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! 

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!!!!

2022 - Professional Growth Cycle - Professional Learning

Here are the reflections and learning I have completed over 2022.  I had samples of my work for the year and the data for my class all in Hero, but it appears to have all disappeared - or I no longer have access. A lot of work gone, but hopefully this log will show what I have achieved and completed through the year. Use this link below to access a list of learning which then each link to a reflection of what I have learned.

Professional Learning Log

It has been a very busy year. I took on probably too many courses in term 1, but it was great learning. With covid hitting hard in term 2 it was good that I had these finished mostly.

If a course popped up, I said yes! I love to learn and find out new things and expand my horizons. I need to ensure though that I don't overcommit myself and burn myself out. I will limit any future learning to one course per term (ha ha!) to ensure I can get through what I need to. Maybe skip term 4? 

A year of many ups and downs with health for myself and that of my tamariki. It has probably been the worse year since covid started for having large chunks of kids out of school for extended periods as they got ill. It means there are gaps in their learning this year which I have tried to fill, but I am sure there are areas I haven't managed to get through or cover thoroughly enough. Here's to 2023 and plugging those gaps and moving them upwards and onwards!

2022 - Professional Growth Cycle - Dysgraphia - Noticing & Investigating

2022 is my 5th year of teaching. It has been a huge learning curve after my 12 months of studying to be a teacher. Over this time in classrooms, I am becoming increasingly interested in learning issues my ākonga face. 

My cohort I teach is year 5 & 6. At this level students "should" be able to read well enough to access the curriculum and do learning in more subject areas. Their comprehension of what they are reading is vital for them to be able to learn about more complex ideas and their writing should be able to demonstrate that knowledge.

This year I have several students whose writing is several years below what is expected of the average student at this level. Handwriting is poor, construction of sentences are weak and even copying down text is difficult. Their reading is slightly behind, but is not of major concern and they understand clearly what they are reading. I am finding it difficult to consistently differentiate my teaching whereby what I am expecting of them to "create" to demonstrate mastery of the knowledge is within their abilities.

What is going on? 

There are three tamariki that fall into this group. 

• One is a selective mute and will not talk to many adults. 
• One has a lot of absences put down to anxiety by his whānau. He is also easily distracted.
• One has also had a lot of absences, and is a big procrastinator who needs constant reminders to do his work.
• Two fall outside the level required to do an asttle writing assessment and one is level 1 beginning).
• Maths levels are sitting at Stage 3 to 4 depending on the area. Fractions are proving very difficult to grasp and then retain. 
• All have very poor handwriting and find it hard to type words. They have had varying success with speech to text with Google docs.
• All play on devices at home although not extensively. They are very capable on devices at home.
• They are all unable to form letters on a consistent basis in their writing. They find it difficult to write on the line/between the lines. They have nearly normal grips.
• The two students I can talk to are embarrassed about their work and what they can achieve. They won't let others view their handwritten work and are bright enough to see that even their digital work is not as good as the rest of the classes. It is heartbreaking.

My hunch is that they may have some level of dysgraphia. I stumbled across the term and read about its manifestations in tamariki and feel that it may be involved in the process I am seeing in these children.

My inquiry question:  If these tamariki have dysgraphia or similar, what can I do as a classroom teacher to better support them in their work to better access the "create" portion of our mahi and to help them in alternative ways to demonstrate to me their learning?  This is way too wordy!

First of all I need to get better educated on what dysgraphia is. I need to talk to their whānau to get information from them and I need to get some screening done to see if this is in fact the issue. If it isn't, I will have re-look at my inquiry question and move from there. If it is, what practical steps can I take for these students to help them? What differentiation in assessment (ie work created) can I put in so they can clearly demonstrate how amazing they are?

If I can get this differentiation in place at a better level for them, I should see them grow in confidence and create work that they are proud of and which shows everyone how they understand what they are reading and learning about. 

Now to work on what dysgraphia is and getting screening in place.

Example of one child's writing: