2022 COL Interview...

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise.

This year Dianne Fisi’iahi and I undertook a collaborative inquiry. We found this afforded us a sense of continuity that when combined with our shared vision, meant our learners heard a shared message regardless of who was leading the teaching or who was in the room. For this reason some of our ideas that have informed this conversation will align quite closely. Our current Y6/7 EOY data analysis shows that focus on spelling is needed across the board which is why we see Achievement Challenge 2 (Lifting achievement for boys writing in years 1-10) as the direction our 2023 inquiry is heading. We have our why and I look forward to seeing what our how looks like.

As you will remember from Dianne’s interview, when we were choosing our inquiry focus we chatted about our own spelling memories from school. We both understand the frustration spelling hurdles bring. In my case it stems from the portion of time spent learning in the American curriculum. To succeed I had to unlearn the spelling of words I had already mastered, and relearn them without the u vowel. I was then forced to repeat the process in reverse when we moved back to NZ. I went from being the top speller to writing out words 10 times because I missed a vowel. I felt caught between 2 languages so I can truly relate to how many of my learners feel.

What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

Learning with and from my fellow CoL teachers has meant I have collected many gems from others along the way that have become firmly embedded in my practice. To this day I use Andrea’s ‘explain ready’ phrase when I want my learners to be able to share their ‘how’ in their own words.  It is the ongoing opportunities to strategize over our ideas that didn’t quite go to plan, that inspires me. How unplanned hurdles are overcome is what truly captures my interest, as it is these ideas I tap into and tweak when I have my own hurdles to climb over, or am helping someone else find a way around theirs

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and  kaupapa?

 

To accelerate student achievement the Learn Create Share pedagogy and kaupapa of Manaiakalani is the glue that holds my planning together. Analysing the data helps me highlight knowledge gaps, and identifies where I need to be explicit and where I need to be creative in my teaching.

 

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

 

Recognising our tamariki don’t have the academic literacy to access the learning is the research finding that continues to challenge me. Many of our learners simply do not have the literacy skills and confidence needed to record their ideas independently. When you add to this the fear of failure spelling errors brings, it’s not hard to see the reality of the struggle many of our children face in Y7/8 when asked to write to explain.

How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?

 

The support I would like in 2023 is to be a part of planned opportunities to see and hear how other COL teachers drive inquiry in their schools. This would enable us to build on and strengthen the processes we already have in place.

 

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

 

Aside from continuing to model my inquiry on my blog, I have found that the best support I can offer my colleagues with their inquiries is to guide them through the inquiry process term by term. To make this rewindable and manageable a few years ago I created our PBS Teacher Inquiry DLO, which is our version of a ‘how to’ process and is shared with staff in termly chunks. If both Dianne and I are successful in gaining a CoL position Dianne would support the teachers new to our school, and I would support the more experienced teachers who move at a faster pace, as this plays to both our strengths. 

2022 Teacher Inquiry Evaluation...

This year I set out to find out if focusing on Reading for Enjoyment would increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading?

My reason for choosing this inquiry and the shifts between time point 1 testing and time point 2 testing are explained in detail in the previous two posts. The changes/tweaks I made are shared here and the picture the data paints is here. These posts explore both the qualitative and quantitative measures undertaken this year.

Summarise evidence about key changes in teaching and other factors that influence student learning.

Creating a causal chain helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your teacher inquiry. It is so easy to fall down many rabbit holes along the way so having a causal chain to look back on helps to keep you on track. My biggest takeaway from looking at a variety of readings is if we are to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we need a collective and collaborative approach that allows our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading.

I wanted my students to want to read a wide variety of texts because they want to. My aim this year was 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. My challenge was to find out why the links in the chain appeared to be broken again. I work in an ILE and share a class with Dianne Fisi’iahi and knew that if my inquiry was to become a success it needed to become our inquiry.

