Back to school - Testing, discussing and thinking about the future.

This is a quick update from my previous blog.

Upon returning to school I meet with my students. We discussed specific problems they have when reading. These range from not knowing the new words, losing their line, or forgetting what has happened in the story. I gathered their voice and made a record of the problems. These can be used when planning. Summarising and vocabulary work will be my initial focus with many of these students.

 Then I administered an eAsttle Reading Test. The results confirmed what I already know from the PAT data. Year 6 boys are generally achieving lower than the girls. Many boys were quick to finish the test which suggests that they were not reading closely. There are currently 10 boys sitting at 2B or 2P. My goal is to move these boys to 2A or 3B (an increase of 60 points in their scale score).

We had two lessons on reading habits and sustained reading. The students identified what they thought good reading habits were. These are:

• Sit away from distractions
• Have an interesting book to read
• Actually read the words
• Stay in the same space
• Be comfortable
• Get a book you can understand

Our first session was terrible. They were fidgeting and talking. There were arguments. Few students could sustain their reading for more than 5 minutes. That day I set the class up on epic.com. Students were able to sustain their reading for 15 minutes. There was a mixture of paper texts and digital texts. 

After reading Developing Strategies for Reading on TKI, I wrote out my generic questions for students to discuss during literacy circles and to help their reading reflections. These questions are:

• What have you been reading?
• What did you like about the text?
• What happened in the text?
• What are two strategies have you used to help understand the text?
• How did these strategies help you understand the text?
• What are two new words you encountered in your text?
• Where did you find the text?
• Would you recommend this text?
• What problems did you encounter in the text?

My colleagues Urmi and Paula have suggested that I add a prediction questions, increase the word identification to 3 words, and identify the main theme of the text (synthesis). I am aware that it will be necessary to focus literature circle discussions on key themes so each week may focus on specific questions.

My next steps are:

1. reread Effective Literacy Practise for Years 5-8 again
2. read Literacy Circles and their Improvement of Comprehension
3. Probe test target students
4. Make the prototype tool (release day)
5. Develop a two-weekly plan that allows for reading millage, guided/ targeted teaching and literacy circles

MIT 19 - KPMG Meeting 25/3/19 - Evolving our Inquiry

Year 6 Boy Reading Progress is Low (1 year or lower movement)

On Monday the 25th of March we had our first collaborative meeting at the KPMG Office in Auckland.

To start the day we were asked to share what had worked well for us, and what had not worked well. I talked about discussing my inquiry with my team in Tåwhirimåtea and other teachers at Rawhiti School. They have been supportive of the inquiry and offered advice about texts and routines used in their classes with literacy circles or reciprocal reading. My team thought it would be beneficial for me to take the majority of the Year 6 students for reading.

I also discussed the PAT Reading Comprehension data we had recently gathered, and how this reflects the overall low achievement with Year 6's at Rawhiti School, and boys in particular.

Next, I discussed my first meeting with my students. This went reasonably well. They were generally open to the idea of using literacy circles and videos in their reading programme. Some seemed intimidated by the idea of the amount of reading I want them to do. Others were apprehensive about being on camera, however, others thought they would get an opportunity to be famous!

In terms of the things that had not gone well, my main issue up to this week had been one of time. Our studio has been busy with daily swimming, Year 5 and 6 Camp the previous week and the tragic events that occurred in Christchurch on the 15th of March. This had impacted the time I could spend with my students and making contact with a colleague of Amber's who has experience running a similar initiative to mine through Twitter. At this stage, I was stared away from using Facebook or Twitter as a tool (not that I had intended too) as it was not a safe or monitored forum, compared to the blogs and sites set up by Manaiakalani. 

