In Room 6 we learnt that in World War 1 the army people got mailed Letters However messages didn’t get shipped by plane they got the messages by pigeons.  People in the army got shipped cookies to survive from starvation.  Anzacs were from Australia and New Zealand.  So of course that’s how Anzac started.  by Lachie

Introduction & Breakout groups –

We are a third of the way through the course. I was feeling bad about not having finished my homework, but I found that most others in my breakout group were in the same position. I had a good mentoring session with my colleagues Megan Nelson-Latu and Sean O’Leary. We are very much feeling the pressure of trying to fit RPI requirements into teaching our new semester courses and preparing students for the Literacy CAAs in Week 4.

I did one reading session with my identified target group, and the students recorded themselves reading. Of these five, three are usable, one hasn’t shared it yet, and one has shared a blank recording. I was happy with what I managed to achieve, although I had to do one session last term and the follow-up this term, which was not ideal.

Not one of us in my breakout room had managed to complete the set professional reading in advance of today’s webinar. I am halfway through it, but will have to complete and reflect on it in the coming week.

Everyone in my breakout group is feeling similar pressure with their programmes and the demands being placed on them this year.

Naomi: Reading Apprenticeship v Guided Reading

Today we are working within pillar 2 of the reading pillars of practice – Plan to use Diverse Texts. We are looking at how to get peer to peer small groups to read together. This begins with teacher-led small group instruction, and scaffolds through the apprenticeship model to increasing student agency.

How do we scaffold?

• Sharing text talk
• Noticing and appropriating others’ ways of reading
• Sharing reading processes, problems, and solutions

We looked at a couple of options for planning and sharing work with students, using a Digital Modelling Book in both a document and slideshow version.

We began work on creating one of these to use with one of our reading groups. This is mine, although it is not yet complete:

Kiri: Introducing Text and Purpose(s) Before Observing Students Reading

For this activity, we analysed a transcript of a teacher taking small group reading instruction, using the following categories:

Here is my analysis, which was pretty much on point. Kiri did say that it is not an ‘exact science’, which was good, as there were some labels (highlighted) for which I felt I could justify my choice.

Naomi: Observing During Reading – Part I

Naomi introduced us to an observation tool which provides detailed information to inform next steps. It is the Listening to Reading protocol, adapted from: Duke, Ward, & Klingelhofer, 2020. We watched a video showing how to use the top section of the LtR protocol to record key words which the student read correctly, and then words which they read incorrectly or omitted. For the latter, you record what the student read, e.g. retried, draw a horizontal line, and write the correct word underneath – in this case, it was retired.  Next to the words you record T if the teacher (you) corrected the student after their attempt, SC if the student self-corrected, and O if the word was omitted. I liked this model, which is less onerous than the running records I was once trained to do.

Janet: Observing readers to support fluent, phrased and expressive reading – Part II

Looking at fluency – how well do we know our learners’ fluency levels? We tend to assume that they are taking in all the information – we may be making demands that they just can’t manage. Te Mātaiaho now includes a reading fluency progression, so this is something we need to pay greater attention to. We looked at how to observe and take notes as students read aloud, and to identify areas for them to work on. Using the sound recordings my reading group made earlier this week, I used last section of the LtR protocol to assess the student’s reading against the Fluency: Multidimensional Fluency Scale rubric.

I found this quite useful, and I think I will get the students in the group to self and peer-assess against the rubric, so that they can self-identify areas to work on.

Kiri: The ‘After Reading’ Teaching Process

This session focussed on the discussion and teaching points to use after reading. The key outcomes to focus on for discussion are:

• authentic use of the ground rules by all
• using evidence and vocabulary from the text
• strategic questioning and prompting
• opportunities for relevant, purposeful contributions
• deeper, engaged learning

Te Mātaiaho has an oral language strand which at Year 6 includes the aim that students “identify how their thinking has changed or solidified in response to discussion,” and “move the discussion forward in different roles, and make contributions in different roles that keep others on task.” Both of these can be developed and practised through discussion using the ground rules.