We began by:

• Actively planning time in class for reading for enjoyment, after all if you want something to happen you need to make time for it to happen.
• Getting to know our learners as readers by gathering student voice through Naomi Rosedale’s Reading for Enjoyment survey.
• Analysing beginning of year data to give us a clear picture of what our students can do and where our knowledge gaps are.
• Connecting with whanau to foster support for reading for enjoyment at home
• Using our student leaders as role models to promote reading for enjoyment across our school
• Creating our own LS2 Reading Challenge to motivate our learners to read a wider variety of texts.
• Making reading for enjoyment visible in our class
• Researching the benefits of RFE and ways other schools have grown this culture

Write an overall evaluation of your intervention in terms of the causal chain you had theorised. To what extent was the intervention successful in changing factors such as teaching? To what extent were those changes in teaching effective in changing patterns of student learning?

At the end of Term 2 I looked back at my causal chain and realised through our weekly RFE tips shared at assemblies by our student leaders and our Leaders in the Library initiative, my students are seen as readers. More importantly they are beginning to see themselves as readers as we are actively reading for enjoyment in our classroom each day. To reinforce this latter point I made a point of capturing all of this in photos which were prominently displayed in our classroom. However because I was always beyond the lens I had not been allowing my learners to consistently see me as a reader.

I was introduced to my students as readers when they completed RFE survey at the start of the year and got to know them better by observing what books they were choosing to read then taking time to talk to them about their chosen texts. I also asked for text recommendations and made sure my learners saw me reading the texts they had suggested I read. This served two purposes, one showed that I was an active reader and the second that I valued their input.

We turned the results of our monitored time we spent RFE and the RFE survey into purposeful statistical inquiries by using the data gathered to identify the problem areas and offer possible solutions. This gave all of us ownership of our shared goal of increasing the time we spent reading for enjoyment.

The RFE display in the classroom not only gave my learners the opportunity to see themselves as readers but also the opportunity to talk about the importance of RFE to their whanau during our student-led conferences. The parents/caregivers enjoyed seeing not only their children in LS2 reading but also their younger children. Listening to some of the conversations taking place during this time I realised that our learners understood what RFE was and were able to talk about why they needed to be encouraged to do this at home. As a result most of the parents/caregivers leaving the room promised to help keep the reading for enjoyment going at home.

Timetable opportunities for RFE so students read the books they take out of the library and introduce LS2 RFE challenge to encourage students to RFE in their own time helped us to drive this initially, however whilst the timetabling remained in place, our reading challenge fell by the wayside. After several attempts to reignite this we understood that our 2022 were not motivated by the follow up challenges. We wanted them to want to read so readily removed any barriers that may have prevented this from happening. What was a success however was our RFE Holiday Challenge. A reading challenge created and managed by two of our student leaders. What was exciting to see was who participated and what they have posted on their blogs, even more amazing was the interaction that took place in the blog comments. 38% of our class took part in this challenge which may look like a low number, but in my mind that's 38% of our class that we know of who made time to read for enjoyment over the holiday break.

As I stated in a previous inquiry, in all assessments our students are required to read and respond to questions. Often our students are often not literate in their own language so the gaps that emerge when questions are written in English are getting wider, thus causing bigger disconnects in the learning. Sharing an infographic I saw online with our class last helped to strengthen connections and understandings to the importance of RFE. We didn't focus on the test scores rather the amount of word knowledge gained by finding 20 minutes a day to read.

Creating and referring back to my causal chain has resulted in this intervention successfully changing my thinking around the value of RFE in the classroom. I am now seen as a reader and know that if this is to continue I need to continue to motivate my learners and plan time for this to happen within our class program. The changes in teaching have been effective in changing patterns of student learning as our students now open the covers of the books that once simply stayed in their trays. The data analysed in my previous two posts are evidence of the shifts in both mindset and learning. I do see a change in attitude towards reading, strengthened connections to new learning, increased vocabulary awareness which has been transferred to personal writing, higher levels of self efficacy and an overall shift in achievement which has resulted in a higher number of our learners achieving at or above the expected norms in literacy.

Write a reflection on your own professional learning through this inquiry cycle.