Following a lovely morning tea, I worked with Sandra and Nicola to experiment and evolve our inquiries. Sandra discussed how she wanted to start her inquiry with her competition that assigned mixed ability groups tasks and questions based on the overall literacy of the group. She realised that she needed to take a step back to work out how to group her students to make the best composition of students. When she tried to group them there was a "revolt". One of the ideas she came up with was having her students buddy up with a friend, and then join pairs. I liked this idea as I can see it would offer a variety of student combinations for literacy circles, exposing students to ideas beyond their immediate social circle. We will call this 2 and 2.

I shared my plan. Starting with my problem, Year 6 boy reading progress is low, then moved on to my focus on improving reading engagement through literacy circles. I also hope to improve student self-perception of themselves from developing or dormant readers to capable readers. Considerations for running an effective literacy circle in the class include groups (2 and 2), roles within the group and creating a script or set of generic questions for students to follow as a guide. It was suggested that these questions could be a guide for student reflection after reading.

In terms of deliberate acts of teaching necessary for this to work there are many. These include lessons on running the literacy circles, possibly modelling with groups and using a fishbowl approach. Guided reading lessons would be needed to develop comprehension strategies. In particular, we would initially focus on vocabulary work, asking questions, summarising the text and synthesis. Lessons around how the Key Competencies operate within the literacy circle would also be necessary. 

I brought up how when students select their own texts they are more engaged. Generally, for literacy circles, the students read the same text. This allows for specific questions for them to discuss. I would need to develop generic questions if students are discussing their own texts. Ultimately it would be a combination of the two approaches based on student interests.

Groups for guided reading and literacy circles would not be the same. Guided reading groups would be based on specific gaps in fluency and comprehension. Literacy circle groups would need a stronger social nature to work. Students need to feel comfortable sharing their thinking with their peers. 

The tool I develop would be a site or blog where students could upload short videos summarising their literacy circle. There would be an area for teachers to explain the reasons why using literacy circles are effective at improving progress, and how they may operate in different classrooms. The main part of the site would be a catalogue of videos by various literacy circles. Students can watch these to find new texts and see how other students talk about what they are reading. There would be a place to comment so the content of the student videos becomes a dialogue outside of the literacy circle.

Later we shared our inquiry with the whole group. We had to defend our ideas. As a guide for our thinking, Anne gave us this set of questions.

Prototype of solution questions

What was the achievement challenge?

What was your purpose in designing this tool?

What were the gaps you identified in your prototype?

What is the point of difference with other tools already being used? Why yours?

How is this tool/approach/process going to have an impact on student achievement?

As a result of the feedback, you received today who else do you need in your team? What else do you need to do with your design?

What is the weak point or link in your design thinking process?

In the feedback that followed these concerns were raised that need addressing:

1. This reading programme is going to be very busy for the students. Where is the time for reading millage, the primary cause for improvement in a reading?
2. How will I identify the key gaps in students fluency and comprehension that has held these specific students back, and how will I address these? 
3. What are the options for different text types? Is there a place for digital content and audiobooks?

My immediate solutions for these concerns are:

1. Make the literacy circle and video creation part of a two-week cycle (one-week literacy circle, one-week video creation/ upload)
2. Use PROBE and eAsttle reading tests to identify needs. Group students based on their fluency and comprehension needs for guided reading lessons. Some students will need one-on-one teaching. A target group can have guided reading that follows an ALL approach. Again, this will also need to allow time for students to read independently to build their millage.
3. Visit the local library. Set up the class on Epic or other digital reading tools. 

These are my initial solutions, and other solutions will present themselves over time.

MIT 19 Beach Side Hui

The Hui has been challenging and awesome. Lovely location, nice people, fierce card playing!

Session 1 - Here we learnt what is Manaiakalani, and what came before. Specifically, we learnt about Russell Burt, Andrea Tele'a, Sandy Lagitupu and Helen Squires. They are educators who found opportunities to enrich their learning communities and innovate how they taught. Andrea and Sandy developed a reading podcast that accelerated their students progress. Helen developed a programme of blogging giving her writers an authentic audience and leading to acceleration.

