Modelling book magic

One thing I have noticed about myself when teaching is that I often forget to record what the students and I are doing, hence have no evidence of it for either of us to refer back to.

Today during reading I set myself two goals

-1, to read with every student in my class, and 

-2, use the modelling book to record what my students did during this guided reading lesson

For context, we read another story about chess. Last week (some) of these students read a fictional story about two sisters learning to play chess and participating in a tournament in their school. Today,  (some) of us read this story which talks about one school who have chess experts and the people who helped get them there. A different type of writing, a different context and setting about the same theme. 

Using our modelling books..

Before we read, I drew a balloon and students wrote in their predictions based on pictures and the title. This is something we did a lot last term, so we don't want them to forget!

With a couple of my groups, we focused on their reading goal which is "ask questions about the text I have read". This goal is based on their need to really comprehend what they are reading, and being able to ask questions is a good way to show you have understood what you have read and that you have thought about it, not just read it and forgotten it straight away. 

So we had a box where the students wrote questions they had about the text, which they freely wrote independently as we read each page as a group. At the end of each page, we would stop and answer all the questions they had written and ticked them off as we answered them. The students answered each others questions, with me stepping in when they got really stuck.

We also had a 'new words' balloon, where myself or students recorded new words we came across in the text. At the end of each page, we discussed these as well and looked up the definitions.

Overall, each group had a page that roughly looked like this...

It was awesome to have the students so engrossed in their stories, thinking of heaps of questions which led to rich discussion around the text, learning new words and making connections to these. I think I definitely needed to start using modelling books again, as it gives more opportunity for students to share their thinking without the social pressure of interrupting the groups reading to ask a question or define a new word. It provided such rich discussion and we were able to make deep connections (e.g. the characters chess club was called Eastern Knights because a knight is a chess piece, and they lived on the East Coast. Whats the East Coast? *looks up then draws NZ map*...).

After the group meeting, I gave students the chance to go and practice playing a game of chess, which MOST of them were stoked to do! And again (see previous post), they loved having an abstract follow up.

We didn't have enough chess sets for the whole class to use at the same time, so some students started playing online (note - they discovered this themselves, I didn't instruct them to do this!). 

I really enjoyed using modelling books again today during reading and getting such rich results out of my time with the students. When they went off, they were still engrossed in the topic and used the new vocabulary they had just learnt to discuss their strategies as well.
Kia kaha kids!

Reading fleuntly

This term Archana and I are really trying to accelerate our students in all learning areas. In our class, we have a group, of about 8 students, who are very low in their reading abilities (level 15-ish, for year 4's). We have really been pushing these students to read fluently, read everyday, multiple books a way. We have modelled to reading fluently with shared books and had other students read fluently to the class as well, to show that kids can do it too!

Some of these students have made HUUUUUGE progress in the past month alone. They not only can read more fluently, but they have a better attitude towards reading and learning in general.

Check 'em out!

Cordez and Denzel reading 'Storytellers' together. You can hear that Cordez still hesitates and copies/repeats from Denzel a bit, but for him to even be comfortable to read aloud at this level is awesome!

Kordell reading 'Two Homes'. You can see and hear that he is still unfamiliar with some of the words, even after reading this book several times. What I was impressed with was how when he got caught on a new word, he (mostly) would start the sentence again to try and clear his head and get the word right a second time. Another thing I noticed about his reading (and this is a new thing as well!), is that he is looking at the pictures for clues. In one part, he doesn't know the words 'hot chocolate', but looks at the picture of them drinking from mugs in the cafe, so he says 'cups of tea'. Although not the right word, its a strategy he can use to help him figure out hard words! Kordell has shown a massive shift in his attitude towards reading. All year whenever he is asked to read, he instantly shut down and would say "but I can't read". He has slowly been changing this mindset.. Go boy go!

This is Lopiseni reading about seals. He stumbles every so often, but for him to be reading this fluently from a LEVEL 2 SCHOOL JOURNAL blows my socks off. Everytime he read with either Archana or myself, he would try his very best. He wanted to get better. He loves to read with his friends in a group, as he is shy to read aloud, but look at him go!

The biggest shift has been in Wikitoria. Here she reads sooo fluently from a level 2 school journal. This girl was reading level 14 books a month ago, with too many pauses and hesitations and misread words than you could count.

She has worked incredibly hard!

Archana and I are so proud of out students, and we will keep pushing them to read more fluently and at harder levels as well. With this much progress in one month's targeted teaching, imagine how far they can go with another 5 weeks of the term left!

Student empowerment through their own E-asttle rubric!

This term as part of our cycle of inquiry, Archana and I have been discussing with our students how they are assessed and what this means for them - trying to make everything explicit.

The biggest example is how we mark E-asttle. 

Within the first two weeks of this term, we had gone through the National Standard illustration for year 4 writing and marked it against the E-asttle rubric with the students helping us. As we went, we explained WHY we would give each section that particular score, and then gave examples of the other scores for comparison. 

For example, if we gave R4, we would then look at exemplars for what R3 and R5 looked like, so students could see the difference.

It really was a PD for them.

Next, Archana and I developed our own version of the rubric for students to use. We had a Tamaki Primary School version, but the language was (in some places) beyond the language use of our young students. 

