Reading Comprehension Professional Development - Alison Davis

Reading Comprehension Professional Development 

Alison Davis 

27 April 2018 

Alison's Building Comprehension Strategies book breaks down the reading approaches in the Effective Literacy Practice book. 

Text structure is what helps you to understand the genre of the writing and comprehend the text. The text structure helps you to gather meaning. As we will be reading many factual texts during inquiry, the students need to understand the text structure to help them comprehend. 

Ministry is focussing on rapid cycles of inquiry - trying new things within acceleration to see what works and doesn't work for priority learners. 

NAGs - Range of evidence vs range of tools? NAGs say high quality range of evidence. 

Formative assessment practices are important but it needs to be owned by the learners.  

• It's not about us knowing strategies, but getting the learners to know and use them
• What do they need to know a strategy? - lots of practise, maintenance of this strategy. 
• Students need to be able to say it, explain it and teach it back. 

High frequency words should be done 3-4 times a day. Not knowing enough of these prevents children from comprehending as they are still spending so much time figuring out these HFW. 

• E.g. children put a counter on each HFW on a page. 

Shared reading is about giving access to texts higher than their current levels and ideas that they wouldn't have access to otherwise. Support the children to gain ideas and strategies from the text. 

Balanced reading programme - Selecting and combining approaches that meet and extend student's learning. 

• How boring is it for a child to show up to school and know exactly what their day is going to look like? Vary the day, the learning, the experiences, the motivation, the focus, the ideas, the texts. 

Think about how we get inside the children's head and what they think / know. 

Ways to explain what a strategy is: 

• This is when 
• This is like 
• Use the right tool for the right problem - use the analogy of a garden or fixing a bike (tools) 
• Need to know the name of the strategy, that it exists, what it looks like (rules of that strategy), how to use it, does this problem need more than one strategy (in which order will you use the strategies)? 

Paragraph - getting children to understand not only what ideas are within the paragraphs but also how the link to the next paragraph (making connections through the text). 

Non continuous texts - words and pictures together or just pictures. Diagrams, graphic organisers, tables. Often clarify what is in the print. Sometimes they introduce new ideas and information in the visuals too. 

• E.g. activity could be to have children come up with 3 facts based on a picture. Read and confirm these facts otherwise. 

Continuous texts - sentence level, within and across paragraphs, whole text, across a range of texts. 

Decoding strategies - syllables, first sound, prefix and suffix. Middles and seniors should be using questions like do you see a base word or root word as opposed to do you see a small word in this word. 

The students will transfer knowledge and strategies that they can explain. 

Key questions about reading strategies are included in Alison's book. 

Shared reading - Listen when I read to find out. Higher levelled texts. Access to skills and ideas they otherwise wouldn't have access to. 

Guided reading - Read to find out. Right level - learning about independent reading skills. 

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE - chn should be doing a prior knowledge building check before they come to you for guided reading. 

• Decode - word knowledge
• Vocab - building
• Fluency - accurately with comprehension. (repeated reading is a big part of building this)
• Comprehension - new content, practice of past strategies

Definitions - kid friendly (created in group)
Prior knowledge - what we already know about something
Making connections - using what we know to help us understand the story

Vocab building - Traffic light

green light - I know 

orange light - slow down, look around, prepare to stop (they may know a part of the word but not the whole)

red light - stop 

Before, during and after grid (like KWL chart) 

What did I know about the word before?

What do I know now? 

Word sketch 

Word - sketch one (initial) and sketch two (after reading) 

Word investigation 

Chn have to research a word and present back to the group or class 

KV grid 

K - what do I know about the topic? 

V - What vocab do I know about the topic? 

Preview of a text

Features of a text - What I discovered? - What we predict we will read. - What I actually did learn? Features - e.g. heading, intro paragraph, diagram 

Picture guide 

In this picture I can see...

I already know... 

A question I have about this... 

Equipment and actions 

What is this picture showing (what equipment is this)? 

What do we use it for (what is the action)? 

GUIDED READING

Challenges - things that you notice prior, during and sometimes after reading. Could include vocab, and the layout of the text. 

First reading may be around decoding but the second reading is about what we have found out. What did you learn on that page? What vocab helped you learn about that? 

Chn are often able to answer our questions but asking their own questions is more difficult. 

Retell is critical at junior level. 

Visualisation - chn might say what they see in the picture. Ask them what word shows them that. Ideally they will say page numbers, words, sentences, pictures, headings. 

Summarising - main idea (what have we learned?)

Read a section of the text. Discussion and conversation. Talk to your partner (focus on one comprehension strategy) and ask them a question. 

Celebrate how clever we are with the children every day

- what strategies did we use? 

-what have we learned? 

SHARED READING 

Day one: Predictions - based on the genre. Created predictions based around setting, character and problem for a narrative text. 

Day two: Vocabulary focus - how does thinking about the story help me understand the words? 

Day 3: Retell - beginning, middle, end. 

Spiral of Inquiry - 2016

Here is a presentation I created about a Spiral of Inquiry. 

Te Reo Maori Professional Development

Te Reo Maori - Professional development workshop with Whaea Gloria

8th May 2015

Prior to saying your mihi, include a whakatauki and a greeting to the kaikarakia and kaiwaiata as well as the others in the room.

Mihi - do what you know. If you don’t know or don’t have a tribe, say your family name.

Waiata after every Mihi and close with “No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa.”

With the Maori language, begin by teaching key words. This can enable children to identify the key points and build the sentence or translation around the words they know.

Should be speaking Maori everyday.

Can use Maori during phonics. For example, “Tena Koe Eramia. Ka timata tona ingoa i te E. Orite ki nga kupu eat each and egg.”

He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora resource is very useful. Includes all the information needed to teach various unit plans. Also includes resources and is available online in TKI.

Be sure to use “E pehea ana koe” rather than “Kei te pehea koe” in Ngapuhi territory.

When responding use “E ________ ana ahau (I am ______).”

When saying number “11” in te reo Maori, you must say “Kotahi tekau ma…” otherwise you could be meaning “101” which could be “tekau ma tahi (one ten and one one).”

Karetao - puppets that were used years ago. Can make with the children using mdf (soft wood). Songs accompany the movements made when using Karetao.  

Noughts and crosses game: vocabulary challenge. Winner chooses a place for a nought or cross.

Vocab - raro, waenganui, roto, maui, matau, runga.

Aspects to try and include in the classroom:

• Continue use of He Reo Tupu resource
• Create mihi / pepeha
• Remember tip about the number 11
• Make sure to use Ngapuhi reo

Oral Language Presentation

Oral Language PD Presentation 

This was the presentation that Lynda Foster and I created after attending a professional development evening around oral language. As Lynda is a Reading Recovery teacher and I am a part of the Literacy Lead Team, we needed to share this new learning with our Junior Syndicate team. As leaders in the school it was our task to encourage teachers to reflect on their own practice and the needs of their learners around Oral language. This presentation and professional development included points around cultural diversity, respecting languages, teaching students to make connections, and differentiating learning opportunities to cater for the diverse language needs in a classroom. 

PAC Conversation

Jessie McClintock Maihi- PAC visit Term 3 2015

Practice Analysis Conversation: Part 1 of 3 - Pre Observation Conversation
Develop purpose and process (housekeeping)	Class will go straight into independent activities with the target group working with the teacher. Corrina to join them at the table. Writing in the session will be based on the reading that the group did yesterday.
Students’ learning goals? Reasons for the practice?	Developing independence in writing. Modelling how to move from an idea to writing that idea down in a story.
Effectiveness of the practice - evidence.	Students will be confident to get started and will be able to transfer their ideas independently. Teacher will use prompts to get them to extend their ideas. The goals is for a 50:50 talk ratio with a focus on whole-group discussion.
Goal and criteria	Create and use a graphic organiser to gather key words and ideas that students can draw from to construct their own sentences. Record key vocabulary from the reading text and use that to construct sentences.
Practice Analysis Conversation: Part 2 of 3 - Analysis of the practice
Revisit goal and criteria	Students involved with co-constructing the brainstorm of key vocabulary, using their reading text to support them. The teacher used the modelling book to record and there was an initial reference to it for some words. Students were keen to come up with their own
Effectiveness of teacher’s approach	Quick review of yesterday’s text and the teacher highlighted key vocabulary. Students were doing a lot of the research of vocabulary and very motivated to participate. Lots of positive encouragement and reinforcement for the teacher. Be aware of the risk of using too many closed questions. The rest of the class had very clear expectations and they moved straight into independent learning - clearly a strong routine and culture of independence in the class. A new student came to interrupt - “you can manage yourself, think about what you can do” (teacher). The teacher also modelled using descriptive language to make the writing more interesting - high expectations.
Impact of the lesson on students	Students were extremely engaged and motivated. They were very keen to write independently. They were a little unsure of how to use the support materials and how to sound out the words they didn’t know. Teacher continually used prompts and praise to draw them to trying to write independently.
Practice Analysis Conversation: Part 3 of 3 - Co-Construction of New Practice
Next focus for the target group	The group did extremely well in transitioning their ideas to writing which was a big part of their focus today. Some of the students did become more focused on getting spellings absolutely right rather than focusing on their ideas but the next step will be to balance the two - encourage the quick transfer of ideas but using simple language initially that they can spell.
Feasibility and understanding of ideas for the new practice	“I didn’t model enough and I forgot to model with key words for some sentences” (teacher). Sticking to the plan and using the modelling more throughout the lesson. Using some prompts to support the editing of writing after the ideas have been recorded: “What did you notice?” “How did you know it was______?” “How could we finish that word/sentence?” etc
New goal and criteria	Clarifying from the outset that recording interesting ideas is the goal and editing and improving can come later.

