CoL Update (Term 3, Week 10)

This week was our Ako Evening, where students get to share what they have learnt throughout the term. Our inquiry was around natural disasters.

Each student in the class (additional needs or not..) is expected to make something ("create") to share on the night. 

Kian and Paul immediately formed groups with their classmates and began creating. Ryan chose to work on his own, but still completed his creation. 

Then on the day, the had to present to their classmates/teachers, and after school, to their families. 

Ryan presenting the tsunami artwork to our DP. 

Paul and some of his group members showing their volcano.

Kian and his buddies tsunami.

Paul presenting to his schoolmates.

Paul presenting Kian's work to a teacher (Yes, he presented SOMEBODY ELSE'S work, just because he wanted to/could, and did a great job of it too!). 

Ryan presenting the artwork to some junior students.

Ryan then decided it was too noisy inside and wanted to be the greeter. Fair enough!

Again, Paul presenting a 3rd 'creation' (he didn't make this, but presented it with confidence to our guests). 

It was SO AWESOME to see all 3 boys get involved in the learning and sharing. I was very impressed that Ryan identified it was getting too much for him, and came up with his own solution as to how he could be involved, but remove himself a little. Managing self anyone?

Kian completed his work and presented it with pride to his family member that came in the afternoon. He could explain his tsunami, what causes them etc in his own words with confidence. 

Paul and his group made their volcano and could present it. What blew me away was that Paul presented at least 3 other groups creations to guests. He knew the information in his head and had the confidence to just walk over and start talking about tsunamis/volcanoes/earthquakes/etc. He definitely is participating and contributing! 

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 9)

This week I started testing Paul and Kian again on PM Benchmark/PROBE.

	End Term 3
	PROBE	PM BENCHMARK
Kian	6 - 7 YRS	Level 15
Ryan
Paul		Level 24
V**		Level 23

Paul and V have moved up to silver and Kian has moved up to Level 15 (his last test was level 12!). Kian has been at this level before but slid backwards over the school holidays. I really need to maintain his daily reading to keep him here, I don't want him to slip backwards again as he and I both work so hard to move up levels. 
Ryan didn't pass the PROBE I gave him so I need to retest him.

Paul's story -
On Monday 17th September 2018 room 7 did a special activity called Yoga challenge. 

Miss Ashley told us to get into buddies. My buddy was Timote. Miss Ashley showed us photos then we have to copy it .The first one was easy because you just have to sit down and hold hands and lean back. The next one you have to stand up and put your one leg to the front and put your other leg at the side and use your arm to make a heart .

Look at that introduction! It has who, when and what in it. Then in his first paragraph, the ideas are in order, he remembered full stops and capita letters for names by himself, he tried to explain what he was doing and you can kind of figure it out. Great!

Kian's story -

when I got to school in the morning I came up to the classroom and I hanged my bag up on the hook and then I went over to Ms Ashley and gave my notice to her and then we did the role and then we had to move the chairs and tables away so then we had a broom to do yoga.

My favourite one was when we had to lean on each other my hardest one was when we had to put our legs on the ground and that other person had to put their head on my legs and  then we got to the last one which was that one that I just sent that was hard all the rest of them was a little bit easier for me but I did not like them that matcha cause I was a bit hard.“Are you ready?”

I reminded him to try and put dialogue (talking) in his story, and he has just put it at the end. That's okay, he tried. Again, the ideas are in order and there are mostly capital letters and full stops in the right place. As mentioned previously, using voice typing is amazing for him but sometimes he doesn't pick up the mistakes in it (e.g. 'we had a broom' instead of 'we had room'). Still need to work on checking.

This week we also did fun activities that the boys could be a part of. It was Paul's first experience with VR this week. At first he was a little apprehensive, especially after watching his friends scream and revolt when it was their turn to watch. He gave it a go and then as a class we wrote about what we saw. 
Kian is managing himself so well that others in the school are starting to notice and comment on it. His name never comes up in the staffroom or meetings like it used to, and he never gets in trouble. When I talked to him about it, he mentioned that I had said to him 'if you are good, then you won't get into trouble with Miss ****'. I don't know why that one time stuck, and the other thousand times I have said that to him didn't, but he is doing so well. 
During learning time he asks people to be his buddy and usually asks for my help when he gets stuck (yes, even that is a breakthrough). 

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 8)

As a class we have been really focusing on writing and what good writers do, explaining and modelling the planning stage, how to write good introductions for recounts, and how to check your work after you have written as well.

Here are some samples of the students writing that I AM SO PROUD OF! 

Paul - Remember that Paul is an ESOL student who has been in New Zealand for little over 1 calendar year. These stories he writes by himself either by typing, or using voice typing. He learnt how to voice type from Kian who uses it 100% of the time.

