Cultivating the Literacy Landscape - Bridging research to practice in reading instruction and support

2023 is the first year of our Structured Literacy journey.  It comes after many, many years of not quite feeling like we had a good grasp on what quality teaching of reading really looked like. We dabbled and we played. A little bit of this with a little bit of that. The 'and + and' approach whereby we wanted to do everything. 'Let's not throw the baby away with the bath water' kinda thinking. We believed that quality reading was a whole language approach, sprinkled with a little of that ever-controversial phonics teaching. 

Today's symposium addressed why this approach is far from ideal. It was an absolutely invaluable session to attend. The day comprised of 3 wonderfully articulate wāhine who led us through some thought provoking stuff as follows. 

My takings from these wāhine...

Keynotes speaker 1 - Emily Hanford

• Sold a Story blog
• Reading is a rich man's game. How many families can afford the interventions?
• Phonics skills are a critical starting point for reading.
• Reading for meaning (and the reading cues that came with this approach) was a theory that came far before science. Old school reading strategies are from the 1960s. Scientific studies are more recent - 1990s.  Code is science based! 
• A wondering of mine - Does inability to read contribute to a lagging skill, or that a lagging skill in itself?
• Reading to children in the younger years is not enough - immersing a young child in books is not enough.
• The Ladder of Reading and Writing by Nancy Young - see below.

• The Simple View of Reading by Gough and Tunmer - see below It is the product, not the sum! Anything multiplied by 0 equals 0. So if one side is lacking, it's all wasted.

• Language comprehension can be strengthened with aural processing - reading to tamariki. vocabulary exposure around the akomanga. Lots of exposure means when they're able to decode, they'll already have some meaning behind the kupu.
• Written English is one of the trickiest reo to learn.
• Memorising words is not a good strategy - I'm cringing thinking of all the years we'd recite sight words each day!
• We need to be consciously aware of what needs to go.
• Equity education = begins with good phonics teaching, but does not end there.
•  Skilled readers do not use the cues that poor readers do! Reading recovery teachers the skills poor readers use! Skilled readers process the word faster than the picture. 
• Orthographic Mapping - Links phonemic awareness, 

• Teachers are good at employing the 'and + and' strategy. We want to do this AND that.
• Balanced literacy teaches the strategies of struggling readers. It is slow and taxing. The brain is busy guessing and therefore does not have the ability to focus on comprehension.  

Keynote speaker 2 - Pamela Snow

• Blog
• What is reading? A biological secondary skill. It does not come naturally, it needs to be taught. It draws heavily on oral language.
• To people who say children learn to read in many different ways - rubbish! There is only one form of reading, but many forms of literacy. Because of this we have created confusions - reading, writing, viewing, presenting - too much.
• Our brains are not evolved to read/write automatically - humans have only been reading/writing for 3000-5000 years. Whereas spoken language has been around for 100,000s+ years.
• English language has appropriated kupu from so many other reo.
• Pronunciation is the problem, not spelling.
• Reading =  cognitive and linguistic. Meaning = morphemes.
• Structured literacy is a complete 180 from Balanced Literacy. BL = eclecticism. SL = systematic approaches. 
• Instruction needs to be informed by neuroscience.
• There is no robust evidence that says BL is worthwhile.
• Teachers don't need to begin with motivating children to read. It's not our job to make kids love reading. Skills proceed enjoyment. It's our job to develop proficient readers.
• For the people who think we ONLY want phonics - phonics is necessary but not sufficient.
• Conveyor belt towards reading comprehension = word identification, word meaning, sentence level, text level, background knowledge. 
• Teachers need to be help to a very high level of accountability - pilot analogy - imagine if the pilot on your flight said, "I'm just going to try out something new here..." They don't get to try new things.

• Teacher autonomy is a crock of s#@t!
• Teaching reading is a public health imperative.
• Pseudoscience/fads/fashions tend to get the red carpet in education
• Reading needs to be taught, not caught.
• Reading is like launching a rocket, if you're a few mm out at take off, you'll be miles off out there in space.
• It's time to respectfully bury Balanced Literacy.
• Knowledge is like velcro, it sticks to other knowledge.            