One of the most important changes I made in my teaching was to make sure my students saw me as a reader. Chrissy Smith put it best when she said ‘by not reading with our students we are not valuing what we are asking them to do’. I am definitely now a teacher who actively opens a book when my students open a book. My biggest takeaway from looking at a variety of readings earlier in the year was that if we were to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we needed a collective and collaborative approach that allowed our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading. Leaders in the Library, whanau support and sharing RFE tips at assemblies has helped achieve this and are initiatives I want to keep in place when we move into our 2023 learning journey.

I have summarised my own learning in my Bursts in Bubbles presentation which can be read  here. My journey this year reminded me if you want something to become a success you need to be walking the walk and talking the talk. Plan for it, drive it and find ways to give your students ownership of the change you want to effect.

Timepoint 2 Testing - What the Data tells us...

When we began this inquiry both Dianne and I knew intrinsic motivation to want to read for enjoyment was something our learners wouldn't achieve on their own. We needed to develop a class culture where reading for enjoyment was seen as the norm. Influenced by the decision to build a class culture is why we chose to show student data from the whole class as selecting a target group wouldn't give us a true picture of the change. Due to absence and students transitioning in and out of our class over the year we are now sharing the data of the 26 students who were present at both timepoints.

The presentation below is an comparison of our time point 1 and time point 2 data and paints a clear picture of the shift that has occurred in attainment levels. I still believe that the last two years of disruptions to learning due to Covid and ongoing unexplained absences this year are still impacting some of our students learning opportunities, as connections made through continuity and consolidation have not been consistent.

Link to presentation

Analysis of PAT Reading data shows at TP1 27% of Year 7 students and 40% of Year 8 students were achieving at or above the norm. TP2 data shows shift in both year groups with Year 7 increasing by 46% to 73% and Year 8 increasing by 20% to 60% at or above the expected norms.

An observation both Dianne and I made during the TP2 testing was the increase in confidence across the board. The TP2 tests took longer to complete than the TP1 test, perhaps because this time responses were informed and linked to the text rather than randomly 'guessed' as we suspected happened during the TP1 testing. Probe running record results reflect a shift that aligns with the rest of our data. RFE opportunities have increased our learner's reading mileage and exposed them to a wider range of vocabulary. Current data shows at least 60% of our students in both Year 7 and Year 8 who were present at both testing timepoints are reading at or above their chronological age, with the most significant shift belonging to our Year 8 learners. When looking at the vocabulary section of the e-asTTle writing the data between the reading ages and vocabulary scores shows that 60% of our Year 7 learners have shifted from 'below' to 'at' or 'above'.

The shifts evident in the data show that there has been an increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading. However, alongside our Reading for Enjoyment focus our active participation in the T-Shaped Literacy and Extended Discussion PD have complimented and strengthened all reading opportunities in our learning space. Reading a wide variety of texts has allowed our learners to move beyond the literal by considering and discussing mood, atmosphere, characterisation, narrators and point of view. The connections to these focus areas has enriched our discussion and have enhanced all reading opportunities, both in class and when reading for enjoyment. All three interventions have given us the opportunity to help our learners strengthen their connections between the written word and their comprehension.

Describe and explain the changes/tweaks you have made in your practice along the way...

Motivation is intrinsically related to engagement, so learner engagement was a vital component in establishing a class culture of learners who are motivated to read for enjoyment and understand the benefits that reading outside of the classroom could bring them. Developing this motivation did not happen by magic. This is something Dianne and I have worked hard to develop with one of the most important changes we made to our teaching being to make sure our students saw us as a readers. Chrissy Smith put it best when she said ‘by not reading with our students we are not valuing what we are asking them to do’

If I roll back the clock to the start if the year, I remember walking past the student trays in our class and noticing that the library books I had seen earlier in the week were in exactly the same place. The reason for this was simply that no one said they could take the books they had borrowed home. I knew I needed to do something about this but I didn’t know how.

After a very rich learning conversation with Naomi Rosedale I had a tentative pathway mapped out going forward and was challenged to think about and inquire into and track my learners’ reading dispositions and interests. I didn’t have to start from scratch as I was able to use Naomi's Reading for Enjoyment survey with my class to help me get to know my students as readers.

Our data showed that within our class there was 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 whom the gap has widened each year. By strengthening students connections to the benefits of reading for enjoyment, I hoped to see a change in attitude towards reading, strengthened connections to new learning, increased vocabulary awareness which would be 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.

