2016 Appraisal

I recently completed an appraisal for 2016. Please find attached link.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__CfusRr9h6analE1ZIbk44ZwWLTEXViqmgEoDT7Sj4/edit

Unit Plan

As part of my role as curriculum leader of the Science RLE group we were also tasked to try and create a new planning template for the unit.
We first looked at creating templates within our own group then the leaders met with the Deputy Principal and Principal to discuss the ideas we came up with.
What was clear was that we had all came up with similar templates which truth be told were not too dissimilar to the templates we had been using previously.
Then as a leadership group we tried to think more outside the box to create  a more responsive template that could change as the inquiry from the children changed so that we weren't stuck going down one avenue.
I am yet to see the finished template but below are some of the core ideas that came from that brainstorm.

New Zealand Sustainability

I was fortunate enough to go on a four day science P.D course in Tauranga, which was excellent, I will discuss that in my next blog. The course is named after Sir. Paul Callaghan a New Zealand physicist. Sir. Paul passed away a few years ago but the course started with a clip from him based on the idea of sustainability in New Zealand. I have linked the clip below as I felt it asked so many questions with regards priorities within New Zealand education.

Integrated Programme

This term as a Year 6 team we had a greater focus on integrating the curriculum. The topic we chose was space. We integrated this across our maths, reading, writing and afternoon topic. It worked really well as the students were engaged and were able to have a greater depth of knowledge on the topic and they were not seeing things in isolation. In maths they worked on the idea of 3D shape to make nets that would be used to create space equipment such as rockets and satellites.
It culminated with them giving a presentation to parents and friends based on the scenario that earth has been destroyed and humans need to relocate. They were able to present the information in a way of their own choosing. Some made space clothes or Pontoons, iMovies, PowerPoints, posters and models.
It was a very successful unit and integration is something that we will look to do for the rest of the year.

Video Observation

As part of my ongoing professional development I am having a lesson I teach be observed so that I can view it back and gardner feedback from my peers too. I recently had a writing lesson recorded. You will find the lesson below.

Reporting

With the end of Term 2 came mid year reporting and there has been a format change in Lynmore School. The PACT tool is the central tool in making OTJs. If you are unfamiliar with what PaCT is please allow me to explain.

The PaCT has been designed to help teachers make dependable judgments on students’ progress and achievement.
The PaCT is more than an online tool:

• ›  It supports the New Zealand Curriculum. It prompts teachers to notice what students know and can do across the breadth of mathematics, reading and writing. It helps teachers to understand the learning progressions set by the Curriculum and amplified by National Standards.
  
• ›  It supports moderation. It moderates individual teacher expectations through the frameworks and illustrations. It provides a common framework for teachers to discuss their judgment decisions with one another.
  
• ›  It also supports assessment for learning. The breakdown of mathematics, reading and writing into aspects gives greater clarity about what to notice when making observations of students, in learning conversations and through set tasks. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

PACT Reading

My Year 6 Team Leader and my BT mentor recently went on PD course on PACT reading. This year will be the first year at Lynmore that we will be using PACT for reading. Below our her notes from the seminar which gives clarity on reading and PACT.

Reading to learn - PACT Otonga
Presenter- Melanie Winthrop

Was does reading to learn look like?
How does this relate to the children we have in front of us everyday.

Reading to learn:
Making links to the reading processes and strategies years 3-6
Revisiting the literacy learning progressions - expectations for year 3-6
Reading to learn - with the curriculum learning areas
Exploring and making sense of the pact reading framework.

Students need to do more than just read (or write). They need to use their reading (and writing) to meet the demands of the curriculum. These demands are integral to many of the teaching and learning activities that support students in developing the key competencies as well as knowledge and ind skills in the essential learning areas.

Partner task- With a partner, discuss your responses to the follow questions.
Think of your class and all the reading they do in school day, including out of school.
At the end of year 6, what sort of readers do your students need to be in order for them to succeed at intermediate, high school and beyond.
How are you setting them up to succeed.

The discussion around the text is so important.