Keynote speaker 3 - Dr Lorraine Hammond 

• Twitter Handle
  
• Kids do not learn to read in different ways, there are different methodologies. 
• Low curriculum variance - a deliberate effort by schools to create a scope and sequence (a highly detailed plan of what will be taught and when) for the subject areas and to work extremely hard to ensure that kids are being taught the same content, to the same expected standards at the same year level.
• Teach simultaneously not sequentially.
• Examples of teaching in the Kimberly - 20minute session, must be done at pace! Don't allow a void to exist. Lots of physical movement, eg, clapping phonemes, standing up to do so. That becomes the break.
• Teach more in less time with a sense of urgency. Rapid fire. Short and sharp.
• Set the norms.
• High fidelity = high quality.
• Kids need to be busy, they need to respond a lot.
• Explicit Direct Instruction - need more information on this!
• Spelling mastery - the goal is to break down any word (possible) into phonemes.
• See slides shared for notes to explain following - Kids repeat back in full sentences, "malevolent means ..."  "Track with me, read with me." Little writing often, long writing seldom. Revisit key vocab at the end of the session/day - we could do this with DMIC vocab. 
• The Valley of Despair - things will go down before they go up!

• Learning is not a spectator sport.

Key points from the Panel of Speakers towards the end of the day

•  Ask the nay-sayers "How open would you be..." "Are you happy with our/your data?"
• Some of the panel discussed only focusing on Structured Literacy pld for a number of years - no other pld was put on the table. A sustained approach. The principal was there every step of the way.
• Use the same language across the school.
• If in doubt, come back to the 'why?' The research! The science!
• We need a scripted approach for staff. Like Heggerty!
• Consistent practice is key. We need literacy coaches - a small team to drive us forward.
• You shouldn't be focusing on vocab if a child can't decode.
• Structured Literacy is a pedagogy - it's the how and what.
• Tier 1 kids - the normal teaching range. Tier 2 kids - need the normal range plus 1-2 more teaching exposures. Tier 3 kids - need tier 1 and 2, plus 3+ more exposures. 
• Don't get too comfortable! 

The Incredible Years - Session 1 - Building Postive Relationships & Proactive Teaching

 I have been wanting to do this course for a number of years but the opportunity never really presented itself until this year. After teaching for 20 years some people were curious as to why I wanted to participate at this stage of my career.

My reasons - Why not!? I've heard great things about it for over 15 years. My brain can take a punitive stance at times and this is something I've worked hard to change. Being the parent of an almost 7 year old has also given me much to reflect on when it comes to managing a child's behaviour.  I'm doing the course alongside a beginning teacher I am currently mentoring - I thought this was a great opportunity to work more closely with him and other professionals at different stages in their careers, and share our thoughts on effective classroom practice.  We also have some challenging behaviours in our kura at the moment so I was keen to take on anything that might challenge my own beliefs about behaviour management help me to better support my team. With our change in tumuaki, we have recently introduced restorative practice - this seems to align nicely with what I knew about IYT.

Our first session covered Building Positive Relationships and Proactive Teaching - the bottom 2 tiers of the pyramid below. There were definitely some great reminders for myself here.

Some key takings from these 2 tiers -

• Relationships are key! With the tamaiti, and the whānau. 
• Position yourself at the level of the learner.
• Hold space.
• Be available and present - little things like eye contact when taking the roll, smiling, acknowledging, making connections, asking questions that show you know them or have remembered something they've shared.
• Make the day predictable and explicit - kids love routine! 

During the Proactive Teaching portion of the day we looked at Behaviour Management plans. These covered what we know about the learner, how they might see themselves, their whānau support, their current needs, extra support they might need and steps/strategies that we know can help calm and de-escalate.  They are for tamariki who are not in the top tier by any means, but who fall slightly below - they still need lots of support but don't attract funding/ta support. I thought these would be a great support system to implement for our tier 2 kids. How helpful would this be for a reliever to pick up, someone like myself or SENCO to be able to read to make ourselves familiar with these cherubs. I am keen to sit down with my team and look at creating these for tamariki who need in school support. I think sitting down and completing them as team brings another layer of support and understanding - everyone can be onboard in supporting the child. Watch this space.   

I must point out my disappointment with the extremely dated vignettes that are still used in IYT. Each one comes from the 80s and is so very outdated. After viewing each one we were asked to discuss the positive interactions we noted - I found it really hard to do so due to negative interactions I saw - Standing over kids, leaning over them from above, touching... so awful! I can not understand why these have not been updated!! As pointed out this is an American company.  So far this is the only serious flaw I have noted - but it has definitely reduced my excitement about taking part. 

 

All in all, a full on day. Lots of reminders and refreshers about good practise strategies that can sometimes be forgotten/put aside in a teachers already overloaded brain! Looking forward to session 2 with a little less enthusiasm than before, but nonetheless keen to see what's on offer. 