Then following this we did a roleplay where each MIT 19 teacher was given the role of someone who has an investment in education, such as parents, students, teachers, MOE, researchers or Google. During the roleplay, we were given statements about current education and had to respond as our character.

Session 2 - In this session, we looked at our reworded problem from two weeks ago. This was another roleplaying session, with Anne and Jenny playing the part of a principal and BOT head from a local area school presenting their 2019 target goals to the local community. We played the part of that parent community. Each problem was presented on the screen and the community could discuss it. I say discuss, but what really happened is we tore each statement apart. Every statement was full of flaws and waffly language. This was a particularly brutal process for me as my statement was the first to be displayed! To be honest, I was left a bit shell shocked. Only one statement was concise and to the point.

The question was raised What is your actual problem? As part of the design process, we needed to have a clear problem that we wanted to address. We were given time to think about our problem and make it well defined.

In my initial moonshot google presentation, I had stated that I wanted to improve Year 6 boy engagement in reading. After the 5 Whys task, I had changed my problem statement into Many students in my studio are reluctant or struggling readers who see reading as a challenge and a chore. They have reading habits and attitudes that show a lack of book accessibility and reading role-modelling. My challenge is to improve the enthusiasm for reading among my Year 6 students, especially the boys. 

I looked closely at my class reading data, my school reading data and the cluster reading data that had been provided by Woolf Fisher. After some consideration, and a bit of help from Amber, I finally came up with a new concise problem statement:
       "Reading progress for Year 6 boys is lower than the national expectation"
This is the problem I hope to address with my new proposal.

Session 3 - Initial Cohort support. In this session, we were given the opportunity to provide support to our peers. Each problem and proposal was stuck to the wall and we were given post-it notes. We then had to go around the room and write How might we questions to turn the problem into opportunities. Then we took the post-its and grouped or ranked them based on themes we noticed.

The themes I noticed were around student motivation to read, the mindset of my reluctant readers, the purpose of reading and involvement with the community and my readers.

 The statements that struck me the most was create a way for reading to occur when they may not engage and change the ways the boys think about reading. 

Then we got to refine our thinking based on post-it notes. What sticks out from our suggestions? What could we adapt or change in our problem or proposal?

Session 4 - Who will help us solve our problem? We made a list of everyone we thought might have a part to play during our inquiry. For me, this included the students, my team in Tåwhirimåtea and Rawhiti School, my fellow MIT cohort, Manaiakalani support (Dorothy, Anne and Mark M), whanau, RTLit, research from Woolf Fisher, as well as research from NZCER, University of Canterbury or Auckland University. These last ones will be the most difficult for me to access so I know I will need to ask for help from my senior management.

We were also asked to add a moonshot person, the person who we admired or thought could give a special insight into our problem, but probably would not get the chance to talk to. I put down Sheena Cameron and Donalyn Miller given their backgrounds in reading education and engaging students.

Session 5 - Ideation (Crazy 8): In this session, we were asked to come up with 8 different possible solutions for our problem. The ideas could be as random and crazy as we could think of. I put my original idea which centred on running classroom literacy circles and an online book club. To this I added these ideas:

• An online resource for teachers of questions for popular children's books
• 10 book per term challenge which is blogged
• Online reading log with students, teachers and parents site texts they read
• Vocational reading with texts based on possible student career choices
• A buddy reading challenge
• A site that offers visual stimulation to invite reading, followed by a creative or technical challenge for students
• A collaborative "art" project based on a shared reading

Following this, we were given stickers. These we placed on the pages of our peers to show which ideas we thought had the most potential. On my Ideation poster, my final idea had the most endorsement. 

This idea was the collaborative art project. While I like the idea, I came away feeling like I had only offered a reading follow-up activity as opposed to an acceleration strategy. I needed to take the events of the day away and think about my proposal.

That was the end of Monday's work. 