What do we know about readers entering year 4.
By now most students:
Have constrained skills pretty much under control
Can monitor their reading
Use some basic comprehension strategies’Have some knowledge of how basic text work
have built up sight vocabulary
Can evaluate straight forward information
Can identify the authors purpose
Are fluent readers

Literacy Acquisition:
Diagram in literacy progression.
Engagement in literacy activities.
Learning the code - decode, understand punctuation...
Making meaning - awareness of what you are doing
Thinking critically - evaluating, purpose, my response, what do I think?
These all work together at the same time - fluent readers do automatically.

Integrating sources of information - 
Diagram in literacy progression.
What children bring to the text is so important
Knowledge and experiences
Meaning
Language structure
Shapes and sounds

Partner task
Group 1- The literacy framework.
Group 2: Integrating sources of information

Group 1 task:
Learning the code is…
basic level- read and write.
More advance- build on basic skills, increase on vocal, more complex text structures, visual features/ diagrams.

Making meaning:
involves understanding the text are written for a range of purpose for audience

Thinking critically: 
considers different perspectives and the different intentions of the text.
Reflecting on them, finding rewards in being a reader… and writer.

What does all this mean when teaching reading?
Using a range of codes, understand who the writing if for, reading a range of more complex text to apply their skills.
Think and talk about the learning and how to apply the learning of new concepts.
Advance readers will automatically do all three together - make connections reading and writing. Deliberate acts- control of their knowledge. 
Prior knowledge, pull the text apart with discuss, word knowledge.

The literacy Context:
Effective literacy
The New Zealand Curriculum - is central.
Reading and writing standards
Learning through talk

By the end of year 4: 
locate, evaluate information and ideas (navigate, have read it and understood, vocabulary…)
Within text

By the end of year 5 and 6:
Locate evaluate, and integrate information and ideas
within and across a small range of text (pulling information from a range of texts and link it together across a small range of texts)

By the end of year 7 and 8:
Locate, evaluate, and synthesis information and ideas- (synthesis- a new idea is developed)
Within and across a range of text

Reading to learn for a curriculum purpose -
Reading to learn strategies- tools to achieve a purpose (many strategies working together).

Reading and writing as interactive tools:
This means that students read and write texts in ways that help them:
Organise their thinking
construct and create meaning
communicate information and ideas in print and electronic text, an
reveal their developing knowledge of content across the curriculum

Introduce the purpose for reading-
Why are we reading this…. introduce the text. Reading has a purpose … find out information or pleasure.
Need to tell the students about the purpose - why are they reading it and why its important… before the W.A.L.T.
Introduction important to the text.

Need to keep showing students how to keep using taught strategies.

By the end of year 6- they need to have a combination of strategies use them independently.

A note on …. comprehension strategies

Students need to be able to use some key comprehension strategies by the end of year 4, with some support, and be able to select from a repertoire of comprehension strategies by the end of year 6, mostly by themselves.
Specific strategies instruction needed
Teaching of strategies sports a wider reading/learning purpose.
By the end of year 6, student need to understand how strategies work in combination to meet reading purposes.

Very important to show and model your enjoyment around reading. Also model the purpose for reading.

High 5 strategies: Enhancing comprehension
Sue Dimick

Activating prior knowledge
Questioning
Analyzing text structure
Creating mental images
Summarising (quite highly skilled task)

Kids need to be ask question - not the teacher asking question.

Activating prior knowledge: High 5! #1
Make connections between what they know, what they have experienced…with what they are reading
Differentiate between back ground knowledge that is useful for their reading purpose, and background knowledge that isn’t useful?
Articulate how back ground knowledge helps them to enhance their understanding of what they are reading.
Need to be thinking in relation to the text.

High 5!#2: Questioning
When reading, can your students:
Ask ‘wondering’ questions?
ask question to clarify confusions?
Search for specific information that answers their question, think and search question, beyond the text questions.

Language of the learning areas:
Each learning area has its own language or languages. As students discover how to use them, they find they are able to think in different ways, access new areas of knowledge and see their world from new perspectives.
Using the proper language.
For each area , students need specific help from their teachers as they learn:
Specific language to that area.