Gathering student voice gave us a clear picture of where our students were at, what they were thinking and what we needed to do to allow our learners to make their individual connections to the learning. Naomi's reading for enjoyment survey has allowed me to measure both the small and big changes. The presentation below does exactly that. Each slide contains the comparative data gathered from time point 1 and time point 2. Underneath the graphs I have analysed the shifts in more detail. It is important to note here that although this was a whole class inquiry I have only anaysed the data gathered from the 26 students present at both data collection times. I have gathered data from a cross section of students. The biggest and most noticeable change towards the benefits of reading for enjoyment are the mindsets of our students. 

Link to presentation

We adapted our timetable to incorporate RFE as a valued and visible part of our program and by that I don't mean we just made a time slot for reading. We discussed books, created book chains, created our own student led holiday reading challenge (explained in more detail in this post), introduced the Leaders in the Library initiative (explained in more detail in this post), shared our weekly RFE tips at our school assemblies and invited our whanau to share our journey. Reading for enjoyment needed to be visible so I spent the year capturing and displaying photos of our learners actively reading. The idea behind this was that if we couldn't see ourselves as readers change would not happen. Additionally we made and displayed posters to encourage others to RFE. 

One of the most successful ideas we tried was to put the data we gathered back in the hands of our learners. As a class we analysed the initial RFE survey findings and came up with ideas as to how we could change the deficit we had towards RFE. This was how the LS2 Reading Challenge was born. Our thinking was that if our learners had ownership of the challenge they would have more skin in the game. Following on from this we decided to capture the time spent RFE. This post explains this in more detail. What surprised us as teachers was that simply being transparent with the amount of time spent RFE motivated our most reluctant readers to come in before school and open the cover of a book. 

However not everything we tried worked. When we began this journey as I mentioned earlier, we created our own RFE challenge. This started with a hiss and a roar but Dianne and I quickly realised that our students preferred to read and talk about their books instead of completing follow up challenges. Not wanting disengagement to raise its head we let this idea fall by the wayside. It's not something I wouldn't try to use in the future but was something that didn't work this year.  

Did our focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading? The qualitative data discussed and analysed in this post indicates that we most definitely increased our student's motivation to read which tells us that barriers have come down because we took the time to make something that was not the norm become the norm. By walking the walk and talking the talk we removed the fear of failure that fuels low self efficacy and showed our learners that RFE opens the doors to a wide variety of learning opportunities.

LS2 Chromebook Slam!

This afternoon we held our first digital SLAM in LS2. This was an opportunity for our students to share a Chromebook tip with each other in a fast paced an energetic way. These are not our original tips but are shortcuts we find useful in our 1:1 digital classroom. 

T Shaped Literacy Unit 2 - Characterisation...

This term our T shaped literacy unit focused on characterisation in texts. We decided that we would do this unit with the whole class with the students being grouped in mixed ability groups. I lead the last unit so this time around Dianne took the lead. After creating our unit we remembered or more able students shared with us that they feel frustrated when they have to take the lead in groups instead of being able to work alongside others who work at their speed and at their ability level. To rectify this we made the decision that I would take a small group characterisation unit that ran alongside Dianne's unit. To keep this entirely separate we used different texts for each group although our learning intentions were the same. Dianne used the text 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and I used 'Wolves' in children's literature. As Dianne had a much larger group she was supported by our TA Linda.

Like last time we began by introducing the word characterisation so that everyone understood what is was that we would be focusing on. To help our students and ourselves strengthen our connections to this focus we used the excerpt from the text 'Beans' that Aaron shared with us in our PD sessions. These activities can be found on here on slides 98 - 106. Both Dianne and I then front loaded our groups with vocabulary they would be needing to make sense of the learning. This can be found here on slides 11 - 22

We chose to collate all the tasks in a Google presentation again this time around as it kept everything in one place. The DLO below is my teaching DLO. Each group had a response DLO where all their responses were recorded.  My group had an individual response DLO as it was a much smaller group. Again, it kept everything in one place and made following up on tasks manageable. The purpose of the response DLO is to have a holding place for the learning along the way. Their learning conversations were rich and their create tasks looked quite different. 

