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!

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 6).

OVERALL COMMENTS

This week has been really interesting, and again another week where I haven't been in class for a full 5 days (CRT on Friday). 

Ryan has had awesome days and terrible days. Last week I gave all my students 'spots' or desks to sit in instead of letting them sit wherever they wanted, as they weren't being responsible and looking after classroom equipment (including Netbooks). Ryan took his spot and really made it his own. He bought over the labelled container he keeps all his stuff in, started putting things in his desk, set up three walls around him and decorated them with his own work/books (including moving the teaching station to make his third wall). This has worked really well for him, and I am so impressed that he has taken his 'spot' in a positive way and made it his own. I took this photo of him one day when I randomly noticed he was wearing the ear muffs (something we have tried/failed at many times) and was quietly working away. 

TALK ABOUT MANAGING SELF!

Paul really surprised me again one day when during a DMIC session, he said to his group "I know it, I'll do it", and took the piece of paper and solved the problem. For context, the boy sitting next to him is the top maths student in the class, and yet Paul is the one who solved it. I love that because his friend is giving him the chance to succeed and lead, even though he could have solved it himself. This boy (the friend) understands what I have been trying to do with him, and is trying to do the same. I also LOVE IT because he is leading and participating and contributing in a maths lesson, without ANY teacher input. 

Side note - he also got it right (adding fractions with different denominators - BOOYAH!)

He then later tried to help other groups explain their maths thinking because he understood it and others didn't.. He wanted to get up in front of the class and explain where somebody else had gone wrong in their maths thinking. AMAZING.

Another time, I was working with a group of about 10 boys on an inquiry task. The task was a group task to sort (compare and contrast) different natural disasters - there was no reading and writing involved, only sorting and explaining/justifying. In the video (although you can't see their faces so you might not notice), both Paul and Kian ask for a picture in the beginning, then discuss with their friends where it should go and why. 

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION ANYONE?

I find that with Kian and Paul, they are more involved with group/whole class tasks when they don't involve reading and writing. This makes sense, as they are both lower (ability wise) than the rest of the class and know it, so are scared to make mistakes or say something silly. To try and get them to participate, I think reading the text with them before hand or giving them a different text (in groups), so then they could access the information without feeling awkward, shy or scared.

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 5)

As the Manaiakalani Hui is this week, I really wanted to analyse my student achievement data so I could say with confidence if they have moved or not.

Reading.

	TERM 1
	PROBE	PM BENCHMARK
Kian	F 5 - 6 YRS	Level 10
Ryan	F 7.5 - 8.5 YRS	NA
Paul	F 5.5 - 6.5 YRS	Level 18

	TERM 2
	PROBE	PM BENCHMARK
Kian	F 5.5 - 6.5 YRS	Level 10
Ryan	8 - 9 YRS	NA
Paul	6 - 7 YRS	Level 18

	mid TERM 3
	PROBE	PM BENCHMARK
Kian		Level 12
Ryan	8 - 9 YRS	NA
Paul	7.5-8.5 YRS	Level 21

Paul has made SIGNIFICANT shift this year. I definitely think that it down to him yes knowing more English, but also that he works with others and learns from them. Putting him and Kian in mixed-ability reading groups for the second half of Term 2 and so far this term has made huge shifts.

I would expect this area to have the most significant shift, as this is the area we work on the most in targeted groups and also the learning area I have paid most attention to in terms of the students Key Comps.

Maths.

Kian - No shift, but a huge achievement that he maintained his Term 1 achievement levels

Paul - shift in all areas of GLOSS test.

Ryan - Shift in his add/sub, maintained all other areas.

KIAN	S5E	S5	S5E	S5E
PAUL	S5E	S6	S5E	S4
RYAN	S5	S6E	S5	S5

Spelling.

In Term 1 we did Schonnell spelling and in Term 2 we did Peters.

Paul and Kian also do Essential spelling list because they don't do amazingly well on Schonnel.

Term 1 - Schonnell.

Kian - 10 (6 years old)

Paul - 12 (6 years old)

Ryan - 36 (8.6 years old)

Term 2 - Peters.

Kian - 11 words correct.

Paul - 17 words correct.

Ryan - 37 words correct.

Term 3 Essential spelling test.

 Paul

 Kian

Non-academic changes
Ryan - Ryan is more settled and is doing more learning now than he ever has before. Although he is in a rough spot right now with a million and one things happening in his life, he is doing really well and is able to manage himself so he can get some learning done.

Kian - Kian's learning has shifted since the beginning of the year. His maths is more focused on maintenance and not forgetting what he can do, but his reading and writing have hugely improved. He used voice typing to write because it works better for him and this differentiation has provided him with the opportunity for success. He loves working with other people and typically gets more learning completed as well, however he has some confidence issues to work through when working inpedendantly.

Paul - Paul has made huge shifts in learning, but also is a lot more confident to participate and share ideas regardless of the context. He works with more people (including girls) and will offer help to others when he knows what he is doing. He can confidently ask other adults questions or deliver objects/messages to other teachers in the school.