I also would like to develop some role cards or a role prompt of some kind to help students with phrases and strategies to fill different roles in the discussion.

Finally, we looked at some suggested teaching prompts to assist students in developing their comprehension strategies. Again, a student prompt version of this might be helpful in moving students into metacognitive discussion of the reading process.

Naomi: Activating Background and Prior Knowledge

Good readers are able to fill gaps in a text by connecting to their prior knowledge. So it is important to activate their prior knowledge and then give them some background if they don’t already have it. Some tools to use for this include:

• Anticipation Guides
• KWL charts
• Background knowledge builders

I will be showing the film Schindler’s List to my Y10 Humanities class next week. This is to provide further background about the Holocaust before we begin reading our extended written text – Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night – in Week 3.

Janet: Consolidation and Independent Follow-up

After group reading instruction or peer reading, students need to consolidate and practise their learning with independent practice. This can be through:

• vocabulary
• multiple choice comprehension activities
• literal and open-ended questions, which may look, for example, at different perspectives in the text
• creating and sharing digital objects

These independent activities can be shown through a choice board or workspace activities.

We can assist students to become better readers by:

• using the reading apprenticeship core routines: think aloud, talking to the text, using a metacognitive bookmark, problem solving
• using supporting resources to make the process visible e.g. Anticipation Guides, the Metacognitive Bookmark
• buddy reading
• gradual release of responsibility
• developing reading stamina – challenge and mileage

We practiced this in our breakout groups, reading in pairs and thinking aloud.

Kiri: Pulling it all Together

This was a really fun session because after Kiri had run us through the main points we covered today, we played a Kahoot! I do use these in my teaching, but having a chance to play one as a student made me realise that it really is a fun and motivating way of recapping information and checking understanding. I came in second place, so I was pretty pleased!

Looking forward

My goal between now and Day 5 is to finish the professional reading, including the articles shared today, and to plan out my reading instruction for the next few weeks.

The movie I am showing next week counts as a text to build background and prior knowledge. I have already set up a reflection/create/share activity for students to complete after viewing, but I am now going to go back and think about how to set a clearer purpose for viewing – e.g. whether to share the reflection questions with them before we view the film.

In the following two weeks I want to start the extended text Night and build group instruction into the plan for those weeks.

We had a great term getting to know each other and finished with a PJ day.  We are looking forward to Term 2 with our Art Gallery, interschool  swimming, the poetry competition, cross country, a couple of new Chapter Chat books,  interschool soccer and some movie making. Can’t wait!

On Friday myself and Year 5s were lucky to go to the Māori Film Festival at Ngā Purapura.  Lots of schools from all over Ōtaki were there to watch Shrek in Te Reo Māori.  First we headed off on the bus on a beautiful sunny Ōtaki morning.  The bus was pretty noisy with all the excitement!  For many students it was their first time at Ngā Purapura.

Next we all piled into the makeshift movie theatre and we learnt a song that we would sing to the cast as they came into the theatre.  It was a bit tricky but we all tried really hard. Then the cast arrived and they enjoyed our singing.  They sat on the small stage and were asked some questions by some students.  They were all super funny!

After that the lights went down and the movie started.  Everyone liked the music and sang along.  The movie went for a long time but the audience all seemed to really enjoy it.  Harata wished we had popcorn.  Finally when it was over we headed out into the pouring rain to catch our bus back to school.

On Tuesday we went to Room 4 because Matua had brought an eel to school.  Matua has been teaching us about eels.  First we sat on the mat and talked about eels.  There are two types of eels longfin and shortfin.  Next we went outside and had a look at the eel trap.  It smelt really bad because in the trap was expired salmon, a fish head, rotten bananas and some old bread.  Then Matua opened the box and showed us the eel.  It was in some shallow water. The eel was small and dark green in colour.  It was a longfin eel.  There were slimy bits on the eel too.  After that we had a chance to ask Matua some questions. The eel slithered up the side of the box and gave us a fright. Finally Matua shut the box and we headed back to class.  It was awesome to see an eel up close!