Clifton Strengths Coaching

Being new to leadership, I felt this was a really fantastic opportunity for me to be apart of. It is administered by Clifton Strengths Coaching and I would recommend it for people looking to investigate not only their style of leadership, but also anyone wanting to delve into their own personality traits, how they can be harnessed, and work successfully alongside the strengths of colleagues in their workplace.

The process was made up of 3 parts - an online assessment, individual coaching, and finally team coaching. 

Online assessment - This was a series of questions that seeks to find 5 of your most dominant themes (there are 34 in total). The assessment took about 30 minutes. By the time I got to the end I was sure I had made a complete mess of it. I felt like I had over thought, under thought, guessed, lied... but upon consideration (and acceptance) many days later, I do believe they my results are spot on.

My top 5 strengths are... 

Restorative You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution. You may prefer practical problems or conceptual ones or personal ones. You may seek out specific kinds of problems that you have met many times before and that you are confident you can fix. Or you may feel the greatest push when faced with complex and unfamiliar problems. Your exact preferences are determined by your other themes and experiences. But what is certain is that you enjoy bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory. Intuitively, you know that without your intervention, this thing—this machine, this technique, this person, this company—might have ceased to function. You fixed it, resuscitated it, rekindled its vitality. Phrasing it the way you might, you saved it.  Discipline Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long-term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines, and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions.  Harmony You look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can’t quite believe how much time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn’t we all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you will willingly, in the service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just to show that you can.  Consistency Balance is important to you. You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life, so you do not want to see the scales tipped too far in any one person’s favor. In your view this leads to selfishness and individualism. It leads to a world where some people gain an unfair advantage because of their connections or their background or their greasing of the wheels. This is truly offensive to you. You see yourself as a guardian against it. In direct contrast to this world of special favors, you believe that people function best in a consistent environment where the rules are clear and are applied to everyone equally. This is an environment where people know what is expected. It is predictable and evenhanded. It is fair. Here each person has an even chance to show his or her worth. Empathy You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.

Individual Coaching - This was a 90 minute session with a brilliant coach, Emma. It took me a few days to stew on my results and hearing an expert put them all in perspective was really helpful. My gut response when I saw my top 5 was - they're not leadership skills, you fraud! Emma was able to challenge these silly thoughts and blow them away. We talked about how they all fit together, how sometimes we need to turn them outwards not inwards, and how they can balance each other. I really wish I had recorded this session. 

Team Coaching -  The final part was a 3 hour team session with Emma where we sat down together, shared and compared our strengths, and how they guide our actions and decisions... we laid our souls bare so to speak. This was a great opportunity to see ourselves and the rest of the SLT through a slightly different lens. I was able to think, ok that's what drives that person, that's how a particular strength is playing out when they do that. They're not just being a ... (insert inferential judgement here).

My thoughts going forward

• Embrace these strengths. They are mine and I'm happy with them. They make me who I am. 
• It takes all sorts to be a leader! 
• I want to be more thoughtful about my top 5 strength, and times in my life they come into play.
• It's interesting to look at other colleagues and surmise what some of their top 5 might be. 

ULearn 2022

~ Equity guides the waka of education ~ 

Supporting themes...

Manaakitanga | Care
Mana hapori | Community
Mahi ngātahi | Collective responsibility
Māia | Courage

Sessions I tapped in to...

1. Addressing The Taniwha in the Room 
Kaihoutū - Mariam Arif (Ethnic Liaison Officer New Zealand Police)

This kōrero was confronting to say the least. It's also something I am very interest in hearing people discuss. 

Mariam explained the partnership that existed between herself and us, the viewer. The viewer was there to get information and she was there to make that information accessible. 

She then began with a mihi in Māori, with translations on the screen. After a few slides, she explained that onscreen translations would stop from that point however she would keep speaking in Māori. 

I could immediately see the controversial point she was making. By not translating, we lost meaning. By losing meaning, we lose interest and patience. Disengagement. Disrespect of exclusion. Feelings of superiority come to those still understand - those who are in the know. Feelings of superiority create feelings of supremacy. 

I leave this here as my jumbled explanation will lack the eloquence of Mariam's kōrero. 

2. Mindfulness - Tools For Kaiako Wellbeing

Kaihoutū - Dayna Taramai (Lead Facilitator M3 Mindfulness M3 Mindfulness)

I had chosen this breakout session as work fatigue/burn out is a real thing among teachers. I'm aware how thin we spread ourselves. Not only at work, but at home, raising tamariki, taking that all important time for ourselves, etc etc... I got lots of little snippets from this session.

