Day 2 Reflection - Knowing your Learners at Readers

Today we explored our students PAT data with a fine tooth comb to identify where their next learning steps are in reading. We explored all the different ways you can view the students data individually or as year groups. We found that many students need to work on making local inferences when reading poems in particular. This makes me think about my own teaching, where poems are not a huge focus, so this is something that I will incorporate into my text sets in the future. 

We looked at all the reasons why we asses, whether it be formative or summative assessment. Looking at the table below we can see the different effects and importance of why we assess. 

I really liked the teacher workbook, as it is one place where you can keep all of your reading data and information about your learners. I plan in a similar format but using Google Slides, so this could be a great adaptation to my reading planning and monitoring of students. It is all in one document which make it a lot easier to access and switch between reading groups and student information.

I thought giving the students a keyword to search for related texts on Epic was a great way for them to explore texts that are based on the topic, but still giving the students choice. I want to improve my taskboards by adding improved follow up activities and must do or can do activities related to the learning intention. 

Some really good examples of making inferences were shared with us, that allow students to have multiple opportunities to practice and meet their learning intention independently, after teacher instruction. Getting the students to explain their choice gets them thinking about why they have made their decision and forced them to think carefully. These a fairy simple activities that could be easily changed and adapted for my future teaching.

Reflecting on the reading survey data there are 3 students who identified that they did not really like reading. A large portion of the class like reading books in their own time with the exception of around 7. The library use was a bit more of a surprise as about half the class do not issue library books. 85% of the class are currently reading with the exception of 3 boys and 1 girl. Four students generally have low scores on the survey (2s). A lot of students like a wide range of books.  A lot of the books read by students are narratives. 

Building engagement with the students in reading is huge and after setting the rat traps in the Rerenga Awa, we read texts about it and one student showed increased engagement and was quite interested in this. Using more experiences to help students in reading - where they do not realise they are reading. 

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).

The top 4 things to do in Gisborne

Here is my book I created. Check it out here.

DFI Day 9 - Revision

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?


I learnt that it is important for the students learning to be ubiquitous. When the learning can take place anytime, anywhere, at any pace. This model of learning enables students who are out of the classroom during a lesson, the day or week to access to their learning online. We want the learning to be rewindable so that students can go back and revisit the learning they missed and access it from anywhere on their devices.

Technology is not just a tool - It is a power enabling tool.

This saying reminds me to really think critically about the ways that I am using digital learning in my classroom and for what purpose. It is important for me that I connect students to digital learning, so that they can be empowered to learn, create and share their mahi.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

After completing the DFI courses I am feeling very confident in my skills and capability to navigate, create and share using the Google Suite. I have been using all of the Google Suite programmes in my classroom and I have the confidence to teach my students the tricks and skills that I have learnt. We are using the technology not just as a tool but in a way that is enabling students to work collaboratively in and out of the classroom. My workflow on Google Sites has become a lot more fluent and I am regularly adding more content for my students to access.


What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

The Summer Learning Journey is a programme run that allows students to access learning throughout the summer holidays. Research shows that students who participated in this were achieving at much higher levels when they returned back to school after the summer. The expectations for them are to post at least three posts a week and records of the number of posts and comments students were making encouraged students to post and comment more on Blogger.

We touched on making the learning for our students rewindable and I am in the process of making my guided reading sessions digital for this purpose. I have recently had some students who have been away from the class, and they were able to continue their work outside of the classroom on their Chromebooks using the rewindable learning on our Cass Learning Hub. It is not only important for the content the students are accessing to be rewinadable but it is also important that the work they are creating can be renewable also so they can go back and access their own and others learning.


What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Completing the Google Certified Educator Level One Exam today was a great opportunity for me to use a lot of the skills I have learned throughout the DFI course. I was able to confidently complete the tasks and I also know what areas I need to work on in the future. I struggled with some of the data gathering questions in Google Sheets, where you had to sort the average results from highest to lowest. I was able to complete the task but this was an area highlighted to me that I need to work on. I learned how to add tasks from my Gmail, link documents to refer to and set reminders for tasks to be completed. I am going to begin using tasks to set reminders and keep on top of my uncompleted tasks and Gmail messages.

