Another intensive day, this time about what texts we choose and why we choose them. We are working on the Inside Classroom pou of our pillars of practice (see below).
Having to do some activities with a tight timeline made me realise it isn't as hard as I can sometimes make it out to be! I often angst for hours over texts and then they are read and done in a few minutes and I wonder at how much time I wasted for the kids not to connect or to "get it" so easily it was almost unworthwhile. I put together a text set in just a few minutes which I will add to but will be using next term.
I realised over the past few weeks that I really have steered clear of poet
ry. As a poetry lover since I was a child I am absolutely frustrated at myself for the disservice I have done to my tamariki. I deliberately have chosen poetry to start of term 2. I am going to be using ones that evoke the senses which will also help them with the descriptive writing we are doing next term. I have chosen poems about events or situations they are familiar with and can use their prior knowledge to connect with. I have other writing about these same topics that will help fill any gaps they have and to give different perspectives on the subjects.
Another part of the kaupapa that resonated with me a lot this time was ensuring we were providing texts that gave tamariki the opportunity to see themselves, see others and to experience other worlds - mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors.
I work in a small rural type of town. We are a decile 2 school and our kids don't go a lot of places often, or have experiences that take them beyond their own small neighbourhood. We do cover a lot of te ao Māori as our tamariki are 85% Māori. They live in a Pākehā world however being only 30% of the town's ethnic make up (don't talk to me about where the 70%'s kids are going to school though!!). We teach Te Atiawatanga which is the way that our local iwi participate and interact with the world (most of our tamariki are part of this iwi). We ensure they know about local land wars, Parihaka and the rich Māori history of our rohe. They are somewhat closed off to the world out there though. They often haven't been out of the North Island, let alone the country. So ensuring they have meaningful interaction with texts of various forms about other people and cultures is vital, and helping them to figure out how Aotearoa fits in this world.
Putting my practice into a rubric to see what I am doing with the way I teach reading was interesting too. I do long texts often as read alouds of novels, where I read something like "The Wild Robot" to them purely for enjoyment, although I model what I am thinking and some new vocabulary occasionally. I cast this to my TV via a reading app and can see some of them reading along as I go. Others are drawing the scenes that I am reading about. They love it and so do I. Guided reading is completed each day but I was a bit slack on the shared reading. I often struggled with what to do with my older students but seeing today's example of shared reading made a few pennies drop so I will be incorporating more into my classwork for term 2. I'm excited! I also like the buddy reading. We already are focusing on how fluently we read and recording ourselves, so having a friend help them read better out loud in a safe environment will add to this immensely.
Another week chock full of learning and I'm sure I have more to talk about, but will catch up with my fellow RPI attendees at school and my mentor.