If you can name it, you can contain it. If we can name our feelings, we can contain and manage them.

Mindfulness allows us to be fully present.

We have 60000 thoughts a day running through our head! 

Half in the past, which can lead to depression! Half in the future, which can lead to anxiety! 

Mindfulness is not calming down - interesting. It's not about 'feeling better'. It's about acknowledging the feelings we are having and allowing things to just be. We are human beings, not human doings! 

Mindfulness  deceases activation. Mindfulness slows stress responders. Mindfulness cultivates self awareness.

Tahi ~ rua ~ toru ~ hā (breathe out on the 'hā')

hā - breathe

3. Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Paewhiri

Rosalie Reiri - Kaiwhakahihiko | Activators (facilitator)

Dr Nēpia Mahuika - Kaiwhakahihiko | Activators (Te whare Wānagna o Waikato | The University of Waikato)
Dr Arini Loader - Kaiwhakahihiko | Activators (Senior Lecturer in Māori History Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington)

I was interested in the thoughts of these kaikōrero leading up to the introduction of the new Aotearoa histories curriculum. Dr Nēpia Mahuika was a particularly strong speaker in this 

Key takeaways...

If we don't have a past, we don't exist.  

History both sustains are destroys our identity. 

For a long time Māori history was not given the recognition it deserved. It's legitimacy was tainted. It was myth, just stories, pre-history (not even counted as 'worthwhile' history). 

He pātai ~ Is this new curriculum Transformational ~ Decolonial ~ Māori?

Are we just singing the same old song without even realising? 

Wero for kaiako and tamariki - be critical!

We have to start somewhere... so where do we start? 

Different iwi have different starting points. But it's all to do with story telling.

History in a linear time is a Western concept. Indigenous communities talk about circular time.  

Big Idea 1 - New Zealand history is NZ history is a continuous ongoing story.  

Which is the best way to begin? Thematic approach? Chronological approach? 

'Know' section - local contexts. Stories within stories. 

Deliberate decisions need to be made. 

Patricia Grace begins her stories in the centre and then writes her way out. 

Western history is embedded in empirical and reliable research. We can not judge the evidence of the new curriculum by Western standards. If we do, we are missing the point! 

Māori story telling is a beautiful thing - totally agree with this statement Nēpia made! Perfect poetic licence and metaphor that invokes meaning for people..

This new curriculum is moving from a settler narrative.

While we want to provide space for everyone's stories, not all stories are equal. 

Māori have the biggest narrative in this country. It's hundreds of years older than everyone else's. 

Every other narrative is stitched in to the tapestry of the narrative that has been created. 

Begin with the Māori stories. Then, when you weave in the other stories, they're not being weaved into the nation state narratives, it's being weaved into what actually happened to native people.

You can't decolonise by looking for balance in an already unbalanced history world. You need more Māori content, because there is already so much non-Māori content.

 

4. Ending Streaming In Aotearoa
Kaya Renata-Staples (Tokona Te Raki Kairangahau)

Piripi Prendergast (Project Manager, Tokona Te Raki)

  

This session appealed to me because I am on the fence when it comes to streaming our tamariki.  Our involvement in DMIC has created a shift away from streaming, a shft I was not comfortable with when we first began - but now I see some great benefits. But when it comes to skills based teaching, covering those foundational skills ....I'm still 

Some research to check out that comes to the conclusion that streaming does not work- 

He Whakaaro ~ Does streaming work?

An interesting statement made - Streaming is racist.

Around the age of 6 - kids know where they are and that that is where they will stay for the rest of their education, primary school, secondary and so on. Therefore they are excluded from a large part of the workforce as they don't have the skills needed.  This is more prevalent with our Māori and Pasifika tamariki.

Aotearoa has the second highest rate of streaming in the OECD, second to Ireland. This has created huge disparities and inequities in our education system.

It's not the silver bullet, but ending streaming is one of the steps we can take.    

Research dated back from the 50s suggested streaming was damaging.

Why did we do it any way? Tomorrows Schools - wanted schools to reach out to their community, gave schools so much autonomy and made schools little islands in themselves.

Tokona Te Raki is currently building an awareness campaign and an online resource supporting teaches and schools who want to put an end to streaming.  

Piripi addressed the patai - What about the top kids? Research shows over 2-3 years, there is an initial lift for some but then it peters out. Teacher voice  - noticing those more able kids are being challenged and realising the other skills that are necessary to work through problems. 

