Teacher Inquiry

Teacher Inquiry
Here are some of the slides from the presentation I gave to staff on Wednesday. I shared my teacher inquiry with the staff at 
Hamilton East School.


We have been sharing stories in reading, relating the texts to ourselves. We share stories during learning experiences and in most curriculum areas. The children have responded positively to sharing stories about common experiences and it has become a part of our class culture. 



I used the app Write about this NZ. 
You can read how it came about on this blog post by Allanah King. I think it is fabulous. It allows children to use a kiwi photo (or take their own). Using the writing prompt they can record their story. I have been using it to help children figure out where to put full stops. I ask them to use the speak tool on the ipad to listen to it, then they can edit their writing. Lastly they record their own voice and save it. Tash used the app in her class yesterday. You can read about her experience here.


One thing I learned was to lessen teacher talk. I have done this by using oral language groups, allowing for quick chats between peers to share ideas and to change the oral language groups regularly.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reviewing, editing and celebrating writing.

Image
-Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey Two stars and a wish, stamp for wow word, stamp for cool sentence. I am learning what I am learning and  why.  Highlight in reading, lists of different sentence starters.  I can find examples in my writing. I can improve my writing. I can talk about my success and next steps. I write carefully as I go. Write a bit, read, fix up as you go. Self-check my writing and fix up some mistakes.  Let kids fix up some (4) then move on. I feel like an author and want to share my writing.   Too focused on quantity not planning and editing. Do I make it manageable? Do I value that part of the lesson? Feel like they share something from their writing with someone most days. A buddy, buddy class, at home, on the blog.  Responding model on p197. From the influence of Gail Loane, everyone is an author. Two stars and a wish- first, respond to the message, then criteria. We write to communicate an idea. 1. Message 2. Positives ...
Read more

Letting the learner lead

At GAFE this year they talked about asking the students to think of a problem and come up with a solution. I have been pondering how this can look in my classroom. I thought about a whole class slot of time to allow them to work on a project, then I thought about giving them the problem, and I also thought about how it could work with what things are already happening in the class. At the end of it I could see that modelling the process means that when a problem arises naturally for the students in my class they will know the process to solve it. So I have let them follow ideas they have as much as I can, fitting it into our class program and allowing them to work on projects as they arise. For example Morris is wanting to raise awareness about the weeds on the nature trail so I am supporting him to do this by allowing him time to write a message and to put the weed busters website on QR codes and stick them on the path for others to access. Another example is below. This is a...
Read more

Clarity in the classroom

Clarity in the Classroom Author: Michael Absolum Workshop from Toni Making learning intentions clear for the students. Knowing where students are to pitch their learning criteria. Example writing lesson: Played video from literacy shed- Showed clip reminding of that they had been looking at retells. Talk about the video with class, wrote down key feelings as the SC was to add detail.... Teacher to write plan, then students don't need to write the plan. Gave a sheet with thoughts and feelings on for them to add in their books. Show models of how to write it. Send away able writer's reminding of the SC. 2 or 3 examples of adding feelings, challenge is to write why they are feeling a certain way. eg He was sad and asked.... Feedback just focussed on the SC of adding details through feelings. Reminder of the SC. Clarity about what is to be learnt handout and checking where we are as a teacher on the rubric.
Read more