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. 

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.  

Writing Professional Development

Over the last year, our school has been receiving professional development around writing from Team Solutions. Our facilitator Anna meets with us twice a term and works with us to improve our writing program and teaching. 

My Teaching as inquiry this term has been around 'allowing for targeted independent learning that will result in my student's academic learning to increase”. I have focused on what my students are doing away from workshops during their independent writing time (Last years results showed that my targeted workshops had shown an increase in student achievement - with a large increase of students meeting the National Standard compared to that of the year prior- so I wanted, to start a new focus).

Last year I saw improvement in my writing program through the following;

• Gaining student engagement through; Langauge experiences,  Curriculum Integration and students ideas.
• Having a close link between Reading and Writing - Allowing both curriculum areas to drive each other.
• Modeling Books (Have learning intentions, success criteria that have been coconstructed, and an annotated example)
• Following a lesson plan of - I do, we do, you do.
• Focusing on specific learning needs (Gap analysis)
• 
  

I have been working on Questioning (to extend thinking away from teacher lessons), using an Annotated modeling book that has the appropriate learning intentions, success criteria, and annotated example, buddy checking and using Individual goals to consolidating learning.

After my PAC conversation with Anna, I saw that I need more of a focus and to tighten up my Modelling Books and the buddy check system. I am wanting to display my learning intention on the board and have students names underneath them so students know what their focus is for the week. I am going to strengthen my buddy feedback system by teaching 4 strong writers how to effectively give feedback to their pairs- This will allow me to activate pairs as learning resources. They will then slowly model to other students how to give that effective feedback. I will be videoing the students doing this to ensure that it is at a high standard and that it is actually effective, the videos will allow me to gather more feedback and areas I may need to focus on around the buddy check system. I will revisit this reflection next term to check in on my progress.