Reflection on Homework from Day 2 – Creating Taskboards and Workspaces; Sharing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

It was really interesting hearing the range of experiences from the other teachers in my breakout group, some of whom have been using taskboards for years, and others, like me, who are not familiar with it but very enthusiastic. I can see I am going to need to have a section in my Workspace for each group, so I can add in cards for the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, etc.

Others in the group shared some amazing Taskboard (and another one) and Workspace examples, and I will also check out others linked on our course Mahi Tracker.

Dorothy – Shared Pedagogy and Kaupapa in the Context of Reading (including the ‘reading achievement challenge’)

Dorothy talked about the difficulties of having the perfect text in print but not available digitally. A few ways to address this are:

• Voice Typing – get the learners themselves to transfer the text from print to digital
• Google Keep – use the photo option to ‘rip’ the text
• Use the Preview software on a Mac to rip the text
• YouTube – Transcripts from any Youtube are readily available
• Transcript easy to display as Subtitles

She introduced a range of online reading apps, stressing from the outset that reading apps are NOT a substitute for a real teacher. She also talked about the importance of tracking student work to ensure accountability, e.g. by using Mahi Trackers, embedding a Google Form on a class website, etc.

Dorothy also referred us to the recorded toolkit from Matt Goodwin: ChatGPT 101 for Teachers, which explains how to use ChatGPT to generate different versions of a text at specified reading levels.

So many tips and tools in Dorothy’s presentation that I want to follow up on!

Naomi – Choosing Appropriate Texts

Our focus today was the second pillar of the Reading Pillars of Practice: Plan to Use Diverse Texts. It is crucial to give our students regular opportunities to encounter different kinds of text, including running print text, and model how to unpack these.

We started by discussing how accessible the text is to the student. For optimal learning, readers should make no more than one error every 10 to 19 words (90 to 94% accuracy). So if we want to make sure that students access and understand content, the text needs to be at this level of accessibility.

Extra: It is important to note that fluency instruction should be with a text that a student can read at their independent level. It is at this level where students are able to practice on speed and expression rather than decoding. The chart below describes each reading level:

Instructional vs Independent Decoding Levels:

The new refreshed English curriculum signals a clear direction on reading. I am relieved to see that at least the reading for pleasure curriculum objective has survived the government review (which shamefully erased 36 mentions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi).

“The focus of this strand is on teaching students to decode, make meaning from, and think critically about text.

It also provides opportunities for them to develop a love of reading and to value the ways in which reading widely can enrich their lives. 

As text critics, students come to understand how language and texts work, enabling them to challenge texts. By exploring texts from New Zealand, the Pacific, and around the world, students gain insights into themselves and others.” (Te Mātaiaho, p.19)

An important consideration in our text choices is whether our students see themselves reflected in the texts they read (Mirrors) or are able to explore and experience the lives of others different from themselves (Windows). Texts provide a means for students from both majority and minority cultural groups to view and experience different worlds and lives, moving from one to another (through the Sliding Glass Doors).

Professor Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University with the original analogy of windows and mirrors in relation to text diversity for readers. I found this so eloquent, and so ironic, given the current US drive to eradicate diversity and equity initiatives and remove diverse texts in schools, especially any texts with LGBTQI+ characters.

Naomi referred us to the text coverage page in our teacher workbooks, which gives a handy overview to check that diverse types of text are being used. This looks very familiar to me from previous Manaiakalani literacy PD when we were working on the T-Shaped Literacy model. I feel comfortable with this aspect as I always have tried to include diverse text types in my units.

Janet – Grouping Learners

How can we introduce the key learning ideas to a levelled grouping of learners. We want a range of texts that will be accessible for our learners, and not at the ‘Frustration’ level.

For mixed-ability groups, we need to consider ways to present information that will be accessible for all. For example, using lower-level, very accessible texts to present the main ideas/knowledge, and then a range of texts, including more complex ones which the high ability students can fly with. Using Accessible texts to convey key information reduces stress for the lower ability students and makes the ideas and content accessible to all.

