Manaiakalani - Teacher Only Day
Term 1 2021 was concluded with a cluster Teacher only day which focused on literacy and specifically reading. This day provided teachers with the opportunity to access the skills and experience of over 30 educators who presented a variety of workshops. Each teacher was able to choose 3 workshops which they felt had particular relevance to their learners or held interest for them.
Keynote Address - Dr Rae Si'ilata
Having attended the Pasifika Early Learning Project PLD in 2020 I knew we would be treated to an impassioned and illuminating presentation by Rae and her colleague Kyla Hansell. Listening to Rae's message I was moved by her question " Is my teaching adding to the literacies of my students or subtracting from it?". As a teacher of students who's world view is different from the one I was born into, it is my responsibility as the "teacher" (a role which holds power in education) to share the learning space with my whanau, and fanau. I need to make critical choices about resources (choose texts which mirror my students and allow them to meaningfully access schemata which support comprehension. I need to make critical choices about pedagogy (learning through songs, dance and embodying knowledge allow my students to learn in a way that taps into their cultural strengths.). I need to think critically about the relationships which are fostered in my classroom, how can I privilege the knowledges and aspirations of my families.
Reading Explain Everything - Khismira Lal and Clarelle Carruthers
Why I chose this workshop. I wanted to extend my knowledge of EE as a tool to increase my learners reading mileage. As my class grows I am conscious that the breadth of reading ability is widening. I was reflecting on the need to provide independent opportunities for my learners to engage with texts and to give more chances to practise the word work undertaken with the teacher.
What resonated with me. I was particularly interested in hearing about the success that the facilitators had noted with using EE's as a way of allowing students to 'hear' themselves reading. I really liked the ability of the EE to act as a vehicle for the student to record their learning and in turn share it through their blogs. Individual blogs is one of the tools I wanted to employ in term 2. Khismira encouraged me to use EE's with all my students not just those in the higher groups as she had found it had really engaged some of her students with lower literacy capital. She advised the use of a simple EE which could be repeated weekly so that the students would be able to complete the tasks independently. She also recommended teaching the use of the EE as a class wide lesson and then allowing the more competent students to support their classmates.
How I will adapt it to my classroom.
In term 2 I will make an EE part of my reading follow up activities. I will make it simple so that learners can access themselves. I'm planning to include - Take a photo of your favourite page. Then write the words underneath. Record yourself reading your favourite page. Listen to your reading.
Creating a Rich Oral Language Programme - Jo Gormly
Why I chose this workshop: My inquiry topic this year is focused on the phonological awareness of my learners. As part of that inquiry I did an assessment of my students oral language skills and discovered that some of my target students needed support in this area. The kaupapa of my classroom includes play and shared experiences as a way to encourage oral language opportunities. However I felt like I could be doing more to capitalise on the student talk that happens in the classroom.
What resonated with me. Jo discussed the urgency needed in our classrooms to encourage quality talk amongst our learners. I loved hearing that her classroom was full of talk and loud! I often feel I should be keeping my children quiet as this is what a "good" classroom looks like - it was great to hear this challenged. I really enjoyed hearing about say and do activities where children were encouraged to narrate their actions as they performed tasks. Jo encouraged the use of topic specific technical and scientific language. This was supported through the use of Camera cameo's which were drawings with notation which provided targeted vocabulary. Eg evaporation. I also like the use of sentence frames which modelled to students syntax and more complex sentence structures.
What that will look like in my classroom - As a result of this presentation Team 1 will follow Jo's planning framework of breaking inquiry learning into two week deep dives into targeted topics. The planning for each topic will include specific vocabulary learning goals.
Why I chose this workshop. I was interested to hear about this program and what it could achieve with learners even though it is not available to New Entrants I was curious to see if the any of the pedagogy employed could be used in my class.
What resonated with me. This presentation made me consider the use of non-fiction texts as a way to provide content learning and extend vocabulary. It made me realise that I only very rarely read non-fiction texts during shared reading. I was also interested to see that alot of the time in the lessons was focused on previously read texts. Students had opportunities to reread texts as a way to increase milage and improve fluency and comprehension.
How I will adapt it to my classroom. I will chose at least one non-fiction text a week to read during shared reading time and I will make previous books available to children to reread within their groups, or to their friends during reading followups.
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