Tiomai's Learning Journey

This session was led by Loiuse Dempsey, one of the authors of the well-known series of literacy books. On today's session she took us through what an effective, balanced reading programme should/ could look like. Some of the content she covered were: 3 Types of Reading lessons (Pleasure, Writing Support and Across Curriculum) Stages of Learning to Read Shared Reading (Intro, zoom in, zoom out) Guided Reading Independent Activities I found the session to be very informative and helpful specifically in my practice as it fits in with my reading goal to deliver an effective reading programme. My takeaways from this session were: 1. Guided Reading sessions - BE REALISTIC It is only one component of a balanced reading programme; we don't have to teach everything or everyone (so don't stress if I haven't seen everyone) Make time to talk Quality over quantity (teach the intended skill explicitly ) 2. Planning and Assessing Tips Have a class focus for one month with goals/ obje...

After much discussion with my mentor and team and especially with the data we have seen in regard to our students, we have decided that our goal this year were: Literacy:  To learn about and c reate a wraparound literacy programme to improve outcomes in literacy Numeracy:  To learn about and implement DMIC practices within my teaching programme. My personal goal:  Integrate Matauranga Māori in the Classroom  Steps I will take to achieve them: Literacy 1: Become familiar with the Literacy (reading and writing) curriculum of my school. 2: Observing other teachers 3: Readings 4: Professional Development 5: Feedback on practice Numeracy 1: Become familiar with DMIC pedagogy 2: Readings 3: Observing other teachers 4: Professional Development 5: Feedback on practice Personal Goal: Matauranga Maori 1: Learning Areas in Te Reo Maori 2: Tikanga and Kawa 3: Using Te Reo Maori kupu/ phrases (Haere mai ki te whariki, turituri, ka pai, ata marie...) 4: Learning and...

A great understanding of Te Ao Maori was revealed in this PD, specifically how in a sense there is a similarity between the Catholic faith and Maori spirituality. Māori Spirituality stems from their mythology of the Creation of the world.  "Te Kore" nothingness - although there is little, there is something "Io" Supreme Force that created everything - equivalent to God Ranginui and Papātuānuku - In a tight embrace Tamariki - *atua ( Tāne mahuta, Tangaroa, Rūaomoko, Rongo, etc...) - In between their parents "Te Ao Marama" Separation of Rangi and Papā - "Let there be light" Genesis. The concept of (Gods') time differs from our understanding of time. It says it took six days to create the world - e.g. Gods' minute = million years. No one fully understands how long it took to create the world.

Motivational discourse? ( Booklet ) 4 steps toward positive talk? Turn and talk/ partner talk (think, pair and share) Make it the norms to ask for evidence from those who answer correctly and not only those who answered incorrectly. Assigned competence? - model explicitly positive behaviour, kindness, encourage positive affirmation. To build each other up. Building a learning- focused environment. I set the tone. (Don’t feel the need to rescue the child, rather sit back, observe, listen and support…) Feedback/ feedforward We can assign competence to the process, not just the answer. Play detective to find another way to answer the question. Assign competence to the actions that help other students participate. (see slides ) Noticing and responding - knowing when to add on or feed forward. Grouping - mixed ability and social (those who can work together)

 I spent this week organising and setting up my classroom. It was overwhelming at first because it was such a new experience. I also did not realise how much of a taxing task it was too.  I did not know where to start, but some logical advice from my mentor was "set up your mat area and tables first then you will see how everything will flow". As she advised, I did exactly that, once the mat area was sorted, everything else slowly came together.  There were many things to think about when setting up this classroom.  Movement around the class Learning areas My area Tables and seating Mat area  One of the things I found challenging (minor) was where I was going to situate myself so that I was able to observe all my students and the outside, also so that students were not facing outside and being distracted with what could be happening outdoors. I did in the end find a good corner where I could also utilise for reading groups too.  The most challengi...

Prior to this engagement, I was both excited and nervous. However, as the meeting progressed I gradually felt overwhelmed and began to feel I was in over my head. It was a lot to take in and process. My mentor was great and had already made templates and plans for both J and me. I think my dilemma was it was too much in one sitting, so instead of making inputs during the meeting, I sat back and listened and asked questions about what I didn't understand. In saying that, there is much I need to get familiar with in terms of the school's local curriculum and the pedagogies that the school is utilising within the school. My next steps: View and familiarise myself with the HCCS local curriculum (Year 2) View and familiarise myself with Stephen Graham's writing (Year 2) View and familiarise myself with DMIC (Year 2)

The last couple of days I sat in an online PLD by Yolanda, where she demonstrated and shared her way of teaching phonics and assessing reading and writing. More importantly, I learned there are many skills required to read and phonics is one of four. It is a skill that is not taught in isolation but together with the other skills necessary to enhance student reading, writing, and spelling levels. After all, reading is not a natural thing like talking or eating, but rather a skill that is taught. The searchlight model she discusses shows how the four skills are needed to decode a text (word level, text level, and sentence level) *Blending - putting the sounds together of a word *Segmenting - breaking up sounds of the word I was overwhelmed by the knowledge Yolanda was sharing. It seemed like a lot in such a short amount of time, it was very dense. In saying this, I have realised that I was lacking so much in teaching literacy.                 ...