T Shaped Literacy Unit 1 - Mood and Atmosphere...

This is my reflection of our first T shaped literacy unit that focused on the mood and emotions in a text. We decided that we would do this unit with the whole class with the students being grouped in mixed ability groups, except for our two 'top' groups. We kept these groups separate as we wanted to see how they would rise to the challenges set. This group of students have shared with us that they feel frustrated when they have to take the lead in groups instead of being able to work alongside others who work at their speed and at their ability level. This proved to be an excellent decision as it not only allowed the two groups to realise their full potential, but saw other students who would normally take a more passive role, stepping up. 

We began by introducing the words mood and atmosphere so that everyone understood what is was that we would be focusing on. These lessons were shared in an earlier post.

Our provocation that underpinned our learning was: ‘Man should die fighting hard like the struggling shark not tamely submitting like the lazy Tarakihi.’ Should the men of the native contingent have had the right to prove their mettle at the front?

Robyn was responsible for creating and running this unit. As I had never planned a T shaped literacy unit before we decided together that Robyn would take the lead. We will be reversing the roles in the next unit. Doing it this way allowed me to observe Robyn and give her regular feedback, in addition to supporting the student learning. We chose to collate all the tasks in a Google presentation as it kept everything in one place. The DLO below is Robyn's teaching DLO. Each group had a response DLO where all their responses were recorded. Again, it kept everything in one place and made following up on tasks manageable. We do realise this looks like creativity was a bit stifled, and to some extent I agree. In the past when Robyn has run T shaped units her groups have all naturally changed the look of their response DLOs, but this year they didn't. Perhaps because these students needed the scaffolding in place. The purpose of the response DLO was to have a holding place for the learning along the way. Their learning conversations were rich and their create tasks looked quite different. 

The master copy of the response DLO. Each group made a copy and used this as the place they recorded their thinking and added the links to their recorded learning conversations. Really useful additions to this DLO were the 'Questions we have' slide and the 'Vocabulary we don’t understand' slide. Discussing the content of these slides at the start of each lesson meant that we learnt with and from each other the whole way through. 

What has amazed us throughout this learning experience is the way our students have connected to the learning. I don't recall ever having asked them to look closely at the way the author uses mood and atmosphere in the text before, so this focus was completely new. Their understanding is reflected in the discussions that we chose to record on Screencastify and in their DLOs. 

One of the highlights of this unit for us was when a student who finds many aspects of reading a challenge called Robyn over to his group and said, "Mrs Anderson we can't believe they had racial profiling back then.... The men of Te Hokowhitu-a-tu were overlooked because of the colour of their skin.... I can't believe that some people in England thought the Maori men wouldn't be safe if they had guns, that's just dumb!" She was so shocked by what he said that she wrote it down as soon as they had finished talking. This just proves the importance of helping our students make connections to the learning. His 'ah ha' moment set the tone for the rest of his learning. He confidently contributed to class and group discussions from then on, and on a number of occasions took on a leadership role in his group. Something he usually shies away from.

I'm excited to see how we can transfer this learning across our wider literacy program.

The impact of reading 20 mins each day...

 

'Children who read for just 20 minutes per day see 1.8 million words each year and have scores on standardised tests in the 90th percentile (because they have experienced so many words!). Compare this with the child who is reading for just 1 minute per day, they only see 8000 words each year and have scores in the 10th percentile on standardised tests. A small amount of reading each day makes an incredible difference!' (Nagy and Herman, 1987) Infographic sourced here.

Robyn saw this poster online and shared it with our class last week then asked them to talk about the purpose of the message in the poster. We didn't focus on the test scores rather the amount of word knowledge you gain if you find 20 minutes a day to read. This resulted in a rich discussion as connections were made as to why reading is so important. 

Causal Chain 2022

Causal Chain - Reading for Enjoyment

This year my teaching partner Robyn Anderson embarked on a crusade (which I jumped on board) to get our students to increase their reading.  The inquiry was not just to focus on reading but getting the students to read for enjoyment. We wanted to find out if a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student self efficacy and capability in Reading?  The first step was creating a causal chain which helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your teacher inquiry. It is so easy to lose focus along the way so having a causal chain to look back on helps to keep you on track. After RA had done some research along with our shared discussions on how we could increase our classes reading practices or lack thereof, we noted that to develop reading for pleasure habits in students we need a collective and collaborative approach that allows our tamariki to see role models at school and at home who value reading. 

