Reading Practice Intensive - Reading is Core to Learning - Day 1

Today there were many new learnings and some recapping on good teacher practice. One of these was to know your students by having an understanding of what they are interested in and enjoy reading. Low achievement in reading is a social justice issue in Aotearoa and there is evidence that shows learners can make accelerated progress in writing after 3 years of learning at a Manaiakalani school. I want students to record themselves reading so they can hear themselves and then self assess to see where they have been successful and where they need to make changes.

What is the profile of a good reader?

We had to discuss what we thought made a good reader and the dispositions that these learners have.

1. curious - ask questions before, during and after reading

2. resilient - when they make mistakes they can find a way to fix them - bounce back

3. problem solvers - decode

4. critical thinkers - infer, find messages in the text

5. make predictions

6. make connections to what they already know and their experiences

7. understand - comprehend what they are reading - need to read across texts

8. read to learn

9. participating - going to libraries

10. enjoyment

What good readers do stated below.

Some key points:

- Good readers actively make meaning

- Readers participate and need to have access to books

- Good readers read widely - Read to students with the latest books

Good Readers Enjoy Reading This was interesting as I find that the texts I usually select for my students to read are often non-fictions texts where we 'think' about the text and do not necessarily discuss the feelings. This made me think that I need to include more fiction texts so that we can explore 'feelings' and emotive language.

I added in image below because I want to find out what genre my students enjoy reading and if they're not sure or if they haven't read any of these genres, they can then explore them using the RFE challenge board (below).

Robyn Andersons reading challenge Panmure Bridge School (above)

Over next week I will establish some clear ground rules during guided reading time. 

We want to build extended discussions where students are driving the discussion about the texts. 

Students monitor who is talking and can ask questions to their peers like, ‘what do you think Ashley?’ Students to monitor the protocols of talk, e.g active participation or inviting others to talk. We want to teach students to not fear to disagree and justify their opinions. It is important to look at the person who is talking and only have one person talking at a time.

Looking at Reading Data

Students like reading at school but less than 54% of the class were not currently reading a book. Many students do not go to the library to get books to read. Students are aware that reading helps them to learn. Most students do not have a public library card. Around 25% of students regularly read. Fiction, funny and sports related books are the most popular. Most students' favourite time to read is at school. I want to share my struggles with reading when I was younger with my students and help build a sense of identity in reading.

In the coming weeks it will be great to assess students success at using ground rules. Ashley and I were able to see where we were successful and where we needed to make changes, and quickly acted upon these changes after seeing our feedback. (See below).