Boys in Literacy PD - 25/09/2020

 Name of Course/Programme/Seminar:

Boys in Literacy PD

Provider/Presenter:

Marshall Diggs 

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?

• Teach and develop Reading Strategies which invite boys to create, compete and imagine
• Teach boys these 4 strategies: Making Inferences, Making Connections, Decoding, Summarising

• Boys will read material that interests them and captivates their attention

• Boys shouldn’t be sitting for longer than their age and 10 minutes

• You can have control OR you can have growth, but you can’t have both

• Your greatest contribution at school is not what you can teach - it’s WHO YOU TEACH

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

• This PD was a reminder about the importance of knowing my learners.
• Use to my advantage the positive relationship I have with my boys as the stepping stone of really making a difference with their learning in literacy
• It hasn't changed my thinking - it's reaffirmed my thinking - particularly around the strategies I should be teaching in Reading. From the Sheena Cameron PD, earlier in the year, I had identified similar strategies as the NEED in my classroom. Today's PD confirmed I'm on the right track.
• Reminder that boys think, learn and work differently to the girls
• Move away from the traditional 'Writing genre teaching' and empower boys through engaging tasks that involve boys to write about facts, competition, humour, survival, conflict, adversity etc
• Inspire boys to WRITE through learning experiences - i.e the flying teabag experiment (Concrete Prompts for an Abstract Task)

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

• Some aspects of my literacy programme - include more warm-up games such as word association, Buddy A & Buddy B, Walk & Talk, Tap & Read
• Use videos to prompt writing
• Word Banks are effective when wanting students to remember key vocabulary (I had started this after the Sheena Cameron PD)
• Subtle Praise
• Boys shouldn't be sitting longer than their age + 10 minutes - so encourage them to walk about the class and elbow shake others or play the finger/palm game as little brain breakers
• Boys in Literacy PD 2020

 

Professional Reading #3

 Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme

The Reading Book

Author/s or Lecturer/s or Speaker/s

Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey

Synopsis

• Explicit teaching of Reading is important at all levels
• Reading for pleasure, Reading to support Writing, Reading to Learn
• Work to ensure students develop a love for a Reading and a love for Oral Language and Vocabulary
• Do a lot of Shared Reading with Year 7 & 8
• Reading Process - Critical Thinking, Cracking the Code (Decoding), Comprehension
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Motivation

• This Reading Book has helped re-ignite my passion for teaching Literacy. It started from the PD (beginning of Term 3) and since then, my planning for literacy has improved. It makes sense, I am more motivated to teach literacy and I have implemented changes into my planning and my teacher practice.
• I am CONFIDENT that with the changes/interventions I have in place, that my students will make great progress, come end of year assessments. I have more structure to my planning, I have goals in place and have belief that it's working in my class.

How will it help me? How has it helped me?

• This book has been a pivotal tool in my change of practice in literacy, particularly in Reading. In Term 3, I introduced a structured reading programme that includes modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.
• I have seen engagement from students that were disengaged from reading and hated the subject. Two students in particular would always claim they couldn't read any material whatsoever and would often ask me to read it for them. From Sheena's book + PD, she encouraged using song lyrics as a resource and use it to teach inferencing. I'd introduce the goal (WALT) through my shared reading lesson and continue it in the guided lesson. The inferences made by these students who claimed to not be able to read, was astounding. I highlighted parts of the lyrics for each student to infer. Responses from our discussions were recorded in the modelling book.
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So What?

• Having a structured reading programme and following it consistently has been very effective. If this is the result from having changed my practice a term ago, I can't wait to see the difference it continues to make over time.
• Yes, having a structured programme has been a positive change, but I believe including Pasifika cultural competencies in my practice has contributed to the success also. For example, demonstrating awareness of my learners identities, cultures and languages underpins the way they think and learn. Having positive and respectful relationships enhances learning and well-being for my Pasifika students. Inclusion of effective pedagogies for my Pasifika learners such as Talanoa, celebration of language weeks, authentic learning experiences such as making an 'umu, roasting a pig on the spit or making a hangi are moments in time the learners' will celebrate and remember forever.

Blog post #4: Collecting of Evidence and Data

Begin to collect evidence and data and come to the next session ready to share your preliminary findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence

Collecting Data and evidence has been at a steady pace because of lockdown. However, student work output provides some form of evidence of students work ethic and abilities.

I started collecting evidence by using the Literacy Learning Map document. This was provided by our ALL intervention facilitator. Using this information, I converted it into a google form Learning Map - Google Form (as did my fellow CoL teacher Poto Faalili), and invited the students to complete this to provide me with some background knowledge on their interests and what their thoughts are about literacy.

