Joy Allcock Spelling

Attending an inspiring four hour workshop from Joy has really refocused and motivated my spelling programme. Starting off with a test, our group certainly had some head scratching moments debating digraphs, blends, phonology orthography morphology, spelling rules and conventions, and this certainly catalysed focused engagement for the rest of the afternoon!

Joy stressed how important it was for us as teachers, to regularly look at our own skills in recognising how words sound and to practise digraph analysis of words as a quick excerise in team meetings.

Another aspect covered, was how children perceive words –Chinese learners who are visual and can tell if a word looks ‘right’ and Phoenician spellers who spell from sounds (e.g. The Won I'd Doe c.f. The One-Eyed Doe). It is the Phoenician learner who is of concern. Her description of these learners rang bells for me and I could now see why some of my class produced words that defied interpretation and why some children could not copy accurately.

The time was packed full of perceptive understanding of how learners learn – or don’t. I am so glad I have a record of this and may well blog all my notes –if I have time.

The first thing I have done is to conduct the Topic Assessment 1 test to ascertain groupings, strengths and weaknesses. I will administer the other tests once I isolate the ‘targets’ to further refine needs and grouping. I am interested in pseudowords aspect as it will pinpoint those students who cannot analyse sounds in words and translate them into appropriate letters and letter clusters.

I will also be using the vowel phonogram test to identify significant gaps in knowledge of sound-letter spelling patterns (SUS p62). My next step from this test will be to administer Topic assessments 2 and 3  p75 (SUS)

I hope to keep adding to this post as a means of recording how I have implemented this programme and the difference it has made.

Reflective Practices

I have been very pleased with the progress in this area, by both my class and myself this term. I had been thinking about how to incorporate De Bono's Thinking Hats into my programme more effectively and in real contexts. I hit on the idea of having a blank, self-inking Thinking Hat stamp made. The reason for this is that the pupils can colour it in depending on what coloured Thinking Hat they were focusing on. I trialled the stamps, using the end of week Reflective Log as a vehicle for this.
I initiated it by first of all reviewing the Thinking Hats and the thinking around each colour. I printed off a Thinking Hats chart for each group and laminated it. This was a useful prompt for them as they worked.
We discussed the blue hat and for this purpose we looked at the graphic organisers we had used over the week to record our thinking.
Subsequently we analysed our learning using the white, green and yellow hats, taking each hat, discussing its meaning and how it related to our week.
Looking over the entries this strategy worked really. I will be really interested to see how it works with this week's reflection. I would like to get to the stage where the children choose which hats they will be reflecting on -increased independence.

Interesting things!

Have enjoyed two thought provoking sessions as part of our staff PD
The first revisiting de Bono's and our other thinking strategies and applying these ideas as a means of modifying undesirable behaviour. The discussion arising from OPV based on the fire in the Peaceful Garden was really great -the children found looking at issues from different perspectives quite enjoyable.

Our session with Cathy on Environmental Writing was also really motivating. Will go through my notes and write up into a usable record once I have time.

I also came across this from Jacqui Sharpe about the regurgitation of info by students, from the web based research: Click on the graphic to follow the link.

Focus on Writing

I thought I'd better note down some things I have tried that appear to be working for me this term.
First of all I have set myself the goal this year of cutting down instructions into very small 'doable' steps to ensure all my class is on board and receiving the same message -especially my 'Target' pupils.
Something that has really worked has been using Shirley Clarke's 'Traffic Lights' -red for -stop I need help, orange -O.K. but not quite sure and green for go, when reflecting on their work.   "the colour represents their feeling about how they’re doing at that particular moment in the session. This encourages the children to voice any difficulties during the progression of the lesson without them feeling like they’ve failed in some aspect." Clarke
It has also provided very visual feedback for me as well.

I have also started on focusing pupils feeding back - 1st "I like the way you have......."  2nd " You could use .........."

My lesson about success criteria for recrafting worked really well.  I handed over to the class and the resulting chart on the Mimio was GREAT!

 



Leading from the Middle and 'Bits and Bobs'

Ministry of Education - use of Data to Drive Student Achievement.

The leadership team met for the day to look at school organisation for next year, discussion of data for literacy and numeracy and the MOE continuum for Learners, Parents, Teachers, Principals, Boards, ERo etc. A progression of ideas to develop monitoring tools, -PAI -Public Achievement Information, PaCT -
This document reinforces the need for teachers to be aware that this is a system akin to the failed models from England, US and Australia. NZEI's drive -GERM is  raising awareness of the Government's agenda which includes standardisation, competition amongst teachers and schools, data driven accountability -effectively eradicating the elements that have made NZ education system one of the top five in the world. Standardisation is at odds with creativity, diversity and the individual - where does the life long learner fit with this new direction?

Progress and Consistency tool

·         A way to measure students’ progress in a meaningful, accurate and nationally consistent way.

·         A framework that supports teachers’ judgements and builds their knowledge in assessment of reading, writing, mathematics.

·         Improvement in the consistency of teachers’ overall judgements across the country and over time.

·         Tools to create reports for parents, school boards of trustees.

 

It is a little reassuring that some principals are realising the implicatons. Charles' Olivers opening statement to our NZEI PUM last week sums things up quite neatly:

"A clever government who had their plans for education changes long before they became the Government," Mr Oliver told the meeting of about 160 teachers from schools through the region.

"They are very clever, [Prime Minister] John Key and [Education Minister] Hekia Parata, they work towards creating crisis after crisis," he said. "A crisis like the national standards and when that's done, they create a new one and another after that."

Mr Oliver said the National-led Government was in league with right-wing governments throughout the world with a plan to create a crisis in education and impose competitive business models in "our world class schools".

That meant national standards, league tables, proposals for charter schools and performance pay for teachers, he said.
 

We also looked at 'Leading From The Middle p17-20 and discussed implications for us as leaders at SJHS.

Our roles are changing -if things didn't change it would indicate apathy and no progress. We have always had changes to deal with and not all have been met with open arms but we have made modifications and adjusted accordingly. However this has implications on our practice and whilst we all must be held accountable and perform to our best abilities to produce successful learners,it seems to me that this MOE latest initiative is very scary.
Ben Franklin said 'When you're finished changing, you're finished'.
Let's hope we are not finished even though we have changed!

Kizoa

A great way to publish work: Here is the presentation we made for our EfS celebration day.

e-Portfolios

TKI Elearning