Session 6 - Consolidating our Proposal: In this session, we were given time to think carefully about the direction of our proposal and what our digital tool would look like. As I stated above I was not particularly enthusiastic about the Crazy 8 idea that was most popular. I had a walk before the session and considered what message had come out from the previous days. 

My original proposal did not spark the interest of my peers, and it seemed to me upon reflection to not be the engaging tool that I had hoped it would be. However, I still believe that the central premise of student-led literacy circles that encouraged discussion and peer support for reading had to be my focus to accelerate my Year 6 boys. So what now?

I started to think about using video as a means of students sharing their literacy circle discussions and host these in a site where other teachers and students can view and comment on them. Could I develop a Google site that hosted videos of students summarising their literacy circles? How would this work? Would this be engaging enough for my students? Was this idea too similar to the work done by Andrea Tele'a, Sandy Lagitupu and Helen Squires? With these questions in mind, I approached the morning's work in a new direction.

I discussed the idea with Anne and Amber. They were receptive it. Anne reminded me that whatever I do, there needs to be deliberate acts of teaching and that it can transferable to other schools or classes across NZ. Amber suggested I contact Mark Lorenzo from Belfast School as he runs the Chapter Chat Twitter programme. 

My new proposal now looks like this:

• Teach Year 6 students to run literacy circles based on the texts they are engaged with
• Focus on the Key Competencies needed for a successful literacy circle, critical thinking about texts (reading comprehension strategies) and deep questioning
• Create a Google site that has two sections - one for students and one for teachers
• The student section has a place to upload videos with a Google Form and Sheet comment section
• The teacher section has the hows and whys  for both literacy circles and creating videos (why use literacy circles and videos, how to set these up in the class
• Teach my Year 6 students how to make and embed short videos following this process - read your text, hold a literacy circle, create a short script, record 2-3 minute video, embed on the site

While writing up my revised proposal, Santi pointed out that I will want to talk to my students about what they know about literacy circles and their thoughts on videos. This is my next step. I also need to gather their reading data into one place. We are doing the PAT Reading Comprehension test this week, but I will also create an e-asttle reading assessment for them to do. This will act as my baseline data for the year.

Then the Hui wrapped up. After the morning's work, I felt more positive about the direction I was heading in, and that I could accelerate my Year 6's in their reading progress. 

Bring on the next session on the 25th March!

MIT 2019 Assignment 3 and The Book Whisperer chapter 2

This week I had the assignment of condensing my MIT Inquiry problem into a short accessible statement. Our brief was as follows:

"We have been asked to provide a summary of the Class of MIT19 to Jenny Oxley, CEO of Manaiakalani Education Trust, and Justine Todd, Corporate Citizenship Manager of KPMG. These businesswomen have to account to their Boards for the investment in the MIT programme in 2019.  Their organisations are keenly interested in solving problems in Education and have chosen MIT19 as one avenue to do this. The statement you provide on slide 3 will be added to the report.

Please state clearly on slide 3, in terms lay people can understand, what problem for young people in Aotearoa you are proposing to address in 2019."

After my 5 Whys Question activity from my previous assignment, and some additional thinking that inspired, I was able to condense my problem into the following statement.

Many students in my studio are reluctant or struggling readers who see reading as a challenge and a chore. They have reading habits and attitudes that show a lack of book accessibility and reading role-modelling. My challenge is to improve the enthusiasm for reading among my Year 6 students, especially the boys.

This statement has made me revisit Donalyn Miller's work The Book Whisperer, about engaging students with reading. Chapter 2 is about finding the reading potential of all students. She describes her students being caught up in a wave of excitement about reading just by having access to a wide variety of books and having an adult that is will to listen to their recommendations and suggestions. She talks about listening to her students' needs. 

For my students, I wonder if their needs are deeper. Their attitude towards reading is negative. When groups get together (Year 6 boys) they start to encourage each other not to read ("what can you recommend?" "Nothing, this book sucks" "I can't read it" etc)

Miller then relabels struggling and reluctant readers as developing and dormant readers. She also has a category called underground readers.

