As part of my PD I am learning about Maori culture and the language through the Open Wananga. I have completed the first module and am currently undertaking the second one.
The resources within each kete are fantastic. I have labelled furniture and items within the classroom so that the students can learn the Maori name for things. I have also started writing some comments in students books in Maori, as well as giving them more commands in Maori. The students have been really positive about the increase in Te Reo within our class. They enjoy learning new vocab and have even started to answer the roll in Maori.
Monday, 25 May 2015
Weekly Planning Term 2
Attached is a copy of this week's planning since I have added the 'Why?' section after my WALT's in reading. After our recent school observation feedback, a big part of our reflection was around 'Do the students know why they are doing this learning? After some consideration, I decided to include they 'Why?' in my planning to ensure I pass it onto the students. If it is successful and the students prefer to know this, then I will look to extend it to all areas of my teaching.
Planning: Term 2, Week 6
Below is also an example of what my Walt's and Why's look like in the students books now.
Planning: Term 2, Week 6
Below is also an example of what my Walt's and Why's look like in the students books now.
Clarity in the Classroom
Recently our whole staff underwent video observations; I was observed in reading.
The focus points for student interviews were:
The focus points for student interviews were:
Building
Learning focussed relationships:
Who decided what you were going to learn today?
What part did you decide?
Clarity about what is to be learnt:
What were you learning in Reading today?
Clarity about what is to be learnt:
How will you know you are successful with your reading?
Promoting further learning:
When you find something difficult or hard, what do you do about that? Do you look anywhere? Do you talk to anyone?
The next steps that have arisen from our observations are:
After reflecting on our school wide feedback, and the above questions and next steps, I began thinking of what I did/didn't do in reading. One immediate change I made was around WALTS.
In the past I would write the WALT on the board, then co-construct the success criteria with the students. Students used to write the WALT in their book but nothing else. Once the lesson was over, the WALT and success criteria were rubbed off the board.
An interesting point that came up from the meeting was around the fact that the board was the teachers, therefore the teacher has ownership of the information on it. While at times this could be true, I try and overcome this by having students write on the board so that they see the board as a tool we share.
When considering the following questions:
To help the students gain better understanding of what their learning intentions were, I now include 'Why?' we are learning the WALT, as well as continuing to co-construct the success criteria. Now, rather than have it all disappear at the end of the lesson, I take photo of it, print it, and the students glue it in their books. This gives them ownership of what they are learning as well as a clearer understanding of why they are learning it, and how to know if they are successful. I found after the first day of doing this, students also contributed more to the success criteria and gave better responses because they knew it would end up on show in their book.
Below are some les of this from students books:
I hope to see
students run this process more themselves, as they become more familiar with
the new process, with me (the teacher) being there to support rather than lead.
Who decided what you were going to learn today?
What part did you decide?
Clarity about what is to be learnt:
What were you learning in Reading today?
Clarity about what is to be learnt:
How will you know you are successful with your reading?
Promoting further learning:
When you find something difficult or hard, what do you do about that? Do you look anywhere? Do you talk to anyone?
The next steps that have arisen from our observations are:
·
Shift
locus of control
·
Share
assessment data
·
Generate
WALT from assessment data
·
Co-construct
WALT, SC in student speak, revisit throughout lessons
·
Distinguish
LI, SC and task
·
Revisit
LI throughout lesson; Self-regulation/student choices
·
Relevance
of learning
·
Increase
student agency
After reflecting on our school wide feedback, and the above questions and next steps, I began thinking of what I did/didn't do in reading. One immediate change I made was around WALTS.
In the past I would write the WALT on the board, then co-construct the success criteria with the students. Students used to write the WALT in their book but nothing else. Once the lesson was over, the WALT and success criteria were rubbed off the board.
An interesting point that came up from the meeting was around the fact that the board was the teachers, therefore the teacher has ownership of the information on it. While at times this could be true, I try and overcome this by having students write on the board so that they see the board as a tool we share.
When considering the following questions:
1.
What
were you learning in Reading today?
2.
How
will you know you are successful with your reading?
