each other.

The presentation below is the teaching DLO we used. 

Link to Presentation

To reinforce and strengthen connections to mood and emotion, Dianne took an art lesson that focused on Kadinsky's concentric circles. This encouraged our students to respond to the mood and emotions that listening to the instrumental music evoked. What amazes me is the difference in the colours chosen by each student. This makes me excited to see how our learners will respond to the tasks in the upcoming reading unit.

T-Shaped Literacy Intervention - Record of learning link 2022...

This year Dianne and I are taking part in a project run by Dr Aaron Wilson and Selena Meiklejohn-Whiu from the University of Auckland, to investigate the effects of a T shaped literacy intervention of Year 7/8 students' reading and writing of literary texts in subject English. 

As a record of my learning I have decided to create a post that will be updated as we move through the project. I will be sharing the resources I make for my class in additional posts. We are starting the intervention this week with a pretest to gather baseline data and paint a picture of where our class is starting this journey at. Following on from each session we will implementing the new learning in our class program.

Links to notes from our PD sessions:

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5

Session 6

Session 7

Session 8

Session 11

Session 12

Professional Development: PE - Football

Kelly Sport Session - Football 5/5

Link to coaching notes

Skill Focus:

• Dribbling
• Passing

Basic Rules:

• You cannot use your hands in football unless you are the goalkeeper or throwing the ball back in after it has gone over the side line.
• Both feet must be on the ground during a throw in. If a team kicks the ball over the side line a player from the other team gets a throw in.
• If the defending team touches the ball over the goal line, it is a corner kick but if the attacking team touches the ball over the goal line, it is a goal kick.

Link to Movewell Book 1

What my learners took from this...

                                       

                                                Click here to access the presentation

After completing the Reading for Enjoyment survey I discussed in this post I asked my learners to look at what the data was telling us. In a nutshell our reading survey became our maths focus. My learners worked in pairs to carry out this statistical inquiry. I have found that when the data has a purpose my learners make a stronger connection to both the statistical inquiry process and the content.

Their challenge was to think of a summary, comparison or relationship question to investigate linked to our LS2 Reading for Enjoyment data. The next step was to collate the data using a tally chart, then choose appropriate graph to analyse and communicate findings in context. After doing this my learners were asked to create a DLO that reflected their investigations, findings and analysis.

These DLOs were then posted on our blogs with an explanation of the task and something they found interesting. Click on the links below to see how my learners interpreted the data and the solutions they came up with to help change attitudes towards reading for enjoyment. What you will notice in these posts is my learners are experimenting with content specific language. 

O'Ninesha's blog

Koura Beau's blog

Farzana's blog

Bella's blog

David's blog

I was really impressed with their possible solutions. Click on the blog links above to see what they came up with. These were derived during planned opportunities for learning discussions to take place. To enable more talk to take place we used the 'think - pair - share' strategy. 

Moving forward as a class we have introduced a reading challenge that we will be working on during our new RFE (Reading For Enjoyment) slot in our timetable. We also aim to read for 20 minutes everyday. This is not timetabled as my learners have asked me to set a random timer each morning on my phone. The idea being that when the timer goes off we all (Students and teachers) stop and read for 20 minutes. I'm looking forward to this as my learners aren't the only ones who see this as a fun way to increase our reading mileage. In addition we have a short RFE library slot on a Friday afternoon to set us up for reading over the weekend. The response activities were designed by the class. This will hopefully strengthen the buy in and allow my learners to see that reading for enjoyment is not only important but also fun.

Qu 3: Building an accurate profile of students' learning - tools, measures and approaches...

Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

Motivation is intrinsically related to engagement so learner engagement is vital if I am to establish a culture in my class where my learners are motivated to read for enjoyment and understand the benefits that reading outside of the classroom will bring them. My challenge now is to find out why the links in the chain appear to be broken again. To do this I will be looking at shift or change in:

• Disposition
• Data
• Reading mileage
• Student voice
• Vocabulary changes in personal writing

The tools/measures/approaches:

Planning changes:

• My initial approach will be to actively plan time in class for reading for enjoyment and the avenues of possible discussions this opens. This will help me to see where connections to the value of reading for enjoyment are being made. I realise if I want to encourage an intrinsically motivated habit I need to provide opportunities that allow my students to see the benefits that reading for enjoyment can bring.

Student Voice:

• Gathering student voice is a vital part of teaching. It gives us a clear picture of where our students are at, what they're thinking and what we need to do to allow of learners to make their individual connections to the learning. Naomi's reading for enjoyment survey is how I will measure progress and will be completed at the end of each term, allowing me to measure both the small and big changes.

PAT/Probe/e-asTTLE Assessments:

• Analysing these results gives me a clear picture of what my students can do and where our knowledge gaps are. I will use these results to inform my planning and identify shifts in achievement.

Click here to access the presentation

Learning Conversations:

• Learning conversations are a huge part of our learning time as it provides authentic opportunities for new ideas to be used in context. Sharing books that you have read allows you to tell someone why you found the story/content interesting. Being able to talk about a book in detail strengthens your connections to the text. After completing the baseline survey I was explaining that a part of our reading challenge will be to recommend the book to someone else when one of my students suggested we do more than that by identifying the person we think might also like to read the text and selling the text to them... Her idea was to make this a part of our library time and call it 'book chains'.  
• To do this effectively I will need to create speaking frames to scaffold those who need a bit more support to do this effectively.