Developing readers: These are readers who are below the expected level in their ability. This is due to experience or a learning disability. Research in the US has shown that despite intervention programmes, these readers still read 75% less than other students. Her advice is for them to read and read. From my own experience, I have seen students make great improvements by reading a lot of high-interest texts as well as frequent instruction.

Targeted developing students: Dontae, Kaylan, Te Ana, Nevaeh, Reef, Rhycos, Lila, Maria

 Dormant readers: These are students who track and make progress, but are reluctant to read for their own benefit. These are the students who need to learn that reading is an engaging activity. Their environment is essential for turning dormant readers into engaged readers. These conditions include hours reading, choice and a celebration of independent reading.  

Targeted dormant students: Jack, Angus, Layla, Izzy, Kiwa

Underground readers: These are readers who see no value in a classroom reading, they want to read other things. They are good readers. Just let them get into the book that excites them.

Conditions for learning (According to Brian Cambourne)

Immersion - surround kids with books and hold regular conversations about books. 

Demonstration - Teaching using student books, making it authentic.

Expectations - students will read.

Responsibility - students will set their own goals about their reading and writing.

Employment - Students need to use the skills they learn in their personal reading.

Approximations - students will make mistakes, and receive guidance and advice.

Response - guidance and advice.

Engagement - anxiety free reading that they value.

11/02/19 - MIT 2019 Assignments 1 and 2 - Moonshot thinking and 5 Whys Questions

My first assignment for the MIT programme was to complete a Moonshot thinking presentation slide detailing what I want to achieve this year.

In this, I detail what I see as the problem facing my students - To raise the engagement levels in reading and to lift student ability to discuss books for year 6 and 7 boys.

Then I detailed how I would go about this:

1. Introduce literacy circles or reciprocal reading groups for my Year 6 students
2. Develop an app or site that allows students to find book recommendations, ask questions about books, and facilitates discussion

My second assignment was to collaborate with another MIT, and to question each other's proposals using 5 Why questions.

Here are Joanne Ryken's questions and my responses:

Hi Eugene - it was great to read through your proposal. I have long term interest initiatives to improve literacy levels, and I personally love reading. I am wondering why you think that student (especially boys) choose not to read for enjoyment?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Cheers, Joanne

Hi Joanne. I think there is a range of reasons why students choose to not read for enjoyment. Firstly, many students miss out on positive reading role-models. Secondly, many students who read well have many distractions (in the class and at home). Thirdly, many students haven't discovered the right book that engages with them. Lastly, for my students, there is a certain amount of social pressure to not be seen as smart or well read.

In 2016 and 2017, I taught Year 7&8 (switched to Year 3&4 last year) - many of my students had similar attitudes towards reading. We used a range of material to engage students more - comics, graphic novels, high-interest contexts related to them (hunting, fishing, surfing, rugby...) - all sorts of stuff. 
Many of the students are far more keen on online type reading involved in gaming, which kind of leads me to my next question.
Why do you think that use of technology will help with this?

For adults, we are able to use technology to aid our reading in a variety of ways. We access sites that can link us to books that fit into our interests, we can search for reviews by both professional reviewers and the general reading audience. Using technology this way takes a certain amount of initiative, as well as skimming and scanning skills that students may not have mastered. A digital tool that allows students to see books other students recommend or have talked about could help them find the story that grabs their attention. Furthermore, technology can make thinking about books a social activity, a place where students can all express their thoughts about a text. To a certain extent, one could consider the gamification of reading through technology, but it would be important to think about how that would improve motivation and perseverance (having tried using sites like readtheory.com in the past, it did not lift motivation to read).

I guess my last question follows on from this... why is it that you think that this forum will provide the necessary motivation for these students you have in front of you - in other words, why did you chose this, rather than a different intervention?