Alternatives to streaming 

- Group work. Each child has a roll.

- DMIC - already on that train

- High Expectation Teachers. Three things HET'S do - wipe out streaming, big emphasis on relationships, and goal setting. For every one year of learning, a child with a HET should make 2 years of progress, according to Piripi.

5. Decision Making In Response To Valid Information - Wānanga
Amy Chakif (Evaluation Associates)

I selected this session being a new member to the leadership team in 2022. Definitely got to take away some good information here.

Bypass or Engage leadership approach?

Bypass

Weak critique - do we end up with the best plan?

Compliance rather that commitment

Lip service and everyone gets on with their own thing. 

The meeting in the carpark after the meeting!

This approach can feel efficient but not in the long run.

Problems with teaching and learning persist. Lack of traction.

Engage in critical analysis!

You will feel that moment of being exposed, a ping of discomfort. Allow yourself to have that moment then move on! 

Clarity of purpose

Be really clear with staff when inviting views. Is their feedback really going to be used, or is a particular decision going to made regardless?

Clarity of learning, clarity about the goal you are trying to achieve, or the direction you want to go in.

You don't need whole-hearted agreement around a task, you need sufficient agreement to progress

The difference between 'Why did you do that?' and 'Why did you do that. you idiot?!' 

Curious, not furious!

 

The Ladder of Inference  ~ Vivienne Robinson

We are good at jumping to conclusions - heading right to the top of the ladder.

Not truths, but interpretations

Different experiences with lead to different conclusions.

Be humble.

Avoid claims like, "In reality..."  

Erroneous conclusions about other peoples, situations, and what to do

Practice climbing down the ladder.

Things become more abstract as we climb up the ladder

Seek valid information before running away with unchecked bias! 

Amy runs a Leading by Learning workshop. 

There are a couple more sessions to come that I didn't get a chance to watch...

Using Pūrakau hei ako Reo Māori nā Beth Dixon

Te Reo o Pūrakau

Āheinga reo - language function - te take mō te kōrero
Puna reo - wete reo, kīwaha, whakatauki, waiata - a spring

Rautaki - language strategies

Momo o ngā Āheinga reo...

- Ngā Patai me ngā whakautu

- Tūhonohono - conjunctions - "Ahakoa...", "kātahi ka..."

- Whakaahua - describe

- Whakamārama - explain

- Te tohu o te rā - sign of the times (time sequence words)  - "I ngā wā o mua..." 

- Take me te Pānga - the purpose and the function/the reason - "Nā te ... i ..."

He aha te Pūrakau?

- He kōrero tuku iho

- He kura huna (hidden message)

- He nuku reo (language device) 

- He mea whakaahua

- He hokinga mahara (remembering from back in the day) 

- He take (reasons)

Ngohe Pai ~ Cool Activities to try!

Kimihia tō Hoa 

Kurangaituku - Hatupatu

Wahine - Tane

Porowhita - Tapawhā

Patai pāngarau (3 + 2) =  (5) 

Oma ki te Tiki Kōrero

Kōrero, whakarongo, pānui....

Dictation ngohe

Use with whakataukī, kīwaha te mea, te mea

Use clothing and colours - eg kaioma looks at what the person in the pikitia is wearing/what colour is their tshirt? Back to kaitā pikitia - they colour it in.

Kupu Whatungarongo - Vanishing Cloze

Tuhia he rerenga ki runga i te papa "Nā tērā i puta mai ia"

Mukua ētahi kupu, ētahi kupu...

"Nā ..... i puta mai ia"

"Nā ... i .... mai ia"

"Nā ... i .... mai ..."

Ko Wai ka Toa! - Who is Better!

Whakatairite - to compare

Arguments

Nā te mea.../I te mea.....

Waihangahia he Pūrakau

Create a new ending for a pūrakau. Eg. Maui me Tamanui te Rā. Whaka

Kupu hou 

poherā - mythical

whakangahau - to entertain

ngohe - activity

muru - repossession

kiripuaki - character  

E rite ana te ira - same gender

Reo tūhonohono - conjunctions

piko - comma

parahau - to defend, justify

ororite - rhyming couplets 

whakatangata - make it a pronoun

Nō mai rā anō - from back in the day 

whakarata - to soothe

Te kaha ake - the strongest

I wehea rāua e Tane Mahuta - passives - They were separated by Tane Mahuta

Kupu/rerenga tūhonohono

Mea rawa ake - next minute

Heoi anō - however

Ahakoa - Even though

End of session reflections

E toru ngā mea hou ~ 3 new things

He maha ngā mea hou! Engari, Momo o ngā Āheinga reo - I can be explicit about teaching these and drawing attention to them. Grouping them and making connections with the tamariki. 