To help the students gain better understanding of what their learning intentions were, I now include 'Why?' we are learning the WALT, as well as continuing to co-construct the success criteria. Now, rather than have it all disappear at the end of the lesson, I take photo of it, print it, and the students glue it in their books. This gives them ownership of what they are learning as well as a clearer understanding of why they are learning it, and how to know if they are successful. I found after the first day of doing this, students also contributed more to the success criteria and gave better responses because they knew it would end up on show in their book.
Below are some les of this from students books:
Friday, 22 May 2015
How is ALL going? One student's thoughts
Today one of my ALL students wanted to share her thoughts on how ALL was going, and what she liked about.
It's great to hear that she is really enjoying the writing intervention and that the sees a lot of value in the program.
It's great to hear that she is really enjoying the writing intervention and that the sees a lot of value in the program.
Students progress reflections
Yesterday as a part of our ALL meeting, the question "Do your students know how they are progressing?" was asked. After pondering this overnight, I decided that during today's writing session, I would ask each student to tell me have they think they have improved, and what are they things they are doing differently in writing which they weren't doing before the intervention.
Rather than make it a laborious task for them, I used an orange pen to write their comments in speech bubbles in the margins of their writing book. I dated the entries too so that we could monitor the changes when I come to asking them the questions again in a few weeks.
To help capture students feedback, I also asked a few of them to contribute their answers via video. The students volunteered for this, but struggled articulating their answers compared to when I did it with them by writing responses down. (Maybe they were a bit shy in front of the camera, or maybe they were trying to recall what they had already said previously).
Rather than make it a laborious task for them, I used an orange pen to write their comments in speech bubbles in the margins of their writing book. I dated the entries too so that we could monitor the changes when I come to asking them the questions again in a few weeks.
To help capture students feedback, I also asked a few of them to contribute their answers via video. The students volunteered for this, but struggled articulating their answers compared to when I did it with them by writing responses down. (Maybe they were a bit shy in front of the camera, or maybe they were trying to recall what they had already said previously).
Friday, 15 May 2015
Giving writing a purpose
The more I work with my ALL writing intervention group, the more I am noticing just how important giving writing a purpose is. While creating a book wasn't planned at the beginning, it is now going to be the final product of their first piece.
Right back at the beginning, our first lesson started off as a brainstorm of ideas and interests. Over the past 4 weeks, that brainstorm has turned into amazing descriptive writing that is full of adventure and suspense. As the students writing progressed we decided that because it was so good we needed to publish it, so have decided on a book.
During independent writing, the students are all publishing their own work (another step which has great benefits). When I was reading one students work aloud yesterday I came across a couple of sentences that didn't sound right. The student was quick to say "Yeah I came across those errors when I was publishing Mrs O'Callaghan, and I made the changes on the computer". I was stoked to hear this. In the past, because the students didn't have an audience for their writing, other than me, their attempts to proof-read and edit were minimal. Now because they are publishing their work as a book, the quality of their proof-reading and editing has improved ten fold.
The use of descriptive language has been a major focus for us. Trying to hook our readers and then sustain their audience throughout the ENTIRE piece has required a lot of talking and sharing of words and ideas. However, I am so pleased to say all the group are now using amazing words throughout their piece. After reading a students work aloud to a fellow teacher this morning, I heard my top writer say to his friends "I am going to start doing stink writing so I can get into the ALL group". Still not sure if this is a good thing of not :)
Yesterday for our release session, the group were told that since they are all authors who are creating their own book, they needed to come up with a gripping title which would capture attention if it was in a library amongst thousands of books, yet not give away the adventure and suspense in the story. They also they needed to begin illustrating the cover, again without giving away too much information, whilst still giving the potential reader enough information so that they could determine whether it would be of interest to them. Again, I can't express enough, just how powerful sharing ideas aloud as a group is. The first book titles that the group thought of included: The war story; My adventure story; My OMG adventure. As the ideas began to flow, so to did their ideas. In the end we came up with a page of possible gripping titles such as: What a weird day!; Did that just happen?; Am I dreaming?; What did this book do to me?; My near death experience!; You will never believe what happened to me today!.