Kiri – Selecting Texts for Groups

We looked at ways of sourcing texts, such as through JournalSurf, ARBs, the Connected series, etc.

When grouping students, consider reading levels, learning focus, but also student interest. I am thinking that our SchoolJoy programme will sort students by interest for me, which will help. We also need to bear in mind the importance of students aquiring vocabulary.

“It is estimated that to reach the goal of the 15 – 20 000 word vocabulary of a literate person, students must acquire a robust knowledge of about 700 words a year.”
(Beck et al, 1987)

Searching school journals on TKI will also provide a list of key vocabulary to teach.

Janet – Planning and Finding Texts for Your Groups

Some sources for texts are:

• TKI Instructional Series and Journal Surf
• Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs)
• Read Theory 
• Read Works
• Discovery
• National Geographic
• Newspapers.Com *Courtesy of Tracey Allan-Fletcher 
• Kiwi Kids News
• Vooks Poetry
• Manaiakalani Multi-Text Database

We were given some time to locate an ‘anchor text’ to use with the whole class. I will be teaching Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir, Night, with my Y10 Humanities class next term. I looked for an introductory article about the Holocaust which could be used as an introduction to the unit. I found a journal article about the buttons Holocaust memorial project run in Wellington. Unfortunately, the article was not available online, so I will need to locate a copy before I can confirm if it is suitable to use as an anchor text.

Naomi – Text Sets

Multi-modal texts are important; Manaiakalani observations show that fewer non-fiction and student-selected texts are being used in our classrooms.

Questions for the teacher to ask:

• Which text will help my learners access their prior knowledge, or build background knowledge best?
• Which text will suit their current learning intention best?
• Which text should I leave for further down the track as it will suit an upcoming learning intention better?
• Which text will present a different perspective on the concept, once they have built their knowledge?

Things to take into account:

• Ambitious learning outcomes
• Purpose
• Learning Intentions
• Length of unit/concept/topic
• Timetable
• Engagement of learners
• Richness of texts

We were also reminded to use the categories in the T-Shaped Literacy model:

Naomi – Strategy Builder: Summarising

Explicit teaching of processing and comprehension strategies involves:

• Providing an explicit description of the selected strategy and how it should be used;
• Modelling the use of the strategy which includes “thinking aloud” as the strategy is modelled;
• Scaffolding learners to enable them to use the strategy with gradually increasing independence;
• Having learners articulate what they are doing as they use the strategy;

Encouraging learners to apply the strategy as they read a range of texts and reflect on what they are doing. Teaching tips and strategies are set out on the Summarising Matrix.

At the higher levels, we can move into reciprocal teaching.

Janet & Naomi – Selecting Texts for the Wider Reading Programme

We need to cover the normal components of a reading programme, including independent reading, buddy reading or tuakana/teina,  reading with/guided reading,  and reading to. Reading aloud to our students is important to make difficult text accessible and model good reading strategies. Without having to focus on decoding, students can relax and take in more of the information. It also models the value and interest in reading.

We had a look at a transcript of a teacher leading a shared reading session with a learning objective of summarising. This was great modelling and well-scaffolded, where the whole class does the summarising for the first section, worked with a buddy and checked against the teacher’s model for the second section, and then did the third section independently.

The Reading Apprenticeship model is an approach to close reading, which is a strategy to model, scaffold, and gradually release agency to the learners. It uses unseen, unfamiliar texts so that students learn the skills to be able to read and unpack text independently. It is an active, rather than a passive process.

