Respond effectively to diverse language and cultural experiences and the varied strengths, interests and needs of individuals and groups of akonga.
Key indicators:
- demonstrates knowledge and understanding of social and cultural influences on learning, by working effectively in the bi cultural and multicultural contexts of learning in Aotearoa New Zealand.
- selects teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning assessment activities that are effective for diverse akonga.
- modifies teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of akonga.
Reflective Question: How does my knowledge of the varied strengths, interests and needs of individuals and groups of akonga influence how I teach them?
What is the learning/teaching experience: This week I had an observation done on me by my tutor teacher. It went really well and I got some great feedback, as always you get so nervous when your getting observed and this was no different. You will find my observation details under reading observations on the tab. One thing that both my tutor teacher and myself thought I could work on more is using effective questioning, I always find this a tricky one not so much with my yellow readers but with my readers that are still on magenta. I did some research and found some readings to help me with effective questioning and below are some information that I found helpful and interesting for my reading development.
Questioning is perhaps the instructional tool used most commonly by teachers. Strategic and purposeful questioning is crucial to students’ literacy learning.
Questions may be directed towards building a particular aspect of students’ knowledge, such as a strategy for encoding or decoding. At a metacognitive level, questions can help to build students’ awareness. Questioning can be an ideal way to generate thoughtful discussion and help students to develop the habit of being critically reflective, for example, “How do you think …?” “I wonder why …?” “What have you noticed …?” “How will your audience feel …?” One or two well-thought-out questions can be powerful in helping students to get beyond the surface features of a text they are reading or writing. It is important that teachers ask a range of questions and know why they are asking them.
So What: What did I learn?
- A teacher who uses questions effectively provides a good model to students and shows them how to develop their own questioning strategies. This helps them to bring a critical perspective to texts by asking purposeful questions of themselves as they engage with a reading or writing task.
- In a classroom environment of critical reflection, thought-provoking questions are not seen as threatening, they are welcomed as a highly valued part of learning.
Now What? Next Steps
Questions become effective teaching tools when:
- they are directed towards helping students to meet a learning goal;
- they are centered on and draw out students’ knowledge;
- there is adequate “wait time” for students to think through their responses;
- students’ responses are valued and not transformed by evaluative comments that
- suggest the responses were inadequate;
- Appropriate follow-up questions are used to extend students’ thinking.
For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 2, Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, Criteria 9, Criteria 12.
What is the learning/teaching experience: One of the challenges of teaching writing is that it can be challenging for children to see improvements day to day. One of the challenges for me as a teacher is to help the children catch a glimpse of progress they have made with their writing and development as writers and celebrate their learning success. I have some writers that are real battlers and just have no idea, they have little phonics knowledge and this makes writing super hard for them. This term we are really focusing on our letter sounds and phonics.
In week 8 I went out and did an observation at Rolleston Primary school where they use a Reggio Emilia approach to learning. I found it very interesting to see how their lessons worked. I was able to observe in two year 0-1 classes side by side. The literacy programme was very interesting. Writing was not modelled in one class I observed but was modelled in another class. The writing and reading programmes were joined and went through till lunch time. The teacher went from taking a writing group, then a reading group, then another writing group etc. I thought this was quite a different way of doing things but it really worked for the students learning as they were at many different levels and the teachers found it amazing for their learning and also easier for writing as like most of us teaching year 0-1 writing it is a challenge!!!
So What: What did I learn?
- I personally like having writing and then reading separate as for me it looked a bit confusing and all over the place. While the groups were working with the teacher, other children had one certain reading activity to achieve and then they could go on with reading games. A lot like our Must Do Can Do’s. There were definitely similarities in the programmes from school to school but also many differences with how their programme was run to ours.
Now What? Next Steps
- Talking tins: These can help those children who always forgot what they are going to write and make our jobs easier because we don’t have to remember for them. What they do is they child records what they are going to write onto this talking tin and then they can play back the recording so they remember what to write.
- Pobble: This website is full of amazing pictures for writing prompts, there is a new picture uploaded every day. I thought this was amazing and I spent a long time on it when I found it. I was able to find some pictures that I used for our Flight unit also and integrated it into writing. http://www.pobble365.com/
For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 6, Criteria 9
What is the learning/teaching experience: Had my first school entry assessment get together with a parent this week. I was actually so nervous! It was such a casual meeting just to talk about where this student was at, how they went in their SEA and what they can do at home to help. I guess it is just that worry about what if they aren’t happy with what I say. Not that there was anything negative to say you just never know with some parents. Overall, it went very well and their mum was very happy with how the student is going as am I. Plenty more SEA catch up with parents to go! I call them catch ups as they aren’t very formal.
So What: What did I learn?
- Communication is important with Parents/caregivers and whanau as there is only so much you can do at school, students also need to learn skills at home to be the best they can be.