I think my main motivation for this intervention were conversations I held last year with students in my new studio. While a few would regularly read, many reluctant readers could not answer the questions "what do you like reading about?" or "who is your favourite author". Their exposure to books was limited. By encouraging and supporting literature discussions within the class, and then making the discussions broader with the use of an online tool, students can be encouraged to develop wider perspectives. Within a class or studio, no one set of students will ask a great range of questions. When they take part in an online discussion student will read questions from others that may help develop their own questioning skills. They will also be challenged to express their opinion when answering question threads. The motivation is to be part of literary activity that has an element of social media and community to it.

So I guess my next why question is why do you think the reading of books, rather than other texts that the students might choose to read, linked to use of the online forum will make the difference?

Firstly, all text is valid for the purpose of improving student reading and comprehension levels. However, by focusing on novels (select novels to start with) I hope to improve the depth and richness of their language. Novels offer language features and subject-specific vocabulary found in other texts. They also have descriptive features and story structures that can be transferred to a students writing. Furthermore, novels present students with the challenge of sustained reading over several days and following a long plot. On a purely practical level, it will be easier to set a list of novels to discuss on a site or app, compared to if it was any text the students wanted to read.

Good point, with regards to the richness of language that the students are exposed to within books. I guess the other factor there, for rich discussion, is the nature of the messages and themes covered within literature for children. Often reluctant readers, don't look for these - so this project will encourage that deeper thinking about texts, rather than regurgitation of facts.
I am wondering why this seems to be more of an issue for boys than girls - why is it that boys often seem more reluctant to read for pleasure?

This may be a messy answer. Firstly, many girls are also reluctant, dormant or struggling readers. Anecdotally, I have taught classes where boys are avid readers. These have been the exception and not the norm. Recent studies have shown that men read less than women, and are less likely to read in front of children. This would imply that boys are without male reading role models. There is also the old societal expectation that boys will be "active and busy" and girls will be "quiet and still". Reading is seen as a quiet activity. Currently, I teach "boys who fall into the lack of reading role model group", and the "boys will play outside or play video games" group. Going back to your earlier question about the value of novels compared to other text types, many people often forget that there is a lot of reading involved in most video games.

This questioning thread has lead me to ask myself these questions:

Is there a major gender difference in reading engagement in my studio?

What role modelling have dormant readers had prior to 2019?

Do I want to limit my approach to literacy groups to just novels, or should I expand potential reading material to non-fiction?

How is the digital tool I am proposing going to engage readers?

Possible places to start answering these questions include:

National Library reluctant readers page

Studies in gender differences with regards to reading

Raising student engagement through social media

Te Ara Hurura Cluster PD Day 2019 - Manaiakalani

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar: Te Ara Tuhura Cluster Hui - Manaiakalani

Provider/Presenter:
1. Kaila Colbin
2. Unpacking Learn, Create, Share
3. Sharing our collective understanding
4. Pat Snedden - The Moral Purpose to Learn
5 SLAM Session
6. Create - Stop Motion Fun
If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?
1.