Having the reference slides was a huge help as this allowed for ongoing rewindable learning opportunities to occur. What I found was that this was actually a challenge to navigate past so I created a slide that worked along the lines of a contents page. This was a tweak mid unit as I found myself scrolling for days to find the slide I was currently working on.

 

The Wolves unit focused on the way author's influence the perception we have of wolves as readers. In most children's literature the character of the wolf is more often than not portrayed in a negative light. As we explored these texts we found a number of similarities between the words used to describe their appearance (eg: big eyes, sharp teeth) and the illustrations even though the authors and illustrators in each text were different people. My students then filled tables that reflected their first impressions and synthesised their findings across the range of texts we were exploring. We incorporated learning from our Mood and Atmosphere unit to allow for consolidation and transference of learning. Each text we unpacked had the same follow up activities so again that allowed opportunities for connections to be strengthened. My Wolves unit took on a critical literacy approach so we compared texts that showed the wolf character from both perspectives. In place of sharing the activities created I have chosen this time to highlight the student's work via their blog links and a collaborative DLO. Not everything we did was blogged as not everything was a 'create' task. 

Character Story Response - This was a collaborative task that incorporated shared ideas and rich discussion opportunities.

Wolf Character Analysis - The Three Pigs - This was a collaborative task that involved a co-constructed questionnaire, individual data collation followed rich discussion opportunities when the data was analysed. What I like about this post is the fact the students have widened their audience by including a google form to help them gather a wider range of data from their global audience. This will make for interesting comparisons if we get any responses.

First Impressions of Character Analysis  - An individual task that showcased individual connections made to the learning. The students were free to adapt their DLO layouts but again have chosen to use the layout and colours I chose in the response DLO. You will see from reading these that strong connections were made.

For our final task I asked the students to use their learning of mood, atmosphere, sensory imagery and characterisation to describe a wolf from a text of their choice that we had read and unpacked. The examples below reflect how these students perceive the wolf character they chose to describe.

Santana's Description

David's Description

Chisa's Description

Bella's Description

Farzana's Description

This was another powerful unit of learning. I spent the first week setting my students up using  Aesop's, Wolf in Sheep's clothing text. Upon reflection modelling and co-constructing responses alongside my students that week enabled them to continue to work independently when I was off work sick for two weeks. Although there were teachers present in the classroom, I chose not to let this learning fall away because I wasn't there. I wasn't up to Google Meets so we made use of emails and the comments tool for feedback, questions to be asked and guidance to be given. I'm very aware of the affordances that learning in a digital environment offered us in this version of distance learning and am so grateful that we took the time to set ourselves up for success as this allowed us to keep this learning going.

Click here to find Dianne's blog and her reflection of her T shaped Characterisation unit.

T Shaped Literacy Unit 1 - Mood and Atmosphere...

This is my reflection of our first T shaped literacy unit that focused on the mood and emotions in a text. We decided that we would do this unit with the whole class with the students being grouped in mixed ability groups, except for our two 'top' groups. We kept these groups separate as we wanted to see how they would rise to the challenges set. This group of students have shared with us that they feel frustrated when they have to take the lead in groups instead of being able to work alongside others who work at their speed and at their ability level. This proved to be an excellent decision as it not only allowed the two groups to realise their full potential, but saw other students who would normally take a more passive role, stepping up. 

We began by introducing the words mood and atmosphere so that everyone understood what is was that we would be focusing on. These lessons were shared in an earlier post.

Our provocation that underpinned our learning was: ‘Man should die fighting hard like the struggling shark not tamely submitting like the lazy Tarakihi.’ Should the men of the native contingent have had the right to prove their mettle at the front?