Looking back at my causal chain I realise my students are seen as readers through our Leaders in the Library initiative, through sharing reading tips at our school assemblies and by actively reading for enjoyment in the classroom. It is important that our learners see themselves as readers too so we have made a point of capturing all of this in photos which are clearly displayed in our classroom. However when I look back at my causal chain I can see that because Robyn or myself is always taking photos I have not been allowing my learners to consistently see me as a reader. As we approach Term 3 I know exactly what my goal is... make sure my learners see me as a reader too.

     

Link to causal chain

Leaders in the Library

 

Implement and Try #1: Leaders in the Library...

Last week during Robyns weekly catch up with our student leaders, they discussed ways they can inspire others to read for enjoyment. After talking through a couple of a suggestions they all decided one way they could do this was to offer a weekly lunchtime reading opportunity. The plan is to invite one class a week on a Monday to join the leaders in the library for story time. There is no formal plan as they want this to be organic and evolve naturally.

To set ourselves up for success we introduced the Leaders in the Library idea to the school at our weekly assembly. Room 7, our Year 2 students were the first class to be invited. Even though I'm pretty sure they didn't fully understand, Room 7 were very excited to hear they had been chosen as the first class to take part. To keep the momentum going we will be announcing the name of the class who will be invited to join us each week at assembly. 

Fast forward to today... The students of Room 7 were invited to join our Leaders in the Library group for story time. Some students wanted to have a story read to them 1:1, some preferred having a story read to them with their friends in the same small group, and others want to read the book to one of our leaders themselves. As teachers our total input to this initiative was to unlock the library and take photos. Our amazing student leaders took control and created the most welcoming and relaxing reading environment. When Robyn walked back into the library after chatting to a colleague she saw one of our Year 8 students helping one of our younger learners to choose a book. She was asking him all sorts of questions to understand what type of story he enjoyed so she could help him choose the 'perfect' book. Dotted all over the library were pairs or small groups of Year 2 students enjoying exploring stories with our Year 8 students. What truly amazed us even more was that apart from the murmur of the reading together session, there was absolutely no need for any behaviour reminders. All the students who were there wanted to be there. 

A shared love of books was the connection these students had today despite being a number of years apart in age. We did have to smile at our class who decided after reading the books they would have low key 'learning conversations' with their new reading buddies to check their understanding of the story and talk about the characters. We are excited to see where this goes as the experience was empowering for everyone involved.  

Mood and Emotions in Poetry and Art..

Last week Robyn and I introduced our learners to the way authors use words to evoke mood and emotions in poetry. We used ANZAC poems as this was both timely and sets us up for success in our upcoming unit. We began by asking our students to choose three emotions then match them to a colour before sharing their reasons for these colour choices with with their groups.

The challenge was to read each poem then respond to the questions below that were guided by feedback from Dr Aaron Wilson at our last PD session. We did the first poem together as a class. This was very much a guided teaching time. Our students then worked their way through the DLO below, choosing the order they read and responded to the poems in. 

• Use the highlighter tool to match a colour to the emotion or mood the words make your feel. 

• How did the poem make you feel?
• What words did the author use to make you feel a certain way?
• Did you want to feel this way?

Ours students were given the choice of who they worked with and were asked to share their thinking throughout the lesson with their peers. The time for talk allowed for ideas to be shared and gave our learners the opportunity to learn with and from each other.

The presentation below is the teaching DLO we used. 

Link to Presentation

To reinforce and strengthen connections to mood and emotion, I took an art lesson that focused on Kadinsky's concentric circles. This encouraged our students to respond to the mood and emotions that listening to the instrumental music evoked. What amazes me is the difference in the colours chosen by each student. 

Establishing the foundations to go forward with formal learning.

