Day 4 - Reflection

RPI Day 4 Notes

Today I learned that students need a range of complex texts so they can develop their reading and comprehension skills. It is also important to have vocabulary from the text available in visual form, said verbally and with practiced pronunciation. Before reading the text discuss the vocabulary with the students and get them to unpack the meaning. This builds their background knowledge. Prior knowledge is not always helpful because you can get off topic and background knowledge helps them to understand the new topic before reading about it. Sometimes when we introduce the text and introduce the learning intention it can cause the students to disengage with the text. So, it could be beneficial to hook them in first using a video first and then later on bring in the learning intention and success criteria. 

After using the coverage sheet for a while now, it was easy for me to identify that I use a lot of non-fictions texts, so I need to include a range of texts for students to read, such as poem and fiction texts. 

We learned that follow up tasks need to connect back to the vocabulary, have higher level questions, a creative activity and a possible share task. I noticed that a lot of the follow up tasks I have created include ideas discussed with the teacher and vocabulary for the students to discuss. 

Learning about the guided reading model has cemented the steps and actions for me as a teacher and I want to focus on having a hook and giving students background knowledge before jumping straight into a text set. 

I also wanted to mention that I came third in the Kahoot we did and this was actually a huge confidence booster haha!

Observation pointers: I already get my students to quietly read to me during guided reading time, so I'd like my students to record themselves reading once a fortnight and they can post this to their blog. Then students could self assess using this tool or listen to a buddy read and peer assess. Students can self assess their screencastify and fill out the form to add to their blogs.

My reading aloud signal is to tap in front of them and they will point to where they are up to so I know where they are up to and then they will read from there. I have started making observation notes in my workbook under the reflection box. These will be helpful for knowing my learners and what they can do, their progress and for report writing this term. 

Visualisation - Ashley and I discussed how she gets her students to use whiteboards during shared reading so they can visualise the text and draw the pictures they see and then share them with on another at the end of the reading.

We could do an active reflection at the end of reading like we do for writing and maths for students to identify where they have been successful, what they need more work on and their next learning steps.