RPI 9: Agenda - Sharing Reading

Wow! We have reached the end of our RPI programme, what a journey of learning this year has been, all around reading. We looked at sharing today and one aspect of this was whānau involvement. This in our classroom reading programme is quite absent, something I look forward to changing and introducing with my class. I enjoyed seeing others' ideas about how we can involve whānau, and have taken note of some amazing ideas. I enjoyed seeing and hearing everyone's ideas about sharing to connect home and school. This is truly so valuable to involve whānau, not only in what their tamariki are reading at school, but in ways they can learn together and help their tamariki on their learning journey. 

Going through the goals set at the beginning of the RPI got me thinking about how the RPI has ticked all the boxes across the board. I don't feel like we weren’t ever supported to achieve any of these and its amazing. The RPI has been challenging at times but the rewards are far more in return. I’m truly grateful I got to experience and be a part of this programme. I have begun to incorporate the pillars of practice in my programme and will continue to, plan to with the new coming school year.

RPI 8: Agenda - Create in Reading

 What a creative day we had today! I really enjoyed our section on using create to show our learning. It highlighted for me that we can deliberately have an element of create in each response to text. It can fit in anywhere in our reading programme and the possibilities to create are endless. We can have two places create can fit. Either in our routine opportunities or planned modules, units or concepts. Below we can see where these fit:

I loved that we had a chance to try many create tasks and could see what would fit in with our students. Plus, to see the many different types of create activities expanded my mind. We also shared into a sheet document endless amazing create ideas which is now a resource I will continue to refer to. The way we share together in RPI has had a huge positive effect on my teaching, its been a challenge too, its made me really look at what I do as a teacher and how I can become even better for my students. Sometimes change is hard, but if you make it the new normal, it will always only have positive effects on me and my classroom. I'm excited to offer more creating opportunities in my classroom! 

RPI 7: Agenda - Thinking (7-10) (Cohort 3, 2024)

Our RPI took an in depth look at ‘thinking’ today. I took away lots from the discussion of introducing higher order thinking, realising the importance of learners accessing deeper meanings in the texts we read. Creating opportunities for building learners' awareness of thinking - to go beyond the surface level and delve into the meanings or themes the author may be conveying. Therefore, interpreting the text on a deeper level for the learner. I had myself thinking about the opportunities I am offering currently to learners and how I can use the resources and specific mahi templates to create and or introduce to learners about this higher order thinking. The table below highlights how we can move away from the literal level, and into the other levels. The 'thinking' that is involved around these levels above, interpretative meaning they need to recognise when to read between the lines and work out the meaning. Where the evaluative stage takes this thinking even further and possibly connects them to their background knowledge to make certain judgements about the intended meanings. These are the main points I have taken away from this RPI session and am now excited to try a few different ways of implementing with learners.

RPI 4: Guided Reading (and Comprehension) (Cohort 4)

 Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Kiri Kirkpatrick, who took me through a catch up of this RPI day 4 as I was not able to make it. It was a treat to have just us two working through this as I got to really have deep and meaningful conversations with Kiri on my own. I feel like each time we meet for RPI its my favourite lesson, and this class was no different! The steps below gave me a clear guideline to work with when thinking about the guided reading process. We also discussed two processes and I found that I utilise both of these approaches in our programme, focussing on the authors purpose and focussing on the teaching purpose, there are times when the can be both used. 

The section and talk about comprehension was very valuable to me as I feel this can sometimes be difficult for me, so the teaching points about comprehension gave me some good ideas and made me realise it doesn't have to be difficult just meaningful. Another gem I took away was the way we observe learners to support fluent, phrased and expressive reading - how can we help them? I found the fluency scale helpful for this and will be something I utilise in my classroom. Very grateful to Kiri and Naomi for coming through to run this session for me. 

RPI 6: Agenda - Vocabulary (& Decoding)

Today's RPI lesson has to date been my favourite, Morphology - all things vocabulary. Building an interest and love for words within my classroom has now become a goal for me to work towards. This has inspired me to begin a word wall. I am still thinking of how I will introduce, monitor and continue on with this but the deliberate robust teaching of words is an aspect of language that's very important. We dived deep and discussed key approaches to explicit vocabulary instruction. 

Morphology and morphemes are new words for me, though I now know this is a study of words including the way they are formed, how they relate to one another within language. Being conscious of words; having an interest and awareness of words, means we cant leave it up to chance and need to take a direct approach to ensure there is a system for exploring vocabulary in the classroom. I am excited to include some of these approaches and activities in my upcoming planning for term 4. 

TImetable adjustments

I feel like timetable adjustments are taking place each and every time I finish RPI! There is always an element of being flexible enough to make adjustments to planning and timetables for the benefit of our tamariki. 

The first change I made was really taking a look at our activities and if I knew that these activities where providing tamariki with a chance to elevate their thinking or more so are ones they could by far, do. It's ok to have a balance but I need to make sure there is a variety. Having a new lens to see through has made me evaluate what these are for. Kupu hou, or new words is something I feel we haven't looked into enough - and at times they don't know what they don't know until we have a discussion and go through possibilities. How do we use these too? We started making lists on big sheets of paper - with meanings and other words that have the same meaning, eg, wharepaku, whareiti - knowing where these are at the marae with all the crowds. 