Paul's recount about the museum - 
On Wednesday 12th of September 2018 room 5, 6, 7 and 8 from Tamaki Primary School went to the museum. We went to the museum because we learn about natural disasters.

First we did the roll and Miss Ashley say to us “choose your own groups”. Then we went to the hall and Mrs Fepuleai told us if there's something inside you're not allowed to touch and keep your feet mouth and hands to yourself .

Then we went to the bus. When we were at the museum we have morning tea then we went inside then we put our bag away back away. The man come and told us the rules.

Then we went to the volcano room and we saw some volcano rocks. Then we went to a room and we watch a video. The room was shaking then the light was going off. It was noisy because the children was in there screaming and we just stay at the volcano room. Then we went back in the elevator and we had lunch and played games and we went to the bus and we came back to Tamaki Primary at 1.30. We arrived at 2pm.

Paul's recount about Tongan language week- 
“Yay! It’s wednesday 5th of september 2018, it’s tongan language week I think it’s gonna be the best day ever because this my first time in my life playing, Tongan games.

Tolo pato
The game that i played was the Tolo pato the goal that i have to do is to dodge the ball, if you get hit from the ball im out if i'm out  i have to until the game finish. When i played this game i was playing with my friend Havea and Leon
“I asked Havea what game is this”
“Havea said it’s dodgeball”
When i was playing i was so confused because their were to side were the three taggers.

Fusi Maea
It is just like tiger war The game works you get to team the other team is going to be your rivals.We had a countdown from 3 2 1 they started pulling it was Dyzon, George and me in one team and lopi, sonny and saia.It was almost a draw and the rope was so stretching that it felt like we were pulling someone body apart.

Kian - for context, Kian uses voice typing to record his ideas. He is incredibly slow at typing and hand writing so he gets frustrated and/or takes so long to record one idea he has forgotten the rest of his story by then. Using voice typing has afforded him to write ALL his ideas down. Instead of writing 1 sentence of his own ideas, he can write 1 page. I highly recommend voice typing, particularly for building confidence in writing.
Voice typing is amazing, however we are still working on editing the writing after he has voice typed it. Sometimes it has recorded a wrong word and sometimes he talks so fast it misses words out.

Kian's recount about making a tent at school -

I told Paula to push the metal pole into the hole and he did it and then I did the next one and then we put up the tent. We were almost done and then we put that cover over and we pigs on it and then put the blue pollen and then we finished that one. When you finish putting up the tent we then the tent with only box and Mr rusty right about what we did and how we put it up. I did most of the tent because everyone else was playing inside the tent and me Paula and Isaiah were doing the tent as I help me put the poles in and Paula we put over the second half of the tent. I like putting up the tent because it's a really good thing cuz you are learning how to put up a tent and other people are showing you how to put up a tent. I break into because it's fun and it's really good cuz other people can learn how to make a tent. I did the most stuff on the team because everyone else was playing in the tent and me and Isaia we're doing the most work.

Kian's Tongan language week recount -

On Wednesday the 5th of September we did Tongan gamesAnd this is at Tamaki Primary School I was in the tug of war and I lost but in the next round I won and then I went to the next game which is called the sack race and I came second and then I didn't play anymore games and I just went on the Park.

Ryan - Ryan doesn't usually write about what everybody else is writing about, even if it is a recount about something we all just experienced together. I am happy for him to write about whatever he wants, as long as he writes something. When he writes, he usually listens to music as he claims this helps him concentrate. I have tried many times to get him to write without the music, and it just does not happen. So, music it is. I would rather he listened to music and did some work, then didn't listen to music and did nothing.

Ryan's story - The true heart

On 4 april on a tuesday 2007 i slowly walked to the bakery for a tea when suddenly saw a bright light across my table, a beautiful women with a hat, a book and a star shaped phone, i was shy to go over and talk to her but i was in barasat to do it.

I was just rubbing my eyes then she disappeared in the distance away. When i stood up i ran over to that table and she literally left her book there.

I lift up the book and there was her phone, i was wondering where she has went.

I pressed a button and a alarm went off so iv checked what itis.

She was going to the subway to catch a train, i ran and ran and ran and saw that bright light again so i looked around but there she is,

Just walked to her and gave her book and and phone then she looked up and said

“Your the guy that was across my table at the bakery”

“yes it's me” i replied to her

“so you have chased me this whole time, that's sweet, thanks.”

I had to say something to you, when i first saw your blue eyes you felt special to me, you shine like a thousand sapphires in the sky. Your like a diamond on my hand and there's one thing missing,

(i love you)

She hugs me and gives me a fast kiss before she hopped on the train.

