Term 3/4 Inquiry- Writing

 

SCANNING: WHAT IS GOING ON FOR MY LEARNERS?

At my mid year data I can see that I have a considerable number of students who are not writing at expectation. This is also reflected in school wide data. What I believe is contributing to this:

- some students have corresponding reading and writing levels below expectation which has been the case for over a year.

-some students are reluctant writers, I think they have the ability but are not willing to focus on writing tasks and complete them to the standard that they are capable of. These writers are at/above in reading. Predominately boys in this group.

-as I was learning BSLA and focusing on accreditation the planning was focused on reading. Literacy time has been focused on reading and PHOM. Small group reading has been a main focus for me and a non negotiable. There has not been a focus on whole class writing lessons.

-students are making pleasing progress in PHOM teaching and picking up spelling patterns, there is not a lot of evidence of students transitioning this into their writing.

FOCUSING: WHERE DO I THINK CONCENTRATING MY ENERGY WILL MAKE THE MOST DIFFERENCE?

• I am going to focus on the reluctant writers in my class. These students are sitting at 1P and I would like to move them to 1A/2B by the end of the year. This is a group of ten boys.
• I am going to change my weekly timetable to allocate 2 whole class writing sessions, Jorja will teach a third on Wednesdays, as well as writing activities to work on independently during reading time.
• I will need to develop ideas that engage these learners. It will have a positive impact on the rest of the class as well.

DEVELOPING A HUNCH.

These learners will need good models of writing and a clear understanding of what success looks like.

They will need scaffolds and incentives and clear feedback.

They will need engaging prompts and motivations for writing.

Notes from discussion with Ange:

Different writing ideas for class.

- timed writing sessions, cant stop "Freedom writing"

-being "authors" recording stories rather than writing them.

I will try to incorporate these different types of activities into the weekly programme.

Inquiry Reflection

 This term I have been trying to continue to implement BSLA into my Literacy Programme. I have not been attending the Zooms this term but I have the resources available to access.

Successes this term:

I have been using the Fun Facts resources. I use these as a whole class shared reading and I have been finding success in the students independently working on the comprehension tasks that follow on from them. I think this is a good skill to develop for the more able readers as they are now reading to learn information. I think these would be a good resource for older students in our school to use as well.

I am continuing to teach whole class PHOM lessons, which I think are valuable. I like the explict teaching in these lessons.  I have not been making a good connection with the BSLA reading groups so that the sequence is aligned. I need to address this once I have completed testing and restructured by groups and identified needs.

Challenges:

I am feeling unsure of the progress being made in my BSLA reading groups. Some students seem to be moving well, others seem to take 2 steps forward, 1 step back. I hope that my BSLA release time can ensure that I can correctly assess them and discuss with Ange.

I need to take the time to really master the small group teaching of reading.

I will need to take some time to review this.

It is challenging to try to correctly implement the BSLA programme alongside the rest of my Y3 learners who now read 8yr +. But I think that the foundational knowledge is beneficial for me to use at any level.

Notes from Iwi Lead PD "Walking Stories"

 24.4.23

Stories of Ngati Kahu - Te Ikanui

Marangi -East 

Tumoana - knowledge of Moana name meaning.

Toka tumoana- rock standing in water.

Tu Moana Came to the rarawa and back again, chief navigator.

Kahutianui/daughter wouldn't let him come back. Sent 3 waves back as signs.

Moved throughout Mitimiti, Shipwreck Bay etc. Sent back lightning/ storms and tohu.

Tu Moana sends Parata back to Kahitianui, on Tinana te Waka. He promises to look after her. 

 Ko Mamaru the Waka. Mamaru a sail/ra/triangle, filled with wind, that is mamaru. Slicing through water. Mamaru a gift given to Parata from Tumoana.

Tinana waka changed name to Mamaru.

Rangatira- weave a ropu. Mao world view someone who weaves ppl together.

Mamangi - wind stopped waka drifting. Named child that during that time.

Parata- amazing navigator to follow Tumoana's directions.

Tukanikani- child born when Parata danced with joy for arriving at Hawaiki.

Ngati Kahu- named after a women therefore great respect to women and children.

Transience a trait like Tumoana traveling back and from.

Mamangi- first child. Drifting on sea

Tukanikani- second child. Celebrating w dance.

Hone Sadler- rauemi/pukapuka

Reflections/Notes on Zoom 27th April- Assessment Tasks: Case Study.

Assessment Tasks: Case Study.

• 2 focus students.
• 1 needs to be lower level at baseline
• other at any level
• 1x small group reading obs
• 1x Tier 1 Obs
• 1x facilitator/tcher validation doc

-bullet points ok

1. Background/learning context/class info etc.

2. Data of focus stds: age, length of school, whanau context. Data baseline/ 10 weeks later etc where was growth, next steps etc. Reflect on Zoom PHOM informed teaching.

