1. 2026 - Noticing - my context. What is my class like this year?

 This year has been a more difficult start than expected. My class demographics are as follows

• no year 4s this year, all year 5 & 6
• Year 5 boys - 7
• Year 5 girls - 3
• Year 6 boys - 4
• Year 6 girls - 3
• Total tamariki = 17

So 11 boys and just 6 girls and a smaller class overall. I did have one more boy, however he early on transferred to another school. The year 5s outnumber the year 6s too. 

A biggest difference this year however is the number of very low, academically challenged akonga we have in class. 8 of the class are well below and have some sort of diagnosis. Others are slightly below, slightly above, and two are exceptional in all areas. The wide differentiation required brings a new level of workload to myself and the teacher aides who work with me.

On top of that, there are some real behavioural issues I have inherited in the year 5s. These children require careful handling and management every moment of the day. We have to watch each child carefully and intervene/redirect etc before severe behaviour breaks out in the class. So far, we have managed this, but again, that has meant a large proportion of the day is spent with behaviour requirements rather than direct teaching.

Ethnically, we have 5 of NZ descent, one Pasifika and the rest whakapapa Māori. This is the highest proportion of Pākehā in my class since I started teaching at Waitara East.

Initial testing has landed results that were not unexpected across the board, bar one, who appears to find testing too stressful and is too hard of themselves so shuts down during testing.

I am looking forward to focusing on the tamariki that I know can move and also pushing those who are well ahead, to keep forging forward. I also want to make sure those that are struggling are going to receive the extra help and sessions they require to keep them engaged, learning and getting every single chance to achieve offered and delivered to them. Not much work this year then!

Observation - Writing

Here is a link to my observation notes. Observation 2025 The reflection and moving forward on this is within the notes.

Professional Development Log - 2025

Here is a log of my professional learning along with links to the reflections on each session I attended.

Log of PLD

6 - Reflect & Next Steps

So how did I go? I can't say this inquiry was a success in the way I wanted it to be. I started with one goal and ended up achieving something I didn't realise I needed to do. At University, I learned the previous curriculum, but it wasn't until I started teaching it in my first year (2018) that I realised that until you do it, you have no real idea! This year has been like being a BT again with maths, reading, writing and oral language being new curriculums. Why didn't I treat it as if I was teaching as a newbie again? If I had have, my inquiry question would have been different.

The tamariki are writing a bit better, was it because I changed things? I'd like to think so, but mostly it is from filling the holes left by the new curriculum coming in. What I learned most, and what I had already learned but forgotten about, was that teaching a new curriculum requires more than just reading it, it needs to be actioned in order to get it embedded and right. Apparently I'm a slow learner.

I have changed my writing programme and introduced the following:

• fast feedback
• new activities to do independently
• "Think, Write, Check, Every Sentence". Does it make sense?
• Daily sentence combining
• Nothing is considered a draft, always must use good handwriting (is this my best?)
• Sentence structure explicit teaching
• Parts of speech explicit teaching (previously done but not to a huge degree)

I have continued and enhanced:

• daily morpheme work
• daily spelling rule work
• daily handwriting work (working towards automaticity)

This has taken three terms to settle in and get to a point that I can deliver it and the tamariki are a) enjoying and b) doing it properly. It is still a long way from where I wanted to be, but it is getting there and I will be reviewing again at the end of term 4 ready to start up term 1, 2026.

A big result has been using more handwritten work, but also that their work is presented a lot better. I can understand their handwriting, books are laid out nicely and they take pride in their work. They are enjoying writing in groups (once a week) especially. The outcomes are hilarious at times.

My next steps are to continue to refine my programme and continue to add to it where I think it is appropriate. I am keeping an eye on all the resources becoming available that align with the curriculum and now I am more familiar with the delivery of the curriculum, I will judiciously acquire those I believe support my teaching. 

5 - Evaluate the Impact and Re-evaluate the Plan

So how did the plan go?

The biggest thing I didn't plan well enough for was how big the difference in curriculum was from the previous one. I suppose that comes from not having a good grip on the curriculum earlier in the year. Now I can say I have learned a lot about it during this journey. One way I suppose!

It seemed simple just reading the curriculum, but to deploy it was another matter. I have only ever worked under one curriculum so this change is my first. But once you start deploying different "clauses" of the curriculum you start to uncover a lot of prior learning is missing. This isn't due to any fault of previous teachers, it entirely rests on the fact that the changes are larger than they first appear and that no one was required, in so much detail, to teach what they are now expected to know at each year level.

Scratching the surface of each requirement I managed to uncover the knowledge the tamariki didn't have and then started to teach it.

It made me revisit a lot of the plan. I had to revisit parts of speech, we had to revisit what a sentence was in some cases too. Some things involving what a clause is, what a run on sentence is etc and types of sentences seem to be foreign for them. Some of my slides from the previous page have since been changed! They may not make much sense now as they appear to be at the beginning and not where I originally started. I didn't think to save a set of slides for my PGC. That's a learning point. 

So I did have to change things to meet the needs of the tamariki I had before me. 

