DVD Reading

What I did:

I have been trying something different in class lately. DVD reading. I bought a documentary by David Attenborough on insects and showed it to my kids. The catch was I put the subtitles on and asked a range of questions to encourage the kids to read along as well as challenge their vocab.

The kids were put into groups (oral language groups) the groups

were mixed ability. They would sit in their groups while we watched he DVD. With one member jotting down the answers. I would play the DVD for a couple of minutes then pause it and ask a question. then play it again.

The idea was that the kids would quickly discuss and answer the question then move on. Much like a PUB Quiz.

The questions were things like:

What was a the last word the main character said? How do you spell minute (small)? What was the pronoun in the last sentence? What was the beginning word of the last sentence? What was an antonym for ....? Expand the contraction in the last sentence? What is a synonym for that word beginning with...

After ten questions we would mark and record the scores. The whole topic was very competitive as I offered a pizza to the winning group at the end of the unit.

Why I did it:

1. With low readers, approaches involving shared reading have been recommended.
2. It involves low risk on the individual while at the same time they are involved in the story and class.
3. I have a lot of boy's boys in my class and felt I needed to do something to increase their engagement around reading.
4. My class had been very serious in the previous term and I wanted to bring back some of the enjoyment of being at school

The results:

Most of the kids loved it. To fairly evaluate it I surveyed my class using google docs. The results were as follows.

What motivated them?

Instructional Writing

We have been having tonnes of fun lately in class working on procedural writing. We have been using Scratch to support our writing.

As Teachers we have all looked at recipies, done the oragami thing, or the numerous other activities around procedural writing. This software has numerous connections all while the kids are making games! The Game factor has been a huge draw card for my kids who have been programming their own games relentlessly since I introduced the software to them.

They develop the scripts required for their game to work by thinking about sequencing, giving clear instructions to the software, and using coordinate geometry. For my reluctant writers who can find it hard putting the sentences together, they have really enjoyed using the drag and drop feature of the software to do all the written work.

After the scripts are complete and the game is working and published onto the site (all free) my class then have had to write instructions for users. Yes more instructional writing. I am in love with this software and I know this post sounds like a sales pitch I encourage you to try it in 1:1 programs.

As always simply giving this type of task is really not going to work and the kids need the explicitly teaching. Once the kids get started though they can use youtube to find all sorts of tutorials

I challenge you to try it and make a better game than my one below!

Learn more about this project

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Well I am one term in and the class is really starting to hum. Inquiry is huge and continues to challenge me and my traditional views of what a teacher does. I have started to develop learning contracts with my children and have found this really effective in helping me keep informed about what they are doing. It has also been really good in helping focus those children that have difficulty setting goals.

Letting the children go is hard and at times very scary but I am getting there.

My big question at the moment though is reflecting on blogger and Mahara. The children are loving the class blog and at the moment are at that ego-centric stage they often go through when they just want to post about themselves. Next term we will look at developing community online. Posting comments, following blogs, building networks etc.

The class next door has seriously got the blogger bug and it is starting to catch on to my kids too with all the kids wanting to develop personal blogs. So I'm just going to share the pros and cons of Blogger and Mahara. I would love peoples thoughts on this as it is something I am working through at the moment.

Blogger:

i.e. two personal blogs per child - one a showcase of learning (the flashy stuff for everyone) - the other a journal of goal setting, with feedback and feedforward (private)

Pros:

Blogger is free

Blogger is part of the apps suite so everything is connected

Blogger is easy to upload content with videos etc.

Blogger can be passed on to a Private google account/ i.e. not a school one at the end.

Blogger can last forever

Blogger can be shared with friends and family's google accounts

Blogger is easy to use

Cons:

Blogger doesn' have the same levels of security as Mahara

Blogger isn't ministry recognised/compatible

Mahara:

Pros:

different levels of security

Can be removed once the child leaves

Can be uploaded to hardcopy

Can be transferred from other schools with ministry compatible LMS

Mahara is free?

Cons:

Not as easy to share material with parents and grandparents

Doesn't last forever

1 month in!

Well I have started work at Ross and am 1 month in. Wow what a change.

- New Year level

- New institution

- New School

- New Teaching philosophy

Its a lot of changes but so exciting. my big problem at them moment. Changing my teaching ideas and practices to fit the truely digital environment that I am working in.

The problem. The kids are too bloody engaged! They all want to take their work home, work for 5 hours straight and finish it that night. It may be a simple as a basic reading follow up activity like what I gave my kids today. I explained to them the follow up today so they could do it tomorrow (something that I have always done). Now (4:30) i'm getting emails of the kids finished work. What am I going to do with them tomorrow when I want to read with the other group?