The entire group are so excited about creating a proper book. This morning I knew I was heading down the right track when three of my most reluctant writers came up to me before school and asked if they could carry on working on their books. Of course I was thrilled to hear this. These boys are high energy boys that love to be outside playing and running around, but because they are having so much fun creating a book, and can see themselves as authors, they preferred to be inside continuing with their masterpiece.
While my long term goal was for all of my students to develop a love of writing, to see themselves as writers, and to be confident at writing, I truly believed it would take much longer than 4 weeks. I am blown away to see such an amazing transformation in attitude towards writing, at such an early part of the intervention.
My initial inquiry question was about removing the barriers that struggling writers face and help them overcome these while writing. The way the intervention is going at the moment, I feel I am half way there. My next big challenge is to now continue what has been happening, with more of a focus now on transferring their learning to their independent work. I also aim to address a lot more of the surface features.
Right back at the beginning, our first lesson started off as a brainstorm of ideas and interests. Over the past 4 weeks, that brainstorm has turned into amazing descriptive writing that is full of adventure and suspense. As the students writing progressed we decided that because it was so good we needed to publish it, so have decided on a book.
During independent writing, the students are all publishing their own work (another step which has great benefits). When I was reading one students work aloud yesterday I came across a couple of sentences that didn't sound right. The student was quick to say "Yeah I came across those errors when I was publishing Mrs O'Callaghan, and I made the changes on the computer". I was stoked to hear this. In the past, because the students didn't have an audience for their writing, other than me, their attempts to proof-read and edit were minimal. Now because they are publishing their work as a book, the quality of their proof-reading and editing has improved ten fold.
The use of descriptive language has been a major focus for us. Trying to hook our readers and then sustain their audience throughout the ENTIRE piece has required a lot of talking and sharing of words and ideas. However, I am so pleased to say all the group are now using amazing words throughout their piece. After reading a students work aloud to a fellow teacher this morning, I heard my top writer say to his friends "I am going to start doing stink writing so I can get into the ALL group". Still not sure if this is a good thing of not :)
Yesterday for our release session, the group were told that since they are all authors who are creating their own book, they needed to come up with a gripping title which would capture attention if it was in a library amongst thousands of books, yet not give away the adventure and suspense in the story. They also they needed to begin illustrating the cover, again without giving away too much information, whilst still giving the potential reader enough information so that they could determine whether it would be of interest to them. Again, I can't express enough, just how powerful sharing ideas aloud as a group is. The first book titles that the group thought of included: The war story; My adventure story; My OMG adventure. As the ideas began to flow, so to did their ideas. In the end we came up with a page of possible gripping titles such as: What a weird day!; Did that just happen?; Am I dreaming?; What did this book do to me?; My near death experience!; You will never believe what happened to me today!.
The entire group are so excited about creating a proper book. This morning I knew I was heading down the right track when three of my most reluctant writers came up to me before school and asked if they could carry on working on their books. Of course I was thrilled to hear this. These boys are high energy boys that love to be outside playing and running around, but because they are having so much fun creating a book, and can see themselves as authors, they preferred to be inside continuing with their masterpiece.
While my long term goal was for all of my students to develop a love of writing, to see themselves as writers, and to be confident at writing, I truly believed it would take much longer than 4 weeks. I am blown away to see such an amazing transformation in attitude towards writing, at such an early part of the intervention.
My initial inquiry question was about removing the barriers that struggling writers face and help them overcome these while writing. The way the intervention is going at the moment, I feel I am half way there. My next big challenge is to now continue what has been happening, with more of a focus now on transferring their learning to their independent work. I also aim to address a lot more of the surface features.
Tuesday, 5 May 2015
A book well worth reading!!!
As part of my professional development in writing, I am currently reading 'I've got something to say: leading your writer to authorship' By Gail Loane. Below is a photo of this book.
I highly recommend teachers read this book if they are interested in developing their skills as a teacher of writing. This brilliant book gives so you many wonderful ideas and guides you in how to get students ideas out of their heads and successfully onto paper. It doesn't matter how old or young the students are as the books ideas apply to both young children through to young adults.
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