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. 

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 roll these new lessons out in term 3 and see how we go! 

2 - Hypothesising and Reflecting

 Looking at the two main areas of concern - maths and writing, I feel the area I should focus on this year is writing. Maths has a whole new set of pedagogy with Numicon coming into our school that we've been advised to "trust the process" with and that would be better to reflect on once we really get going.

The new curriculum for writing has been released and boy, is it a busy one! It covers:

• Speech and language using any method of communication a student uses (including AAC)
• Phonemic awareness
• Systematic synthetic phonics (decoding and spelling skills)
• Handwriting
• Vocabulary
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Fluency
• Text structure

Each of these areas a huge all by themselves. 

So why are the tamariki not doing so well in writing? Their reading is ok, but the ability to put things down on paper or on their devices is letting them down overall. Writing is the other side of the reading 'coin' and being able to express yourself clearly is one of the most exciting things people do in this world. 

The tamariki in my class were 5 and 6 years old when Covid hit. There was disruption in schooling with lock downs and failure for whatever reason to engage in learning at home. This also affected their social skills. Since then there has been a societal change in attitude to school attendance, and more kids staying home longer when they are ill. Did this affect their ongoing schooling? 

I also have a cohort of tamariki that have intellectual disabilities which seems to affect writing the most. They have an inability to write clearly (motor skills) and short working memories. They also tend to get distracted by things; one for example, won't write a word down until they know they have spelled it correctly so barely gets anything written down. All of these tamariki require constant supervision and help to write. 

One child is at the very start of his journey potentially using AAC. This is something separate I am learning about.

My question is:  

How can I strengthen writing outcomes for all learners by adapting my programme to meet a wide range of needs and align with the refreshed Literacy framework?

I need to make sure I am differentiating appropriately, that I know the new curriculum and plan accordingly. When I look at the students individually, there are a few things that have not been taught explicitly by myself or previous teachers on a regular or ongoing basis - we haven't needed to. What I have been covering daily is vocabulary, morphology, handwriting and text structures as we cover them. 

What do I need to do to differentiate well, cover the curriculum, and to daily complete more explicit teaching on syntax and text structure? 

When I reflect on writing, I have to be honest and say, it is not my favourite thing to teach. I have always found it easy and so struggle sometimes as to why the kids just can't do it well! I have focused previously on maths and reading, but writing has always taken somewhat of a back seat in comparison to my own education about the matter. I do PLD on it, then struggle to implement. This new curriculum has definitely given me the impetus to do better. How? That is the question. The curriculum is NOT that explicit!!!!

1. 2025! Here we are! Noticing - my context

My class this year has had a wonderful start to the year. I have a mix of year 4, 5 and 6 students. 13 boys and 10 girls. 15 are of Māori descent, one from Tuvalu, and seven identify as New Zealanders (European descent). This is the lowest number of Māori I have had in eight years in my class. Only 3 are year 4.

They are widely spaced in their curriculum levels, from below 6 months at school to being able to read as a 14 year old (and understand what they are reading!).  Three have been diagnosed with an intellectual disability (mild) and one is virtually non-verbal with a diagnoses of autism. This child has a full time teacher aide to help manage their needs throughout the day until 1pm when they leave to go home. They get tired very quickly and cannot currently cope with a longer day yet.

Noticing

They are also the quietest class I have ever had! Most are focused and keen to learn and can manage pretty independently with work targeted to their level. This has made it a lot easier to teach and to manage the classroom behaviour. A few have a tendency to be a little disruptive but come into line fairly quickly and easily with current behaviour management. Those same few sometimes have issues in the playground too.

Initial testing has shown the following:

MATHS:

• Half the year 6 students are stanine 4 or below.
• Just over year 5 students are stanine 4 or above. Two that are below have diagnosed intellectual disabilities and may not move far.
• ALL year 4 students are stanine 6 or above.

READING:

• 60% of year 6 students are stanine 4 or above
• Out of 6 year 5 students tested, two are stanine 5 or above, and two may not move far this year due to disability and are well below. 67% are stanine 4 or below. 
• One year 4 student is stanine 4, and the other two are stanine 5 & 8.

WRITING:

• At the time of writing this, I have yet to complete marking the Asttle assessment for writing. A cursory look over their writing makes me believe I will be looking at similar figures as maths, not reading. Writing has a higher cognitive load and it can pose greater difficulties for learners.

I think that I will be focussing on Maths with the new curriculum bringing in far more requirements and more curriculum items to teach. But I also feel that writing needs a big push as well.

My next step is to develop my question from this information. What is the most important thing I need to focus on this year? It will be a busy year as we roll out the new Literacy and Maths curriculum, complete PD around this curriculum and wrap our heads around the requirements. We are doing a lot of it already, but it is imperative to ensure we on point with our delivery.