Reading Apprenticeship Core Routines are:

• Think Aloud
• Talking to the Text
• Using a Metacognitive Bookmark
• Problem Solving 

Kiri – Pulling it All Together

Our key elements for today have been:

• Choosing appropriate texts
• Grouping and selecting texts
• Planning and compiling text sets
• Texts for the wider reading programme

Reflections on Day 3

One thing I enjoyed about today was being able to connect to my prior knowledge of the T-Shaped Literacy model and see how that fits into planning my reading programme in Year 10 Humanities. I can see how what I am already doing, in terms of chosing a wide variety of texts and text types, can be extended by tailoring text choices to levelled reading groups. I need to explore the different resources available for curriculum levels 3 and 4, to become more familiar with them. I also want to look at using ChatGPT to provide different level versions of the same text. I am still not convinced I have found the right text for my introduction to the Holocaust unit, and I will keep hunting. I have found at least one non-fiction text on Epic which might be suitable, as well as the journal article I need to locate.

I have been pleasantly reassured that, despite not having taught guided reading formally for a long time, I do actually remember the principles and what to do!

What I will take back to my Faculty team are aspects like a reminder of the T-Shaped Literacy planning for diverse text types and some of the resources available to use to find texts for that. I would like to share the text coverage document with the team and see if we can map our planning against it and whether that identifies any gaps we should look at for our Semester 2 course planning.

In terms of what to share with my students, I will keep them updated on the guided reading programme as I plan and begin to implement this, so they understand what we are doing and why, and how it is helping them build their literacy skills.

Breakout group discussion on Homework

I had been feeling a bit down about my class survey results, but others reported similar results, so I can see that my students are not alone in not enjoying reading. One thing which I want to ask students about is the data from the question about connecting what they read to their culture. At the moment, students are reading self-chosen library books in class, so if they are not finding their culture reflected, there could be different reasons for this, including student choice of book.

Dorothy Burt – Shared Pedagogy and Kaupapa in the Context of Reading

We began by recapping our learning from Day 1, including the Valued Reading Outcomes and the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy.

Literacy has been a key focus for Manaiakalani from the start. The common practice model was designed by the Manaiakalani teachers and was where the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy originated. Teachers were asked to design their own model for literacy teaching and share it with their colleagues. It was during the discussion of these models that teachers began to refer to the ‘Learn’, the ‘Share’ and the ‘Create’ – saying things like, “It was during the Create that…” An example of one of these models is the following one from Karen Fergusen at Tamaki College:

Learning is social: we need to include others in our learning. Students’ learning blogs are key in providing an audience outside the immediate classroom. To make the audience authentic, we need to engage with learners’ blogs, get students to comment on each others’ blogs, and also interact with other Manaiakalani schools.

Dorothy also emphasised the importance of podcasting – students need to have the opportunity to orally record what they have written and/or record themselves reading other texts. This encourages students to work on fluency in their reading.

Naomi – Backwards Mapping from Ambitious Reading Outcomes

 Backwards mapping from ambitious reading outcomes (Unit Std 32403). This session took a look at the Reading CAA as the ultimate destination, and the need for us to plan for our students to meet that standard. As with the PD session Kiri ran with us last year here at ŌC, my main takeaway is that the assessment questions are not straightforward and require quite complex inferences – I actually got one question wrong in the sample text we looked at in my group!

Naomi said that response to text is going to be one of the main strategies suggested – I understood this to mean teaching comprehension strategies explicitly through a guided reading programme.

Kiri – Assessment 101 and Janet – Deep Dive into Assessment Data

Interpreting PAT data:

“Being able to compare a learner’s achievement level with the difficulty level of questions can be useful when examining which questions were answered correctly. For instance, when a learner has not correctly answered a question located well below their scale score, this could indicate an area of need in their future learning.” – PAT Pānui Kaiako Guide

“Reflective questions kaiako can ask about the data include:
• What patterns can you see—for instance, across questions representing the different comprehension attributes or the options selected for a particular question?
• What types of text genres and questions do your ākonga cope with well?
• What texts and question types are your ākonga finding difficult? • Are there common themes across groups of ākonga who did or did not excel?
• How have ākonga experiences and opportunities to read in the classroom and at home affected achievement?”
– PAT Pānui Kaiako Guide

I found these two sessions really helpful in identifying precise learning targets for students. I had known that the PATs gave good formative data, but have never really used it or understood where to find and interpret what I needed. I found that the data was a lot more accessible and practical than I had believed. I had no idea that the assessment data had handy links to the ARBs which provide curriculum level texts to use.