I was responsible for creating and running this unit, with Dianne supporting me. We will be reversing the roles in the next unit. Doing it this way allowed Dianne to observe me and give me regular feedback, in addition to supporting the student learning. I chose to collate all the tasks in a Google presentation as it kept everything in one place. The DLO below is my teaching DLO. Each group had a response DLO where all their responses were recorded. Again, it kept everything in one place and made following up on tasks manageable. I do realise this looks like creativity was a bit stifled, and to some extent I agree. In the past when I have run T shaped units my groups have all naturally changed the look of their response DLOs, but this year they didn't. Perhaps because these students needed the scaffolding in place. The purpose of the response DLO was to have a holding place for the learning along the way. Their learning conversations were rich and their create tasks looked quite different. 

The master copy of the response DLO. Each group made a copy and used this as the place they recorded their thinking and added the links to their recorded learning conversations. Really useful additions to this DLO were the 'Questions we have' slide and the 'Vocabulary we don’t understand' slide. Discussing the content of these slides at the start of each lesson meant that we learnt with and from each other the whole way through. 

What has amazed me throughout this learning experience is the way my students have connected to the learning. I don't recall ever having asked them to look closely at the way the author uses mood and atmosphere in the text before, so this focus was completely new. Their understanding is reflected in the discussions that we chose to record on Screencastify and in their DLOs. 

One of the highlights of this unit for me was when a student who finds many aspects of reading a challenge called me over to his group and said, "Mrs Anderson we can't believe they had racial profiling back then.... The men of Te Hokowhitu-a-tu were overlooked because of the colour of their skin.... I can't believe that some people in England thought the Maori men wouldn't be safe if they had guns, that's just dumb!" I was so shocked by what he said I wrote it down as soon as we finished talking. This just proves the importance of helping our students make connections to the learning. His 'ah ha' moment set the tone for the rest of his learning. He confidently contributed to class and group discussions from then on, and on a number of occasions took on a leadership role in his group. Something he usually shies away from.

I'm excited to see how we can transfer this learning across our wider literacy program.

The impact of reading 20 mins each day...

'Children who read for just 20 minutes per day see 1.8 million words each year and have scores on standardised tests in the 90th percentile (because they have experienced so many words!). Compare this with the child who is reading for just 1 minute per day, they only see 8000 words each year and have scores in the 10th percentile on standardised tests. A small amount of reading each day makes an incredible difference!' (Nagy and Herman, 1987) Infographic sourced here.

I saw this poster online and shared it with my class last week then asked them to talk about the purpose of the message in the poster. We didn't focus on the test scores rather the amount of word knowledge you gain if you find 20 minutes a day to read. This resulted in a rich discussions as connections were made as to why reading is so important. 

How Maths helped my students see their true RFE picture...

Giving my students and authentic purpose to carry out a statistical inquiry strengthens their connections to the task as a whole. This year we have been trying to increase the time we spend reading for enjoyment (RFE). After chatting with Fiona about my inquiry I realised I needed to be regularly monitoring my intervention so that I had concrete data to allow me to measure shifts over smaller periods of time. 

I wanted to find out:

• How much time do you RFE each week?
• What time we are reading?
• Where we read?

The Process:

I found out:

To allow me to gather a fair picture of the time spent RFE I used the data from the 22 students who were present at school for the time period 30/7 - 12/8. This meant that my data was clean as it put everyone on an even playing field as no one had extra time to read, or missed the opportunities that were given in class to read.

From the data I collected I can see that evenings are the most popular time for reading for enjoyment in LS2, with bedrooms being the preferred space. When we unpacked this further I found out that this is the time of day when chores are done, younger siblings are in bed and RFE is used to get some downtime in a quiet space. What I didn't include in this data was that 7/22 students choose to RFE on a rainy day. 

Hours spent RFE increased by 129 hours from 143 hours in week 1 to 273 hours in week 2. This is probably a direct result of our focus on RFE. I can see from data not included that the students who were absent during this measurement period, RFE was not something that is embedded in the reading habits of my students. The overall data paints a good picture as shift did occur. My goal now is to explore ways I can keep this momentum going.

Restating my inquiry question and chain of events...

'Will a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading?' This is the question that is guiding my inquiry this year and is the question I keep coming back to when I need to refocus myself. My thinking behind this question has been if I open the doors that lead to opportunities for my learners to read for enjoyment I will open the doors that self efficacy is hiding behind. A few weeks ago I was chatting with Fiona about where I was at in my inquiry when she asked me how I was changing minds and ideas...

