Qu. #2 - Why we judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year...

Robyn Anderson was reminded of the Reading for Enjoyment survey she did last year to get to know our learners as readers. In a conversation with Robyn, she suggested that we could try to create a similar survey that would help us get to know our learners as spellers. Our Principal understands our concerns with regards to spelling abilities in our current class and is fully supportive of our proposed inquiry into word consciousness. 

The results of this survey are below.

Link to presentation

We judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year as the results here affirm our initial thinking that a deficit in word consciousness and a 'fear' of getting words wrong, limits the level of vocabulary used in independent writing, and causes meaning to be lost in reading. It will be interesting to analyse the self efficacy rating and the spelling level given when the e-asTTle writing assessment data is complete. (NB: Our plan is to look at the current and historical data of the e-asTTle writing, PAT Reading and the Peter's spelling test to identify trends). 

Question 1: Student Inquiry Focus

 

This year Robyn Anderson and I will be undertaking a collaborative inquiry. What this will look like exactly at this stage is still in the early stages although we do know our purpose. This year we want to find out if a focus on spelling conventions will foster an environment where word consciousness strengthens connections to the learning.

We teach a Year 7/8 class with 40 learners, all who bring different connections to the conventions of spelling to the table. We know from observing students from past years and  noticing the actions of our learners this year stop writing completely as well as stop reading and avoid sharing back to the class when they lose the connection to words needed to continue to make sense of the learning. There are many reasons as to why this happens but rather than focus solely on that, we want to focus on how we can prevent this pattern from continuing as time goes on and being a challenge that becomes too much to overcome. Our thinking is that if we begin to develop these skills and understandings, the transition to language of instruction used in Y9 may be strengthened by stronger connections to word knowledge.

Once we had decided on our inquiry focus this year, Robyn and I spoke with Anna Salmon, our Reading Recovery teacher about the barriers children in the junior school face with spelling, and how she helps the students she is working with to overcome these barriers. We came away from a very rich learning conversation with lots of ideas to pull together a tentative pathway forward. Here are the notes we made to help us formulate a plan going forward.

'Word consciousness involves being aware and interested in words and word meanings (Anderson & Nagy, 1992; Graves & Watts-Taffe, 2002) and anything new is a matter of linking this new knowledge in some way with the already known (Laurence R. Sipe, 2001). Individuals who are word conscious are motivated to learn new words and able to use them skilfully '(Sourced here). Our challenge now is to find out why their is a gap in their knowledge and how we can close that gap. Robyn and I co-constructed a survey that we plan to use to get to know our learners as spellers. To do this we will be looking at shift or change in:

• Disposition
• Data
• Word consciousness
• Student voice
• Strategies used to make sense of new or unfamiliar words

Further Reading/PLD to grow my own knowledge kete:

• Supporting students to become competent and confident spellers - Louise Dempsy

• The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth
• Invention, convention, and intervention: Invented spelling and the teacher's role

2022 COL Interview

 What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

Achievement Challenge 2  (Lifting achievement for boys writing in years 1-10) is the area I would like to focus on through my 2023 teaching inquiry. I work in a shared learning environment with Robyn Anderson and we have realised the benefits a joint inquiry can have for both us and our learners this year. It meant we had a shared vision and gave a shared message, no matter who was leading the teaching. We decided we would like to do another collaborative approach next year. After looking at our EOY data we found that a focus on spelling was needed in our class. That got both of us talking about spelling when we were at school. I remember as a child I wanted to use the words I could say in my writing but the sense of failure each red line brought with it meant I didn't. The fear was real.

What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

Since I have been at Panmure Bridge I have had numerous discussions with Robyn about her inquiry and other CoL teachers' inquiries which have informed my thinking, often this was because she said ‘I saw such and such you should try it’. In 2019 my inquiry was based around NE essential spelling making connections with their comprehension.  Relooking at that inquiry after looking at our data has inspired me/us to look more closely at spelling, only this time on a different level with the focus on increasing both our learner’s confidence and skill level.

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa? 

Learning, creating and sharing is vital for increasing our learners' engagement. Collaborating with colleagues will give them a greater sense of empowerment when working through their inquiry.

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

With reading being the focus of Manaiakalani this year, it was evident to me that there were many words our learners came across when reading their books that they didn't know the meaning of.  We realised that our learners almost always didn't know how to spell the words.

How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?

