Reflecting 2024

 Reflecting on the success of your inquiry and what next steps you need to take to continue is the last essential step in our PGC Inquiry Cycle. Reflecting on what you changed in your practice and if you felt it was successful or not is essential. Detailing your self-change and aligning this with what your students achieved due to this is important to the reflection process. Overall reflection of the inquiry leads into the next steps you should take to continue to grow your practice which can then help you frame what has happened also.

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2024 was a tough year with some real challenges with learning and behaviour due to the make up of the class.

Two neurodiverse students (learning and behaviour challenges) plus a number of students who require significant support to be able to attempt and/or complete their work presented some daily challenges. Two children are actively resistent to writing and often avoid/refuse to do any. For some the act of writing itself was a challenge and we worked hard on body and hand strength, pen grip and letter formation.

Due to a range of behaviours and some children with low intrinsic motivation the class was grouped to support these needs therefore there were very mixed abilities in each group. Three out of four groups worked with an adult each day following an explicit whole class teaching lesson. The other group also participated in the explicit teaching before doing literacy based activities. We aimed to do some writing every day.

Again, the diversity in group with regards the ability to sit and concentrate for a period of time was a challenge as some children distracted others as their own concentration lapsed. Regular attendance was a big issue for some which meant missing out on the building blocks of the writing programme.

Oral language development also presented challenges as some children could not actually say what they wanted to write. This was both language structure ( eg Me instead of I, understanding gender, tense) as well as the sounds represented by letters, blends and diagraphs ( v/f for th) etc. One child needs to wear a baha for both ears but this was erratic.

The positives:

  • Aligning writing to follow the sequence of BSLA meant at least a double hit of the focused/new phonics knowledge.
  • Adding illustrations to published work gave reading practise.
  • A visual cue lightened the cognitive load by removing the thinking about what to write.
  • Choice was provided to support each cue to allow children a say in what they wrote about.
  • The repetition of the colourful semantics structure made it predictable and allowed everyone to know what to expect.
  • A consistent structure to lessons created opportunities for all learners to participate where they could. eg Axl told us everyday to go back to the start to make sure it makes sense.
  • Weaving kaupapa and written language using knowledge of phonics taught eg Te Moana crab, rock, jump, leap, hunt, water etc
Some children made fantastic progress and are now capable of writing independently. They now choose to write in their own time. 

2025 and beyond.
  • Continue with explicit visuals that work alongside the current BSLA taumata. cvc, split diagraph etc
  • Continue to use the Colourful Semantics structure
  • Set up  opportunities for independent writing as part of the rotation.
  • Use videos of myself  etc in the digital space to allow children to rewind and repeat ( new learning for me)
  • Make sure the mechanics are sorted early. Handwriting as well as sentence structure
  • Continue my own learning: Number Agents, The Kiwi Reading Doctor and The  Writing Teacher on Facebook are all inspiring and informative as well as the BSLA teachers FB page.
  • Focus children on learning goals  eg what letters/sounds they are working on. Personalise this for them.
  • Weaving the weekly vocab book plus the kaupapa into our written language programme more when possible.
  • Consider the time slot. We have tried after morning tea ( fed and exercised) as well as just before lunch ( ran out of time) Preference for when TA support is available.
  • I wonder if creating some shared experiences to focus our writing on so that each learner can be connected to the experience and the language. We did this for maths and as a follow up for our vocab books. I wonder if a Monday/Tuesday experience to preload would be better than a Friday one to wind up. Maybe run the week Wed - Tues?
  • Change the layout of the room. The whiteboard/ teaching space could be in a space that better supports the explict teaching session. 

Pen grip example. 



WH 2024

























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