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 4)

 What did I do this week?

This week I used my CRT day to prepare resources for my literacy and maths target groups, but also for ‘The A team’ which includes Kian and Paul. I prepared targeted activities or tools as to where they are at and what they need to work on.

For Kian and Paul, this includes blends (to help them sound out longer words easier) and tenses (mainly the difference between current and past tense).

Blends flip book - we are going to do a couple pages per day, saying and writing any words that start with or have that blend in them. For the third member of the A team (not Kian or Paul), pronunciation is a big issue so we are going to sound out each word and practice how to say the blend lots and lots of times.

Loop game for current/past tense.

Loop game for initial sounds and blends.

Blends flash cards.

Paul - relating to others/participating and contributing

Kian - managing self

Paul and Kian have loved the blends flip books, although Kian decides he "can't" write using a pencil but still sits and listens to us practising the words, then writes them in later anyway. The blends with three letters (e.g. scr) were difficult for Paul to pronounce and he is still having small issues with p/b sounds, but a HUGE improvement all round.

We met together and went through blends three times this week, on top of me reading with them and them reading with others as well.

On reflection and in discussion with the students families, I realise that we focus A LOT on reading (to try and catch them up to their peers) but I don't do much writing with them. Kian using voice typing to write which is fine, but Paul needs to work on his writing. 

Ryan - managing self

Ryan is still in a difficult time so I have not been pushing him a lot, but just loving him. That's all he needs right now. He has good and bad days, but has moments of clarity where he explicitly states what he is going to do (or not do..) in order to manage himself better. These are mostly social goals at the moment, but he is still trying his best.

He loves the inquiry topic we are doing this term and often sends me summaries about tornadoes and hurricanes, or draws pictures of them. This counts as learning for me because he is able to talk about what he has drawn or written in his own words.

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 3)

 Paul - relating to others/participating and contributing.

Last week I tested Paul on PM Benchmark and moved him up to level 21. This week, while reading levels 19-21 with him for 'guided' reading, I noticed he didn't need me much apart from to prompt him when he came to a new word. He is getting better at sounding out words, or making connections to other words he knows (e.g. should, would, could), but often gets stuck on high-interest or topic words he has never seen before (e.g. desert foxes, thick stems).

I PROBE'd him on Tuesday as I wanted to see if his comprehension was moving at the same accelerated pace his decoding was. Firstly, I gave him the story 'SNAP'. 

He passed with 100% on comprehension.

Next I gave him 'Teeth' (which is the same age level, but non-fiction).

Again, passed with 100%. 

His reading was pretty accurate as well considering he doesn't normally read non-fiction texts.

Next I put him up one level (age bracket), and tried him on fiction.

And again, 100% comprehension.

The same age bracket, but non-fiction.

This one he struggled with. There were words he has never seen written before (e.g. sandy, spikes, plants) but he tried to sound them out or connect to other words (e.g. he said planets for plants because he knows the word planets). Although he didn't actually know what a desert was, he got most of the questions (enough to pass anyway). I thought his answer to question 8 was sweet, because he had learnt about lizards and desert foxes for the first time in this story and wanted to see them in real life. 

Although he technically passed the story 'Desert life', I felt his confidence drop and he took a lot longer to read it, and think about his answers.

Even though he got lots of words wrong, this is still useful information for me as I can see where he gets the words he did say from. 

small=smile (sm sound and shape of the word)

thought-threw (th sound at the beginning)

tired=tried (same letters but in a different order)

Mr=Mrs (not noticing the s)

onto=into (not noticing the first o?, knows the word into)

settled=sitted (noticed the 'ed' at the end of the word, both have the same shape and have 's' at the beginning and 't' in the middle, possibly didn't notice the 'l')

give=gave (confusion of tenses possibly, or maybe didn't noticed the 'i')

would=could (knows the word could, maybe didn't notice the 'w')

He could answer the first question very easily - the others.. not so much. 

I am still very impressed with this piece of evidence as it shows that his decoding and comprehension are both improving at an accelerated rate. I 100% think this is because of the group work he has been doing while still reading at his own level. 

Ryan - managing self
As I mentioned in last week's update, Ryan has a LOT going on for him in his wider circle (home life, RTLB and other agencies, family stuff, friendship stuff) and so he has really been in a darker space this week. I know that for him RIGHT NOW, being at school everyday, being safe and having an outlet for his thoughts is what he needs. Right now, he doesn't need to be pushed into reading groups and growled for not completing his work. Right now, he needs a bit of love. A lot of love. So right now, that is what he is getting. I have not been pushing him to join in discussions or anything. He is doing small amounts of work each day and right now, that is enough for him.

 Kian - managing self
Kian is continuing to learn at his own pace. He is way more confident in his reading than he was last term and enjoys being able to choose books from his own 'box'. He doesn't choose from the 'lowest' box so thinks he is really smart by getting 'hard' books.

