ALL Staff meeting @ GTS!

Today I ran a staff meeting about ALL (Accelerated Learning in Literacy).

The purpose of the staff meeting was to help teachers develop an understanding of the intervention and to share some of the successes I've had with my ALL group.

The discussion points I had planned were:

• The Purpose behind ALL/What is research saying?
• What is ALL?
• ALL Strategies
• How it relates to the NZC - Literacy Learning Progressions
• Brief sharing of successes in Room 11
• Reading activity for teachers 
• Kahoot Quiz about today's meeting

The feedback that I got from my colleagues and management after my meeting were very positive. The teachers had a better understanding of the ALL intervention programme. The teachers saw the connection between ALL and ALiM and were amazed at the successes made within the ALL group.

Here are the slides from my ALL staff meeting.

Success for my ALL boys in cycle 1.

The piece of writing above was written by one of my ALL boys. He wrote this for his beginning of year writing assessment where he had to write about "My Special Place".

Last week we had our mid-year writing assessment and here is his piece of writing he produced.

ALL Workshop for ALL schools @ UoA

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar:

Accelerating Learning in Literacy Workshop

Provider/Presenter:
Team Solutions ALL Facilitators

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?
What I took away from this professional development was the understanding the importance of this intervention, creating a plan and following through with it. I enjoyed meeting teachers from other schools that are running the ALL programme and gaining an understanding of how the programme looks like.

Some schools withdraw their ALL group from the class and teach them separately. Usually when the group is being withdrawn from the class, it's to front-load them with information needed for what the teacher will be teaching the whole class in the upcoming lessons. The purpose behind this is to enable the ALL students who are usually quiet and not willing to participate in class discussions, an opportunity to contribute.

I also learnt that the ALL intervention is underpinned by the BES 4 levers of change. The BES model for systemic improvement that leverages evidence and expertise to make a bigger difference for valued outcomes for diverse (all) students” - Alton-Lee, 2012, provides a map for improvement that will lead to this vision.

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?
This PD has challenged my thinking by making me question how effective I am in teaching Writing to the class. I've decided to take the strategies from the ALL intervention and implement it to my whole class teaching. The programme also reinforces the importance of whanau engagement and how a partnership between the school, whanau and the learner is proven to make a huge difference. The ALL intervention implies Epstein's 6 types of involvement framework as a model of how this partnership could be successful.

What aspects of my practice would I consider changing as a result of this professional development and why?

An aspect I am going to change is how I work with my ALL group and how I teach writing as a whole class. Hearing other teachers share how they approach the intervention provided me with ideas on how cycle 2 could look like. Knowing my students have made progress because of this intervention has helped expand the intervention within the school. In cycle 2, 3 other teachers' will be joining in hopes of acceleration of student achievement.

School holiday planning with Mayleen for ALL

Background Details
ALL planning with Team Solutions facilitator - Mayleen Gautusa

Discussion Points
Action plan for Term 2 - continuing cycle 1.

Learning
Learnt acceleration strategies to implement in class with ALL students but also the rest of the class. Front-loading, double-dosing, GRR (Gradual Release of Responsibility) and Visible Learning.

Developmental Priorities
Developmental priorities would be implementing the acceleration strategies in my planning for Writing. Apply the strategies not only with my ALL students but with the whole class.

Next Steps & Commitments
Next steps would be working according to Term 2 outline plan. Working alongside with Mary and Whaea Pene to shift our target students. Use the acceleration strategies in our practice.

Acceleration Strategies

1. Brainstorming/mind-mapping: Expanding on the students ideas and forming paragraphs.
2. Front-loading (preview info): Giving the kids an activity before they do something. Giving them an awareness of what it is they are about to learn so they are able to contribute.
3. Double-dosing: When you give the kids to what they are learning before you teach it. Enable students to learn and experience and experience information.
4. Visible Learning: Anything you work on with the kids, share it (Make a learning wall).
5. GRR - Gradual release of responsibility"I do, we do, you do": 

• I do: Teacher models thinking (DATs), Teacher thinks aloud
• We do: Co-construct sentences with the students
• You do: If the child needs further support teacher an point out (You do it together with the person next to you, or co-construct out loud in pairs/groups/think,pair, share). If you think the student is capable of working on the task independently, you could point out that he/she can DO IT YOURSELF. 

Mayleen Gautusa - ALL Accelerated Learning in Literacy - 26th March 2018

Meeting Type
PD - ALL meeting with Mayleen Gautusa from Team Solutions

Motivation
An intervention to accelerate students learning in literacy

How will it help me?
Mayleen came in to run a short introductory session with the team on what the ALL programme is all about. She briefly explained the difference between acceleration vs remedial. I spoke on what I have been doing with my target students so far. Mayleen was able to create a brief discussion on what each teacher has identified as a learning need in their classes. Each teacher was able to share at least one area that needed honing in for some of their target students.

So What?

Cycle 1 of the intervention will no longer be myself but will include Mary and Whaea Pene. This will bring consistency in what it is we'll be teaching the students but also making sure we understand what it is we need to do. Having Maybeen guide us through the intervention will be beneficial and will help us accomplish the action plan and goals we have set for our target students. I am excited about this programme because I really want my target boys to feel successful in the area of Writing.