3. Small group reading- rational for choice, how did you inform choice?

How do they respond to teaching? Detailed noticing's

Refer to Zoom 9th March- Sml group reading. reflect on.

4. Whanau engagement- successes' and challenges. Reflect on the Zoom 

5. Challenges/Successes':

• - whanau?
• - happy to take risks etc
• - how did you meet challenges? attendance, risk taking to meet success with teaching.

6. Teir 2: 

• how did identify who needed Tier 2 approach?
• Don't have to teach Tier 2 but have a plan for the learners.
• Comment on Zoom.

7. Reflections: incl obs form, reflect on the obs, refer to pre/post surveys- how did they help my knledge.

-Use the word doc to practice assignment. (dont submit this, copy and paste into submission)

-Feedback form for my Taumata from facilitation.

-Validation form to be used

To submit case study- attempt quiz now, then copy and paste answers into box. Drag and drop files where necessary. 

Tips: 

details, be specific. See slide eg.

Use the response prompts to guide.

Tier 2- use traffic light system (Module 4)

Use word count.

Due 23rd July (Week 2, Term 3)

Last year data can be baseline and use 10 weeks as second point of data. Between two 10 weeks of data points. To reflect on growth for my teaching.

Assessment tasks should be the same as the last data points. 

Connected text to pass- proficiency not to be decoding as they go, not laborious. Used to combine all assessments. Not to be compared to a RR. It is an unseen text.

Year 3 students ok, 2 assessment points within 10 weeks.

Questions for Ange: 

Tier 2, what does this look like for my class?

I need to go back and reflect on my data, check that it is all there, what else do I need to do?

Oral Narrative Zoom reflections

Recommended that Oral narrative lessons to be done separately, I will start to do these in the afternoon with writing lessons.

Hack- narrative cards- magnetize

Hack-Fun facts- comp questions can be done independently (I will try to use these for some of my reading groups)

These lessons can be helpful to transfer into writing

Taumata 2/3- Story structure elements Character/setting etc Explicit teaching

Taumata 4/5 adjective, adverbs etc etc

Taumata 4

Sequencing

Before- talking about what happens before

Adjectives/Adverbs/Complex noun phrases- link to writing.

Taumata 5

Metacognitive verbs- thoughts/feelings/other people's perspectives

Metalinguistics verbs- how characters feel based on what they say

Weeks 7-10 Vocab Deep Dive

Look at Module 3.A.1

Goal: Incorporate this into afternoon programme reading and writing.

Morphological Teaching Strategies- Zoom Reflections

 Taumata 4- Mahuri 

Taumata 5- Rakau

Notes:

• Lead chn to see/discover pattern before teaching it. (e.g ch/tch lesson in video)
• Recommended number of repetitions- research proven (refer to lesson plans)
• Word chains in list one after another. Read back. Goal to be fast, focus on spelling not handwriting etc.
• Link to reading and writing: Taumata 4 Phom to reading. Taumata 5 focus on writing and reading from Phom lesson.
• Use shared text in PHOM lesson. Engaging all learners.
• Refer to optional extension to differentiate for all learners.

Reflection:

I am noticing that my whole class PHOM lessons may not be effectively reaching all learners needs. The children reading Level 19-25 are picking up spelling patterns quickly and need extension. The children in Tupu need more support. The Mahuri group that these PHOm lessons are aimed at are identifying the target sounds in the texts but not transfering them to writing.

I can see how Taumata 5 lessons would really benefit the higher groups and I am wondering if there is a need for the Tupu group to join Rita's class as we had originally planned.

Takeaway:

-Plan to use shared text in PHOM lesson.

-Move though scope and sequence as planned and cycle back.

Small Group Reading and Phonological Awareness Teaching- Zoom reflections.

 Before

• reading sounds
• making and breaking words

During

• focus on words
• rereading for comprehension
• choral/round robin

If fluent/ not decoding too easy

After

• activity from back of book

Lesson plans on TKI for Phonics Plus book. Can be taught over series of days.

Fun Facts resource Found in Taumata 5 but at all levels 3b.4 have a video showing this resource.

Using Colour wheel books as normal. There is no correlation as to where they will end up on colour wheel.

Module 3A4 is Small Group Reading 

Resource section has video for Literacy Tumble ideas.

Maggie Boston Readers

My takeaways for this week:

• Check out Fun Fact resources for other groups.
• Focus on Before reading teaching in small groups this week.
• Find out what are Maggie Boston Readers
• Teaching Fidelity Checklist- complete 1x week.