My earlier blogpost about my causal chain is here. I use this tool to keep myself on track and focused on my inquiry. Taking the time to evaluate where I'm at to write this blogpost, shows me that I'm meeting the goals I set. I have needed to reset timeframes a few times and this is something I think needs to be shared. Things happen along the way that cause us to lose focus or traction. It is how we get back on those tracks that counts, not how long it took us. 

Term 2 was a challenge for me as far as my inquiry was concerned. Erratic attendance, timetable changes and staff absences meant we weren't able to get the traction I had hoped we would at this stage in the year due to disconnects in continuity. Not an excuse just a real picture of the current climate many schools find themselves in. At the end of the term I worked alongside a group of students to help them create our LS2 RFE Holiday Challenge to help reignite my inquiry for both myself and my students. We 'sold' the idea to our parents at our student led conferences by having a wall display that each student explained to their whanau. Having such a visible display was the key to opening rich and purposeful dialogue about what reading for enjoyment is and why it is so important. It worked! My students and their families bought into the challenge and I was motivated after watching the challenge evolve online. 

                                 

Fast forward to Term 3... Reading for enjoyment (RFE) is firmly embedded into our timetable. We begin each learning day with all of us stopping and reading for enjoyment for 15 minutes. To help us keep track of the time we use a large purple egg timer as this not only ensures no short cuts with time but also gives those who need a visual guide, exactly that. 

I made sure I introduced the book I'm reading with the class and told them what made me want to read it. My current book is Bastion Point 507 Days on Takaparawha, Auckland, 1977-78 by Tania Roxborogh. All our students know that I love history so by sharing that I chose to read this text because I want to see the event from a different perspective (- I explained here that I only knew what I heard my parents talking about from what the papers reported at the time) I am also showing my learners that I am a lifelong learner. This text has lead to a number of chats with my students who have shared how some of their whanau were there and have told me about their memories of the protest. One student has even asked to read the book after me because her nan was there and she wants to talk to her about what she remembers. 

I had collected baseline data using Naomi Rosedale's RFE survey in Term 1 and knew that I was going to give my students the same Google form in Term 4 then compare the data, but realised the gap between time point 1 and time point 2 would be too long to wait to see if any change is taking place. I knew if wanted to capture a true picture I would need to get buy in from the class so I created a purpose for our challenge (statistics) and asked the students how we could record the time spent we reading for enjoyment over the next seven days. A number of suggestions were made with the most popular being that I create a chart to put on the board that the students would fill in each morning. 

This worked really well as everyone was able to add at least 15 minutes to the chart every day. The visibility of the chart kept it alive in the classroom and the larger times being recorded by some, motivated others. At the end of week 2 we had a set of data that we transferred to individual Google spreadsheets, graphed and analysed. To allow for comparisons to be made and measured we decided to collect data for the following week. A task made much easier when we harnessed the digital affordances. The end result had a number of outcomes:

1. Each student was able to see the progress in time spent reading for enjoyment. Those that had gaps were able to explain why, making everyone accountable to themselves.
2. I got a rich overall picture of the amount of time the class as a whole spend RFE.
3. We had an authentic purpose for our maths task that made the learning meaningful and purposeful.
4. The data collection served as an intrinsic motivator to encourage everyone to find time to read for enjoyment.
5. I realised that my students enjoy talking to me about the books they are reading so I need to continue to make time for this to happen.
6. My class respond well to reading challenges.
7. This challenge reminded me that I needed to drive it constantly. RFE is not an embedded habit in our classroom so I need to continue to motivate and encourage my students if I want them to pick a book and enjoy it.

Have a look at David, Farzana and Fotu's blogs to see what they discovered about their RFE habits.

RFE Holiday Challenge...

At the end of last term I challenged our student leadership team to create and manage a holiday reading challenge. The students who accepted the challenge are all working towards a CARE badge, an initiative where our Year 7 and 8 students use our school CARE values of confidence, attitude, respect and excellence to strengthen their leadership skills. 