• Processing has been exponentially growing (Moore's Law)
• This has been transferred to a range of technology
• These follow the trend of the growth of processing
• Brains are not wired for this growth (1, 2, 4, 8 ... we get to very high numbers very quickly)
• How does it feel to go from nothing to everything with regards to technology
• To train an AI you feed it data
• AlphaGo  trained this way
• AlphaGo 0 trained by playing itself
• AlphaStar (StarCraft 2 version) just beat a human champion
• Technological unemployment - potentially 46% of NZ
• Potentially create more jobs, however, there is...
• An increase in inequality - for a huge portion of the population the system does not work
• Increase cyber risk - everything is connected to the internet 
• Algorithmic bias - when used for predictions because they have embedded historic bias
• Undermining of trust - technology that replaces your face or body for someone else, or your voice with someone else's
• 2018 was the best year every
  • 295000 people gained access to electricity
  • 305000 ppl gained access to drinking water
  • cheaper to build and operate a new solar plant than maintain a coal plant
  • $100 ultrasound that runs off your smartphone
  • More people feed than ever before
  • Algorithms are getting less bias
• How do we prepare our kids for this future
  • "Code and Stem" - good but easy silver bullet 
  • Compulsory attendance vs global participation
  • The day of the qualification is over
  • World Economica Forum - 21st Century Skills - shift our focus to soft skills 
  • Solving unstructured problems
  • Working new information
  • Carrying out non-routine tasks
  • Teach the kids ... Leadership
    • first principles 
      • How do we step back and say how can redo things?
      • What is the purpose of??? What is the best way to structure??? What is a success???
      • What is the purpose of education? "To prepare for the workforce" - this is a human invention, but work is a law of physics
      • Solving problems is a constant job
    • Moral character
      • can we??? (yes, or soon) 
      • We should be asking "should we?"
    • Agency (the antidote to apathy)
      • Heroic effort is a collective effort
      • It is voluntary
      • Follow your dreams 
• What is it we want to do today? How can I see this happen?
• What kind of society do we want our students to create?

2. Unpacking Learn, Create, Share

• Part One - Group consensus for share
• "Sharing is the continual reciprocal process for passing on learnt ideas, knowledge and skills to an intended audience, and, when appropriate receiving feedback"

3. Sharing our collective understanding

• How has our collective understanding affirmed our practice
  • Our planning is based on this
  • We have set the students up with scaffold their own LCS process within units of work
  • More student agency within the last two terms of 2018
• What is challenging us
  • to get the students to challenge themselves and know that there is an audience
  • That feedback is to build on learning
  • Our Deeper Learning Rubric and goal setting may help this
  • To get an audience
  • To teach new skills for sharing
  • Peer support for teaching skills - who is able to...
  • making sure we allow them to access these opportunities throughout the curriculum

4. The Moral Purpose to Learn - Pat Snedden (Manaiakalani Chair)

• An opportunity to check in
• Thinking differently about how we teach Maori and Pasifika children
• How can we operate in a way to learn, then create and then shared, and the impact on their life opportunities
• Evidence of shift
• The investment on children, along with a trust structure to help facilitate success
• There is uncertainty to the process - but the clarity with developing after ups and downs
• A necessity for parents to understand that there will disruption
• This is a pathway for children to be in the "normal" within the bell curve of the child development
• The evidence is mounting that schools and children within the programme can be in the bell curve
• Longest running low decile data collection running in NZ
• MOE - more confirmed investors in the process - to be in 500 schools within 5 years

5. SLAM Sessions
6. Stop Motion Fun -

• Using stop motion animator

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

• to get the students to challenge themselves and know that there is an audience
• That feedback is to build on learning
• Our Deeper Learning Rubric and goal setting may help this
• To get an audience
• To teach new skills for sharing
• Peer support for teaching skills - who is able to...
• making sure we allow them to access these opportunities throughout the curriculum

Note: Possible tools for the literacy discussion tool - Slack and Discourse

Lost at School - chapters 7 to 9

Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme

Lost at School - Chapters 7 to 9

Author/s or Lecturer/s or Speaker/s

Dr Ross Greene

Synopsis

These chapters covered working with all students on the ALSUP and CPS. This may include students who have minor social lagging skills to create a CPS and working with all students to help a few through circle time or well-structured conferences.

It also covered working the ALSUP and CPS through the school and getting parental support.

Motivation

Much of chapter 7 is already being applied, such as with Xavier and having the class develop empathy with him. The statement, fair does not mean equal, is vital for students to help each other. They need to understand that all children need different support to succeed at school, and they need each other's support as well.

In chapter 8 it discussed engaging with parents. Yes, let us do this. Parents need to understand the need for differentiation for each student from the start of the year.

How will it help me? How has it helped me?

• affirms circle time
• possible KC/ Social conference
• getting the community, school and parents on board
• Have our class treaty be a living treaty focusing on KC and social development