Phonological awareness Teaching

Mainly at Taumata 1-3

Research shows: 2-3 graphemes a week is more effective than one. Cycle back through.

• Crisp/clean sounds once.
• Matching phoneme to grapheme. 
• Encourage chn to see at mouth. 
• Use target word in sentence.
• Segmenting and Blending
• Model resources before giving chn their own board
• Actions (robot arms) can over load cognitive load. Phoneme fingers encouraged
• Class read aloud with shared decodable text.
• Use the key words in writing activities

My takeaways for this week:

- although I have been creating phonics based activities for independent tasks. Can I include a shared decodable text to simulate a writing activity?

-Go back through the resource section of learn and see what I can utilise in planning next week.

Teaching for Inquiry 2023

 

Teaching for Inquiry 2023.

My Inquiry Question for this year is:

How can I use the pedagogies of BSLA to support Year 3 learners in Literacy?

I have chosen this question as Structured Literacy is a focus area in the Junior Area of our school, I am interested in how this style of teaching can be implemented past Year 1 and 2. Teaching in the senior age group we are often presented with students with poor spelling skills and below readers who have limited phonological understanding, I hope that by inquiring into this area I may develop skills that will help me when teaching all age groups. At Year 3 we often notice some students who plateau at around Green level on the colour wheel. Would the Structured Literacy approach have been more beneficial to these learners? (Focusing)

SCANNING

In this cohort I have a range of students who are reading well into the colour wheel Levels 19-25, however they still present with limited usage of spelling rules.

There is a reading group who are reading fluently at Mahuri level and are now starting to read Orange level books.

There is another group of students reading at Mahuri.

The final group of readers are currently reading at Tupu level.

In the groups that are reading within the BSLA programme there are two students who have learnt to read with the traditional colour wheel approach as well as one being an ex reading recovery student. I have now introduced these two students to the BSLA proramme and I will be interested in seeing how these two particular students progress. (Focusing)

This term I have begun my Micro credential on BSLA and I am starting to implement these practices into my Literacy programme.

 BSLA Module 2 Notes- Year 1

Independent activity ideas: link directly other components of lesson. e.g Quality Picture Book lesson and phonological awareness.

Need to be independent- train class/systematic need explicit teaching. Change target each week rather than too frequently. Consider different learning spaces.

• -utilising buddies/tuakana (from Nikau)
• -must do, can do
• -ideas- bingo, memory, snap
• - eye spy game
• -magnetic letters
• -puppets/picture sequencing
• -pictures of the story and kids write retell
• -handwriting to practise letters/sound
• -building vocabulary: build shelters, retell using seesaw- (focus on vocab), actions using vocab

Module 3 Taumata 5 (Beginning of Year 2)

Base teaching on majority of class needs.

• BB1: Quality Story Book ( Characters, Setting, Problem, Plan, Action and Ending) Thoughts, Feelings verbs- exclaimed, tell, shouted etc
• BB2: Spelling Patterns. Morphology, Prefix, Suffix
• BB3: Reading and Writing based on PHOM
• BB4: Small group reading lessons

Phonological Awareness, Orthographic Patterns and Morphology Skill Building (PHOM)

Explict teaching of phoneme.

Using segmentation board to split up target words into phoneme boxes.

• Maximise teaching: Ask children to read each word aloud once all words have been written.
• Extend teaching: Fast finishers can write a sentence that contains one of the target words.
• Simplify teaching: For children who are having difficulty writing letters, hand out laminated letters or letter blocks for the children to manipulate.

(Questions for Ang: where are these lessons found?)

Links to Reading and Writing

This activity provides an important opportunity for Year 2 children to receive explicit teaching on how to write different types of sentences and how to apply orthographic knowledge to spelling words in context. In many of the activities, teachers and children build sentences related to the quality children's storybook they have been reading and also integrate orthographic patterns that have been taught in the PHOM section of the lesson.

The activity links closely to small group reading instruction using the Ready to Read Phonics Plus Series and the Fun Facts. This part of the lesson can also be used as a springboard for the whole-class writing lesson for the day. Detailed lessons for whole-class writing will be posted on the Learn site over time.

(Question: Where are fun facts found?)

Reading shared book: Discussing- Characters, Setting, Problem, Plan (Solution), Ending

Characters: Write simple sentences that describe characters.

Patrick and Wayne were/are........describe the characters in pairs using mini white boards.

Maximise teaching: Ask children to read sentences aloud. Highlight words that are either tier 2 vocabulary or target words in current or preceding lessons. 

Extend teaching: Fast finishers can add adjectives or adverbs to their phrase.

Simplify teaching: Ask a child to tell their phrase to a buddy who writes it for them.

This week my goal is to start teaching PHOM lessons and small group lessons with one group on the same sound. Starting with Mahuri- ai ay