E rua ngā ngohe kia mahia ~ 2 new things to try

1. Kupu Whatungarongo - Vanishing Cloze

2.Kimihia tō Hoa 

Kōtahi pātai ~ 1 question

How on earth will I remember to use this in my akomanga!?

Kia wana te ako ~ Ako Panuku PLD

Ko Beth Dixon te kaiako mō te mahi i te rā nei. He wahine matatau i te reo Māori. I really enjoy listening to this wāhine. It's not often I get the chance to listen to someone else kōrero Māori and it's an extra bonus when I can access that person's level of reo. She manages to keep it light but cram it full of the business at the same time. It was also a real pleasure to come together with Te Puna o te Reo - my colleagues Christine and Heather. We work together each day, however it can be difficult to touch base in our own akomanga. Today we got to sit together and kōrerorero, whakarongo, whakawhiti whakaaro, and extend that whanaungatanga further afield.

Kuapapa mō te rā nei - Reo-ā-waha i ngā wā katoa! Ko tērā te mātāmua o te whānau reo. Ko te pānui me te tuhituhi te pōtiki. Teachers can be so quick to shift to a pānui or tuhituhi focus. He aha ai? Oral language should be at the forefront of mahi ako i te reo Māori.

My takings from the day...

A goal for me to to be more explicit about what we are doing and the take (reason) for it. Āta whakaakona māriretia - explicitly learn!

Reference made to Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey - 2016

“Traits of effective teachers of oral language”

Kupu hou

Pōhēhē - to misunderstand

Āhei - be allowed

Tīpako - to pick out

Ngako - the gist

Ngohe - activity 

Hōtake - programme

Mau taringa - head phones

Whai wāhi - find time

Kūwhewhewhewhe - wrinkles on the skin

Pātata - close Kei te pātata au ki a …

Hiriwa - silver

Mātotoru - thick

Tāroaroa - tall (person)

Tīwekaweka - messy

Anuhea - ugly

Whakaarihia - acting something out.

“Ko te ngohe ināianei…”

The activity now is…

Maumahara ā rongo ~ Auditory Memory

5 steps…

Whakarongo

Pupuri - retain

Āta Whakaaro - Process

Maumahara 

Whakaputa - produce

He kemu - He rite/re

A good follow on from our huri haere kemu - tuku mai he kupu Māori 

Rule! - Rite ki/rereke i

1 - “He rite te …. ki te….”

2 - “He rereke te … i te…”

3 - He rite te … ki te …”

Haere tonu…

Tangohia te kupu ‘rereke’

Whakarongo tīpako- Active listening 

Whakarongo Ngū - Passive listening

“Kei roto i te moana a Tangaroa…. he…”

“Kei roto i te kāputa o Kuia… he…”

A good site to checkout -

https://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOL-Online/Planning-for-my-students-needs/Resources-for-planning/ESOL-teaching-strategies

Pao, pao - He kemu

Take a short waiata. Tamariki say one word. in a circle, each child in turn says the next word. Kaua e waiata! Eg Tūtira mai ngā iwi. Tutira - mai- ngā -iwi....

Things I’ll take away

Mea hou ki ahau… New things I have learned today

• rite/ki, rereke/i

• Maumahara ā rongo - auditory memory - examples - kemu

• Momo whakarongo - types of listening x 4 (I'll have to come back to this)

Ngohe ka mahia ahau…Activities I'll use asap

• He rite te …. I te …

• Kimihia hoa - using pikitia

DMIC with Massey University

We covered a few basics today. This was a great session - perfect timing for my intro back into teacher maths after a year off on maternity leave. 

Groupings

A few good reminders here... when we group children by ability they often raise (or lower) themselves to those predetermined levels. For example, the 'lower' ability children stop trying so much - "Why should I? I'll most likely be wrong anyway, and my peers and my kaiako probably expect that of me too." The more able tamariki puff their chests out and compete to see who can finish first - often quite loudly. This is an exaggeration, but you'll understand what I mean.

Grouping children completely randomly is a new concept to me. We discussed how random grouping can eliminate social barriers, decrease reliance on the kaiako and increase reliance on co-constructed answers, and increase enthusiasm.

