RPI Day 5 - Planning a Reading Programme

Class Site

Our students should be able to access their learning at any time and to work at their own pace is essential. Manaiakalani calls for class sites to be open to everyone and make learning accessible for our learners. 

The way a class site is set out is important as it allows learners and their family to access learning from anywhere. It is simple and to the point, which allows everyone to use the site to learn at their own pace.

Planning a Reading Programme

Timetabling

The ideal time to to do literacy is 90 minutes per day.

Timetables can include the following: Tumble/taskboard/rotation, Daily 5, must dos/can dos, independent learning tasks, long task that lasts a week + smaller ones. 

Independent tasks that can be used are Epic Books, Read Theory, Sunshine online and Sunshine Classics. We use Read Theory in LS1 as a way to prepare our learners for PAT tests and to build mileage and comprehension with texts. I've found this very helpful as learners are able to work at their own level and the tasks help with their comprehension of the text.

Linking Reading and Writing

We started a follow-up called "great beginnings" which explored the mood and atmosphere in a piece of writing. We were given a list of things to come up with and a template. Using the template we inserted our ideas. This is my piece:

The beach was silent that dawn. The only sound was the lone wave crashing against the harsh sand. The rustic piece of driftwood was stagnant and untouched by the human hand. Soft wind enfolded the driftwood like a wisp blanket. Dylan was making his way down to the shoreline. "I wonder if he'll be there again?"

I enjoyed this task as it was both simple yet effective. 

Reflection:

I enjoyed today's lesson as there are so many take aways that can be used on the classroom. The task I especially liked was the mood and atmosphere task. This was so simple yet effective and brought all of the senses into it. My learners need to improve on elaboration and adding more detail to their work and a simple task like this does that. Giving them an example will be ideal to model the expected outcome.

 

I also found the  independent apps such as Epic and Literacy Planet very interesting as I have never explored these in detail. I will be adding Literacy Planet to my timetable as a way to engage learners more. 

I found the ideas for independent tasks interesting such as Daily 5. I mildly implemented this into my class a few years ago but I believe it could help my learners this year too. By developing and adjusting tasks, this will hopefully suit my learners more effectively. I am going to trial this as apart of my reading tumble.

I have had a large amount of take aways today such as ideas for my tumble, extra activity tracking sheets, new apps and tasks. I am looking forward to implementing these into my reading routines.

Teacher Inquiry 2023

This year I chose to focus on reading. I decided this because I am in the Reading Programme Intensive and thought this would tie in well with my implementation of the RPI programme. 

My question is:

"What impact on reading comprehension will implementing the RPI strategies have on my learners when Time Point 2 PAT and running record data is collected and compared with Time Point 1 data in T4?"

Below are my introductory slides to my teacher inquiry and includes my time point 1 data. 

RPI Day 4 - Guided Reading

Guided reading as a programme:

Guided reading is a small group of learners, it has instructional goals and texts are selected to support learning needs. Dame Marie Clay is the lady who developed a guided reading approach. She did extensive research in the 1960s.

There are four approaches to reading; read aloud, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. Each of these approaches has a place in an effective reading programme.

Guided Reading Model is split into 9 steps that are summed up as preparation, introducing text/purpose, observation, discussion, teaching points, word work, consolidation/independent follow-up and reflection. 

Introducing the text is important to engage learners prior knowledge. This could be as simple as watching a video about the topic prior to the guided reading session. Making vocabulary visible to make connections to them and define them. Learners are able to use their prior knowledge of words to define what they mean in their own words. Making predictions based on pictures and words. 

Background knowledge and prior knowledge are two seperate things. It helps determine what they know and what they need to know. Asking the right questions is essential to get the right answer.

Fluency

As part of our homework we had to record two learners reading a book we may use. Using these recordings we listened and observed what their next steps would be. We marked it against this rubric. This was incredibly helpful to see what they need to work on in order to become more fluent in reading.

Discussion

Discussion is important when it comes to guided reading. Allowing the learners to have open conversations about the text with one another is essential. Asking open ended questions allows learners to listen and respond to each others' ideas. 

Due to flooding in Auckland we have stopped the RPI session early.