RPI: Day 6 - Vocabulary (and decoding)

Today we focussed on vocabulary and the importance of ensuring we provide robust vocabulary instruction. I don't currently follow any sort of progression, it has more been just as I have identified a certain need/gap but after todays session I can see how it is important to have a more structured approach. I am going to try and rework my timetable over the holidays and incorporate one or two mini vocabulary sessions each week as well as introducing some vocabulary activities into my contracts. I know our school has a set of the 'Switch on to Spelling' books so I am going to have a look at them to see if they have a progression that I might be able to use.

I was so glad to see that one of the things we were focussing on today was building on from our ground rules for talk by introducing roles during our conversations. This fits in so well with my 'Assesment for Learning' professional development goal which is to: Find more ways to elicit evidence of learning from a greater number of students. During one of my observations we identified that it was the same few students contributing or answering questions so I have been looking at ways to involve more students and give me a better indication of who understands the learning and who is just cruising in the background unnoticed. I will definitley be introducing the 'initiator' and 'builder' role prompts to my class...

                      

                      

I am also going to add the 'Cambridge Dictionary' to our class site as I really liked that it has the ability to read the word aloud. I am going to have a good look through the resoruces shared with us and organise some vocabulary activities that I will introduce next term and keep repeating so that they can become indepenedent activities in their contract. 

I do have a type of word wall set up in my class but we have not really been utilising it so I think I will look into a more interactive appealing type of display. I think I might also try and incorporate a 'kupu o te ra' into our morning routine (maybe 2-3 times a week to make it more manageable). I think this will generate some good discussion and hopefully create some excitement as my students look forward to finding out what the new word is each couple of days. 

RPI: Day 5 - Planning a Programme

A tad bit late with my Day 5 blog post and some of my homework unfortunately. The past few weeks have been challenging with sickness, reports, testing, observations and lots of time out of class (release days, meetings, tangi, teacher only days etc). Definitley not trying to make excuses but the reality is that the usual routines in my class have been non existent the past few weeks. 

I feel like the goals I had for myself at the end of our previous RPI day are still what I need to focus on as I simply havnt had the time in class to implement them.  These things were:

- Introducing some sort of 'hand it in' system to make keeping track of students progress more manageable. A long with this I need to adjust my timetable to fit in a conferencing timeslot.

- Refocussing on the 'Ground Rules for Talk' with all of my reading groups.

- Making an effort to explain the 'WHY' to my students - Why are we doing this? How is it going to help us in life? Why is is relevant ? etc

- Incorporating blogging into our contract - posting and commenting.

- Look into different types of digital modelling books to see if this is something that would work for me and my students.

I am finding all of the content of this course really valuable but there is alot to take in. I need to remind myself that it is better to implement a few things well rather than becoming overwhelmed and not doing things justice. I can always come back to the others things at a later date and introduce them gradually.

I have set up a 'Read Theory' account as I really liked what I seen....especially the simple no frills layout. I think this will really benefit my students and make them feel more prepared during testing. I plan to have a good look at this site over the holidays and explore how it works so we can start using it in term 3.

A long with the things I have mentioned above, I am simply going to focus on keeping things familiar for my students for the remainder of this term, until these tasks/procedures are ingrained and they can confidently complete them independently.