Teaching Writing through a Structured Literacy Lens

 18 June

Have a look at Le Trobe University study.

Single-Paragraph Outline (From the Writing Revolution). 

Task: Write a topic sentence based on Summer. 

Single Paragraph Outline: Topic sentence, activities, what I wear, food and closing sentences. The idea is to give scaffolds for students to write. We can direct students with specific criteria and include specific sentence types. 

Use articles and videos to enhance knowledge bases and note taking. 

See Teacher Tips slide. 

The template is helpful for cognitive load purposes. (See Participants Workshop 4 Folder). 

Summarising

A summary can be created by using a SPO. 

Combined outline merges these.

Revising - Putting flesh on the bones of our writing.

Editing is correcting errors where revision is clarifying the content of your writing. Editing happens after revision. Helps make our writing clear and interesting. 

Our Task: Write a topic sentence about tropical cyclones. 

Vary Vocabulary - Watch out for overused words.

We had a fun time. 

You can co-create a list of alternatives for each of these words. 

Example: Create a list of adjectives to describe who we are writing about.

Using transition words...time and sequence, illustration, conclusion, time and sequence, emphasis...(Missed the rest). 

Use a model of a paragraph of text with transition words missing. 

Revising an unelaborated paragraph. Provide students with an unelaborated paragraph and ask them to revise the paragraph using the following strategies:

Improve T.s and C.S, expand sentences,...missed the rest.

Sequence for Teaching Paragraph Revision:

Revise unelaborated paragraphs.

Put it on the board and student suggest improvements.

Work in pairs or independently with specific directions.

Work in pairs or independently without specific directions. 

(One more here but I missed it). 

SD1: Supporting Detail #1

Keep coming back to sentence level work and revision of sentence types. Ensure that kids leave space for revising. 

MPO - Multiple Paragraph Outline

A composition is a series of paragraphs united by a common theme. 

See the drive above for more templates.

Prior to using this template, do the underlining and note-taking activities for your main text. 

The thesis statement will include something about each of the paragraphs that follow. 

Our Task: Manatees were mistaken for mermaids. 

Write a thesis statement:

Manatees, who were often mistaken for mermaids, created all kinds of havoc for pirates and drunk sailors. 

Introductions GST General sentence, Specific sentence and Thesis sentence. 

General - Broad statement (Understand)

Specific - Hone in on the topic or character.

Three step formula - 

Over time... People have observed... Many... + who/what + effects.

Each element of the MPO needs specific teaching and instruction. 

Aotearoa NZ Histories has a lot of the general statements. We can provide different parts and get students to create the other part.

Conclusions - Thesis, Specific, General.

MODULE FIVE: How do we bring reading, writing and spelling all together?

Things to consider: Doug Lemov 'Teach Like a Champion'. 

Anita Archer's 'Archerisms'. 

Sample Literacy Blocks

Daily Lessons

Background knowledge and vocab: set children up for success

Introduce text: unpack carefully, read together, check comprehension - even sentence by sentence.

Fluency: Choral read, echo read, partner read.

Sentence level activities: Review one previously taught. Introduce new skill (or develop newly introduced skill). Multiple examples, practice. 

Scaffolded SPO: could write a supporting detail sentence, conclusion, choose best topic

MPO: Can write over two days (Once 2-3 texts have been explored) as We Do tasks. 

Monitoring: Very low stakes (Keeping at We Do, or You Do Together), low stakes (whiteboard), higher stakes for assessment 9on worksheet or in books). 

Something to develop: Increase the interaction with students, as a start, 3 per minute. 

Also, what questions do I have for next week's Year 3-6 session? 

Appraisal 2024

RPI Day #2

 Knowing Our Learners As Readers

Day #2

To start - We had a sharing session about our mahi kāika and how things have been going over the last few weeks. 

My to do: Meet with my mentor, complete homework tasks from Day #1. Do ground rules for talk. Add links to the Mahi Tracker. 

Dorothy Burt's Kōrero: Wider Picture of Manaiakalani

The RPI is grounded within the wider picture of Manaiakalani. This has come as a response from principals, wanting learning for teachers. 

One of Dorothy's memorable teachers was one who allowed students to choose books for their National Library class collections. 

Knowing our learners is not a new concept. 

Literacy Cycles - 

Teachers looked at how many opportunities students had to read. Multiple opportunities to read through each part of Learn, Create, Share. (Have a look at Kōrero Pt England podcasts).

Good idea: Students do reviews of New Zealand books with one student being the podcast DJ. 

Shows literacy inclusion throughout the learning process.

share.manaiakalni.org Recommended for students to access as part of their reading learning. Very important part of a reading task board or tumble. The more students read of other student learning, the more achievement and progress.

Chalk and Talk - Assessment 101

Whatever type of assessment we use, we need to actually use it or it's a waste of time. Planning for ambitious outcomes.

WHY?

Anything over .4 is exceptional. All of these, have a significant impact on reading achievement results. 

Formative assessment feeds directly into our teaching and learning. Summative is beginning, mid and end of year for tracking progress. Standardised so gives us a good indicator of how we are doing as teachers.

BreakOut Activity

We shared about what types of assessment we use for Reading. What do we do and how do we use it?

Two main documents: New Zealand Curriculum and The Literacy Learning Progressions.

If the things on the left are being done, the things on the right will happen. 

The Teacher Work Book: Don't freak out!!! Today we are focusing on the first tab.
Thoughts: Hero can track really well if it is being used to its full capability. 
PAT Next Steps: Populate Google Sheet with this information. 

