Room 7 and Room 8 during reading time. The children are reading to each other.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Assessment
Reading:
We have decided as a team to use a combination of assessment for the different reading levels.
For children reading from Red to Orange on the colour wheel we will use a seen text and a standard running record form.
For children reading from Turquoise to Gold we will use a seen text and a standard running record form plus PROBE. This will give us more information about the child's comprehension, inference, re-organisation of text etc.
For children reading from Silver and above we will just use PROBE.
We have chosen to take this approach to assessment to ensure we have enough detail in our assessments for future teaching and report writing.
We have decided as a team to use a combination of assessment for the different reading levels.
For children reading from Red to Orange on the colour wheel we will use a seen text and a standard running record form.
For children reading from Turquoise to Gold we will use a seen text and a standard running record form plus PROBE. This will give us more information about the child's comprehension, inference, re-organisation of text etc.
For children reading from Silver and above we will just use PROBE.
We have chosen to take this approach to assessment to ensure we have enough detail in our assessments for future teaching and report writing.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Maths in our collaborative team
Grouping
At the beginning of the year we grouped the children according to their Numeracy Stage.
Fiona takes the Stage 2/3 children who are struggling with maths. She can use her ALIM experience from last year to accelerate the children's progress.
Sophie and John teach the Stage 4 group - our biggest group.
I take the Stage 5 group, Brett takes the Stage 5/6 group and Sally takes the 4/5 group.
Assessment:
We used the Step Up Numeracy in a Nutshell pre-test to identify strengths and weaknesses.
We then divided our maths class into two groups to monitor and assess children's progress and understanding more closely.
Basic Facts:
We all run the basic facts programme (except Fiona's group) at the beginning of the maths session for the children to achieve mastery. This is a precision teaching strategy. To move on to the next level the children must complete the same sheet with a score of 10/10 in a minute or under. I know my class really enjoy the challenge and are working through the programme quickly.
Planning:
In Term 1 our focus was Number. In Term 2 our focus is Fractions for three weeks and Numeracy. We have staggered the times that we are teaching Fractions so teachers can share the resources.
Reflections:
For me, personally, it is really enjoyable teaching a new level and teaching a group of children who are at the same maths stage is refreshing.
Next Step:
Assessments will need to be completed this term for report writing. Our comments will need to be very clear in order to be explained and discussed with parents of the children who are in our home class but not in our maths class.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Writing as part of a collaborative team
Once we'd established the needs of the children within our learning team, we put children into different groups to target their needs.
Extension writing:Mel
The children that need extending work with Mel in Room 7. Mel is able to push these children and has been working on editing skills and crafting a piece of work. All of these children have been identified as being at and above the national standard.
Middle writers: Sophie and John
We are working with the children that are just below or at the National Standard. We take turns leading the writing sessions on a weekly basis. The group starts together on the mat for the shared writing part of the lesson. This is where we share learning intentions, motivate the children and model. We then split into two groups for the independent writing part.
Target writing group: Fiona
Extension writing:Mel
The children that need extending work with Mel in Room 7. Mel is able to push these children and has been working on editing skills and crafting a piece of work. All of these children have been identified as being at and above the national standard.
Middle writers: Sophie and John
We are working with the children that are just below or at the National Standard. We take turns leading the writing sessions on a weekly basis. The group starts together on the mat for the shared writing part of the lesson. This is where we share learning intentions, motivate the children and model. We then split into two groups for the independent writing part.
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| A page from Sophie's modelling book |
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| Pages from John's modelling book |
These children are well below the national standard. Fiona has been doing experience based writing with these children with lots of scaffolding. This group is not doing genre writing yet as their needs are building up vocabulary and confidence levels. This group has a teacher aide to assist.
We are finding that the different groups are running well. All teachers follow the same system of modelling, motivating and setting goals. It is great that we are able to extend writers in the top group as in the past this hasn't been possible. Having four teachers in the team means that we can utilise these groupings to best target the needs of the children.This term we decided to keep our same groups so that we have sound evidence for reporting to parents. We will look at moving the teachers to different groups in Term 3. This will give the children and teachers fresh perspectives.
Next Steps: Reporting to parents.