CoL Update (Term 3, Week 2)

Ryan - managing self
Kian - managing self
Paul - relating to others/participating and contributing.

All three students have been working very hard, especially in reading where they are in a group together reading (or listening to..) a chapter book.

On Friday Ryan came to the group for the first time all week, sat for about 30 minutes and even offered to read aloud to the group. This is amazing! This is the LONGEST he has sat in a reading group EVER. Add the fact that he was reading aloud for the others to listen to, and contributed to the discussion about what had happened is AWESOME.
After reading the group went away and had to draw an illustration about something that had happened, find 10 new words and write 3-5 sentences of a summary about what happened. All 3 students completed this task.

I have been reflecting on the type of work I give them, and wether that work actually offers them a chance at success or not. Sometimes, my high expectations might be too high and the task I want the students to complete is either too hard for them, too hard to do without teacher help, or I don't give them enough time to complete it.
I have also found that when I give them different tasks to complete (i.e. roles for literacy circles where one person is the illustrator and the other is word master), they really struggled to complete it. When I gave both students both tasks to do, they could do it.
So maybe it's not the task itself, but it's that they couldn't do it together.



Ryan has a lot going on for him at the moment at home and in other aspects of his life. I have noticed he has started making forts again. I don't usually growl him for doing this, as he is trying to protect himself from overstimulation or needs a bit of quiet time by himself.



Evidence of shift

This week I tested Kian and Paul's reading level using PM Benchmark. Kian passed level 12 and Paul passed level 21.

I know that Kian hates being tested and typically doesn't do well on tests. For guided reading, he is currently reading level 15-16, but only just got instructional on Level 12 on his tests. I will keep him reading levels 15-16 for guided reading because he is able to read them. 

Paul has made huge shifts to be instructional level 21 at this point in the year. He only started school 1 year ago, and started on Red (level 3).

For Kian I noticed that he often looks at the first letter or sound and guesses the word. Sometimes the word he guesses is close enough to the actual word that it might make sense, but often not.. I noticed that on line 12, he read the word 'ride' as 'run', kept reading, got to the end of the sentence, realised it didn't make sense and started the line again (and got 'ride' correct). This shows me he is trying to make sense and make meaning while reading, not just reading fast and incorrectly to 'get through it' and 'get it over with'. I hope this shows he is starting to enjoy reading.

A lot of the errors Paul makes are because he doesn't know the word in the first place. He still has come small errors with p/b sounds but has gotten so much better at sounding out words.

I notice with both of them that in long words (three or four syllables), they sound out words letter by letter. And because the words are so long, they forget what it started with by the time they get to the end of the word and have to start again or give up and ask me what the word is. 

I think we need to work on blends and chunking words into pieces, rather than sounding it out letter by letter. 

CoL update (Term 2 Week 7)

Ryan - managing self

Ryan has been very settled thanks to his new strategy implementation and has shown small changes in his behaviour and learning, such as: being able to keep his voice level appropriate for the classroom; keeping hands and feet to himself; being able to focus for longer periods of time and enduring/attempting learning challenges for 5-10 minutes. He has shown, in many, small ways, huge change over the past week. Communication with his RTLBs is on-going and he had an IEP meeting this week as well, targeting his learning goals and next steps.
On Tuesday he asked if he could go to one of the junior classes, and after agreeing he could go if he stayed and completed maths first (which he did), he was very welcome in the junior classroom. I checked on him to see if all was well and managed to grab this photo.

He had a group of young students sitting in a circle watching him as he instructed them on "how to count". He even had counters out to use. It was so sweet to see him working so well with the younger students, but amazing that he was leading them in actual learning. He was focused, prepared and loved handing out tokens to his little students once his lesson was over. The teacher of the class he was in reported he did an awesome job and she would happily have him back.
This is just one example of how he can be very calm and focused for long periods of time.

Kian  - managing self

After being away for a week, Kian was able to manage himself inside the classroom well. I was quite proud of him when as part of a DMIC maths lesson, he got up and tried his best to help explain how his group had gotten their answer. Although he needed help in the end, it was awesome to see him managing himself to a level where he could actively participate in group tasks.

Paul - relating to others/participating and contributing.

Paul is getting more and more confident in group situations and it is awesome to see how far he has come. He has really stepped up in the past few weeks in terms of leading learning. He wants to be the one who draws/explains/shows/helps etc. He is learning how to be part of a group and is building skills such as taking turns, negotiating, helping somebody else explain if they get stuck etc. He confidently speaks to the class when presenting from the front of the room as well.

Paul is still loving being in a proper reading group, although I still require him to read books at his own level during school and at home to practice his decoding and comprehension skills. The reading groups have changed (post-testing) and he was a little upset that his friend wasn't in the group anymore, but he has since made new friends and will be okay. In this context he is again practising how to be part of a group (i.e. taking turns, agreeing with people, replying to something they say) and is gaining confidence in doing so.