Things I think have worked is having the tamariki focus on one small goal at a time. Having them focus on checking as they go has been hard, but they are getting there. It would be good if this was done at every level though so they start day one writing checking. I can't wait though until everyone has the new curriculum deployed and the tamariki come through to the seniors near where the new requirements are. 

They really enjoyed using hand movements with their writing when doing planning orally (Walls & Braid) and it was fun for all of us to do. They still struggle with planning though and it seems they have no care for it whatsoever. Very frustrating. 

4 - Implementing The Plan

There is a lot of changes in my plan and these changes are going to take time for the tamariki to settle into.

Daily Writing

• This lesson is going to be made up of a daily explicit teaching lesson about a part of grammar/sentence structure. This will be followed by independent writing time where there are rotations of activities that involve practice of the new lesson/skill learned, along with daily writing and spelling activities. Here is an example of the format:

• Pick up a Pen = free writing. I have sentence/story starters and photos they can use for inspiration. 
• Spelling Shed task = based on spelling in the curriculum
• The blue cells contain activities = either digital or presented digitally, based on the WALT. 
• Each session is 16 minutes long with 2 minutes transition time. Books must be handed in at the end. Writing is checked by wandering around the room, finding out if they are following their goals (which are written in the back of their writing books).
• The tamariki named their own groups which are split by super low, and then mixed ability for the rest of them. I also popped them into groups that work together, trying to avoid clashing personalities. They are also doing other options such as: Handwriting - poetry transcription and illustration, Group story writing, which has had some interesting results as the dynamics settle, and more will be added for variety.
• Handwriting is being taught explicitly each day for 10 mins or so separately. There is a big need for automaticity is needed to reduce cognitive load during writing. The brain can then be used for great content rather than trying to figure out how to produce letters on a page.
• A big focus has been checking that their sentences make sense.
• I have daily explicit teaching through Helen Walls programme of parts of sentences. For example a unit on Apex Predators - LINK.

The tamariki have taken to the plan probably better than I thought they would since it involved a big change to their routines. They seem to enjoy writing which is great. 

But....

there is a big problem though, and that is the lack of prior knowledge. The requirement to do such explicit teaching of the new curriculum with so much more in it has exposed how the level required for year 4, 5 & 6 requires a lot more to be taught in the previous years. As they too have only just started this new journey, it means a few holes need to be plugged before we can move forward. 

3 - Action Planning and Testing Ideas

So ideas! What can I do to help the tamariki with their writing?

I am going to focus on the following parts of the curriculum that I feel I am weak on and need more knowledge about and some practical ways of implementing these in the classroom.

1. Sentence Structure/syntax (syntax being the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences). 
2. Differentiation in writing. My tamariki range from being able to write cvc words only with assistance to intermediate level.

I am going to start by testing first of all whether the tamariki know all the parts of speech and what they mean before I start teaching explicitly the structure of sentences. I need to know what they know before I launch into this area of instruction. I see a lot of errors with sentences, lower use of different structures and also repeated structures in their writing. This should help with this area and provide some interesting writing. 

With differentiation for my poorer writers, it is to help them gain more skills but also for some independent work ideas, so I am available to help the rest of the classroom with their learning, rather than having to be next to them constantly.

The curriculum now has explicit text that tells you how you should be teaching, not just what. It is far more prescriptive. This makes the research side of things relatively simple. I have to do as it says basically, it is my job. However, I would like them to publish the research behind the curriculum. 

Research

One of the authors involved (among many teachers, principals and experts) in writing this curriculum is Dr Helen Walls. I have been on a course with her in the past and implemented a lot of what she suggested. I am going to read her current thoughts and use some of her resources around sentence structure. 

Regarding sentence structure etc, I will be working with the text: Writing Matters: Developing Sentence Skills in Students of All Ages - William Van Cleave. This covers parts of speech, has explicit teaching with model lessons and follow up activities. William Van Cleave has a BA in English and Women's Studies and an MA in English. He has worked in many schools with children who struggle and has been a tutor, teacher and principal. His book is clear and easy to read and understand for the teacher. I'll also be using Christine Braid's "How to Build Writing Success Sentence by Sentence."

For differentiation, Dr Walls will be my primary guide along with resources from Brolga Education which is run by Trudy Mayo in Australia to help guide me to maybe doing a better job at differentiation in writing.

I will be using the "Fast Feedback" system of Dr Walls which provides for individual goals for each student and working on those goals with very quick feedback. These goals are very specific and niche, not huge overarching goals, but tiny steps towards the finish line of great writing. "The sentence goal enables us to teach sentence by sentence, celebrating small steps and giving value to the mastery of one sentence at a time (Walls with Braid 2023).

The class will also have THINK, WRITE, CHECK installed in their brains. This is each and every sentence as they write it. Not at the end of their story, but as they go. I noticed myself that very few tamariki actually read their writing when they have finished it. They bring up pieces of work that are not checked for punctation or spelling errors, let alone if their sentences made sense (missing words, etc). Sentence by sentence hopefully will have their more focused as they work. That doesn't mean that they don't check at the end with a view to further improvements however. 

I will roll these new lessons out asap and see how we go!