...The end...

Overall comments
Can we just appreciate how good all 3 of their introductions are? I taught them that a good introduction should have what, who, when, where, why and how. If you go back and look at each story, you can see them trying to include these things. I am also so impressed that they are attempting to use dialogue, attempting (sometimes successfully) to use paragraphs. For Paul he still needs a lot of support to construct his story and sort of 'get the words' into his head before he can write them down but that is part of his participation and contribution, that he shares his ideas with others and makes an orally planned story before getting to the writing part. Kian uses voice typing which is amazing and has grown his confidence so much!. As I said earlier, we still need to work on the editing part but that's okay. He is using digital affordances to help him manage himself and his own learning, so its a win from me. Ryan doing any writing at all is a huge win, because in order to do so he needs to be in a good place and be able to manage himself. In his writing you can see dialogue (used correctly when there are 2+ speakers) and even some language features. Very impressed with all three boys!

Cynthia Greenleaf PD - Argumentation vs. persuasion

Link to evidence/reasoning about slides 11 and 12.

Link to group norms about discussions, and refining those norms.

Thinks to think about...
- layering - there was a picture on slide 11 and a text on slide 12. Did using both of these allow people to feel they had enough to go from?
- there is a difference between argumentation and persuasion
- if you are trying argumentation and students don't have anything to share, consider the resources that were given and if they were enough for students to access the situation.
- before starting the activity, Cynthia told us to "pay attention to something somebody else said that made you think" - that was there is no pressure to say something you thought of, but you still have a voice.
- consider how you are asking students to discuss (i.e. padlet is anonymous, this is both a good and bad thing).
- give students sentence starters (where is your evidence for that, did you consider, did anyone notice that)

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 7)

CoL Update

This week has been crazy as it was Tongan language week, however a couple key things I can talk about are 1) my first social story and 2) moving up reading levels.

Social stories are something I learnt about from Donna Ryan  at a PD session a while ago. The PD session was about visual aids in the classroom, but she mentioned social stories because they are visual aids to help children understand what to do in a social situation. They can be made about ANYTHING. The one I felt was necessary to make was 'how to sit on the mat', as Ryan often struggles to do this in what could be called the 'expected' way. 

I explained to my class that I wanted them to pose for pictures and not to worry about why, so they were happy to do so. (Thank you 10 year old photographer!)

Then I made the social story.

It was simple and easy to make, and I kept the 'instruction-ey' part simple. The pictures show what the words describe. 

My plan is to give this to Ryan during mat time to help him remember what he should be doing and manage himself. I find that I am almost constantly asking him to turn around, sit down, face the front etc. 

Don't get me wrong - I understand and acknowledge that sometimes he isn't able and ready to do these things and that is okay. But sometimes he is ready and able, so needs a gentle reminder. 

Also because I am aware of the social precariousness of 10 year old boys, I have made 5 copies of this social story and will give them to anybody who needs a reminder. That way Ryan doesn't feel targeted or picked on in any way. I will only give it to students when they need a reminder - not giving it to them straight away and assuming they won't/can't do it. Only when they need it.

Another highlight of this week was that I rejigged my reading boxes. I have these tubs to store colour-wheel level books for Paul and Kian (and another ESOL student who I have mentioned a couple times). Previously, these started at Level 9-10 (blue) and went through to Level 21-22 (Gold). I finally decided that if Kian is going to move I kinda have to force him. Due to his learning differences, he has been sitting around levels 10-15 for the past few years. He moves up, slides backwards over the holidays, moves up again, slides backwards, etc etc. He is currently reading Orange books (Level 15-16) with me at 'guided' level, and was reading level 9-14 for independent reading. However, he wasn't really doing any independent reading. The books that go home come back unread and he refuses (due to confidence) to read to anybody but me or Paul in class. Hence, I got rid of the level 9-14 tubs and he is now going to only be reading orange or higher. There are a mixture of types of books to give variety (and level of complexity, as PM books and sunshine books are different even though they are graded at the same level). I really want to challenge him and build his confidence so he can and will read these books. He is capable of it and I want him to see that. When I explained that I was going to get rid of the blue/green books and he was only going to read orange, he didn't really care. So no opposition! 

I put in Level 23-26 books with the spare 2 containers I know have. Even though I only moved Paul a few weeks ago onto Level 21, he can pretty much read them first time, independently, so hence I am not challenging him enough. 

Paul (and the other ESOL student) read with me both together and separately, and they will read to and with other students as well. They get a lot of mileage because of this. 

For Paul, this participation and contribution, and be willing to work with others in different ways and in different contexts has really accelerated his learning.