Friday, 27 June 2025

End of Term 2 Update

 The end of term seemed like a distant event that would take a while to get to. But in true busy school term fashion, it has landed upon us with a bang and a rush to complete all our many mini projects and marking.

The last few weeks have been tough but rewarding at the same time. From our reports deadlines in week 6, to prepping for ERO in week 8. We had an amazing celebration of Matariki with our Dawn Service led by Matua Willis - it really was a great understanding and feeling of welcoming in the Maori New Year, Remembering our loved ones who have passed and setting new goals for the future. Check out a little snippet of our morning.


In terms of my inquiry, I'll be posting up during the holidays the running records results from the mid-year testing as well as our OTJ's that went out as part of our learners reports.


Friday, 23 May 2025

RPI: Day 5 - Planning reading for the wider programme of learning

 I really enjoyed todays sessions about reading and can finally say I have caught up homework from Day 3 and Day 4 of RPI. As I only have 3 days a week in class, I have to make sure I am super organised to try and implement or try out some of the activities and programmes we cover so that I am able to collect sufficient evidence and also students get a decent go with me in class.

Dorothy's session this morning covered the 3 click rule around our learning sites and what we need to ensure students learning is visible. I feel my team do this very well and have been doing so for a few years now. An area of improvement for our own site would be to intentional with have the following elements as shown in the slide below. 


Another part of todays session covered 'Reading Apprenticeship' - I definitely need to implement the use of this specific language so students know what is expected when they are asked to move into these groups. Reading Apprenticeship - is the metacognitive discussion on reading processes. This is for students and led by students. 

One part I really enjoyed today was in our breakout groups. My group was with Naomi and our session was called "read like writers and write like readers". This was great fun and she's modelled it just like how we could for our students. This reminded me of some PD we did some 10+ years ago called 'Reading - writing links' by Rebecca Jesson and she called it "cameo texts". I really enjoyed this session because as Naomi shared, it definitely beats trying to get 2 alliterations or 'make sure you use at least one simile'. But rather students have an extract of text which models exactly what you would like your students to replicate. The hardest part for me in creating this would be creating the scaffolded part especially when you want to use more than one text.

Having us teachers model and try out some "Think Alouds" today was very useful as without the practice and monitoring from our facilitators we probably wouldn't be doing this justice or even doing it wrong. 

I will also aim to have a better go at collecting text sets from EPIC to help with reading in class. Overall another super useful session and I look forward to using some think alouds in class.



Wednesday, 21 May 2025

RPI: Guided reading observations - reflections

 One part of our homework for RPI was to observe a couple of groups using one of the following tools for observation. Although I have year 7 and 8 learners, my highest reading age is 9.5 years old. So I decided to use just a scarp piece of paper to record reading strategies and behaviours shown by my different groups. Below is one of my lower level groups.


This proved very helpful as each student was able to see my feedback on their piece of paper, then take that paper away as part of their follow up activity with their support staff. This was also very useful anecdotal notes for both myself and students to see what they are doing well, when breaking up unknown words, and reminders to not skip over the simple words they already knew.

My higher level readers also got a taste of reading aloud together but at their own pace. I must admit, we spend so much time unpacking texts, and working on extended discussion, I have been expecting students to read the text independently before coming to see the teacher. So this was refreshing to see and hear students fluency, pronunciations and word attack skills still being used at a higher reading level when their main focus is reading to learn, rather than learning to read.

My hope is more check points and modelling of this as a whole class, will go well towards the overall reading fluency and improvement in reading for all students.

Sunday, 18 May 2025

1st South and East Auckland Maths Challenge for 2025

 Ever wanted to hook competitive kids into maths? Now's your chance! 

Last week Pt England hosted the South and East Auckland Maths Challenge hosted by Katalina Ma from Auckland University. This is our 4th time joining the competition and our 2nd time hosting. 

This time we had great competition from Panmure Bridge and Glen Taylor joining us for the first time. The South Auckland schools who also competed were South Auckland Middle School, Viscount, Mangere Central and De La Salle.

Below is a bit about the Maths Challenge. 

Katalina and Josephina are the co-founders of maths challenge. Initially it started in south Auckland (SAMC) for year 9 and 10 Māori and Pasifika students with an objective to increase interest in competitive maths in preparation for the regional Mathex competition.

Since starting in 2019, maths challenge has since then expanded to include central and west schools for years 9 and 10 as well as year 7 and 8 in south Auckland. This year they are looking to expand again as we all know the real fun for maths starts in primary school! So they are on the hunt for any interested parties keen to provide an opportunity for your year 5 and 6 Māori and Pasifika learners.

The competition concept is very similar to mathex where it's a team of 4 students with one student being the runner. There are 15 questions to complete in 20 minutes. 

If you are a teacher, parent or student interested to join this competition, then please contact katalina.ma@auckland.ac.nz

Check out the maths challenge in action from last week at Pt England school or click on the links below if you'd like to know more.

University of Auckland

Newshub

Tagata Pasifika

Social media - Instagram

Friday, 2 May 2025

RPI: Day 4 - Small group reading instruction

Day 4 of RPI covered small group reading instruction. Rather than putting all my notes from today dumped here on my blog, I threw it onto ChatGPT to see if it could make sense of what I had written down and I was pleasantly surprised with its sense making of my bullet points. 