My Workbook -

Task: Treasure Hunt of a Workbook -

1) Reading age 9 - 10 years
2) 11/24 are below
3) Damon is working at Level 2
4) Novels and chapter books - Got this wrong.
5) talk about the purpose of the text (entertain, persuade, inform).
6) - Infer meaning from punctuation (e.g. exclamation); - inferring meaning from personification;

Tracking Reader Profiles

Knowing our learners as readers.

We went through how to copy and paste results from the learner survey to our workbooks.

For me, complete the reader profile survey, but in the meantime, use data from Mel's survey that she has shared. Choose a student selected text to read by myself.

We looked at how to sort survey questions to help gather information.

My Group to Focus On:

Common Personal Reading Goal: 'Read bigger and longer words'. 

One Book: Goosebumps

A cool tip for Google Sheets is how add drop down boxes in columns, which will be good for grouping kids. I like it.

Book Share: Porangi Boy by Shilo King

Good to have a mirror book which is where they see themselves reflected. 

Discuss survey findings with learners, particularly the part about reading for enjoyment.

Reading Challenges Task Boards. Giving options and choices.

Using Our PAT Data:

We can pull all of our data into our workbook. Use scale score as stanines don't show you shift. 

Ambitious learning outcomes for students.

Look at Ed Potential data. Grey line is the norm. Black is average.

Use Item Report to identify gaps. 

I identified that Retrieval is a gap.

Check out the teacher workbook. This is an example of an individual report from my class.

This is so cool and great to how different functions work and how to interpret. It is important to share the information with ākonga. With students, what derailed us and what skills did we need to see success and understanding?

Task Boards:

The boxes in red identify the activities that support the learning outcomes. The response to Text piece is an independent task and shows evidence of meeting the learning outcomes. 

To Check Out: ARBS

User name - arb

Password - guide

I think my life has just changed although I need to look at how to share with students and ensure that I get results. First step would be to set up a teacher account.

Developing Assessment Capable Learners Using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

Have a look at Assessment Online TKI

WALT - We are learning to.

WALHT - We are learning how to.

LO - Learning outcome.

Stick to one of these as it doesn't really matter which one.

You can use the learning progressions, and adjust them in your workbook. Hero also has this function.

Don't write learning intentions like this...

They are too broad.

Coming back to this. 

Ensure that the success criteria relates to the learning intentions. The learning task board also contains the learning intentions and success criteria. 

Activity - Organise statements into the right category. 

Ask students what they learned. Over time, students become part of the creation of success criteria. 

Task: Add learning intentions to group planning page. 

Pulling it All Together

Assessment 101

Keeping track of learning

Assessment tools

Learning intentions and success criteria

Start what is manageable. Repetition embeds learning.

If students are adding links to the hand in sheet, get them to use their initials. Rows can be assigned and locked to one learner so ākonga can't edit anybody else's. Good tip for protecting sheets.

My Reflection of Today

Today I made my notes directly onto my blog instead of a doc. I saved it as I went along. I just found this easier than last time when I recorded notes onto a doc. 

Pinning the agenda helped me keep track of all of the slides.

I like the task board and will add a template to the current slides that I use for my groups. 

I am pretty glad that I have seen and started using the workbook, even though I haven't used it to its full capability. I think if it was completely new to me, I may have felt quite lost.

Some of the data that is currently in my workbook came from Mel's survey. I need to decided if it's a good idea to conduct the survey again with my learners. 

Looking at the PAT data and what NZCER Assist has within its platform, was fantastic. I didn't realise that the scale score showed movement so that's something new that I will start focusing on, rather than the stanine, which is what I have been focused on. 

I was also very interested in ARBS as I haven't used this before. I am quite keen to try this with one of my groups to see how it goes and what information I can gather. I really liked how the texts were available through this site.

Now what?

I need to set up a meeting with Jayne, my mentor.

Explore ARBS.

Look at the PAT data and identify areas of need. 

Update data in my workbook.

Explore and experiment with the taskboards.

Add links to the mahi tracker.

Reading Practice Intensive Day #1

 

Reading in foundational aspiration of Manaiakalani programme. 

Reading is essential. If we want children to have equity, they need to be confident readers.

Poor reading ability has a detrimental effect on life and makes school difficult. The ability to read is a social justice issue and is associated with disadvantage. Some kids have to make more than one year's progress each year. Acceleration is hard work. Teachers are working hard and smart to meet these needs. 

Ākonga also have to work harder. 

Railway line: One side is effective teaching, and the other is the digital world. To harness the potential, we need both sides of the track. 

Framework - Describes the Manaiakalani Programme and the relationship with schools in the partnership.

The Why - Three consecutive years or more of being in a class for three years or more, young people get the rewards. 

Reading requires intensive competence in teachers. 

National Relevance - Student feedback across the country says they have been doing less reading. 

What characterises a good reader? 

-Understanding of what is read.

-Being able to interpret information

-Learn from what is read

-Enjoyment for reading

-Make meaning

-Reading mileage. 

-Word knowledge and vocabulary

-Good readers participate

-Good readers read widely. Show better academic outcomes.

Reading Role Model - Kids Tell Us Why We Read.

For me: Share more favourite books and delve into what we share as a class, what kids have read and the recommendations ākonga might have.

Reading survey - Libby for online reading. Needs a library card barcode. Only 36% of schools have libraries.

Books I might read with the class: David Walliams Mr Stink maybe.

Pillars of Practice

Reading to Learn

Cover a range of genres, hook kids in, and use a range of relevant contexts. Comprehension strategies - skills that need to be learned. Reading is everywhere. Reading and writing are connected. A library in a school shows we value reading. Can create a hub-type community in the library space. Reading is Core to Learning video from Richard.

The New Zealand Curriculum -

How can guided reading capitalise on local and current contexts?