Learning Difference Workshop - The University of Auckland - Part 1

Workshop about

-       Dyslexia

-       Dysbraxia

-       Dyscultia

-       Dysgraphia

-       ADD

-       Audio processing disorder

Don’t focus on WHY they can’t do it, just focus on WHAT they can do.

Learning DIFFERENCES, not learning DIFFICULTIES. Because they CAN learn, just in a different way.

Communication for Learning Success – by Kate de Groot from 'Growing Minds'.

-       - parents can be a wonderful resource to help teachers.

-       - It’s about changing what we do as practitioners, rather than waiting for the child to change. Their brain is wired differently.

What are the needs of the …

-       Teacher?

-       Parent?

-       Child?

What is the shared need?

How does our communication meet the shared need?

Below the line – he, they, them – usually stuff happened in the past

Above the line – I, we – future focused.
We should be aiming (as teachers and educators) for 'Above the Line' thinking, acting and communicating.

Students with learning differences are often misunderstood - for example a student with auditory processing challenges not responding when the teacher asks them to do something, so you growl them and pull them to where you wanted them to go.

He’s not being bad, but you dragging him by the arm makes him feel as if he is bad.

NO SURPRISES POLICY. Communication between parents and teachers should be often and free, small things can be communicated at before/after school pick ups, big things should be a meeting, phone call or email.

Student voice: “Help me see myself as a contributor not a problem.”

At the end of the day – ARE THEY HAPPY AND FULFILLED?

Building positives relationships about proactive things (e.g. sending parents a photo of child being happy at school, successful work completed, video of child in class etc) then builds trust for when Reactive conversations need to happen.

What do we talk about? What do we avoid talking about? (and why?)

Frame negative things in a positive way

I’ve noticed

I’ve tried

I wonder what is next

Or saying to parents – what are you noticing? What are you trying? What do you think is the next step?

Kids with learning differences need concrete beginnings to lessons (paper, pictures, materials). They are in a comfort zone.

When they are expected to do do complex thinking with only auditory instructions… how can we expect them to succeed?

IT IS A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT.

Taking a staff meeting

Today I took my first solo staff meeting. My principal Rhonda asked me to take it on the 'create' part of the learn create share learning process. 

Here is my slideshow.

Manaiaklani Hui 2018

Round table
I found the round table a really good way to present my CoL Inquiry - I just sat down and talked about my kids. I could do that for hours... What I didn't expect was that I would get emotional talking about them and cry in front of Education Professionals (Deputy principals, university lecturers) and other teachers.  I couldn't help myself. I just love them so much. Anyway, it went really well and I would definitely do it again.

Next steps
- Make a summary of sorts that shows what I tried, what worked and WHY it did or didn't work. (Blog post to come...)
- Share this with SENCO people across the cluster.



Things to think about

• Kids might be doing something well, but are we focusing on how they are doing it well?
• Slide 18 - what things are the same? What are we still doing well?
• Multiple texts in reading - compare, contrast, synthesis. Don't cut back on the quantity of reading.
• SMALL BITES, EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY. 
• Slide 41 - language is everything.
• Slide 42 - focuses for this year moving forward.
• Thinking about planning - start with the end. What do you want the outcome to be for students? What high-end thinking do you want them to do? Then designing activities that can get them there.
• E.g. analogy of teaching lessons about Disney movies. You could just do comprehension, or you could aim to discuss the potentially problematic portrayal of beauty=moral standing (ugly step sisters are bad, beautiful sister is good) or the limited goals of women in Disney movies (they only aim to bag a rich husband).
• STRIP THE SCAFFOLDING BACK SO THE KIDS FALL OVER AND STRUGGLE. 

Push your planning - push your activities - 

Instead of students spending 2 hours creating an animation to practice using speech and dialogue...

A WIDER SET OF SKILLSNAOMI ROSEDALE AND STUART MCNAUGHTON

Students at EA (Early Adapting schools) reported a stronger feeling of self-control (or managing self) than those at LA (late adapting schools).

Manaiakalani teachers saw huge potential for critical literacy and cognitive skills, but reported more focus on teaching self-control/social skills.

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)

After Paul passed level 21, I changed my reading boxes from the small cardboard ones used in the colour wheel resource room to these big plastic ones I had in  my classroom. I used the colour picker tool to get the actual colour from the Colour Wheel and matched it to the levels.

When I talk to the kids about their reading level, we often refer to the colour rather than the level, so I wanted to have both displayed. 

These big containers also fit MORE books, so I could put my Sunshine books in these as well as the Colour Wheel books. Inside the containers are also high-frequency word flash cards that the students use for instant word recognition and spelling games.

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.