My teacher Inquiry Question.

Will teaching a variety of skills and strategies in reading and writing result in learners improving in Literacy and being more confident in reading and writing?

Beginning to read and write is a challenging task for young  children. They have to learn how to understand the messages in books and write down their own messages for others to read. 

Learners need to read, respond to and think critically about fiction and non fiction texts at their appropriate level. (NZ English Curriculum)

Students should be able to engage with and enjoy language and all its variations and understand, respond to and use oral language, written and visual language effectively in a range of contexts. (NZ English Curriculum) In order to be truly literate, students need to be experienced in the three strands of language oral, written and visual. (Speaking, listening, writing, reading,  presenting and viewing. (Linking the Language Strands.  Jill Eggleton and Jo Windsor)

Inquiry Question

 Will explicitly teaching and planning for oral language approaches in reading and writing, foster student engagement, and increase shift in literacy?

Enhancing student engagement

My engagement strategy with my year 1 learners this year, has started with establishing daily routines

which are essential for success in any classroom, but especially for year 1 learners. As most of my class

started school in August last year, just before we went into a long term lockdown, they therefore needed to

re-establishroutines and procedures. The daily timetable has been shared and adhered to and this has helped learners better settle into routines.

A huge emphasis has been placed on teaching oral language. Learners are engaged in 'turn and talk' daily and this allows them to communicate and better connect with their peers. I have used the Strive for Five

approach where learners talk back and forth. Ive noticed that this strategy has enhanced active learning

as well as active listening among the learners, as they are engaged in conversation.

   Turn and Talk

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Strive for Five

DFI SESSION 8

Today spoke about computational thinking. We discussed the difference between digital fluency and digital technology.

The importance of learners being digital fluent students.

We spoke about  Empowerment for both teachers and learners. I find it important to empower learners and

some of my greatest joys comes from seeing my learners grow and develop in confidence and ability to show empathy for others. 

Exploring scratchpad

This was a fun task and I can see older learners really enjoying exploring scratch pad.

This is a sample of Scratch pad we explored how to use the different tool buttons in scratchpad.

 

DFI SESSION 7

Today we spoke about  being Cyber smart for learners. This can be linked to our PBL as learners focus on the importance of showing respect to each as well as for their devices. 

My classroom in 2020 and 2021 has a class site with Reading, Writing, Math, Inquiry and learners blog. Learners have access to weekly learning outcomes, songs and activities.

During the DFI sessions in which I have a relief teacher my learners have access to there I pads.  Learners are able to access their learning on the class site, where they can revisit the week's learning. It is also helpful for the reliever as she can easily view our topic and learning with the learning intentions.

An example of the Writing slide for 

We use the rewindable learning/ ako ano where learners can revisit learning outcomes with examples related to the outcome. This means that learners that need extra practice in a specific learning outcome have access to this on their Ipads. Each group will have access to their ako ano on their slide. The ako ano is recorded during the lesson and then uploaded for learners to access on their Ipads.

DFI SESSION 6

 Today we continued exploring  our class sites and discussing the importance of making it visible. The visual appeal is very important especially for the learner, who needs to be drawn in and motivated to explore and revisit learning. Furthermore we discussed the functionality and accessibility of our sites. We need to think about how learners are accessing the site. It should always be no more than 3 clicks to arrive at their learning. The simpler to access the information the better and easier for the learner. 

We discussed google site buttons and how to organise this. I noted and explored Pixabay which has stunning free images that can be used when designing ones site.

I find the Colourpick Eyedropper it be very cool. Once you have installed chrome extension 

then the colour will adjust colour values for text.

Google sites empower learning in our digital learning environments.

The purpose of the Learning Site is as follows.

We spoke about eliminating Spam on blogs. Never click on any suspicious links !!!

Never just delete a spam comment. First mark as spam and then delete it!

Eliminating Spam on Blogs 

All blogs in Manaiakalani schools  have the default setting that allows Anyone to comment.

Blog administrator settings include the teacher being sent an email notification when a student posts and when a comment is left on their blog.

The easiest way to quickly see what is happening on your students’ blogs is through Hapara Teacher Dashboard. A regular (ie daily) check here is necessary to identify spam early.

First thing in the morning is best practice as the spambots seem to operate on Northern Hemisphere time zones.

It is important to learn what to do and how to do it - if you get spam on one of your blogs.

We recommend you talk to your facilitator or  education programme leader if you are unsure and want help. We are available to support you and our schools.

STEPS TO ILLUMINATING SPAM:

If this is urgent and offensive, we suggest you take these steps- or ask our facilitator to do it for you:

1. Mark the offensive comment as spam BEFORE deleting it - to alert Google to investigate.  

2. Activate comment moderation on posts older than 14 days

3. Remove the Recent Comments gadget from the sidebar, reducing the potential for the spam to be seen by the child or whānau before it is stomped on.

4. Revert the post that attracted the spam to Draft, breaking the link with the spambot.  

Hapara Teacher Dashboard should be checked daily - that is why you have it!

Before school.  Spambots appear to be based in Northern Hemisphere time zones, so spam will generally arrive overnight.

I enjoyed sharing my class room site and seeing other colleagues sites too. I noted that I do need to focus on font and sizing with my slides, as this will have a greater visual appeal to the viewer.

DFI Session 5

 Today we have been  talking about visible teaching and learning. We call our kaupapa words the joists of the flooring. Learn, create, share does not work smoothly if the joists are not strong.

Today we have been speaking about making the learning visible to the learner, whanau, colleagues and the community who play an important part at your school.

As educators we are  always talking about the Who, we are referring to the learner

4 aspects of the learning journey

Planning/Process/Outcomes/Assessment

By using Google slides we make teaching visible to the learner. Hapara allows us to see what the young learners are doing and what they learning. 

With Class on air these teachers have a web cam in their classroom and there is a site and other  teachers are able to view  their teaching and learning in a range of contexts. You can see their planning and what learners are doing. This makes learning and teaching visible to other teachers.  Teachers have the option to share their enquiry journey. In doing so we join in a wider community making learning and sharing visible.

Creating my own multi modal site

I really enjoyed working with other junior teachers collaboratively and planning and creating an innovative theme which we can use with our learners. By considering a common theme between various texts. We then created our individual multi modal site. I look forward to sharing this site with my learners and having them complete the tasks in the plan. It relates to PBL and them being good friends to others.