The support I would be looking for as a first time COL teacher will come from the CoL meetings, discussions with other teachers, opportunities to make new connections along with the continuing support Robyn promised me. I am looking forward to being open to hearing new ideas and strategies that will help me change my own teacher practice. 

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

Robyn and I have talked about this and if we are both successful in getting a CoL position, as I would be new to this role, I would support the teachers new to our school and Robyn would support the more experienced teachers. This is my first time applying for this role so guiding the newer teachers would allow me to learn alongside them. I’m excited to take on this new challenge and know that I have the full support of Robyn.

Causal Chain - Term 3 update

Inquiry Focus: Will a focus on Reading for Enjoyment increase student efficacy and capability in Reading?

Reaching Term 3 and reflecting back on our inquiry has been quite eye opening in the way that Reading for Enjoyment (RFE) has infiltrated our students. I have noticed that there has been an increase in not only their reading ability and capability but also in their confidence when talking about reading and books. This increased vocabulary knowledge has aided with the students understanding of not only 'reading' but with all the curriculum subjects.

One of my goals from last term was to ensure the students saw me as one of their teaches read, so when we were RFE we were ALL RFE. At first as teachers we would remind our students that it was RFE time, now the students remind me.

A noticeable difference is that not only is the new vocabulary used but the self-efficacy to utilise that body of newly acquired words in their speeches.

 

T-Shaped Literacy Unit 2 - Characterisation

This term our T shaped literacy unit focused on characterisation in texts. We decided that we would do this unit with the whole class with the students being grouped in mixed ability groups. Robyn lead the last unit so this time around I took the lead. After creating our unit we remembered or more able students 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. To rectify this we made the decision that Robyn would take a small group characterisation unit that ran alongside my unit. To keep this entirely separate we used different texts for each group although our learning intentions were the same. I used the text 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and Robyn used 'Wolves' in children's literature. As I had a much larger group I was supported by our TA Linda.

Like last time we began by introducing the word characterisation so that everyone understood what is was that we would be focusing on. To help our students and ourselves strengthen our connections to this focus we used the excerpt from the text 'Beans' that Aaron shared with us in our PD sessions. These activities can be found on here on slides 2 - 9. Both Robyn and I then front loaded our groups with vocabulary they would be needing to make sense of the learning. This can be found here on slides 14 - 19.

We chose to collate all the tasks in a Google presentation again this time around as it kept everything in one place. The DLO below is my teaching DLO. Each group had a response DLO where all their responses were recorded.  Robyn's group had an individual response DLO as it was a much smaller group. Again, it kept everything in one place and made following up on tasks manageable. The purpose of the response DLO is to have a holding place for the learning along the way. Their learning conversations were rich and their create tasks looked quite different. 

The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit focused on the way author influenced the perception we have of the many characters as readers.  As we explored this text we found similarities between the words used to describe the appearance of different characters. My students then filled tables that reflected their first impressions and synthesised their findings across the range of texts we were exploring. Each character from the text was unpacked and they had the same follow up activities so again that allowed opportunities for connections to be strengthened. In place of sharing the activities created I have chosen this time to highlight the student's work via their blog links and a collaborative DLO. Not everything we did was blogged as not everything was a 'create' task. 

Building a picture of a character - This was a collaborative group task that shared ideas and rich discussion opportunities. When building a picture of the character each group defined what 'Characterisation' was. They then choose one character which they analysed and answered questions on a DLO.  Word art was another way we used the vocabulary gathered during the unit in a creative way relating to each students chosen chartater. 

Oscar's Characterisation blog

First impressions of Character Analysis - This was also a collaborative task that showcased connections made to the learning and to synthesise the comparisons of the characters. You will see from reading these that connections were made.

Kingston's First Impressions blog

Describing the scene - This was something that worked well with our Mood and Atmosphere unit and worked just as well in this Characterisation Unit.  Below I have two examples of this - one being from 

Sasuke's Describing the scene blog

This was another powerful unit of learning. Upon reflection and after observing some of Robyn teaching her unit, Charlie and the Chocolate factory was not the most effective choice of text to use for this unit. At first it seemed like a good example of characterisation with having multiple characters, but when looking at each character on a deeper level it did not afford the students the luxury of digging as deep as they might have if we had used multiple texts enabling the comparison of like characters in differing circumstances. 

Click here to find Robyn's blog and her reflection of her T shaped Characterisation unit.

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.