Now What? Next Steps
- Identify the needs of students and put into my planning as tasks students can do during reading, writing maths.
- Create resources to help with gaps that are missing.
- Focus on students phonological awareness (make time for this)
For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 1, Criteria 6, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, Criteria 9, Criteria 11
What is the learning/teaching experience : This week my tutor teacher and I sat down and discussed team and personal goals for the year.
Team Goal: Further developing Discovery to suit the needs of our children. We are currently changing the way Discovery is run over the five classes and having 5 ‘subjects’ that students can choose to attend. Cooking, science, art, music and sport. Students have the opportunity to sign into an area they would like to discover and have a go at. There are 30 spaces at each activity that students need to opt into an area and if the space is full they find something else to look at. Mrs B and myself are doing cooking to start with. We made it very simple and students made toast and choose either jam or honey to put on it. After the first week which was a bit of trial and era we found ways to develop it further by adding other activities to it such as bringing in the kitchen toys to go with the theme so they could play with these while they wait. Our next cooking item is popcorn so students are going to create and decorate a holder to put their popcorn in.
School Target: Improving the level of readers at year 0-1 to be reading at green after 1 year of school (When turning 6). Many of my students in room 1 are not even close to this and are just beginning to identify high frequency words which is a great start. Working on their wonder words and focusing on their reading will definitely help them achieve this.
Personal Goal: So many personal goals to think about I think I have to begin with one that has stood out for me is to have a better understanding on how to teach writing to emergent writers and to extent them as they become more confident and able.
So What: What did I learn?
- Reflections are key
- To think about how I can improve my practise to achieve these goals
- Differentiated teaching as best as we can, teachers must know their students well enough to adapt their teaching approaches and methods to the ability of the children.
Now What? Next Steps
- Research how I can improve my practise.
- Look for and research ideas for my target children. Create resources to improve their high frequency word knowledge.
For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 4 Criteria 6 Criteria 9 Criteria 12
What is the learning/teaching experience: This week I began doing some iKan testing and it was very interesting seeing how they went with this. I also looked at their school entry reports. Some students were a lot easy to mark than others. As some students have been at school for longer obviously and its interesting these students are all within a month of age but their knowledge and mannerisms are so different.
In Maths we have currently been looking at statistics and which objects have less, more etc. It’s amazing how much they have learned in such a small amount of time. It’s a great feeling when they can talk about and identify it so easily when they are discussing graphs. Makes me feel quite proud. Maths is definitely not my strongest subject as I didn’t have much experience in maths during my student teaching. It is a curriculum area I feel I am lacking in terms of content knowledge and how to teach it for this age group. Yes, I know what I need to teach, but lack the knowledge and confidence with this area for example where to start, what materials to use, what activities to begin with. This is definitely a goal for me to gain more confidence with my maths teaching. In regards to that I feel humbled that I have so many amazing people to learn from and ask questions.
So What: What did I learn?
- How to read maths testing
- Every school’s assessment is different
- Ask for guidance and help if I need to.
- How different capabilities, students can have at this age.
Now What? Next Steps
- Look into professional development around numeracy.
- Use the NZ maths website to help guide
- Continue to ask questions
- Observe different teachers teaching maths.
For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 2 Criteria 6 Criteria 8 Criteria 9 Criteria 11
What: It is super important with 5 year olds to model what to do. From writing, reading to outside playing games. I have some very shy year 1s and then some very outgoing children. Xx is a beautiful girl but her anxiety is terrible at times and she does not say ‘boo’. When she started, I had to pull her away from Mum and anything out of routine she could not cope with. She does try to join in but is always scared and worried that she will do something wrong. My focus with her at the moment and the whole class is to have a go!
Yesterday it was a beautiful day and we decided to go outside for a game at the end of the day. I introduced a game called ‘Traffic Light’ Xx enjoyed the game but was not sure how it worked. She was really trying hard to watch and figure out how to play. When it was her turn to have a go she did not know what to do. I modeled it for her with her beside me and we ran together. We had fun, she came out of her shell, and there were some laughs. This was a small but great breakthrough for both her and myself and also very good for our relationship to develop.
So What: What I learned:
- Modelling actions and behaviour is better than just speaking and telling students.
- Relationships built on trust is key to student achievement.
- An inclusive learning environment fosters students well-being.
Now What: Next Steps to be implemented.
- I need to be sensitive to all akonga, making the effort to make sure they are all included.
- Make sure I model a lot more all the instructions especially at year one level.
- Keep communication going with family/whanau on Xx developments.
For What: this Fulfills these criteria: Criterion 1, Criterion 2, Criterion 9.
WEEK EIGHT TERM THREE REFLECTION: THE FINISH STRAIGHT
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