Our session together where we have made our writing like our reading was quite interesting and I was blown away with some of the conversations we had - and this too has been a change, we have been spending more time talking and pulling a part what we are looking at to create deep and meaningful connections.  We had just looked at the Koroneihana the week before the tangihanga of the Kīngi, this provided us with another aspect to take a deep dive into. 

RPI 5: Agenda - Planning a Reading Programme (Cohort 4, 2024)

What a day! Really excited to be a part of the RPI this week as I have missed the last few due to family commitments. Always gaining new insights and perspectives when we meet today was no different! I really enjoyed our discussion about timetabling to empower learners, particularly about creating assessment capable learners as they understand processes and the different components. I liked hearing about meeting halfway between teacher responsibility and learner responsibility and having adaptable timetables, where, when and what - making sure we are covering all aspects of our timetable. Getting a glimpse of different mahi trackers, where akonga check off their tasks gives me confidence I would actually know explicitly what they have done. 

As I was listening to the recap by Aimee, I realized how much content we went over today and everything has a place within the pillars of reading. 

RPI: 3 Text Selection

Today’s class focussed on selecting texts for learners. When asked - Do we know where our learners are achieving in reading and what their next steps are? I felt like I dont know where to go now or what their next steps are so this has prompted me to take a deep dive into what this can look like. Today we had a conversation about grouping tamariki, and how this can impact their learning. It was interesting to have vulnerable conversations about the challenges we face with grouping students. I know it's not easy to decide how to. Windows, mirrors and sliding doors as an analogy to discuss the importance of diversity in books, so children can see reflections of themselves - but windows to look through and see other worlds. I love the fact that I am coming to RPI and learning about how I can offer more rich reading experiences for tamariki in my classroom. The picture below shows some considerations to grouping.

RPI 2. Agenda - Know your Learners as Readers

What a day of learning today! I was overwhelmed and felt a bit lost with what we did but I am trusting the process and know it will all come together. This morning, Dorothy stopped by to give us some insights into literacy cycles, but what really stood out for me was her talk about podcasts. What an amazing way to engage tamariki in reading and the many learning outcomes that followed. 

We were given our teacher workbook, used to track all of our learning and work. This sheet is huge but I am looking forward to using it and keeping track of what’s happening. I was interested and amazed at the task boards concept and how they are used. I think they are a great tool to use for learning. I am excited to create and use these with tamariki. The table below has me thinking about my teaching, and how I am making assessment capable learners.

Reader Profile Data - RPI

Upon completion of our first Reading Programme Intensive (RPI) we had the task of implementing the key practices. These where completing the reading survey, and introducing "ground rules for talk" with one of our reading groups. 

Whaea Lynda, my RPI mentor was present when I introduced the ground rules to the group. She made an observation document for me which I can now go back and assess the areas I need to improve on, and of course, areas in which I have strengths. I feel the lesson was successful, the tamariki understood the ground rules and applied them well. We have very similar, if not the same rules for talk in our classroom. I've linked the lesson I went through with them here. Below, are my results and analysis of my class survey. 

Akomanga Māhaki took part in the survey using their chromebooks, 14 students took part. When we came together to discuss the results - we needed to make sure we all understood what was being asked. This is something I could have done before when I gave out the survey, made sure tamariki understood what each kupu means, especially in the question about the genre of books. 

When myself and the reading group where going through the responses, many of them stood out to us and created topics for discussion. The results showed that the majority of them liked to read at kura and the same amount liked to read at home for leisure. Only a small amount of tamariki chose option one for both questions. But, from the results tamariki where concerned about who didn't enjoy reading. Out of the 14 tamariki, 8 tamariki liked to read to learn and in their own time; 7 tamariki liked getting books as presents. We needed to go back to the ground rules a few times as a few needed reminding. 

Some possible things to ponder - some of the tamariki where really good at reading the graph about favourite texts types where others found it difficult and or answered the question for themselves instead of looking at the data. The question I put to them too was, me pēhea te whakapakari i ngā mahi pānui o Māhaki? He aha te mahi a te kaipānui pai? and then - what do you do before you read a book? A few of the questions could have also been constructed better. 

Overall, it was a difficult concept for them to talk about. It seemed that most found it hard to understand that they where meant to talk and discuss the results, not their own answers or feelings about each question asked. It was interesting and I'm looking forward to continuing on with this reading group.  

1. RPI - Reading is Core to Learning

 

Today marks our first RPI class, and what a day it was! 

Being considered by our kura to take part in RPI this year really excited me, as I will be able to learn more and work together with other kaiako throughout Aotearoa. I enjoyed learning about how reading is core to learning and what this actually means, that learning to read and reading to learn go hand in hand. I have been thinking about what kind of reader am I too. This programme would improve my confidence in teaching reading because I do love to read - I grew up always seeing my mum read and we had an extensive library of books. I really enjoyed looking at examples of multi moodles - I have used them in the past for other subjects but had not considered reading! Lastly, I would like to have a discussion with my colleagues around what types of texts we use in our kura and how we can incorporate more or a range in Te Reo Māori.