Our RFE challenge is running on a similar format to the Summer Learning Journey and is 100% student led. Creating this challenge has created another opportunity for the LS2 students to read for enjoyment. What has been exciting to watch is who has participated and what they have posted on their blogs, even more amazing was the interaction that took place in the blog comments! 38% of our class took part in this challenge which may look like a low number, but in my mind that's 38% of our class that I know of who made time to read for enjoyment over the holiday break. I love the fact this student created, student led and student managed challenge was a success! 

This time I did not comment on any blogs as it wasn't about my input. I wanted to see if we had genuine buy in for RFE instead of 'I'd better do this as Mrs Anderson is checking our work'. If we run this again I would encourage the leaders to send out daily whole class motivational emails to inspire more people to join in and to maintain the momentum. Capturing student voice when we get back to school will give us some real and honest feedback that we can use to strengthen this idea going forward.

I would like to say a huge thank you to our awesome student leaders who created and ran this challenge without any teacher intervention, and to our awesome students who kept their learning going by reading for enjoyment and completing the follow up tasks.

Have a look at Chisa, Farzana and Fotu's blog posts to see this challenge from the student's perspective. 

Causal Chain... A tool for planning and reflecting...

This year I want to find out if a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading? Creating a causal chain helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your teacher inquiry. It is so easy to fall down many rabbit holes along the way so having a causal chain to look back on helps to keep you on track. My biggest takeaway from looking at a variety of readings is if we are to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we need a collective and collaborative approach that allows our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading. 

Looking back at my causal chain I realise my students are seen as readers through our Leaders in the Library initiative, through sharing reading tips at our school assemblies and by actively reading for enjoyment in the classroom. It is important that my learners see themselves as readers too so I have made a point of capturing all of this in photos which are clearly displayed in our classroom. However when I look back at my causal chain I can see that because I'm always taking photos I have not been allowing my learners to consistently see me as a reader. As we approach Term 3 I know exactly what my goal is... make sure my learners see me as a reader too.

Link to causal chain

Toolkit: “I only read if I have to": How to change mindsets inside and outside school."

Last term Dr Naomi Rosedale invited me to join her in presenting a toolkit about the benefits of Reading for Pleasure and why it is so important to change mindsets inside and outside school. 

The link to our screen recording is here

Professional Readings...

Reading for Pleasure — A Door to Success...

Link to original text

'Aside from the sheer joy of exercising the imagination, research shows reading for pleasure improves literacy, social skills, health, and learning outcomes.' 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.' There are a number of benefits of RFE that are identified by the National Library article, Reading for pleasure — a door to success, but I would like to highlight the fact that RFE helps to develop positive attitudes towards reading and increases self efficacy, which as we know breeds success in reading and across a wider range of learning areas. If you feel you're good at something you’re more prepared to engage.

• Opportunity for choice = motivation
• Frequency, duration and increases reading mileage
• Stimulates imagination
• Academic success 
• Engagement
• Stronger social and oral skills
• Positive reading attitudes
• Self-confidence as a reader

The students we teach now 'will need literacy to feed their imaginations, so they can create the world of the future.'

Why is reading for pleasure important?

Link to original article

Books and reading transform lives and enrich our communities. Research cited in this article also shows that reading for pleasure at school is strongly influenced by relationships between teachers and children, and children and families. Parents are influential in developing early reading for enjoyment, and if books are valued from a young age, this is likely to continue. We need to take a collective and collaborative approach across school and community. Exposure to a wide vocabulary helps children absorb and connect to information across the curriculum. 

The Benefits of Reading for Pleasure

Link to original text

'When a reader is lost in a book... it develops the capacity to engage... visualise meanings, relate to characters, and participate in making meaning.... it develops the capacity to experience the world from other perspectives' 

One idea I took from this article that will help me promote RFE is to be seen as a fellow reader by my students. The idea shared here was to put up a sign eg: “Mrs A is reading _____.” The article suggested I share not only texts I choose to read for pleasure but also suggests I share that I am reading the texts my students like to read to help to foster informal opportunities for us to talk about a wider variety texts. My biggest takeaway from these readings is if we are to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we need a collective and collaborative approach that allows our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading. 

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.