Observation Reading

WALT- Identify the main idea/theme of the story

Remember to:

• Must put myself in the author’s place
• Examine the words and phrases (the details) for clues to what is important
• Ask questions about what in my experience the clues combined seem to say about what is valued
• Decide what the main idea is by saying “If I had written this and said things this way what would that say about what I thought was important?”

Texts:

SJ P2 N4 2008 - 5 Dollars

Shared learning intention with students

Explained what a theme was using the example of Little Red Riding Hood. 

Buddy- What do you think the message or the theme is for the text 5 dollars. Write down what you think. 

Students shared back with the group- Many offered up ' Telling the truth, stealing is not okay' 

Anna bumped up the idea by suggesting that all their ideas fit under the theme of honesty.

We do 

Now how do we know this theme is about honesty. We need to look for clues. Anna records down clues on the modeling book- this is the start of co-constructing the success criteria.

Anna models a clue from the text - What is this clue telling us? Share together

Do you agree or disagree- Why or why not- Getting Students to justify.

What does that clue make you think?

Constructed the success criteria. The task was to find another clue in the text and think about how you know it's a clue about the main idea or theme.

You do

Students completed this a returned to share. They shared with a buddy and Anna listened. It was clear that some students had achieved the success criteria.

Tomorrow I'm going to have a go at doing this lesson with a 3 new members of the group. I will record myself and upload the lesson for other teachers in the school to work.

PB4L Goals

Yesterday we had a school PB4L meeting. We had a look at everyone's classroom rules and then we compared ourselves against a PB4L classroom checklist. It was clear that having a PB4L matrix/ class rules that have specific areas or scenarios is key. I have 9 key areas/ times of the day where we have set rules ( E.g in the morning we need to wait till 8.30, come in and put the chairs down, unplug the Chromebooks... Etc) This helps the classroom run smoothly as students know exactly what to do at any given time of the day. 

I have just changed my classroom as I have 27 students and they are getting bigger so it has become hard/ impossible for them to sit and fit on the mat area. I have removed the mat area and created more room for tables. We created a PB4L poster this morning and rules for when we come into school. 

Starting the day:

1. Come inside and get your Chromebook

2. Choose a seat where you are going to be the best learner and stay on task 

3. Chromebook closed and waiting for the Roll and Miss Spies' Instructions. 

My goal is to help other teachers in the school create PB4L matrices that have clear expectations and allow for desirable classroom behaviors. The first step is to create clear rules and then teach and reteach the desired behavior and expectations to the students. If this is done consistently there is immediate success. 

Personal PB4L Goals:

Demonstrate calm, consistent, brief, immediate and respectful error corrections using professional teaching tone and demeanor.

Use a variety of strategies to increase student opportunities to respond (examples: turn and talk, guided notes, response cards).

Sentence Starters for Reading Comprehension Stratgies.

Sentence Starters for Reading Comprehension Strategies

·      Activating prior knowledge	Based on what I already know I think..... The illustrations tell me ..... about the text.
•      Self-monitoring	I am not sure what ..... means. I think that I will..... This section does not make sense to me. Maybe I could think about......
•      Predicting	I predict ...... because.... Based on the illustrations, I predict..... This picture makes me think that.... therefore....
•      Questioning	I wonder why, where, when, how, if, who...? What is the author trying to tell me......
•      Making connections	This reminds me of...... I think these ideas connect together because... I have read another book that reminds me of ....
•      Visualising	In my mind I can see.... I can imagine ......
•      Inferring	I already know that.... so I think..... I think that..... because ..... I think what is really going on is....
•      Summarising	So far I know.... In my own words the story is about.... The main idea in this story is......

Reading Target Student

My target student for reading has made huge progress this year. He has made accelerated progress moving from Level 17 to Level 21 in two terms. My goal now is to get him to the Year 4 standard in the next 15 weeks. After talking about my target student in our monitoring meeting yesterday, I recognized hat I have a gap in my knowledge on how to effectively teach the strategy of inferring. My focus for my target student has previously been around decoding a text and using some simple comprehension skills. Now moving towards the Year 4 Standard there is a larger focus on comprehension and thinking critically about the text. I went back and re-visited the 'Effective Literacy Practice Years 1-4' text. ( Pgs 131- 133 explored ways to build comprehension strategies). 

Key ideas: 

Ask inferential questions 

Pause when I want students to notice something or draw out clues in the text. 