The following slide summarised the five key skills the PAT Reading Comprehension test is assessing:

Naomi – Keeping Track of Learning

Naomi introduced us to the teacher workbook. I like the way it provides a really useful way of identifying the curriculum objectives (the new English Y0-6 and current English Y7-13) relevant to any reading focus identified from the PAT data.

Kiri – Developing Assessment-Capable Learners: Using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

The LIs should connect to the Know-Understand-Do in the curriculum. Take the context out and focus on the transferrable skill. The LI can be about the process rather than the product.

Not all tasks need detailed success criteria and not all tasks lend themselves to co-construction e.g. where students do not have a certain level of understanding of the skill or terminology.

Follow-up back at College – ‘Homework’

I chose a focus group of students from my Y10 Humanities class. These 5 students are working at curriculum level 4 for reading.  I analysed their individual PAT item reports and the errors they had made, to identify the three key skills they need to develop:

• Local Inference
• Interpret & Integrate
• Critique & Evaluate

Of these, I identified Local Inference as the most important skill to focus on for this group initially, as the other two are dependent on it. I chose the following Achievement Objective from English curriculum level 4:

Inferring: independently predict, interpret and analyse text, ‘reading between the lines’ to gain a deeper meaning.

From this AO, I developed the following Learning Goal to share with the group:

Making inferences, drawing conclusions and getting meaning from the text by ‘reading between the lines’ (infer; inferring; inference) to understand the author’s purpose.

The success criteria I shared with the students for them to self-assess whether they have met the Learning Goal were:

I can:

• • Explain what ‘infer’ or ‘reading between the lines’ means; 
  • Use clues to “read between the lines”
  • Find examples of “reading between the lines” in the text.
  • Explain the difference between reading “on the line” and “between the lines”

I created the following Response to Text guided reading task which I shared with my target group via their class workspace. The text I used was from the ARBs linked on the NZCER Assist PAT website for “Local Inference” at Curriculum Level 4.

I then videoed myself running the guided reading session with the target group. My mentor, Megan, viewed the video and, based on our coaching discussion, I have identified the following next steps for this group and the class:

• Get choice boards sorted for every reading group for next week. For this first session with my target group, I set other work for the rest of the class, but ideally, I want to run a rotation system, so I see every group for guided reading while the other groups are working on their choice board activities.
• I need to have a discussion with the target reading group around when to help another student and when to give them time to work things out for themselves. For example, I asked a student to sound out a word which he was having trouble with, but other group members jumped in and told him how to pronounce it.

I have also made a resolution to get my blogpost from Day 3 published on the day!

Over the last few weeks we have been learning about te Tiriti o Waitangi.  Taking a deeper look into the history behind Te Tiriti.  Below you will find some of the responses to questions that Ruma Toru tamariki asked their peers.  Ruma toru, enjoyed having a variety of choices to share their knowledge.  They are still learning about the Treaty of Waitangi and what happened.  What knowledge do you have about Te Tiriti?

Reader Profile Survey

As part of my RPI course, I used the following slideshow with my Year 10 Humanities class and asked them to complete the Reader Profile Survey.

Survey Results

My Analysis of the Survey Results

My key takeaways from the survey results were:

• Only 1/3 of my class reads for pleasure
• Students think that their teachers have a lower perception of their reading ability than they do, while their families think they are better readers than they themselves do.
• On the reading behaviours and skills, most students said that they give up immediately if they don’t understand what they are reading.
• Students often lose track of the meaning before they get to the end of a sentence.
• Most students felt they could not connect what they were reading to their cultural identity.

My perception is that teacher attitudes come across as negative and that I have some work to do in teaching, encouraging and reinforcing the strategies students can use to decode more difficult text.

