Blogpost #14 Monitoring - Checkpoint #1 - Shifts in my practice.

 So far, so good.

With the implementation of RPI resources into our reading programme this year, we've noticed a shift in engagement and excitement from our students. 

We have continued with the collaboration approach to learning that began in Term 1 when my team were teaching in an MLE environment. I think the change was needed. I went from being very anxious and nervous about it, to receiving positive feedback from colleagues and management. Upon returning to the classroom, my team and I decided to continue with it. Why put an end to something that we know is working?

Anyhow, so far we have successfully continued to include a few of the RPI resources into our reading programme. We have also successfully created x2 e-asTTle reading tests, as a check-in to how it's going so far. We sat one in Term 1 and our most recent one was at the end of Term 3.

Something I'd like to share is the shift in our task boards. In Terms 2 & 3, our reading task boards looked different - each group had a slide that had must-do activities, a create activity and independent work. It was great to start with but after a term of using it, we found it quite time consuming working on it and had better plans for Term 4's task board.

Our task board for Term 4, is much more manageable. The guided reading sessions/texts are still differentiated but we felt one board was enough for all 3 levels. We still had our Money must-do's, we had our independent activities and we also linked in our guided reading session texts. Students can view the texts before the lesson but as for the teacher notes, we kept that locked. We also included a new tool called 'Mahi Tracker" where students would link their completed work into so we could check it at the end of the day.

***Observation - Sandhya from GI Primary

 Today I was fortunate enough to pop into GI Primary and observe Sandhya teach Reciprocal Reading. She heard through the grapevine (colleague Vila) that apparently I teach a good RR lesson :) 

Anyhow, I walked into the classroom feeling quite honoured that she thought I was good enough to observe her. For me, I took it as an opportunity of learning because teachers implement things differently in the class. I really enjoyed how Sandhya executed it in her class. Yes, it can be quite difficult when one has a huge range of learning needs in the classroom but she managed this quite well.

My takeaway was definitely the 'Extended Discussion' part. Sandhya has a really big Level 3 group that consists of about 2/3 of the class. She seats them in groups of 5 (15 learners), they read the text together and after each page, they discuss in their groups what the page was about. Then, summariser from each group will share back their discussion.

Post discussion, Sandhya shares a template with each learner, this doc also works as a graphic organiser. There's a box for each RR role, questioner can write in their questions, clarifier can write in their list of words from the text (that may have needed clarifying), Predictor writes in their predictions etc.

It was a first time for me to see it taught this way. As mentioned before, teachers learn about the programme but we take it and implement it in a way that best fits our learners.

Blogpost #13: Intervention Tools - RPI Resources and Ideas

 

A huge drive in our Reading Programme this year has been the implementation of RPI resources and Ideas into our teaching and learning. Being the mentor teacher for our 2 teachers in the RPI programme has helped with the consistency of running it.

Here are some snapshots of some of the RPI learning by the mentee teachers and we have implemented in our teaching for the term. These were also some of the favourites for our students:

 

- Vocabulary activities to help with decoding words

- Word Consciousness activities

- One Shot Film - a unique way of promoting the book you are reading.

- Figurative Language in our Writing to make our writing more effective and appealing to the readers. To also help with painting a visual image in the readers minds.

Upon discussion with my team, we have decided to dedicate at least a week each next term to what has been covered in RPI. Some of those ideas are: 

• Great Beginnings Writing
• Figurative Language 
• One Shot Film
• Creating visual representation of the book we read
• Levels of Thinking - Literal, Interpretive & Evaluative
• Word Associations

Blogpost #12: Intervention Tools - changes implemented in teacher practice...(Teacher Workbook)

 Thanks to the RPI intervention, we gained a thorough and more in-depth understanding of what a Teacher workbook should consist. We were given an example of a Teacher workbook, teacher modelling book etc. 

As a team, we agreed that it was too much to have different documents. As a teacher, we like to work 'smarter, not harder', so we decided to combine the 2 and title it TEACHER WORKBOOK. In this google spreadsheet, we also have an achievement data tab that includes learners achievement data for reading, from all their assessments between the beginning of year and end of year. This helps us teachers track and monitor the learner and the progress they make throughout the year.

For every couple of weeks, we have a tab that has the learning intentions, deliberate acts of teaching and a column that allows us to reflect on how the lesson went and what we have observed during our guided reading sessions.

These changes have really helped me and my teacher practice around reading. I feel more efficient and I have evidence of the teaching/learning that takes place when I see the students. I also have a 'one stop shop' where I can easily access data for learners and teacher observation anecdotal notes. This will also help me with report writing. Even if parents request to an appointment to check in on their child's learning, the teacher workbook is sufficient enough.

Blogpost #11: Intervention Tools - changes implemented in teacher practice... (Reading Taskboards)

One of the main changes we made to our Reading Programme in Team Tui, was the introduction of Taskboards. The benefits of taskboards include:

• Key Elements that support Reading as Core to Learning
• Instruction and learning is linked, clear and explicit learning intentions
• Guided Teacher time and independent time to grow good readers (e.g left to right Monday 'Must-Do's' includes a Reader Interest Survey and 'Activity for Choosing a Good Fit Book'; weekly choice board; and Guided Reading time with the teacher twice a week
• Learners are also developing their discussion skills about topics related to their reading (and for a cross-curriculum task linked to the reading of graphs in LCS/Inquiry).
• Teacher Notes also include achievement data for each student. This allows teachers to track the students progress throughout the year. It also has a tab that allows us to reflect on and also have a list of learning intentions we could pick from throughout the year.