Saturday 23 March 2024

MIT: Alumni Hui 2024

I feel so priviledged to have attended this gathering of talented teachers led by Matt and Dorothy at the MIT Hui held in Christchurch, hosted by KPMG! We were introduced to a Design Thinking concept that encouraged us to investigate a problem based on our current teaching practice. I was buddied up with Kariene and we focused on "Structured Literacy in the Early Years" (BSLA). We had to identify multiple problems and then do a deep dive and hone in using Crazy 8's to create possible solutions and how we can implement them? Kariene and I identified that although the BSLA program is valuable to our tamariki, time constraints are a factor in ensuring the success of setting up and completing individual assessments (prior to establishing reading groups). This needs to be done at the start of the teaching year or at the end of a 10 week teaching block and takes time to complete a whole class of learners (e.g. 20 -24 students in Year 1,2 or 3). I learnt that working with another teacher who has had a similar experience enabled us to bounce ideas off each other, compare and reflect on our own teaching practice. we identified what is working well and what needs to change. We are going to request more release time to carry out assessments which take time to analyse and then upload onto the BSLA site. Thank you so much to Justine for your kind hospitality, making us feel welcome in your space and providing delicious kai throughout the day. Nga mihi nui, Sonali Carter.

Wednesday 6 December 2023

BSLA review

After 40 weeks of teaching the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) to the children in my class, all of the children have been tested. Out of the whole class of 20 children, the reading group who are considered as the most capable readers 4 of them have reached the top reading level called Rakau. As part of the assessment schedule they were tested at the end of the year and came out with top results ranging from 100%, 99%, 98% and 92%. Considering the fact that all of these children are ESOL and they have accumulated so many more words to their vocabulary, it is a great credit to them. They have read a range of books that they can relate to, learnt the characters names and Te Reo Maori phrases. The teaching strategies have introduced a new focus sound each week that is found in the words of the book they are reading. They learn a new morpheme such as -ing, -ed, -ll (double consonant) and have learnt how to sound out a word phonetically. I am so proud of their achievements. One of these students has received a top academic award for this year out of 60 Year 2 students. It is interesting to note that all of these children have had homework reading support from their own families at home, which has proved to be successful. In comparison to a small number of children who have had minimal input from their parents and/or significant absences from school throughout this year. In conclusion I feel that a consistent approach of teaching and learning at school and home is required in order for the BSLA reading program to be successful.

Thursday 14 September 2023

Year 2 Unicorns!

On behalf of Mrs Moon, Mrs Shirley and myself, I would like to congratulate the Year 2 netball team for winning all of their 12 games this season. We are so proud of you, as many of you were first time players that consisted of 6 girls and 2 boys. We love the fact that you became an awesome team, working together and coming to weekly training, learning new skills. You scored 119 goals and only had 9 goals scored against! Well, we are looking forward to seeing you all return in 2024...

Monday 31 July 2023

BSLA making progress in Literacy

This group of children have been learning how to spell cvc words found in the book they are reading. They are also practising segmentation of words and phonic awareness by sounding out each letter. Each book has some Maori kupu in it as well. They are introduced to the focus sounds for each week. Students are looking closely at blends and double vowel sounds from this book. This is a good opportunity to identify correct letter formation from each child writing on their whiteboard.

BSLA - Literacy skills

As per the recommendation, I have been reading one quality storybook a week with my class. Throughout the book, I read the explanantions of new words in each sentence which need highlighting. I have noticed that by the end of the week, the children have learnt new words to add to their vocabulary as well as Te Reo Maori words and their meanings. I encourage the children to think about the characters in the story, name them if possible and write down their ideas using a whiteboard marker and pens. Each contribution is acknowledged with verbal praise and encouragement. This helps students with their story writing ideas and writing full sentences, rather than stand alone words. I brainstorm ideas on the mat, using the whiteboard and draw a mind map with the title in the middle. This is a whole class learning opportunity with role modelling of sounding out unknown words. I may gift them some of the new vocabulary words if they are tricky? This technique promotes cognitive skills and uses a peer scaffolded approach to learning together and helping each other. I have noticed an improvement in the top writing group, adding more detail. They are writing more, and starting to use a sequence of events to recall what happened.

Friday 2 June 2023

Research Reflection PD

On our teacher only day we were asked to look at the data from the Reading, Writing and Maths results from students at our school compared to those in the Manaiakalani cluster. The findings were interesting, particularly because the period of time that the assessment took place was through the Covid epidemic which has affected all school students learning in a plethora of ways. In our small groups we looked at gender, ethnicity and year groups that were tested at different times of the year over a period of one year (Term 1 of 2022 - Term 1 of 2023). We took a deep dive into what student groups had made progress, acceleration, showed a shift or those that had gaps and why we thought was the case? We recorded a PMI for each subject ares or Reading, Writing and Maths. Then we broke into Quality Learning Circles to discuss what effective strategies we are currently using and share ideas with teaching colleagues. Here is a snapshot of our time spent together with a range of reading techniques used.
In the afternoon I went to a fun, interactive Create workshop led by the wonderful junior teachers from Glen Taylor school and their session was called "Mad Little Scientists" and this was divided into three areas of the Living World, The Material World and The Physical World. We broke into three groups and did a hands on Create activity which promotes young children's fine motor skills, creativity, cognitive development and language accumulation. They use provocations to promote student interest and then provide a range of activities for them to participate in. Overall, this was a positive and valuable experience of teaching and learning within our education cluster. I found it helpful and will endeavour to use some of these ideas in my own teaching practice. Special thanks to Georgie Hamilton for presenting the research, and Fiona Grant for collating this professional development Inquiry to us and the Manaiakalani team for their statistical analysis and research of our testing data. "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results", (John Dewey).