Ground Rules for Talk

At a subsequent lesson, I introduced the Ground Rules for Talk with the class, using the following slideshow:

Student Comments on the Survey Results

The groups were tasked with reading and discussing the following Summary of the Reader Profile Survey results for the class:
Each group had the survey results on their Chromebooks, a copy of the Ground Rules for Talk and a sheet of A3 paper on which they were asked to record points from their discussion of the results. Here are the comments recorded by each group:

Some of the key points that came through were:

• Forcing people to read when they don’t want to just makes them hate reading.
• Some students prefer to read at home, so people don’t know they are good readers.
• Reading is difficult for some students, e.g. with dyslexia.
• Time spent on sustained silent reading (SSR) in class seemed debated, with some saying it was too long and others that it should be longer.
• There seemed general agreement that students needed to be encouraged, not forced, to read.
• Students need to be helped to find a book they will actually enjoy.

As I circulated around the groups, I recorded the following student comments, which are not reflected in their group notes:

• I could be earning money [instead of reading].
• I’d rather just play a game.
• It’s something I’ve got to do for school.

Student Suggestions for Improving Engagement in Reading

Finally, the students were asked to come up with their best ideas on how to improve students’ engagement in reading for enjoyment. They recorded these on sticky notes as follows:

• Make reading activities more hands on.
• Make reading activities more engaging and interesting for the students.
• Just have a class book which is read aloud by the teacher.
• During reading time, give the option to do a different type of work that isn’t reading.
• Get better books in the library, e.g. comic books, picture books, and books filled with short stories.
• Going through each genre of books to find what you most enjoy.
• Encourage people to pick books they are interested in, instead of randomly picking a book to read.
• Not force it but encourage it.
• Try to find a relaxing place to read.
• Help people find books that they like.
• People around them reading.
• We could help people by finding a book they like.

Student reflections on how well they used the Ground Rules for Talk

My reflections on the Ground Rules for Talk

I was pleasantly surprised by the way that students engaged in the discussion and the way that many referred back to the ground rules as they were talking.

I had laminated copies of the Ground Rules for each group, which was a useful visual reminder.

Next time I will provide some question and discussion prompts as well, on another card, and perhaps allocate group roles.

                                                                                       New Zealand 2025                                                                     “Goblins are giant plump creatures ,” explained my grandad. “That’s how I got this.” His dry bony finger pointed to a slightly faded scar on his cheek. “ Now you scurry along now Hunter.”

 It was the day before Thanksgiving and my granddad was staying with me and my mom. My dad died. My granddad likes telling story’s about goblins, knights, dragons… that sort of stuff. I enjoy the stories. I just personally prefer ‘science facts’ and the solar system. Did you know that our solar system includes the Sun, eight planets, five officially named dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and thousands of asteroids and comets?

 One day it was pouring with rain so I had to stay inside. My granddad told me a tale of giant clock bots, knights and air ships.  

Eventually it was time for dinner. I wandered to the table and wondered what else was there in the universe…     

1000 years later…

New Zealand 3025

The streets were filled with tech. It had been 900 years since hunter new mail the great inventor had died. Now the only thing that we remember him by are the robots flying cars, his weapons of pure energy and his robot suit. He was a superhero in his robot suit of titanium alloy. He faced magic and monsters. I’m Jackson and I live in techno city.

I loved writing the story I wrote it because I wanted to put my self in my charactars shoes to see what it was like.

if you were a character in this story Which one would you be?

Hugo’s Blog

Sapphire’s Blog

Mia’s Blog

sir walter raleigh

The quality of mercy is not strained

it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

What a great day enjoyed by all.  Totara won the chants which was well deserved.  Here are the words for our chants:

I said Uuuuuuuuuu, it’s green in here.  It must be Totara in the atmosphere!

Totara! MANA! Totara! KIA KAHA!

We’re mean, we’re green, we’re the Totara machines!

Totara! Totara! Mighty and green.  Totara! Totara! Strong and serene.  Totara! Totara! Hitting the bar.  Totara! Totara! Low key stars.

Athletics

Despite being sun burnt and wind swept, I managed to be engaged and take part in the Edublogs PD.

I feel this displays Character – Perseverance and Resilience and Using technology for learning.