Online Toolkit - Creating Writers

Introducing my site Creating Writers through an Online Toolkit on Tuesday 27th was scary. 

Would people be as thrilled with the site as I am? 

Would the tasks be as useful to others as they are to me?

Little did I know that according to the sign-up sheet my toolkit was going to be one of the more popular on Tuesday night. I sent out the invitations with the link to the toolkit presentation and a link to the site.

2/5 of the people who signed up turned up to the online toolkit. Even though I had just been through the Wananga Presentation I was still nervous. But a colleague turned up and put me at ease and the comments at the end blew me away. 

Here are some of the comments:

• • Great idea to start with Onomatopoeia. Thank you.
  • Such an amazing resource, I have a lot of seniors who are very reluctant to write anything, so hopefully, this can spark some interest.
  • I look forward to using some of your ideas on your site. I can see a lot of work has gone into it. Thanks for sharing your resource.
  • Thanks so much, Tanya - What a great resource!
  • Big thumbs up Tanya, any rewindable resources are wonderful.
  • A fantastic resource and I will keep watching. Brilliantly visible and rewindable!
  • Thank you for sharing - looking forward to exploring further and using :)

  
  

  Have you checked it out yet? Come and visit Creating Writers to see how it can help your students.

My Presentation for the Wānanga

Here is a video of my final presentation. You will have to imagine me standing next to 2 large screens with the slides automatically flicking over every 20 seconds.

When recording my presentation for my blog I used this feature as I didn't like the clicking sound in the background as I recorded my speech to go with my slides.

My favourite part of the Wananga was the discussion about the learning results and how we can bring about change by working collaboratively across schools as well as within our own school.

Manaiakalani Outreach and Principals Wānanga

The Plan: Up early to beat the traffic is always a good idea. Made even better with a free coffee. 

Today is the day we have to give our presentations. It will be all over for us by lunchtime and I think that will be a blessing. Even if I am in the first group. 

We got this!

Woolf Fisher shared the results of the year to date assessment including the PAT Maths. Which showed low achievement but middle accelerated progress. We want high achievement and high progress.  If classes are falling in the low achievements and low progress not helpful to learning as many starting off behind and not given the chance of reaching their potential. 

We were informed writing is the opposite, high achievement and high progress. We need to do this for math and reading. 

Instruction in math is good but similar to national averages.

Reading is over-represented in low progress and low achievement. We need to disrupt this pattern with relentless focus from teachers.

Reading develop model 3 phrases of development  

Basic Literacy Skills are necessary, but not sufficient to lead to Intermediate levels of comprehension. Disciplinary for High School Levels of understanding need to be more than general reading comprehension and conventions of different genres.

Early years students need strong foundational skills and teachers need to be able to diagnose those who don't have the initial reading skills quickly and efficiently. Teachers need to prepare and look further ahead to prepare for more advanced reading leading to High-Level Practises HLP.

Not possible to do in class observations which was a challenge so changed to online observations where Woolf Fisher looked at text visible and activities from class sites for that week. Looking forward to possibly doing a mixture of online and in class.

What we need to know:

• HLP doesn't happen spontaneously need to be planned and prepared 
• Teachers need to plan for more sophisticated lessons for reading
• If teachers look at small samples it means less stable data
• Limited exposure to longer text such as novel biography at least 100 pages or 
• 1 hour plus movies

Things we need to consider with the text we use for reading:

• The balance at different levels on the class site, we do group reading so each group should have the same opportunity at their level.
• Who is in the text, how can we help students relate to these people?

This slide was interesting as we consider the above and try to help students to see it as Mirror text or Window text.

Mirror text - can see people like me relatable 

Window text - can see how 

Can make mirror text more relatable through the ideas of conflict and relationships...

What could we do better? (In reading)

Need to use a range of figurative at metaphoric language in the text

Draw attention to how text is structured at different levels may be doing this through modelling to groups but is it explicit enough?

Questions covered information and plot others had no focus, looked at the theme or plot and other literacy elements but were limited. 

Reading needs more critical literacy needs to be deliberating planned and taught with higher levels of analysis, there was no evidence of this. 

How does T shape link to probe questions? 

Must be collaborative across school levels and schools to help build resources that dive deeper to develop more understanding so students are prepared for High School and University.

Need a balance between directed and choice text or students only might read the easier text!

Sarah's presentation build questions and showing the type of question with help with this in Reading Purple to Silver. Click here to visit site.

And Aletha is right, in the fact that if students don't know how to actively listen, how are they going to engage and develop their learning? So I believe these two sites will help us to build needed listening and reading skills.  

But we can still be thinking about what more can we do? Yes, many teachers are using multi models but do these show the skills and forethought to develop deep understanding? After lunch, we discussed this in our Cluster Groups and there was a range of ideas from developing teacher knowledge (possibly through Louise Dempsey and Shenan Campbell), slowing down our teaching so it is more deliberate, visible and rewindable, developing a shared way across school and clusters. So exciting...

Reflecting on Manaiakalani  

Manaiakalani is a foundation for future focus kaupapa. Creating a strong foundation structure but school and communities bring their own design flair to the learning and curriculum. 

Wānanga Presentation Preparation

 Here is my presentation - Attempt 1. 

Adjustment 2 - included changing the order of the slides, modifying my notes so I could keep up with the 20-second flip. Now I just wonder how it will all sound. 

Adjustment 3 - Background to match my original proposal to help break up all the white. 

Moving to Relationship-Based Learning

We are moving from Cultural Responsive Practise to Relationship-Based Learning. 

TOD and we are out at Awhitu Environmental Camp, thanks to our Board Chair. We are experiencing some of the activities our Year 7 and 8 do when they come to camp in January. 

We competed at archery and learnt the steps the students learn. Bows on toes, load, when you're ready to, fire. Don't forget to wait until everyone is finished. 

We hiked, the main hike is around 2 hours we tried to do the short version, but it was nice out in the fresh air and we did three activities. At the lookout, we stopped and shared one thing about ourselves depending on the lolly we grabbed. We visited the old homestead and had a history lesson, and then shared some more. Once on the beach, we had to create an image that represented us. Mine was footsteps in the sand. But I loved the frame around the layers on the beach. 

We had an excellent day for being outside. Inside we discussed What does Relationship-based learning look like and what does it mean for us as teachers.

Relationship-based Learning 

What does that mean?

What does that look like for students?

• Time for them each day
• Knowing your learners
• Patience
• Connecting

Why is this important?

• Accelerates Learning
• Fewer Behaviour Issues
• Students Teacher feel good
• Freedom to make it Fun
• Feel Valued

What does it mean for Staff?

• Knowing each other
• Helping growth
• Mutual Respect
• Tolerance
• Using each other's strengths/ help develop weaknesses
• Laughter/Humour
• Patience
• Honesty
• I got your Back
• Be Constructive
• Taking off Pressure
• Being Equal
• Knowing Vulnerabilities
• Showing Understanding/Empathy
• Trust
• Cohesiveness