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).

Literacy debate

I recently watched an episode of "Paddy Gower has Issues" (a new series on TV3) and Laura Tupou was looking at the current debate amongst the New Zealand teaching professsion about Balanced Literacy versus Structured Literacy. She interviewed primary schools who are using the new Structured literacy programs to teach young children how to read such as introducing the Better Start Literacy Approach developed in New Zealand through the University of Canterbury or Little Learners Love Literacy from Australia and spoke to the students about what they like best about the program? She also spoke with teachers and principals about this new initiative (BSLA) which is supported by the Ministry of Education. Then she interviewed Rebecca Jesson from the University of Auckland who teaches Reading recovery to students who need it and also trains teachers in this pedagogy. She advocates that teachers should continue to use both methods of teaching, so a combination of teaching phonics and reading recovery to enhance a child's ability to learn to read. She highlights the need for both teaching methods to be taught implicitly so that "children learn to read by reading AND by being taught explicitly" (R.Jesson, 2023). As found in her blogpost - https://www.learningcircle.co.nz/blog/reading-recovery-refresh-unpacking-and-and-approach? We all know the importance of Oral language and how much children need to engage in their interest in books and love of literacy. It is our job as teachers to provide the framework, scaffolding, resources and support for the children in our classrooms to foster positive literacy experiences, especially in the early years of their schooling. Support from whanau is also part of the process in order for Maori and Pasifika (ESOL) students to progress in reading. The research shows that these two groups are not achieving where they should be in literacy. Is there a Nature vs Nurture arguement at play as to why some children learn to read with ease and others struggle? I am passionate about teaching the children in my care to have the confidence to overcome potential obstacles they may face in reading. Be it a language deficit, poor attendance, not having enough conversations in their home environment? These children need as much support as we can give them when they come to school to learn to read...