2020 - Where'd it go?

This is my first, and last, post for 2020!  What happened??

Well, of course, COVID happened during Term 1, which was when I would have been writing my first post.  But that didn't happen.  I can tell you that the plan was for my Inquiry to be around using ENGAGE games to increase Writing output.  This was my beginning of the year plan:

ENGAGE suggests that 30 minutes per day be set aside for learning and playing the games - this can be 3 x 10 minutes, or 2 x 15 minute periods.  I envisage doing 2 15 minutes sessions daily.

I will gather data/evidence of three or four students’ initial ability to focus and manage themselves (using video), and will revisit making another video later in the year (perhaps the end of term 2).  This should show an increase in each student’s output of Writing.

It was a good plan. But, alas...not meant to be! No video. No blogpost!

By the beginning of Term 3, once things were back to 'normal', it was decided throughout our school that there be a change to our inquiry plans, mainly because the threat of further social distancing meant it might not be possible to track and gather data/evidence around our initial plans.

Unfortunately I was not part of those discussions, as I had elective surgery which meant I was absent from school for 8 weeks. I returned to school 10 days before Term 3 finished - none the wiser about the changes. In that week the teachers got together in groups to share where they were in their inquiries. I, obviously, had nothing to share, but listening to what the teachers in my group had to say was really good.

So - at the beginning of Term 4 I began to assess my teaching of Reading, and have spent the rest of the term reflecting on how I'm doing....and let me tell you - it's not pretty! (Well, it usually is - but not this year!).

It's been a bit of a challenging term.

At Pt England School we focus on using Gwynneth prompts to help raise the Reading Levels throughout the school. The hope is, that if everyone (from Year 1 to Year 8) are using the same language, student's don't get confused with different messages from different teachers. We all know there are a lot of ways to say 'You need to focus on the letter at the beginning of the word'. Here's a few.

'That wasn't right.'

'Look at the first letter. What sound does it make?'

'What? Go back and try that again.'

Gwyennth Phillips says.....

 Cover up the word they just said i.e. horse.  Say

 

You said ‘horse’ what would you expect to see for horse.

(Accentuate the first sound so that is the sound they are focussing on.)

 

The child has to think what letter matches that sound. Uncover word to confirm that, no, that's not the letter there, or yes they were right.

If all teachers are using that same strategy ' You said....what would you expect to see for....?' kids would know exactly what was being asked.

The other challenge for me was allowing all kids in the group to just read at their own pace while I monitored how they were going. I found (and still find) this really difficult. There's a whole lot of noise going on at once, and I find it hard to focus on what's happening! So, I've recently begun to focus on just two students, while I let the other two just read (or not. I'll get to them later!). And that's working a lot better. Once I've watched, listened, challenged and supported the first two, I let them carry on reading while my attention goes to the other two. I need a lot more practise at this, but it's something I'm looking forward to honing in on in 2021 (lockdown-free, hopefully).

My other challenge is actually to get through a Reading session on time! I don't know how other teachers are doing, but I'm not making it, this term. So much of my time is spent managing the behaviour and follow-up tasks of the other students, that my 1 hour Reading time, is easily 1 hour and 45 minutes. And that's far too long! I'm bored. The kids are bored! It's not good! So for 2021, I plan on beginning the year putting into place some self management strategies and skills (that where those ENGAGE games will come into play), so that when I'm ready to begin a well-planned Reading session, I can get through it in record time, and then everyone's a winner!

End Of Year Thoughts

My inquiry this year was around increasing the results of the Six Year Net in Writing Vocab and Hearing and Recording Sounds.  Data from all the students that turned six this year is not available at this time, and I’m not that confident that the results will show a marked improvement over the 2018 results, though I am confident there will be some gains made.  What I am excited about is, that as we move into 2020 our team of teachers have gained some great knowledge and skills that can only benefit next year’s students.

As everything we do now revolves around letter sound then letter ID, I have begun to create new EEs for my students.  What we have used previously have, in my opinion, often been too long and too hard, and therefore too boring!  My students barley managed to complete one a week, let alone two.  At the end of Term Three, I began to change a few EEs, and then decided to make the follow-up tasks follow a similar pattern.  A short, doable EE, that had purpose and students could successfully finish in 10 minutes if they focused, or 20 minutes if they were easily distracted.  It took a couple of weeks into Term 4 for the students to realize what each task required.  Consistent EEs make it easier for kids to know what they’re doing.  They don’t get frustrated.  They don’t need to keep coming up to ask what to do.  That was a huge plus for me.  Every child, no matter what Reading Level, could independently complete their EE.

Each EE (up to Blue 3) had four pages.

1 – Noticing:  This involved dragging words into the correct order.  A simple enough task, but it also required students to notice (capital letters, commas, fullstops, etc).

2 – Handwriting:  Students would record themselves writing over words from their book (mostly high frequency words), and then when I played their recording back, I could see which letters they could not form correctly, and could call them up for some one on one support.

3 – Letter/Blend sounds:  Students would drag the correct letter or blend to a picture.  Or…as they moved up the levels, it could be a chunk that they needed to work out.

4 – Oral Language: Students would take a photo of a particular picture from their book, and would record themselves explaining what was happening in the picture.  This activity was really difficult, and when I begin again in 2020, I plan to model this with the whole class.

The noticing task changes as the students’ reading level increases.  I added comprehension questions, identifying facts,  spelling and grammar.

I look forward to taking what I have learned in 2019 and implementing it right at the beginning of 2020. 

End of Term Review

Two further students have had their six year net.  While student G wrote 22 words, there were six more that she had written but were unaccepted as there was confusion between ‘b’ and ‘d’.  We know that these two letters confuse children, and I am reminded to spend more intentional time focusing on writing each letter and discussing it’s sound, right at the beginning of the year. 

Weeks at School  At test		Gender	Writing Vocab		Words Written		Hearing & Recording Sounds
			5 wk	6 yr net
	N	M	5
	M	M	6
	L	F	1
	K	F	5
	J	M	3
	I	M	0
	H	M	0
40	G	F	3	22	HFW, plus baby, pools, going,		31
42	F	F	1	23	HFW, plus are, know,		30
31	E	M	0	0	-		0
42	D	F	3	7	to, the, like, I’m, me, a, is,		16
40	C	M	0	6	Name, the, I, a, is, to		0
39	B	M	1	9	Name, mum, to, I, the, a, like, too, is		19
40	A	F	0	2	Name, the		10

Of the seven students to still have their test before the end of the year, one (H) has left our school.   Last Friday (19.9.19), the others were given 10 minutes to write as many words as they could.  (A bit of practice should be worthwhile, I’m thinking).

Student I – drew a picture!

Student J – wrote 12 words (but in our class spelling tests, he is doing really well.  I think he struggles to focus for the 10 minutes.

Student K – wrote 26 words.

Student L – wrote 13 words, but also scores really well in the weekly spelling tests.  I’d expected her to write as many as students K and N.

Student M – was absent

Student N – wrote 24 words.

It will be interesting to see how many words these students write, as all of them (except Student I) turn six fairly late in the year.