Prompt students to make connections between different parts of the text 

Ask students why they arrived at a particular conclusion 

Ensure readers have opportunities to meet challenges in texts 

Give feedback when students use a particular strategy to solve a problem.

Building Comphrehension Strategies ( Use goals they could include;) 

- Identifying the sequence of the facts in a piece. 

- Describing the use of a certain kind of language in a text 

- Explaining how parts of a story or procedural text relate to each other 

- Describe how characters develop in a text 

- Identify authors intention. 

- Identifying the purpose of the text and its structure of from 

So what? 

With my target student, I'm going to encourage my student to identify, describe and explain a range of different responses to questions. I am going to pre-write my inferential questions before the guided reading session and make them explicit and focused to ensure my target student continues to make accelerated progress. I will record my Guided reading session and upload it next week. 

How to use a "Say it grid" ....

Today Alida came into my class and modelled to me how to use a 'Say It' grid. I had used it before but after watching Alida, I realised that I wasn't using it to its full potential. 

I created the sentences on the grid and made it 4 by 4. 

Alida started by reading out the questions as a whole class, making sure all students understood the new vocabulary (Siren, enclosure).  Alida modelled to students how to respond to the questions and use the connective 'because'. She prompted students when they gave an answer to use the word 'because' to explain why something happened or why they gave that reason. Straight away I noticed the vocabulary the students were using and how Alida used prompting strategies and think alouds to help students extend their thinking and the sentences they are using. Alida recorded vocabulary that she wanted the students to use in their writing. (E.g Inappropriate, trouble, zookeeper, rules, mauled, well fed, habitat, respect, protect, disturb) . Overall my observation of Alida was a success and I managed to take new strategies to help me bump up my lower learners with their writing. 

So what? Say it grids are an important tool to increase students vocabulary and understanding about a given topic, to help students form correct sentences using unfamiliar connectives or sentence structure ( Compound or complex sentences) To focus ideas for writing. 

Writing Inquiry

This week we took part in PAC observations. My focus was around looking at my 'buddy check' system and seeing if students have a clear understanding of the expectations. I felt my observed lesson went well and it allowed me to see that there were gaps in what I thought my students knew. After watching my video and recording what I felt went well, I felt like my focuses were around;

• making specific links between learners’ use of strategies and their experience of success; encourages students to make and discuss such links
• Rich conversations include student-generated questions and dialogue.

During my PAC meeting with our literacy facilitator and senior management, we looked at my focus being around my Scuess Criteria and making sure that I connect it with what students know and an experience they have just had- This will help increase their understanding of expectations and their knowledge around the skill they have just learned. It will allow students to be set up for success. I am going to make my buddy check workshop is specific and teach it to my target group. I am going to move away from a star and wish as my students don't need that framework and it is confusing them. I will encourage students to hold their own books when buddy checking to make sure the ownership is kept with the writer.

So what?

The next few weeks I am going to continue buulding a succinct writing progamme where all my students are consantly self assessing against the success criteria.

Middle Management

This term my goal is going to be around coaching and supporting other staff members in the school. I sometimes find it hard when 'helping' or supporting others that I take over and do too much- Preventing them from learning how to do something independently. Michelle recommended  

'5 (good) talk about' (Datnow & Park 2015) and 'The Secret to Great Coaching' 

What I took from the readings:

Data informed decisions are key 

(Conversations about data include healthy disagreement, conversations about data engender trust rather than suspicion, take a solution- oriented approach, there is an expected accomplishment) 

When playing the role of a coach you don't need to always be the expert.

Encourage staff to inquiry instead of giving them the answer. (This was interesting to me as our literacy facilitator talks about going into the 'pit' where we problem solves to gain a deeper understanding of a problem. This could be useful in my classroom as a teacher and as more role model within middle management 

 

So what?

Our monitoring meetings are an example where we use data and evidence to inform our next steps and discuss target students tracking across the year. Meetings take place every week. I always assumed that senior management ran the meetings, this was a misconception and Michelle explained to me that they are conversations where everyone is involved and offers suggestions. This week in the meeting I am going to offer more suggestions and take a proactive role in the meeting. 

How close do you think the student is to the expected National Standard?

What are you doing differently for the target student?

Why do you think that worked/didn't work?

I am also going to try and promote other teachers by directing my questions to the staff as a whole opposed to just Senior Management. This will hopefully move our meetings towards a collaborative task where everyone is responsible for every student.