Reflection on Term 3

Term 3 had its challenges - I tried a new kind of taskboard for my reading with a must do/may do system, but it became very chaotic.  I went back to my usual taskboard but decided to have my big book in between two of the rotations, separating them.  Apparently that is what they do at Koru School so that the children can pack up fully in between tasks.  I still feel that I need to hone my reading rotation system at guided reading time, perhaps for next year I will look into doing Daily 5.
I have been getting the children to read aloud to their reading buddies and this is having a positive effect on some of the lower readers.  It gives an extra chance to practise reading for the children who go to Reading Recovery.
For writing we focused on narrative and the children enjoyed using some story starters Shabnam gave me - they had different characters and settings and we did some shared writing together.
They are getting good at identifying the characters, setting, problem and solution in a story - I have noticed they need work on taking this from a plan to a coherent narrative.
For maths Karen S. gave me some scrapbooks for my maths groups to work in and some suggestions about the maths routine.  I have found this has been really helpful, particularly for my children who are lower in maths.   Working in the scrapbook is quite motivating and a good way to collect evidence of their work.
I got some children to do a simple pepeha for Maori Language Week and they did really well on stage.  Getting them to practise it in different settings like in front of the team and in front of the librarian worked well.
Term 4 will be busy with cultural group practice, planting some potatoes in the school garden, drawing patterns and end of year organisation.

Reading recovery observation with Siope

I observed Vanessa doing a reading recovery session with one of my students, Siope.  She got Siope to focus on how the letter sounds felt in his mouth.

She got Siope to hear the beginning and ending sounds in some words and Vanessa finished writing the words.  She then made a sentence strip of a sentence Siope had said "He is putting makeup on."  Siope put the sentence back in order.

She then got Siope to practise some high-frequency words: 'is' and 'am.'  She emphasised stretching the words to hear the sounds.

Then she got him to practice the word 'my' with magnetic letters and gave him some sentences with the word 'my' - 'My brother is called Saia.'  'My class is Room 6.'

Vanessa then got Siope to read "We Dress Up."  She reminded him to turn the pages the right way.  She made connections between the text and the pictures as Siope read.

She got Siope to find some words in the book that started with an S - "scarf" and "snake."

Takeaway:  I noticed the way Vanessa really got Siope to pay attention to the sounds in the high-frequency words he was learning, as well as just recognising the words.  I will use this strategy with Siope's reading group.  

4. Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice. 

i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.

ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.

iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.  

Observation of reading recovery

I watched Hitha doing reading recovery with one of my children, Tui, reading at Level 7.  Tui started off by reading a familiar story called "The Leaf Boats."  Hitha got him to point to words with a chopstick as he read.  Hitha reminded him to pay attention to commas as he read.  She drew Tui's attention to words and punctuation he had missed.

Then Tui read another seen text - "Mother's Day" while Hitha did a running record.  She got Tui to choose a picture from the story to talk about.  Tui then wrote a story about the picture.  Hitha drew a sound box to help him with the word 'gave.'  She reminded him that the e on the end of gave was a 'magic letter.'

Hitha paid attention to Tui's letter formation too, when he tried to write 'breakfast' she noticed that he wrote his 'f' backwards.  She put a sticker over the f and got him to rewrite it.  She wrote his story on a strip of paper then cut it up and got Tui to put the words back in order.  She then focused on fluency, getting Tui to read it back "like a story."
Takeaway:  Watching this reading recovery session reminded me about using story strips for writing - this is an activity I haven't done in a while and would be good to use for my lower writing group. 

4. Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice. 

i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.

ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.

iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.  

"From Chaos to Confidence" webinar

I did an online webinar called "From Chaos to Confidence" on a site I subscribe to - it was about effective classroom organisation.  It was run by Cassie Tabrizi, a former teacher in the US.

The main idea of the webinar was: "How the classroom environment is organised influences the behaviour in it." (Stronge, Tucker and Hindman, 2004).

It had great ideas about organising a classroom library (breaking books down into genres and having a simple coding system so children could shelve their own books), having a folder on the wall for each child for assessments and a turn in box for handing in work.

A great idea I got about behaviour management was to make a 10x10 grid and whenever a child does something outstanding, get them to write their name on one of the squares.  When the grid is full, draw out chips labelled with the coordinates of those squares and they will win prizes.  This has the feature of teaching graphing skills, too.

Another was to use whole-brain teaching.  I have been reading the whole-brain teaching book and would like to implement some of the strategies from this such as the 'Class?  Yes?' call and response.

Cassie pointed out that it is useful to have a scoreboard for smooth transitions etc but that it is important to keep the difference  in the positive and negative points within 3.

She had good advice for rewards that don't cost money - these were brain breaks, the chance to sit in the front of the class all day, a desk swap, a lunch date with the teacher and getting to use scented marker pens.

Takeaway:  I thought this seminar gave me some good ideas for positive rewards and I liked the central idea that the environment influences behaviour.  

Observing maths in Room 9

I watched Karen S. teaching a maths lesson in her Year 3 class.  I found it valuable to see practical aspects of how she set up the lesson.

Karen had the problem set up in modelling books for the groups to use.  The problem was: "Mrs Schwenke bought 3 groups 15 currant buns from the market.  How many currant buns did Mrs Schwenke buy altogether?

Karen put the children into 3 groups of 4 and got them to explain what was happening in the story.  She used the 'talk moves' language, saying "Can I revoice it for you?"

When the children understood what the problem was about they worked with their groups - Karen chose who was going to be the writer for each group (everyone wanted to write).

When it came to presenting the answers Karen put the children into lines.  When a group was presenting and drawing circles on the modelling book she asked "What do the circles represent?"  I thought this was a good idea, making the connection that the circles represent something from the problem.  Karen was encouraging, saying "Well done for being brave and attempting this," reinforcing positive attitudes towards maths.

After the children had presented their answers Karen made the connection that the problem could be represented as 3 x 15, which was the same as 15+15+15.

Lilianne reminded the children about splitting numbers, that it could be worked out as 3x10 + 3x5, so 30 + 15 = 45.  She reminded them that this is called the distributive law.

Takeaway:  I liked the way that Karen glued the maths problems into modelling books to keep track of them and so that the children could read the problem close up (one of the maths mentors mentioned that this affects their processing of what they read).  I liked the way she set up her groups with everyone sitting in lines and a specific job in the group for each person.  It was good to see the way she used the language from the talk moves and that she encouraged the children for being brave and standing in front of the class, acknowledging that it could be difficult to do this.