Introduce a class Reading Challenge:

• LS2 Reading Challenge - This has been created to encourage my learners to read a wide variety of genres. I know that if this is to be successful I need to walk the walk and talk the talk. Going forward I want my learners to see me as a reader too, so I will be actively participating, cheerleading and motivating my learners in both this challenge and the book chains we will be introducing.  
• I will write a more detailed post about this idea once it has been introduced.

My next steps:

• Explore success in other schools/ clusters 

• Panmure Bridge School - What's happening already in our own backyard?

• Professional Readings

• Connect with public librarians 

• Connect with whanau to foster support for reading for enjoyment at home

• Use role models/student leaders to promote reading for enjoyment 

• Explore creative and fun ways we can grow our reading culture at PBS

• Make reading for enjoyment visible in our class

Q2: What is it that we want our students to learn?

Developing an intrinsic motivation to want to read for pleasure is not going to happen by magic. This is something I need to develop by first analysing the baseline data that was gathered at the end of Term 1. I actually took this a step further and got my learners to analyse the data we collected and come up with their own suggestions as to how we can grow a culture of reading for enjoyment in our class. You can find a more detailed explanation of this task here.

A post on the National Library website states that reading for enjoyment 'gives people access to culture and heritage and empowers them to become active citizens, who can contribute to economic and social development.... It is also reading that may have begun at someone else’s request, which we continue because we are interested in it... AND CAN BE can be described as an act of play, which allows us to experience different worlds in our imagination and a creative and active/ interactive process.'

Research carried out by the Education Standards Research Team (ESARD) in the UK in 2012 found that reading for pleasure had educational benefits, supported personal development and had a positive impact on reading including:

• reading attainment and writing ability
• text comprehension and grammar
• breadth of vocabulary
• positive reading attitudes
• self-confidence as a reader

The post also shares findings from The Growing Independence: Summary of Key Findings from the Competent Learners at 14 Project report that found, 'The ability to read competently and, more importantly, the enjoyment of reading has implications for a student’s academic success.'

• higher scores on the cognitive and social/attitudinal competencies
• consistently higher scores in mathematics, reading, logical problem-solving and attitude
• higher average scores for engagement in school
• higher levels of motivation towards school.

I want my students to want to read a wide variety of texts because they want to. My aim this year is to help the students in LS2 to see our weekly library visit as both fun and to quote one of my learners, understand 'that opening the covers of books you haven't read books is a fun way to find new ideas or even learn a thing or two.... It's like a supermarket for the brain' - quote taken with student permission from this year's T1 writing sample.

Our data shows that within our class there is a huge disparity between the students who have made the connections they need to allow them to operate at a higher and more challenging level, and those for who the gap widens each year. By doing helping all of my students understand the benefits of reading for enjoyment, I hope to see a change in attitude towards reading, strengthened connections to new learning, increased vocabulary awareness which is transferred to personal writing, higher levels of self efficacy and an overall shift in achievement so that a higher number of our learners are achieving at or above the expected norms in literacy.

Qu 1: Student Inquiry Foci...

The National Library Trust (UK), defines reading for pleasure as 'Reading we do of our own free will, anticipating the satisfaction we will get from the act of reading.' With this in mind the questions I am asking this year is, 'Will a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading?' 

Earlier this term I walked past the student trays in our class and noticed that the library books I had seen earlier in the week were in exactly the same place. I half heartedly asked my class if the books they took out of the library each week just stayed in their trays until the following week when they returned them to the library... what then completely shocked me was that most students very honestly replied, 'Yes!' We then discussed why this was and I unravelled the missing piece of the puzzle which was simply that no one said they could take them home. Immediately I thought about ways I could change this that were both fun and engaging.

A few weeks later I was speaking to Naomi Rosedale who in an earlier blog comment had already challenged me to think about inquiring into and tracking learners’ reading dispositions and interests. I know from a personal perspective that if I'm not interested or engaged in something, I simply don't do it. Sometimes this is because I don't think I could do it, or think I wouldn't enjoy it, and other times it's because I haven't made a personal connection to it. This made me think about my current student's self efficacy in reading. A few years ago I inquired into ways I could grow this with a group of struggling learners in my class. These students are all well into their college journey now, so with the students I teach now in mind, I can see a number of them are exhibiting the same aversions to reading. Motivation is intrinsically related to engagement so learner engagement is vital if I am to establish a culture in my class where my learners are motivated to read for enjoyment and understand the benefits that reading outside of the classroom will bring them. My challenge now is to find out why the links in the chain appear to be broken again. To do this I will be looking at shift or change in:

• Disposition
• Data
• Reading mileage
• Student voice

Having decided on my inquiry focus this year I approached Naomi to talk it through. I came away from a very rich learning conversation with a tentative pathway mapped out going forward but also a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I'm not starting at this point from scratch as I have been able to use Naomi's Reading for Enjoyment survey with my class to help me get to know my students as readers. Responses in this survey has opened both my eyes and my student's eyes. I'm excited to see where this inquiry takes us this year.

Professional Development: PE - Tee Ball

Kelly Sport Session - Tee Ball 20/4

Learning Intentions:

Batting

• To develop eye-hand coordination to hit a stationary ball
• To run to a cone and back before the fielder throws the ball in.

Fielding

• To field, catch, and throw the ball into home base or a wicket.

Warm up: Noodle Tag

• Hold noodle with 2 hands like a ball bat - tag each other 
• If tagged stop balance on one leg for 10 seconds - if fall start again

Tee Ball Game: Link to Movewell Book 4