We need to think carefully about how we can report to parents in a consistent way as the children we teach are not necessarily in our home class. We will write report comments for our writing group but the home teachers need to be well informed so that they convey the right messages to parents.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Inquiry - 2017
Our 2017 inquiry is really important for our school moving forward, and we wanted to ensure that we planned it in a way that we got quality results for our school moving forward.
We have decided that we will gather at the beginning of each term to make a base plan that we will all follow. We have also started a shared folder in Google Drive to go along side this plan where we can add resources to share.
Our challenge for Inquiry is making sure that we have the balance between student lead and teacher lead right. We want our tamariki to have their say over where our school is heading and their involvement in that, but we also need to make sure that they are staying on the right track to ensure the outcomes.
As a team we decided that we would all have wondering walls in our home rooms to show the question that the children have, and allow these to help guide our inquiry. We also want to give our tamariki as many opportunities as possible to get out and have real experiences in 'our place'.
We have decided that we will gather at the beginning of each term to make a base plan that we will all follow. We have also started a shared folder in Google Drive to go along side this plan where we can add resources to share.
Our challenge for Inquiry is making sure that we have the balance between student lead and teacher lead right. We want our tamariki to have their say over where our school is heading and their involvement in that, but we also need to make sure that they are staying on the right track to ensure the outcomes.
As a team we decided that we would all have wondering walls in our home rooms to show the question that the children have, and allow these to help guide our inquiry. We also want to give our tamariki as many opportunities as possible to get out and have real experiences in 'our place'.
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| Team trip to Adcock Reserve |
We found last year that having individual inquiry books didn't work. This year we removed them from the stationery list and are just using our class journal to document our learning. Each home room has their own journal and it is cool looking around the different rooms and seeing where our journeys differ.
We are hoping that as the inquiry progresses we will be able to run 'opt in' sessions where all teachers in the syndicate take classes and the children can sign up to the ones that interest them.
We are looking forward to seeing how this inquiry guides our schools future!
Autumn Fun
Autumn Fun
The
children were having great fun collecting all the autumn leaves into large
piles and throwing them into the air. The simple joys of life!
Poutama Ako - 2017
Poutama Ako is our upated version of the Steps System. We have found that the majority of our children find this really motivating and want to climb through the levels. Our team has focused on making sure that we embed conversations about Poutama into daily classroom life, we feel like because of this our tamariki understand the importance of it. We have also made sure that there is a Poutama Ako display in all of our learning spaces so that we always have it to refer back to with our children.
One thing we found difficult was knowing what children were on what Poutama when we were moving around spaces. This term we have introduced badges for Poutama Wha and Rima children that they will wear during class that states the privelleges that comes with that Poutama. This way whatever teacher they have at the time knows. We have only just started this, so we are unsure how effective it will be, but the children are all excited to have a badge that sets them apart, and shows their achievement.
Our next challenge will be how we manage our Poutama Rima tamariki. How much freedom will we allow them to have with their self managed timetables? How will this work when we move around learning spaces all the time?
One thing we found difficult was knowing what children were on what Poutama when we were moving around spaces. This term we have introduced badges for Poutama Wha and Rima children that they will wear during class that states the privelleges that comes with that Poutama. This way whatever teacher they have at the time knows. We have only just started this, so we are unsure how effective it will be, but the children are all excited to have a badge that sets them apart, and shows their achievement.
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| Emma and Leonjay with their badges |
Our next challenge will be how we manage our Poutama Rima tamariki. How much freedom will we allow them to have with their self managed timetables? How will this work when we move around learning spaces all the time?
Monday, May 1, 2017
Whanau Hui
Whanau hui has been set up with the four classes. The children sign in every morning to encourage self-managing.We are taking turns at leading this each week.
The oral language program is part of our daily whanau hui. The powerpoint is on google docs so that we all have access to it... this has been particularly useful when teachers have been away. We have been able to pick up what they had planned and follow it through.
Whanau Hui is useful for setting the tone for the day, sharing any notices, talk about our values and celebrating successes. It also helps the children see themselves as part of a team as well as seeing the teachers as being part of a team.
Next Step: The focus is to encourage the children to lead various aspects so that it becomes more student-led.
Whanau Hui is useful for setting the tone for the day, sharing any notices, talk about our values and celebrating successes. It also helps the children see themselves as part of a team as well as seeing the teachers as being part of a team.
Next Step: The focus is to encourage the children to lead various aspects so that it becomes more student-led.
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