Partner task- essence statements 
Health and PE
recipe reading
personal goal setting -fitness goals
understand specific exercise by understanding the exercise
Puberty- 
healthy community and environment - reading, talking about finding out about their own and others wellbeing. More opinion based - facts/opinions.
How they contribute to healthy communities - promoting supportive physical and emotional environments - role playing...
achievement awards - community task
Need to make connection more with what we are currently doing.

High 5!#3 Analysing text structure
Recognise common text purposes ( to narrate, to describe, to recount, to explain..etc..)
Recognise common text structures for fiction and non fiction text (sequential descriptive, persuasive, problem - solution, cause and effect. compare and contrast?0
Negotiate continuous and non-contiguous text.
Recognise different text types within a text?
Recognise and use specific language and visual features of the text?
Look for the text structure by noting key words, subheadings, etc. that reveal the text structure
Recognise and use signal or cue words
Follow and keep track of pronoun references
Build ideas within and across increasingly complex sentences
Articulate how using knowledge of text structure helps them to read and understand the text.

Purpose - what has the author done to achieve their purpose?

High 5! #4 Creating mental images
Its probably not what you think…
Visualise how the text is structures as they read.
Can they read like architects?
Can they see the ribs and bones of the text.

My reflection-
Find out more about passive and active voice.
How to ensure during my guided reading I promote student to ask questions - not just me as the teacher.
Not to rush through texts….. spend more time on them.
Sometimes start teaching/train students by using a lower level text - one they can easily read.

Afternoon session:
A closer look at the PaCt reading framework.

Measuring how students are using reading across the curriculum.
What it looks like when students are using their reading across the curriculum.

The following aspect comprise the reading framework
What are the knowledge and skills a reader needs?

Reading for literacy experience
Acquiring and using ideas & information in informational texts
Reading to organise ideas and information for reading
Making sense if get: reading critically
Making sense of text: vocabular
Making sense of text: text structure
Making sense of text: processing system

The components of an illustration
Annotation - The interpretation of the response and why it fits
Text and task
Student response- What the student does or says

Looked at Tevins response to the task.

Pre-reading task……. read to find out….

What is the place for fiction in reading to learn?

Empathy cultural values

High 5!#5
Summarising
Can you students:
Delete irrelevant details?
Combine similar ideas?
Condense the main ideas?
Connect major themes into concise statements (that capture the purpose.

Connected-
Fact or fiction?
Purpose for writing
text structures generally mirror how scientist communicate ideas and information
includes content relating to NOS
each year a different

Teaching as Inquiry

I posted with regards setting myself a teaching inquiry at the start of the year http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/goals.html after discussions with my tutor teacher, my year six team and a meeting with the Deputy Principal my inquiry has been set out for next term. The link below will outline the inquiry and the goals.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mZNnaC-vofdi9p7CRM0Y7yX4ABgQo96wpZg_2RRw2t0/edit

School Values

Our afternoon topic for the first four weeks of the school year has been based primarily around the School Vision and the School Values. It was important that the words that the students see around the are understood by the students and have a real meaning for the students.
We deconstructed the values of Honesty, Aroha, Perseverance, Initiative and Respect in different ways such as acting out scenarios, word clouds, storyboards and news reports.
This allowed the children to take real ownership and understanding of the values.

Above is one of the word clouds they created and below I have linked a video of a news reports about the values being shown around the school.

Reading Observation Notes

Below are three documents that relate to the reading lesson observation that took place in Term 3. Following my reading lesson that was observed by Lorraine, Lorraine conferenced the pupils about their learning and their responses are noted below.  What was encouraging was the fact the students all acknowledged that they helped to decide what we were going to learn that day.
The next document contains the notes taken by Lorraine during the lesson.
 I was happy to see that the choice of resources chosen and the background information I gave was considered to be "excellent".
The final document is the rubric that reflects on where I sit and I was very happy to move to stage 4 on the rubric, the top stage on the rubric, on 4 of the six aspects and to be at stage 3 on the other two aspects.
 I also have a clear goal moving forward with regards to where I am going with co-creation of success criteria and W.A.L.Ts. This will remain my teaching inquiry moving forward.