A suggestion was to try a computer generated randomiser. You could also use cards, sticks with names or numbers, shuffled photos. So many options! I'm looking forward to giving this a go.

This quote from the presentation really struck a chord with me, and is something I've spent years trying to address -  In order for group work to be effective and meaningful the teacher needs to stop asking questions and students need to stop asking the teacher questions. 

Assessment tasks

There has been a massive misconception with these! We’ve been doing it incorrectly the whole time! 

Launch the task as you usually would.

Read, discuss, use talk moves, “what do we have to do here?”

Children work on the tasks individually but can share their ideas.

It is not a test! Repeat, IT IS NOT A TEST!

No time limit - IT can be worked on over a number of days.

I am be looking forward to getting our latest assessment back and having another go under these more favourable conditions. I think the tamariki will really thrive from being able to bounce ideas off each other.

Knowledge/Hotspot/Warm-up ~ Number Strings 

Some great ideas here that i look forward to trying with my tamariki during our warmup.

I know some of my tamariki would love looking at problems like these.

Really interesting that Number Strings don't need to use numbers. Why had I never thought of that? 

I believe this was our last lot of Professional Development with Kelly and the team. Though there are still aspects of DMIC I'm on the fence about, I see a lot of benefits and am keen to renew and strengthen my maths programme. 

Seesaw Ambassador Mandatory Refresh 2021

Fab timing; this is just what I felt like doing at almost 39 weeks pregnant! 😂 But I know how valuable this information is and I'm very much Team Seesaw when it comes to ease of use and wonderful learning opportunities in the classroom with tamariki teina. So, I know it's going to be important.

But, because I also know my baby-brain will be mush for at least another year, I have decided the best way to ensure I don't forget everything is to make a list of all the important things I'll need to remember when I'm back in the classroom. 

1.  Seesaw Messages - You can now message groups (whānau and tamariki) rather than the whole class. You can also message all your classes at once. Not helpful for me, but perhaps someone like Christine.   
2. Voice buttons - Audio recordings can be attached to shapes, pictures etc... 
3. Lock function - You can lock size and/or location of items
4. Ambassador Benefits - used to be the same as Seesaw Plus. NOT FROM AUGUST 2022!!  They want our money now... so you'll only be able to access multipage posts, create 500 activities, and contribute to the Library. You'll no longer be able to add 5 kaiako to your page,  or have 25 active classrooms (not really relevant anyway). Not being able to add kaiako will be a pain; you'll only be allowed two. if we wanted to upgrade to Seesaw for Schools, we will receive 20% discount if we sign up before September 2021. Hornby only needs Seesaw plus @ $120 per year. 
5. THIS link is really helpful for teachers starting out with the free version of Seesaw. It also includes steps to get whānau onboard.
   
6. Anything else I might need will be HERE. Including training, trouble-shooting, updates etc...
7. Extra courses available from July 26th - Aug 13th if you want to brush up on activities and curriculum areas. Check out web.
8. If you change schools - make sure you change the school you're connected to at the bottom of your dashboard. If you don't you'll loose Ambassador status!

Done!

More Digital Fluency gold with Emma Planika

Todays session offered a brief refresh on the changes to the Technology curriculum, along with some fresh ideas for the classroom.

Computational Thinking

We started off with a focus on unplugged learning and how that could look in the classroom.

1. Select a number of blocks/lego/shapes...
2. Create something! 
3. Partner up with someone. Shield your creation. Give verbal instructions for you buddy to re-create what you made. This is a great opportunity to explore vocabulary and develop oral language. 
4. Digital aspect - Use Book Creator to show steps. 

Input vs Output - The input might be something simple like taking a picture. The output could be making it talk in Chatterpix, or posting it to Seesaw. This is making links, and using the language. So important! 

Debug - Ok, so you made an incorrect step somewhere, lets go back and 'debug' - fix it! Use the language.

Algorithm - a set of instructions that need to be followed in order to reach a specific outcome.

Another activity

1. Use shapes with body movements to show each shape. Eg. a tapatoru could be a dab, a porowhita could be a full body turn.
2. Now tamariki put together their algorithm for friends to follow! Note: make sure algorithms are linear (easy to follow, left to right, like the writing process). 

Developing Digital Outcomes

Progress Outcome 1 spans 3 Levels of the NZ Curriculum. 

Cool ideas

Visual digital kete on the wall - have a selection of digital apps so that tamariki can discuss (with visuals in mind) which app will best suit their task. Less is better! Add apps as the year progresses.