Observation - Kath Corby

Observation Reflection - Kath

6/8/15

Dates of snapshots:

28.7.15 / 5.8.15 @ 11am

Focus of snapshots:

Guided reading and writing integrated structure (change to practice)

Snapshots based on:

Framework for Best Practice - Guided Reading (draft)

Discussion points:

• Motivation for change from teaching reading and writing; the need to see all writers (the focus had been on seeing as many writers as possible but it often was only the lower and higher ability students).  This approach ensures that over an hour 5 groups are seen (and all students have a session with the teacher facilitating reading and writing).
• ‘Knowing the learner’ is a key central focus of lessons; the ability to focus on the ‘actual’ needs of each student / group.  Through discussion it was clear that the use of key documents (National Standards / Literacy Progressions) is starting to emerge.
• Response to text: the reading of a guided reading text is followed up with a writing response ie. procedural text of how to get ready for a day at school after reading ‘My Dog’.
• Stations; stations are based on key skills needed by students.  The include an element of choice within the station ie. different options for students to do.

Possible next steps for teacher:

• Refine the lead into the writing (explanation with a balance of student and teacher talk)
• Teacher strategies for engagement ie. teacher talk, visuals, modeling books etc so students are able to reframe what they are learning and how this learning will be demonstrated (learning intentions and success criteria).

Jessie - thank you for the opportunity to come and watch your guided reading / writing lessons.  Your ability to take a new approach, evaluate it and add it to your repertoire of tools as a teacher is something to be commended.

Kath.

Observation of Corrina Bailey - Reading Recovery Teacher

Observation - Corrina Bailey

Reading Recovery lesson

The focus of this observation was to identify some strategies that I could use with some of my students during literacy lessons.

Corrina was teaching one of my students in reading recovery and this provided me with an opportunity to see this child learning in this one on one time.

• Chasing card - child to read faster

Carter was reading very slowly and disjointed.

Read it like you are talking to me.

• Have child repeat the part of the text that he is having trouble with, (“Aunty is coming”).
• Praise the self monitoring and correcting.
• Choose your favourite picture from the book.

Why do you like that picture?

What could we write about that picture?

• Draw sound box in planning area.

“Now Luke is a tricky word, I’m going to get this sound box to help you.”

• Did the same for Tara and hugged

When needed - discuss where the letters sit and if they are tall letters.

• make sure no capital letters are in the right place

Aunty was the word Carter was spelling

• discuss word ending (it’s like silly, happy).

• Write next sentence with child dictating. Have the child read the story.
• Cut up sentences from the child’s story

• Luke and Tara hugged Aunty
• They were happy to see her (cut the ‘y’ off happy)

Carter arranged the sentences:

Luke and Tara were happy to see Aunty. They hugged her.

(He checked and re read as he arranged the sentence).

Observation of Barbara Lints

Observation of Barbara Lints (Tutor teacher)

15 September 2015

Observation - Writing

Focus for the lesson - Introduction to the lesson / learning experience

Barbara explained to the children that they needed to add facts to their dinosaur mural. Children were asked if they knew the difference between what a fact is and what fiction is. One child responded that facts are true and fiction is made up. The teacher shared a sentence and students had to decide if it was fact or fiction. Child responded that it was a fact and shared an explanation. The teacher shared another sentence, and a child responded that it was true. The class had a discussion about how we know something is a fact (we have seen, heard, or read information). Children then shared a few facts they knew about dinosaurs.

Visit to Morningside - Notes

Morningside Visit - Junior classroom

Here are my notes from a visit to Morningside Primary School. The class I visited was a modern learning environment with 3 teachers and one teacher aide and more than 60 kids.

Timetable

Roll

Jump Jam

Calendar

• What will our date be today? (child adds weather to the calendar)

• Count boys and girls

Maths - Top group go into other class

On Board - bring up plan / LI

• Count to 100 song
• Illuminations - Resource for teaching math
• Terrific ten - lot of hands on activities, making 10.

Split into groups - Word problems

• materials on hand
• which number is bigger in the word problem.

Phonics

Shared Book + activity - cut out words and match

Guided reading - Teacher read a part of the book and then each child did.

S -start counting

P -patterns

I -identifying numbers

N -number facts

Classroom displays Pepeha artwork Where in the world are we? (maps) Aotearoa - display on the wall Star chart Sight words speedway Reading stages Sight word key rings Terrific 10 - pictures of activities (maths) The letter of the week is....

Inquiry One per week Go through the whole process What they know? 3 groups do activities Writing Questions