Accelerated learning in Literacy (Writing)

Over the last three weeks, I have been working with a small group of writers. These writers have identified themselves as struggling to generate ideas, add elaboration and choosing quality vocab to improve their writing.

The students were given this picture and had to label it using descriptive language.

From their labelled picture, there were able to write a short descriptive.  Here are their descriptions.

Wet slippery wood hits my feet as I step foot onto the bridge. Underneath the yuck mossy bridge, there is a crystal clear, calm river. The thick hard rope bounces as I jump. The beefy hard rope is so hard to get my hand around. The glossy wet metal shows the reflection of the sun.
Student 1

On the bashing bridge, the salty smell shattered boulders, making a bashing song. The old river is as clear as a diamond. The swaying trees that make the fresh air are whistling up the side of the mountain.
Student 2

The sound of the raging river smashing against the firm rocks. The bridge was made out of solid metal, strong wood and firm ropes. Behind it, the mountain as tall as a skyscraper. Swaying trees smashing against the rocks.
Student 3

At the strong bridge, there is a lot of huge trees and humongous rocks, that if you fall you can die. On the humongous rocks, there are lots of huge trees to climb up. If you jump off the sturdy bridge, you will get hurt because the river is shallow.
Student 4

There is a creaky bridge handing above the deadly hardcore rocks. The water is smashing up against them which is allowing an avalanche to explode causing the bridge the break in half.
Student 5

Reflection

The students have enjoyed writing lists to plan for writing. They have shown an increased motivation to participate in our group sessions, and two of the six students have shown increased confidence to participate and take risks with their learning.

My next step is to find out how I can extend their planning from creating lists to adding details to their plan.

Term 3 Professional Inquiry

What are the priorities for my target learners? How are they going in relation to these priorities?

Scanning:  Target students are not able to identify what they need to be able to improve their learning. 

Focusing: I would like my students to focus on setting goals within the writing curriculum to improve their output quality.

Inquiry Question: Will using goal setting strategies with my target writers make them able to choose sensible ‘next’ steps. How will the goal-setting look? What resources will I need to support these students to set SMART goals?

Developing a hunch:  

I will need to

• Unpack Level 3 of the New Zealand writing expectations with my students.
• Provide exemplars of what each of the expectations looks like within level 3. 
• Unpack students writing, and identify which areas they need to improve on.
• Encourage students to order their areas of improvement, starting with areas that will make the most impact on their writing.

What do I need to know/learn in order to effectively respond to these priorities?

• Expectations of Level 3 writing
• Exemplars of level 3 writing
• How to set SMART goals with students
• How to unpack the literacy progressions into kids speak with the students.

Therefore what are my development goals?

Taking action: 

• Find ‘kid-speak’ level 3 learning outcomes.
• Display their goals on pencils.
• Kid speak writing progressions from TKI 
• Find professional readings about improving writing outcomes through goal setting. 
• Setting literacy goals and recording progress

Focus for Term 3 - Accelerating Literacy Learning in Writing.

This term I have identified 6 students that need a boost with their writing development. I have never been part of the ALL programme, but with support from my colleagues, I intend to run a 5-week intensive writing programme for these 6 students.

These students have shown that they struggle to generate and develop their ideas. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be reading a variety of publications and resources to find activities, lessons and ideas I can use next term with this group. I will be sharing all the resources and ideas here and will reflect on how they were used during the term to come.

Today I came across the "success for boys" page on TKI. This was recommended to me by another colleague. The first resource that stood out for me was the story starters. These look great.  Students watch an animated short film and then have to write what they think would happen next.  This would great for students to discuss vocab, creative ideas, etc.

Another resource on the Success for Boys page was the "Game of Awesome". I have used this before in my class, but not to the extent identified on the Teacher Support Material. I like how the students are able to plan out their story using the templates provided. Once students get into this game, the next step could be to create their own cards using the templates provided. This will give the students a purpose for writing.

Term 2 Reflections

This term was a bit messy, but I had Mrs Radich and all her skills and experience to make up for it. This term I worked part-time; four Mondays this term I was at Te Hapua, Tuesdays was my day off, and Wednesdays I was with Kerry at DFI. This meant that I was really only .5 and made life a little difficult.

What worked this term?

Student Blogging

This term I developed a better system for tracking the student blog posts. I have always struggled to keep on top of who has posted and who hasn't. Using a spreadsheet with a colour code made my life so much easier, but was also great for the students to see where they were up to. This gave them some agency on what work needs to be completed, etc.

The students are also becoming more confident in terms of posting to their blog, adding labels, back-dating posts and embedding their DLO's. Term 1 I noticed that the students didn't really know how to leave quality blog comments, so we made this our focus this term for our cyber smart learning. They are not perfect, but they are certainly an improvement.

Class Site

It's really good to see the students using our class site. I have noticed a few times that students would go back to look at previous learning that could support them with what they were currently working on. There are still a few students that will ask where to find certain material, but most students are using this confidently now. The only downside is the fact that I'm part-time this term, which means that the learning they are doing with Mrs Radich isn't rewindable.

Passion Projects

This term I thought I would introduce passion projects to my students. In the past, we have always completed an inquiry together as a class, on a topic that was selected by the school. The students were so excited about their passion projects, and every day I'm in, they ask if they can work on them. A couple of students did struggle because their passions required them to complete a lot of reading, which was a challenge for them. Next time I will be sure to provide more resources for these students, simple websites that could give them the same information, but in kids speak.

Our Class Assembly

I was very pleased with how our class assembly turned out this term. The students didn't have much time to practise but made sure they went home to learn their parts. There were lots of interruptions, which meant that planned rehearsals didn't go ahead. You can read more about our class assembly on our blog.

What didn't work this term?

Reading, Writing, Maths

With me being part-time, I felt it was really hard to get any momentum with my learning groups. We would start something, but then I would be away, and then we would have to pick it up again. I think the students struggled with this also. It felt like we were stuck on the same topic for weeks. It would be nice to be back in the class 4 days a week next term.

Home Learning

This was tricky this term because I wasn't there to check on their progress every day. Most consistency next term will be great.

Class Site

Keeping my site up to date. With being out of class so much, I just haven't been able to keep this up to date. And this is sad, because the students to ask me where our new work is. I will be more determined next term to make sure this takes precedence.

My Inquiry

My inquiry this term hasn't really had much traction this term. This will be a focus next term.

Becoming Reflective

With a focus on my inquiry, I would like to start using a google form with reflective questions to use at the end of teaching sessions. This would hopefully encourage students to start thinking more critically about the learning that has taken place, or not taken place.

Here is a link to the form I would like to use. This may be refined as we go along.

Professional Inquiry Staff Meeting

Today at our staff meeting, we discussed the Kahui Ako goals and inlined them with the Manaiakalani goals, to pick a goal that would fit within our classrooms and school.

We discussed the importance of Student Agency to improve the overall outcomes of our students.

Since the students in my class struggle to identify next steps, I would like to focus on students identifying what they have done well, what they have struggled with, what they wonder about, etc. I'm hoping that this will encourage students to further develop their reflection to focus on the next steps. 

Therefore, my inquiry question is:

What tools or strategies can I use with my students to develop reflective thinking and goal setting?