Deep learning conversations about planning for purposeful learning drawing on the Reading Planning Fala

Vocabulary

Through the learn activities, there is a focus on vocabulary in the texts. There is a shift in the student discussions where students are often questioning the meaning of words they come across in their texts. The students are also experimenting with using these words in their everyday conversations. Some of the activities around vocabulary are identifying how the words are used in the text. What about the text type, sentence, paragraph helps us predict what the word means? The students are now consciously using these strategies to predict the meaning of words they do not understand. 

Text selection

In a meeting with my sample group of teachers, we discussed the topic of text selection for learning. In the Reading Planning FALA, it states to have a specific text selection for a rich set of texts. We unpacked what this might look like as we select texts for our planning.

• Multimodal - comics/graphic novels, picture books, newspapers, brochures, print advertisements, posters, storyboards, digital slide presentations
• Caters for the learning intention - does the text support the lessons purpose for students to achieve the Learning Intention of the unit?
• Texts which are challenging and fosters perseverance of reading - are the texts challenging for the students? Do they enable the students to struggle with the text and seek clarification through rich discussions?
• Information/topic specific - do the texts relate to the topic of study? Enables wide and narrow reading for information? 
• Main, supporting, challenge text - Will two texts support each other and the challenge text encouraging the students to compare and contrast information from the texts and making their own conclusions?
• Student choice in text selection - Will the students have opportunities to seek more texts of their own choice which links to the unit of study?
• Vocabulary - texts introduces students to new vocabulary

There are so many aspects to think about with text selection but when teachers are purposeful in their text selection, the learning will be more purposeful, challenging and enjoyable for the students. 

Extended discussions 

For years, our school have focussed on having rich discussions during learning. In Maths with the use of TALK MOVES to facilitate discussions. In reading, a focus on having dialogic discussions. Yet, I still feel and observe that our students are reliant on us as teachers to lead discussions and prompt them. I have seen and experienced some excellent discussions where the students have been so involved in their discussions that it almost sounded like a heated debate about the topic. I did reflect after those lessons if it was the topic the students were passionate about or the texts or set up of the lesson. I believe purposeful discussions have to be planned for and that comes from the teacher knowing the focus of the unit of learning, the lesson and understanding the texts and where to focus the discussion for extended discussions. 

Reflection

It is great to be engaged in these learning conversations with my colleagues because it not only highlights what we need to work on but also empowers each of us to change our mindset and try new ideas in our planning and teaching. I feel we have definitely shifted in our understanding of how to plan and teach reading and it is still a work in progress but the shift in understanding is definitely evident from our professional discussions. 

AKo, Hanga, Tohatoha

Learn, Create, Share
Ako, Hanga, Tohatoha

My class shared projects they have been working on for the last two weeks. The unit was for four weeks where the first two weeks the students were learning using learning materials created by me. The last two weeks, the students inquired into ares of our topic they were interested in. The unit was on what New Zealand produces for the world and ourselves. 

Having shorter inquiry units linked with literacy has been so successful in my class. Where before, we would drag a unit for a whole term, now we have a long term inquiry topic but choose different lines (aspects) of inquiry to focus on for 4-5 weeks. I found the students enjoyed the shorter and focussed progress of learning. I also feel the two weeks of front loading and exploring the topic using the materials I prepared led the way for the students to choose their own inquiry topics. 

With the individual student inquiries, some scaffolding was needed to brainstorm and select topics and main questions for the student inquiries. After the main inquiry question was chosen I then conferenced with the students about the supplementary questions they could ask to help them answer their main question. 

The searching for information was a learning process the students are confident in. Support is still needed for some students to identify what relevant sources of information are and to translate information they read into their own understanding. This is an ongoing need as students are using digital sources of information for their learning. Thus highlighting the importance of being cybersmart. 

The Create part of the student projects was interesting to observe and monitor. Where some students were happy and excited to plan their create activity and how they would present their work, some needed a lot of motivational talks, prompting and observing. 

At the end of the inquiry cycle, it was great to see the students presenting the information they researched and also their create tasks. We had hand made fashion items, fashion walks, farms, stages, arenas, aeroplanes and many more creative ideas hand made by the students. Our showcase was a celebration of the end of this inquiry cycle but more importantly, a celebration of my students' success in their learning. Where success looks different for every child, every success was acknowledged and celebrated.