For example, we changed 

to

We also added where they should be aiming for - note the below, at, above to indicate that if they achieve R4's, they will be writing 'at' the national standard for year 4's. 

There were also minor things we had to change in the language, so there was some familiarity for our students. For example, where the rubric said 'elaboration', we would say 'with detail', as that is the words we have used with them all year, so they are more familiar with it. 

I printed out the rubric, laminated them and put them on ring clips. That way, small groups of students could use one rubric together to evaluate a piece of writing. They wrote a narrative using a picture prompt yesterday. Today, Archana and I again went through a piece of writing (this time, one actually from our class) and explained how we would grade it and why - and what this meant in terms of next steps for this person and wether they were below/at/above national standards. 

I videoed some of the small groups discussing their piece of writing (which belonged to someone within the group)...

Considering it was their first time EVER using the rubric to mark writing 'with their teacher hats on' so to speak, they did a great job! (Some needed teacher support, but it was their first time!) They were very fair, and respectfully would say to the person whose writing it was what they thought of it and gave constructive feedback. 

It was exciting for Archana and myself, as it was just another way that the students reflected the positive and supportive class culture we have worked so hard to build. None of the students teased each other or laughed at the mistakes that person had made, but recognised these as next steps in their learning and some even offered advise on how to achieve those next learning steps. Once they had marked one of the group's writing, they then fought over whose they would do next!

It was a positive step towards the students being aware of what they write and what we are looking for. These things are not surprises or mysteries to students, as they are things we are teaching them all the time (e.g. this term, how to plan using a brainstorm and write in 3 paragraphs). For a lot of the students as they marked, they would realise they had forgotten to use paragraphs, add in a metaphor (etc) and have a Homer Simpson doh! moment. So next time, they will really remember to use what they know and put it all in!

We truly have a fantastic bunch of kids and some very talented writers in our class. It was awesome to see them empowered and taking ownership and control over their own writing, working well in a group, being honest and fair and looking forward to trying again! 

PROBE PD

This week my syndicate leader talked us through PROBE assessments as we have to do them for the mid-year reports. I have never done a PROBE assessment before, and have only seen it done a couple of times before. PROBE is an assessment for reading comprehension in students. You give them a passage to read, and they have to answer questions about it to show they understand what they have read. It is scaled by reading ages, from 7-15(ish) years old. The passages get harder as the reading level increases. The questions students are asked are to test a combination of inference, vocabulary, reaction and evaluation skills. Once the test has been marked, teachers either decide students are 'at' that level of comprehension, or they need to be moved up or down a reading age level, and hence re-tested.

Talking through the assessment booklet was very beneficial, as I found there are multiple ways to do the test, (picture 1) and hence different ways to mark depending on how you administered it (picture 2). If it wasn't for the PD session, I wouldn't have known that.
In my head as I was reading through each option, I was thinking of particular students in my class who would be best suited to each type - e.g. I might try listening comprehension for my student who struggles to read because of a lack of decoding skill, but when he listens to audio versions of our school journal texts, he can answer questions about what happened and hence shows some comprehension; or I might use silent reading comprehension for my very competent readers, to test if they still have the same level of comprehension as they do when they read aloud. 

Reflecting on the PD afterwards, I found that one of the times I had seen PROBE testing done, it was not done in the right way, hence all the data collected from it was incorrect, and reflected negatively on students. It stuck me the ripple effect such a small thing can have. Even if you do the assessment, but you don't do it correctly, your data is skew, hence all reflections on student achievement are skew. So, what was the point in doing it in the first place?

The other thing that struck me was the last page in the booklet...

Teachers, even when they are assessing in the right way, going 'by the book', doing their best, can negatively impact the way the students are assessed. 

There are so many little things that can go wrong. We just need to minimise the initial drop in the water as much as possible, so we can minimise the ripple effect it has.

I will do my PROBE assessments of my class this week, and I hopefully will remember to do a reflection on how I think I went. 

(Digital Immersion day 3) Google Certified Teacher Level 1

Today is the day 3 of Digital Immersion and we are sitting the Google Exam (Level 1).
It is a end product for the Fundamentals course we did throughout summer and over the past few weeks.

Concentration at its finest - Photo credit to Anne Sinclair

The exam consists of 20 multi-choice/drag and drop type questions, then 11 scenarios. In each scenario, there are multiple tasks you have to complete. These scenarios take you through all different aspects of the Google for Education tools, including forms, sheets, calendar, docs, emails, classroom, etc. Even though I completed the Fundamentals course, I still learnt things for the first time as the exam walks you through step by step what it wants you to demonstrate.

Here is my certificate and the badge I can now add to my blog, emails etc.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a syndicate meeting as per usual. This week we did a GLOSS test together to practice how to do it. 

To make a video so we could practice off, Archana interviewed a student while I recorded it and later edited it. 

It was really helpful to have a way to practice together so we could discuss what we had observed and recorded so confirm we were on the right track. 

 It was helpful to get the experienced teachers tip and tricks such as writing in the students next steps in the blank space, and limiting it to one for each maths facet (i.e. one next step for each column). This affords you to give immediate feedback to students about how they did, and what they will focus on next.