Text Selection | Day 3, Term 1, 2025

 Day 2 Homework reflection: Task board

Homework this week was to introduce a task board to a group of tamariki and I forgot! At the last minute my mentor teacher had a great suggestion to record a reflection session on the task board used instead. So my students and I reflected on the learning intention and success criteria and the feedback I got from the tamariki was all positive (Very sure of themselves or good teaching??). I used Rob Wiseman’s Angry Angus Challenge (ground rules for talk) to guide us in this discussion and the tamariki really liked this which is great because I will be using this idea in my first Class on Air Episode. What I also liked about this session was getting feedback on how well the students felt they did in the learning and because the conversation turned to, "if you think you were not successful, why do you think that and what would you need to be more successful?", which generated some profound kōrero. 

How do I make this work for me?

I am learning how to make task boards work for me and my class.  At the moment I am mainly using it to front load multi modal texts related to the reader of the week. I have linked our weekly reading tasks to the task board but it is not exactly to the template recommended. I might need a session on setting up task boards?

DAY 3: TEXT SELECTION

As a teacher, day 3 made me really reflect on my planning, systems, programs, coverage (or lack of) in terms of how my classroom operates! The gaps in my teaching practice are soooo huuuuge and it's kind of overwhelming but I am an optimist and I am totally open to all types new information coming at me so don't get me wrong, I don't see this as a failure but just a whoopsie in my learning journey :D Also, this is my first year with Year 8's so it is all new to me! 

My 3 main take away from todays session: Grouping, text sets, summarizing.

Grouping: I group my learners based on ability and behavior. Research says that mixed ability grouping has it's benefits also... How might this look in my class? Something to take away and think about.

Text sets: I found this very interesting because I think I was getting text sets confused with multi modal. My understanding of multi modal was a bunch of different forms of text's about the same topic i.e. videos, books, website on gardening. However, see below for an example of a text set:

LIGHTBULB MOMENT! Sooo, when we were given time to start compiling text sets I got excited but also overwhelmed again.. How might I do this when my focus genre is explanation? Explanation = how things work = theme?  Would I be successful in this task if I compile a text set based on how things work i.e. light bulb, fan and hot air balloon as long as the structure is the same?

THEN.. this made me think about how I need to provide my students with all types of genres in my program, not just explanation. Lots. To. Do. 

Lastly, summarizing: I enjoyed learning about summarizing because this is not an area I am familiar with in terms of teaching. I found the slides easy to follow and understand. The task was a great way to see what it might look like in a classroom context and the dialogue helped too. 

RPI Day 2: Know your Learners as Readers

Recording yourself while reading + oral book review = PODCASTS!

Dorothy spoke to us about KPE (Kōrero Pt England) which are podcasts that learners of Pt England school used to show their reading and understanding of texts. The benefits are not only fluency, comprehension and engagement but it also became a tool for other learners to watch and learn from. This made me think about how I might use this is my class...? Google Vid? Screen castify? What are the rules? What are the learning intentions? I need to be specific and on point! 

I have had learners record themselves reading via screencastify in the past but had not set up a follow up activity like a review or set up proper boundaries to make it successful or long lasting. I do see the benefits in fluency and pronounciation, specifically with Te Reo Māori with some ākonga mixing up vowels and blends etc. I also think that recording a "Podcasts" may peak the interest of the young people in my class (year 7&8), therefore they will be motivated and engaged. 

Summative and Formative assessments

This kōrero made me think about how much I do reflect and assess on a daily basis which is good because as you can see in the illustration above, it is like the Chef tasting the soup along the way rather than just hoping and praying the tamariki learnt something at the end of the term! Furthermore, this section of the RPI also got me thinking about all the ways I use formative assessments without even realise I am doing it. 

We spent some time talking about PAT testing and what I found interesting were these parts of the test:

a.

b.

Picture a shows us the child's correct percentage and on the right to that it also shows the average score from an average student in an average school in NZ. This is interesting to see how they measure against the average student in regards to each question. Picture b gives more information about how they answer questions and from both of these graphs you can start to see the gaps in learning. 

Moving forward

There are a bunch of things I would love to incorporate into my class however, I will start with a task board and some inferencing activities. The long term goal would be to set up the Reading Challenge as I was highly motivated after watching Carly's video. The challenge is the lack of resouces in Te Reo Māori. If you are reading this and have already set up a bunch of Te Reo Māori resources, I would love to hear from you!