The digital environment is definitely engaging the children. The problem for me now is changing my practice away from the largely teacher centered program (a traditional kiwi classroom) into a much more student centered program. This change I feel is the only option in a program where the children can and will work in their own time at home.

Teacher Inquiry 2010

Well the results are in! They are interest and ultimately inconclusive.

My Goal:

· To improve the engagement levels of 5male and 2 female reluctant writers

· To provide a range of purposeful and authentic writing opportunities

· To improve the surface feature achievement of the group from working at level 1iii and 2 up at least 1 level and improve their audience awareness, use of content, structure and organization.

· Develop some manageable strategies that are engaging in writing. The strategies will be focused on planning and presenting clear ideas with detail for the reader.

What I did:

• Taught spelling and grammar explicitly in a additional time to writing. This was in addition to how I normally focus on surface features during writing time.
• Used Lexia software to help identify needs as well as provide relevant practice activities.
• Had the children share their learning digitally and at time in analogue form to enourage the synthesis of knowledge.
• Used the class blog and other mediums to share writing, comments, learning etc. This was a place for authentic sharing as well as a place to stress the need for clarity in writing.
• Had the children as part of rotation, regularly proofread work using the COPS template as a guide.
• Used shared books for each writing group during teaching time to record learning.
• Regularly refer children to the school writing matrix, national exemplars, and school stage feedback sheets to assess and set future goals.
• Used Podcasts, keynote, blog posts, comic life and vocaroo to share writing to our audience.
• Daily handwriting practice and instruction all year to target the needs of children who had much difficulty forming letters and spacing them apart.
  

The Results:

• The children are more engaged in their writing and spelling. Spelling identified as one of their preferred tasks at school (Over Maths and reading). See last post.
  
• The 2 boys both improved in spelling age however only 1 made any real gains against their chronological age. The 2 girls both ended up with poorer results against their chronological age.
• Against the literacy exemplars again the results are the same with only 1 child improving up 1 level.

Outside of the target group

• Majority of the class improved in spelling age by 1 - 1.5 years.
• Spelling is found by all children one of the preferred subjects at school.
• Many children improved in their surface features against the exemplars

My Thoughts

Was it worth it? It was a lot of work planning, marking, preparing and there were many very good results in the class. Many of these children however are very competent spellers and probably would have made good progress.

I guess I am unsure whether such an approach was worth it. By spending 2 hours a week explicitly on spelling and the hour or so a week planning could have been spent on language experiences, whole language teaching, more enriched writing groups, etc. Apporaches to learning which have equally engaging results. The children are all well aware of their needs in surface features and how to improve so I guess this was a sound approach. But was it the best?

Student Survey

Wow. After the student survey results I have been really thinking. The results clearly showed that one of my little goals of making more explicit the success criteria in tasks has been achieved. The kids clearly show more awareness in SC.
The Results got me thinking. I came up with the idea to survey the kids using google forms to clarify the student voice. The results and implications for my practice are great. I generally survey the kids in my class every term. Asking them about me as a teacher my strengths and weaknesses. Using Google forms I believe I was able to get a more honest result. I also was able to target the student's thoughts and opinions around my inquiry this year.
Here are the results:





The children generally show more enjoyment of learning when using computers than other activities. They also believe that in spelling the use of LEXIA and possibly sharing learning digitally has helped them learning the most.

My target group were children at risk in surface features in writing. A link to the form can be found here

Questioning with Trevor Bond

http://ictnz.com/

Trevor raised some interesting thoughts about questioning. Curriculum delivery. Skills and values. The session was excellent and thought provoking.

I really appreciated the practical elements to his presentation. Below are my notes:


Questioning is one if not the most important strategy we should teach in our schools.


So What:
Facilitate more to encourage questioning.
Value of the teachable moment?
Teach the questioning skills.

The Questioning skills -

1. Identify the need or problem (write statements of need)
2. Identify the key words (relevant contextual vocabulary)
3. Ask a range of relevant questions (Open/Closed etc.)
4. Take them to a variety of appropriate sources
5. Persist, editing questions as necessary until they acquire the needed information.

What is a good question:

• Is relevant
• Gets the information that is needed.
• Can be taken to intelligent and non-intelligent sources. (People=intelligent Book/google=non-intelligent)

What is a poor question:
Questions that require an intelligent source to use the context to decode the intention.

• Where can I find it? What skills do I need? How do I get there?

Modelling is the most important teaching thing. We model poorly but get away with it due to the context!

Question Matrix
Trevor also introduced his question matrix (but my laptop battery failed so had to stop taking notes). Check it out here.