Rules Around Talk
For the past two weeks, I have been working on implementing ground rules with each reading group. I have modelled to each group what this would looks like, then we have co-constructed a success criteria and after discussions they used it to assess their conversation. Straight away they could identify what they needed to work on next which was usually to include others in talk or to speak one at a time.
We are working on building talk into a book club conversation about the text we are reading and I have seen already great shifts in students participation and sharing of ideas. Students who were reluctant to share their thoughts and ideas are now joining in with discussions because they have to share their ideas with a buddy first and then when we have our group discussion students pick up on those students who have not shared and include them into the discussion.
Analysing PAT Reading Comprehension Data
After assessing students on their reading comprehension and assessing the data, I noticed a trend that students are struggling to make local inferences. I have since started explicitly teaching students how to make inferences and this will be a huge focus throughout the year. Once a term I will assess my lowest group using ARBs to see if they have made any progress.
Fantastic to hear how discussion is going for your learners. Nice work in getting everyone engaged, this can take some setting up but when you have it running well it is easy to get discussion happening in all areas of the curriculum.
ReplyDelete