Reading Apprenticeship vs Guided Reading: What’s the Difference?

Guided reading focuses on teacher-led small group instruction with texts at the students’ instructional level. We use this time to:

  • Introduce word work
  • Observe reading behaviors
  • Provide explicit teaching points (one at a time—less is more!)
  • Scaffold understanding with targeted strategies

In contrast, reading apprenticeship—especially at the high school level—is about gradually releasing responsibility so students can read and reason independently. It’s built on Pillar 2: Rich content coverage and Pillar 3: Gradual release. This approach helps students become metacognitive readers who take risks like saying, “I didn’t understand that—can someone help me?”

Both methods have their place. The key is knowing when to lead, when to guide, and when to let students take the wheel.

Teaching Students to Think Aloud and Read Strategically

Modeling is essential. A digital modeling book with these four parts can be incredibly helpful:

  • Learning Intention
  • Success Criteria
  • Vocabulary (co-constructed with students)
  • Teaching Points (e.g., identifying main ideas, understanding author’s craft)

Use screenshots of 1–2 text pages. Model how to notice key details and then let students justify ideas with evidence. Encourage students to annotate and leave digital comments to show thinking and participation in group discussions.

Vocabulary: Set Them Up for Success

Gift your students the right vocabulary. Use word cards, displays, and multiple encounters with key terms. Vocabulary is more than definitions—it's about using, seeing, and understanding words in context.

Introduce new texts by previewing vocabulary, but leave room for student exploration. Foreshadow where needed, but trust them to engage with the text using the scaffolds you’ve provided.

Observing Readers: Less Testing, More Listening

One of the most powerful teaching tools is listening to students read aloud. Have cues in place for when individual students will read, and use a recording sheet or even Google videos for playback and reflection.

  • Use running record-style observation:
  • Left column: What they read correctly
  • Right column: Omissions, misreads, errors that affect comprehension

Avoid bombarding them with comprehension questions. Instead, listen for fluency—expression, pace, volume, smoothness—and use that to inform your next teaching move.

Student-Led Discussion: Make It Conversational

The goal is to build purposeful, peer-to-peer conversations. Everything should go back to the text. Use the oral language strand to frame ground rules for talk, and support effective questioning—both open and probing types.

  • Before sending students off to read:
  • Annotate together
  • Set a clear purpose for reading
  • Prepare background knowledge using multi-modal materials (e.g., videos, anticipation guides)

Consolidation and Follow-Up: Revisit, Don’t Reinvent

Follow-up sessions aren’t for introducing new content. They’re for:

  • Rehearsing vocabulary and strategies
  • Consolidating learning
  • Bringing together different perspectives
  • Blogging or sharing outcomes in digital spaces

This is where students truly start to own the learning, reflecting on what they’ve read and how they’ve read it.

Overall, another great workshop session to add to our kete in class. As shared in our session by our facilitators, it's not meant as extra work but rather to add to our normal class routine so that students get used to the think alouds and follow up tasks.

Friday, 28 March 2025

RPI: Day 3 - Text Selection

 Day 3 of RPI kicked off with Dorothy covering what reading in a digital world looks like for us teachers, as well as students. One of the parts we covered was around the use of reading apps. I am so glad Dorothy said it out loud as it needed to be said - but reading apps are NOT a substitute for instructional reading sessions with an actual teacher. Instead, by using the built in affordances provided by most of these apps, they can be used as an independent timetabled reading task. Making good use of, and sharing with students the dashboard data provided in most reading apps ensures that it also doesn't just become busy work.

One work on I took away from Dorothy's segment was to sign up to more toolkits to ensure I am making the most of the digital affordances provided by the Chromebooks in class. 

Using appropriate texts: Mirrors, Windows and Sliding doors

I had come across and been exposed to the kaupapa of ensuring students could see themselves in texts, as well as opening their world views and experiences through text, but I hadn't heard of the 'sliding doors' part. Having a diverse set of texts to choose from, ensures texts could go both ways where they could see both mirrors and windows, but also stepping in and out of the different worlds as written by Rudine Sims Bishop.


One real useful segment we covered today was the use of text sets. We had covered this last year as a team but this time I fully understood the 'why' behind each text we were choosing. I originally selected texts based purely on theme. Today we learnt about a ramp text - which was a middle ground text the whole class/group could cognitively access easily. This could be used as a springboard into the 'anchor' text which is a main/meaty text you wanted the group to focus on. From here you'd also attache a poem, video, graphic text or poster to go with to provide extra information and support the main anchor text.

I am looking forward to completing my own text set for ANZAC for week 1 of next term. I am also going to try out the Kakapo group taskboard provided in todays session on one of my groups.



Thursday, 13 March 2025

CoL: Profiling - Part 1

This year, after discussions with our Senior Management Team and my team leader, I've decided to focus my inquiry on reading. This will hopefully align with what I am also learning about in the Reading Practice Intensive (RPI) being run every 3rd week.

My identified/priority learners I have chosen are: 9 students all with a current reading age of 8.5 years. 

Out of the nine, only 3 are students I had previously taught last year. The following are my priority groups responses to our reading survey results I carried out as part of our RPI course in getting to know our learners through a 'reader' lens. 

Here are a few results from the reading survey:

Here are my priority learners PAT scores:

My next blog post will have more about students reading behaviours gathered from the reading survey.