Student engagement by establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning was chosen as our whole school inquiry at our TOD in February. During our syndicate meeting our COL teacher Robyn Anderson asked us questions regarding how it was for us as teachers and our students coming back to school and establishing our class routines after being out of the classroom for an extended period of time.

Going back into the classroom after the Covid-19 lockdowns was like walking into the unknown, not only did we have to wear masks all day but everyday we didn't know how many of our students were going to come, if the same students would come each day. Our attendance was very erratic, but we were determined to give the students present the opportunity to learn. Right away Robyn and I decided we had to just do what we know to do best and that is teach the students that are there and meeting their needs.

Establishing connections with the students which in turn increases engagement was a priority. We did this by starting formal learning from day 1. Ensuring there was a familiar routine and structure seemed to work well for the students that were present. Having face to face interactions with classmates was important. Robyn and I continued with what was working for our class pre lockdowns, which was pair/group discussions. At first there was a bit of apprehension, the reality was that many of the students had not engaged with online learning since August 2021. We scaffolded them through formal learning conversations, which in turn lent to them forming bonds with each other then passing that knowledge on to students that joined at a later time. Working collaboratively gave the learners a sense of belonging.

Our class mantra whether attending lessons in the classroom or online is to 'keep our learning going'. Establishing foundations by sharing our expectations as well as ensuring the learners knew the purpose of the tasks, rather than doing work for the sake of working, kept the students engaged and focused. Robyn and I began Hybrid teaching - in class teaching and online learners in the class interacting with not only the teachers but working collaboratively in groups for example by having Google meets with breakout rooms with their reading groups.

Keeping to our timetable no matter where the learning was has meant that everyone knew the expectations to have their work finished and placed on the finished worksheet. This way the online learner still had visible work in the classroom. One change that Robyn and I made was to ensure our DLOs aligned so that they all looked the same but more importantly had the same message no matter what level they were targeted at. A change that proved to be a game changer when I was forced to isolate and Robyn needed to keep the learning going in the room.

In these uncertain times we have to be more flexible with how we are teaching aka hybrid and an unpredictable roll. Robyn and I are continually reflecting and having professional and informal conversations about student engagement by establishing foundations and continuing to go forward with formal learning to 'keep our learning going' no matter where that learning is done, as long as the students are engaged and working with a purpose.

To view Robyn Anderson's blog Powerful Peers.

Extended Learning Conversations Observation

Today I had the opportunity to sit and observe my teaching partner Robyn Anderson. Even though I teach with her every day I wanted to observe her reading lesson with extended conversation to explicitly notice what techniques she uses so I could incorporate them into my reading program to enhance the extended learning conversations within my groups.

Initially the groups decide a leader who starts the first discussion which is about prediction. After the reading group has looked at the text the leader then asks "What do you predict this text will be about?". One by one they have a learning conversation which is recorded saying what their predictions are and they reason they have predicted that. This ensues a rich learning conversation which at times can produce differing opinions.

We then look at inference. The group looks at the pictures in the text and then discuss what they can see by verbalising it in a concise way - I can see ... so I can infer that ... this could also be making connections with their predictions.

Understanding new words is a crucial in reading a text to give a clear understanding of the meaning of what they are reading. This is where the definitions come into play, making sure that the definition of the word they are looking up aligns with the text with

Reading the text. As a group they discuss how they want to read the text. Do they read this text alone, with a buddy or reciprocal reading? While reading the text, if there are any words that are interesting, important or unusual, write those words on your Vocabulary/Questions sheet. The whole group has access to this sheet.



After reading the text the group then answer the question that are on the working sheet. The leader reads the first question to the group then they record their responses in the comments tool. Leader then starts the learning conversation by asking group members "What was your answer?" then asks another member of the group if they agree with the previous person. They need to respond with yes/no because ...



From walking around different reading groups and watching their interactions, I observed students that wouldn't usually engage with reading being totally immersed in the text and actively participating in the learning conversations. The depth of the conversation was evident in the discussions.


Even though I have been using this process in reading, observing Robyn practicing extended conversations has really shown me how I can increase the connections my reading groups when reading a text.

To view Robyn Anderson's blog Powerful Peers