Most Likely to Succeed

A movie set in America about a High School that has changed their whole way of learning to increase student agency, motivation and achievement.

No teacher standing at the front of a room talking but a cooperative, learner centred, student directed environment where the teacher is a facilitator, guide, mentor, in the background.

The change in the students was remarkable - disengagement suddenly changed and the learning achieved was remarkable as students were able to take over the direction of the learning.

Can we do this in New Zealand? Can we do this in a Primary School setting? Can we do this within the National Standards context, with a focus on standardisation?

but  . . . wouldn't it be a great way to operate in our classrooms? - and in an increasingly changing world, shouldn't we be focussing on developing those Key Competencies and core values in authentic contexts?

Our classroom . . .

Storyboarding with Solo

What an excellent job the children did of storyboarding Ohinemutu legends prior to our Marae visit.

It turned out to be rather a difficult task - one I thought would be easy! However, we had to decipher language written in the early 1900 and all the diverse vocabulary prevalent then . . . and then retell in our own language. An excellent writing and reading task - but how would we know we'd achieved any form of success? 'A Solo rubric,' the children said. 

What a great idea! 

So we wrote one - and didn't that give so much more direction to our writing.  

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

                                                                          
Presentation by DIane Akurangi (ICAMHS) and Tara McGeough (MOE)                          29/06/2016                                                                                                                                        

• 'A brain that's hardwired differently'
• Autism - basically impairment of social interactions, difficulty maintaining interactions, preoccupied with special interests, repetitive motor movements: using speech, objects.
• Thrives on routines, ritualised patterns
• Sensory sensitivities
• Aspergers - no difficulty with language, usually high functioning, 
• 2015: all labels now under the autism umbrella.
• Deficits in social settings across the board, difficulties with social/emotional reciprocity, difficulties with social relationships
• At major transitions in life they often crash eg transition to intermediate, high school, university . . . it's about how much this all impacts on day to day life.
• Mood disorders, (particularly anxiety), language impairments, specific learning difficulties
• SUPPORT NET- carer support, respite care, home based behavioural support
• Social skills training is needed for these kids - sadly lacking in our area.

Autism in schools and how to support them:

• Be informed about ASD and its characteristics - be aware, be prepared!
• 'Theory of Mind' - the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
• Educate the other children in the class as to the student - with the parents consent
• 'Social stories' can be used, see link
• Social scripts - how to interact with the librarian / conversation starters 
• Power Cards - use the child's interests to create the activity they are to do.
• Echolalia - parrot's off 
• Personal space issues 
• They are concrete - not abstract
• Inappropriate body language, peculiar fixed eye gaze
• They struggle with other people's body language / facial expressions/ social dynamic
• Use their interests to get them to learn
• Inflexible adherence to routines
• Watch transitions from one activity to another - they have major problems with them
• Any learning must be at concrete level - they are concrete thinkers
• They don't filter information
• Know where their strengths lie.
• Know what potentially sensory issues really bother them.
• Tips for autism - www.tipsforautism.org.nz              
• Autism NZ have excellent resources to help teachers work with these children.

Senior Assessment file

What a job this has been, basically the result of the parent questionnaire that Gareth set up last year.

Many parents in the senior school indicated that they felt there needed to be more accessible information on where their child was at in their learning. 

Each year we also have requests for 'reports' to assist children and their families with their Intermediate applications - I agree; our school should have a handout / form of reporting as to their child's achievements to date.

This will hopefully meet that need - a work in progress. However, parents of the year 6 children were very happy when I rolled it out at 3-way conferences. Great!

Senior Assessment File

E- Learning in the Classroom

An excellent site on how our new e-learning journey links to classroom practice and the PTC.

Reading to Learn

Reading to Learn with Melanie Winthrop      

Years 3-6

***Reading to Learn strategies: Some excellent ideas/reminders on how to approach targeted teaching strategies for ' reading to learn' learners.

• Disciplinary reading / subjects
• Success - sharing assessments
• Teaching strategies and skills 
• A variety of genre 
• Reading related to writing to information - making that link
• Transfer of knowledge often doesn't get taught
• A good sight vocabulary
• Can identify author's purpose
• Thinking critically

Learning the code - the alphabet, punctuation

Making meaning. . . Being deliberate

Thinking critically - what is the author's purpose. . . 

 What does literacy acquisition mean in yrs 4-6?

Children need to be able to navigate the text, read the headings, 

Pull information from a number of texts. . . 

How to use something we've read to answer a question

Locate, evaluate and synthesise

Using strategies for a particular purpose

**There's a big difference between a good lesson and an effective lesson

By year 6 children need to have a number of strategies under control - these tools must have a purpose.

Metacognition

5 key strategies for reading to learn - High 5:

*Activating background knowledge

*Questioning

*Analysing text structure - knowing how a text works, using it for a purpose

*Creating mental images

*Summarising

Deliberate acts of teaching

Chn visualise their own text structures . . . Buildings

PACT

The aspects show what the chn have to do to engage with the curriculum

Look at PACT for teaching next steps

Teaching issues -

Empathy

Cultural values, social issues

Relationships . . . .

Summarising: Can they delete irrelevant details, connect major themes (slide is good)