We played around with a short poem, used Draw and Tell to illustrate, then Clips to bring it together as a movie. Next steps would be to add audio, but I ran out of time. So easy, with opportunities for app smashing. When using Draw and Tell - once you've finished your pictures, you can drag them together so they automatically save in order as a video - Great idea if you're using Clips. However, if you want to use something like Chatterpix, they need to be saved as individual pictures.  This would be great to use in pānui, or toi kupu. 

Another great session with Emma, very useful! I look forward to implementing this once I'm back in the game. 

 

DMIC Math PD with Jon and Monique

Our session began with a 30 minute run down on developing knowledge skills. Even though we are moving away from the rigid nature of the Numeracy Project, Monique stated that knowledge still needs to be taught. We know these foundation skills pave the way for strategy thinking. I think a number of staff were relieved to hear this as we had been under the impression that learning basic facts was no longer en-vogue. 

Here's an example of what this could look like in your daily math session (Thankyou Abby Frost for creating and sharing this mahi with us) - 

1. Choral counting using a hundreds board.
2. Choral counting in 2's, 5's, 10, odd numbers, etc...
3. Number of the Day - before and after, how to represent with materials (tens frames, tally charts, find it on a hundreds board...)

Then, choose something...

1. Subitizing dots (ability to instantly recognise how many). Dice, Numicon shapes, arrays...Youtube has lots of videos! 
2. Odd one out. 2 X 2 grid with random numbers. Tamariki has to turn and talk then justify which one os the odd one out.  Can use shapes too (eg. misconceptions of triangles).
3. Number strings. If 3 + 2 = 5, then 13 + 2 = ? 23 + 2 = ? 73 + 2 = ? Why? Use ratio tables, look for relationships. Look at what we know to find out what we don't know. 
4. I have ...., what do you need? I have 10. You have 2, what do you need?
5. True/False questions. Placement of the = sign. Eg 10 = 7 + 3, rather than 7 + 3 = 10. Misconceptions of = sign.
6. Decide, decode, defend - see picture below. This activity looked fabulous for older tamariki.

Key ideas we revisited today -

• Low floor/high ceiling = everyone can get started and everyone can get stuck! 
• Look for ways to raise the status of all students! Eg, look for opportunities/interests/anecdotes from children who might not always have a voice in maths.
• Students should not be grappling with both the difficult numbers and unfamiliar contexts
• Anticipating possible solution strategies is so important.
• Groupings/pairs - strategically engineer who will be with who. Quick responders can be paired together to see how many ways they can answer specific questions. Change pairs frequently.

Today was a more valuable DMIC session and I feel a renewed energy towards beginning a fresh math programme with my cherubs this term.

  

Numicon with Margi Leech

Today we sat down with Margi Leech from EduShop to find out more about Numicon.

Where did it come from?

Maria Monstessori - A constructivist or "discovery" model, in which students learn concepts from working with materials rather than by direct instruction. Looking at patterns and relationships. 

Catherine Stern - a German psychologist and educator. Developed mathematical manipulatives similar to cuisenaire rods.

Maths is a multi-sensory approach!

Maths can become too abstract too quickly for tamariki. They might give up trying to understand the  concepts, and rely on trying to learn rules instead.

Important People/Sites

John Hattie - Visible Journey in Maths. Seeing learning through the eyes of the learner. Check him out!

Oxford Owl for planning sequences

Numicon Site

Addition and Subtraction & Number Knowledge

Even and odd numbers ~ Skip counting ~ add/sub (placing shapes on top of each other).

Multiplication & Division

Fractions/Percentages/Percentages

Mahi-ā-ringa for the classroom

Addition - arms crossed to make a 'plus' Tapiri - add together

Subtraction - arms out wide in a line. Don't use 'minus'. Tangohia - take away

Multiplication - arms to make an 'x'

Division - 2 fists on top of one another.

Good ideas

• Display photos showing definitions of words and tamariki 'doing' the word.
• Use for basic facts questions when tamariki are working on their own. Some could use independently, some could work with teacher.
• Use whole class - Teacher Resource Book - Pattern and Algebra - introducing the = symbol. Balancing. 
• Numicon shapes are wonderful. A huge range of free resources are available on the Numicon site.

Questions I am left with

• Spiral approach - revisiting strands more frequently. A fabulous idea but how would this look in school wide planning?
• How could this look in conjunction with DMIC?
• How is it so different from Numeracy? (both follow concrete to abstract approach)
• Is this just a giant sales pitch? 
• Why is this not Ministry funded if it's so amazing?