Due to Lockdown, I feel like my inquiry came to a halt. It was the fear of not knowing how to go about things because was use to be normal (assessments, in-class observations, 1 to 1, guided sessions) is no longer normal. Virtual learning is now the new normal.

However, in hindsight, I plan to use the following to collect data and evidence from:

1. Literacy Learning Map/Google Form
2. Student Blogs
3. Student Home Learning Site (This was an expectation for my class to create during lockdown. We are planning to use it for the remainder of Term 2)
4. Student Work Output (looking at the quality of the work they have produced)

My chosen few...

To get a more detailed and accurate profile of the students in my ALL group - I used a Learning Map doc. This doc allowed me to gain valuable information about my students' attitude and thoughts about Reading. This information becomes the foundation to what I need to plan.

I will also be using the A.L.L strategies such as Front-loading, Double Dosing, GRR
(Gradual Release of Responsibility) and Visual Learning.
These strategies will help assist in accelerating the students understanding of what they are
reading and what particular reading strategy they are learning.

Currently, with my target students, I see them 3 times a week. 2 of those sessions are explicit teaching and one is a 10-15 minute front-loading session. This occurs during my scheduled Reading time in class which is from 11-12pm every day. I also see my group for 10 minutes before morning tea to front-load/double dose them with what our sessions will be about.

The reading progressions is an important text I refer to when I am working with my students. The A.L.L intervention is a programme that was developed to accelerate the students. So I use the progressions to identify what my group needs to be able to do at Level 4 and I teach that, with support from the A.L.L and reading strategies.

These are some of the tools and approaches I am using with my group.

Data Analysis

Today, my fellow CoL within schools teacher, Poto and I decided to sit down and thoroughly look through our 2018 End of year assessment data.

Thoughts surfaced, wonderings came to mind and questions were asked. The discussion we had was very intriguing and informative. Here's what we found:

What did we notice:

Reading:

1. There was an increase in no. of students achieving at WELL BELOW
2. Increase in those achieving ABOVE expectation
3. Maori - achievement much lower compared to other ethnicities
4. Decrease in no. of students achieving BELOW
5. Decrease in no. of students achieving AT, but increase in ABOVE.

Writing:

1. Decrease in BELOW, but increase in WELL BELOW
2. Decrease in AT, but increase in ABOVE.

Maths:

1. Increase in BELOW and ABOVE, Decrease in WELL BELOW and AT
2. Increase in ABOVE,decrease in AT, Increase in BELOW apart from Pasifika and girls.

What judgements overtime can we make:

From the findings we discovered, we came up with many questions and discussed possible next steps for our Inquiry focus here at Glen Taylor. Some of the questions we had were:

• OTJs vs Formative assessments - what provides more insight? What is being measured?
• Did the ALL intervention in 2018 for Writing, prove to make discernible impact?
• How consistent are the teachers in evaluating formative assessments?
• What changes can we make in our Teacher practice to ensure the resources and materials we use in class are effective?
• Mixed ability grouping in maths vs ability grouping? Which is more effective?

Teaching Inquiry 2019

Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to
focus on in this inquiry. Be as clear and specific as you can
about the evidence you about this to date.

Malo e lelei EVERYONE,

Earlier this week all schools in the Manaiakalani cluster met down at Tamaki College to look at the achievement data across all schools in the cluster for 2018. It always is a great learning experience for both teachers and Woolf Fisher research team to identify the strengths and weaknesses in our students learning.

Before attending the meeting I was still indecisive about which achievement challenge to inquire into this year. After the meeting, I decided that my inquiry focus for 2019 will be: Achievement Challenge #3 - Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Maori students (both genders) Years 1-13.

Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning. Locate your inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.

Listening to Woolf Fisher present their findings and learning that the gap is widening between Manaiakalani schools achievement levels and the national norm provoked me to focus my inquiry into reading. Leaving the meeting, I was adamant that Reading was the way to go.

Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year

Being a Year 7 & 8 classroom teacher, it becomes a goal to ensure my students are prepared and advanced in their learning, ready for high school. Having had success with my focus in Writing last year, I'd like the same outcome for Reading this year.

Summary of my CoL experience for 2018

Summary of CoL Journey for 2018

Having started the CoL within schools teacher role half way through 2018, I decided to apply for the role again because it was an informative learning opportunity for me. I became more interested about Inquiring into students' learning and my own teacher practice.

Last year I had the opportunity to work with a group of 6 Year 8 boys and 1 Year 7 who were disengaged and not interested in Writing. They lacked self-confidence and self-belief in their ability to write. I implemented the Accelerated Learning in Literacy strategies of front-loading, double dosing and gradual release of responsibility into my teaching practice. I asked questions about their interests and incorporated their adoration of music and visual images into Writing.

Long story short - here are the results made by my focus group from 2018.