Video Reading Lesson

Reading Lesson

In term two there was a whole school audit on how we teach and I along with every other teacher in the school was videoed for a reading lesson. I was videoed and then I reviewed my video and had a meeting with the person that videoed me, in my case the principal Lorraine Taylor. I then completed a rubric with Lorraine outlining where I thought my teaching sat.

That video and feedback form is linked here

Feedback form
http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/blog-post_65.html

Lesson
http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/blog-post_17.html

This process has been carried out again in Term 3 same principle but with the hope that some of the questions raised in the first session will be answered and my feedback rubric will have moved forward.
Watching ones self back on video is a very informative and analytical process and definitely allows for thorough self analysis. My lesson went well and the things that I had looked to implement namely co-creation of success criteria were present which was pleasing. The full video and feedback forms I will post in my next blog and you see the steps forward that I have made and the steps that I still need to make.

Teacher Inquiry/Success Criteria

My teaching inquiry over the last couple of months has been "I want the children in my class to help me co-construct success criteria. How can I achieve this and what do I see as the benefits? How can I then use this to get them to create their own WALTs?"
The co-creation of success criteria has become a feature of most of my lessons. I have found that the students are very capable of helping with co-construction of criteria. This gives them a greater understanding and ownership of their learning on the ground floor. I feel for me I have to have a clear vision of what success is in the lesson or else the lesson can lose focus.
The benefits for the students is that they are less passive and more active in their own learning goals and they can see if they are reaching the expectations that they set themselves.
The co-creation of WALTs is still a work in progress I feel that I need to know where I want to go in the next three, four lessons so that I can leave breadcrumbs for them to create WALTs and that is where my shift of focus will go to. I think this requires a clear vision in my planning and a clear understanding of what my students needs are. 

I have attached a link from John Hattie on learning intentions and success criteria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGyvDvOegXE

Math Observation

One of the most beneficial aspects of having release time is that I get the opportunity to observe other teachers. Recently I had the privilege of observing an ALiM math class. The teacher is working with a small group of students that are working below the national standards in math. The teacher put a lot of emphasis on giving the students the time and opportunity to discover and think about their learning and how to work collaboratively.
The thing that I took most out of the lesson, and that I would look to bring into my own lessons, was the hands on aspects of the lesson and the use of physical resources to allow the children to move from the concrete to the abstract. I also need to remember that no what the level and the ability of the student hands on activities are very important.
So from my perspective I need to think about the physical resources that I could use in a lesson and how I can access them.

Post Reading Lesson Reflections

After my recorded reading lesson Lorraine interviewed the students and logged their responses. I watched the lesson and recorded my thoughts on the feedback form which I was given. Lorraine and I then had a meeting to discuss the lesson.

The whole process allowed for great reflection on how I teach and the things that I can add to my teaching to become a better teacher. The feedback was very positive, which is always good to hear, but the discussion with Lorraine also showed me a clear path in which to follow. 

From the way the lesson was set out and the responses elicited from the children it was clear that I was the driving force for the WALTs and that I was the one who quantified whether or not the children had done a good job. It is clear that I need to give the children greater control over their own learning with co-construction os success criteria, which should in turn lead to co-construction of WALTs. This is now what I intend my teacher inquiry to be based around and in my next post I will explain why.

Observations of my Teaching

As a provisionally registered teacher observations of my teaching happen on a regular basis. It allows me to receive feedback about my teaching from my tutor teacher and team leader. It can highlight where my perceived strengths and weaknesses are. It also provides a very quantifiable measurement of improvement or lack thereof. Below are some links to feedback forms from my tutor teacher and team leader. My tutor teacher and team leader outline positives, pose questions and I look to implement change in my classroom practice based on their questions. I also look to answer the questions they pose.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MY9_oivo3P_EKaqFR24h9jA9bDMSMHJahNK-UV_Tfbg/pub
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f60kicx4v0guedk1jaQN1Lr6mnaltipmSUt3lzESaQg/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xK_Oh58psTwuNfv-naPAdM0VmiudcSd3UuZvkE1VV4g/pub