DFI Day 8 - Computational Thinking

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today we visited the Mind Lab and we explored some great interactive and creative activities that align with the Manaiakalni kaupapa of learn, create share. The learning that we did was scaffolded in a way where we were able to explore new areas for ourselves by trial and error. This required us to be collaborative, specific and resilient, particularly in the task where the programmer had to write a set of instructions, the tester had to test these and the robot responded to the commands with a blind fold on. The learning part of this activity was really powerful in the way that showed us to be extremely specific.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 
On the computers we explored Escape my House 360, which is a virtual reality experience of a real house fire. The aim is to escape the house safely before it is too late. This was a great introduction to how effective and influential virtual reality can be. I had to navigate through an unknown house, trying to escape. I came across some obstacles such as a door being locked, a door that was a cupboard and a painted shut window, so I had to find alternate places to exit the building before it was too late. This would be a powerful tool to use with students because they can learn through experience using VRH (virtual reality headset) and get a real sense of what it is like in a real house fire.

CoSpace is another amazing programme we delve into where virtual reality spaces are created and can be explored using computers or by using virtual reality headsets. This was a fun and interactive activity that forced us to be very specific so that our characters would move how we wanted them to.

DFI Day 7 - Enabling Access - Sites

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

One thing that stuck in my mind from today's session was that 'connected learners share'. For students to gain the most of the share component they need to be able to connect with the people reading their content, and vice versa. When children blog their work they are making it accessible to the public which allows anyone from around the world to read and comment on their learning.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I am becoming more and more fluent with the technology that I am using, especially when creating buttons on Google Drawing for my class site. I learnt that you have to download the Google Drawing as a PNG so that I can attach a link to the image on Google Sites. I have made my class site a lot more user friendly by having less tabs, updated buttons and groupings of the students in reading, writing and math. 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

We explored other schools class sites and I found an excellent planning example for inquiry where the students have a range of inquiry topics to explore with step by step instructions. Throughout the term each student selects an inquiry topic and has the week to complete the task. 

Manaiakalani has a Twitter account that pushes all Blogger posts to their Twitter page.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Version History - Life saver for deleted work. (Click: File, version history, click the version  you want to restore, click restore at top of page). 

You can also see who has contributed to the page. See below. 

DFI Day 6 - 5.4.2019

DFI Day 6 - 5.4.2019

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Touching on making the learning journey visible for students and parents sparked some next steps for me to work on over the following weeks. I am aiming to get to a stage in my professional development where I am well planned and can add my planning to my class learning hub. We discussed the importance of learners knowing their next steps and for teachers to begin to think 'the default is visible'. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Today I was really captured by revisiting multimodal learning, where students are given a range of ways to access learning. I found that my understanding for this term was deepened further and I learnt the importance of the 'hook'. If a consumer is to come into a store to purchase something they are often first hooked by the window display and this is the same with students and their leaning. We need to hook our students into learning by creating content that is not only visually and aesthetically pleasing but multimodal and of interest to them. I have been trying to make my learning more aesthetically pleasing on my class learning hub using Google Sites so it was fantastic to see teachers examples of multimodal learning. Even for myself the task created instantly hooked me and looked far more interesting then a set of written instructions with no hook. 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

Feedback - Students are more likely to produce quality work if they are given feedback. 

Novelty of Chromebooks can wear off so we need to develop effective practice for our digital learners.Video, animation, visual, make the learning inviting so the children want to open the learning. 

UDL - Universal Design for Learning. People learn in different ways. Everyone is different. Left and right brain learning. Need to present multiple ways of accessing learning so that every learner gets a chance to learn in their own way. 

Focus Browsing on Harpara - Set the students screens to focus browsing so their Chromebook is locked to a specific activity. This would be fantastic to implement int my literacy and mathematics programmes. 

In the link below Beccs and I created a multimodal task using Google Sites. We included a range of visual images, videos and audio to engage our students in a range of ways. 

https://sites.google.com/saintmarysgis.school.nz/gardenwithscience/home

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Today we were a part of another Hangout video call and I found that by listening to a presentation online using headphones I was much more inclined to listen intently as I had less distractions around me. This then gets me thinking further into providing students with multimodal opportunities like this as this was one way I noticed myself enjoying the learning taking place. I have recently asked my students to bring headphones to school so they can listen to their screencastify videos and this gets me thinking about the effect of using such technology with my students and the impact it could have on their learning.