Monday, August 29, 2016

Term 3 - All Go!


Image Attribution: www.pixabay.com

What you would see?
As Term 3 is quickly passing by I reflected on the question; what would someone coming into my classroom see me doing differently? The most visible change would be the focus of my direct teaching group sessions. I am very aware of what words students are struggling to decode and/or comprehend, yet also pre-planned for deliberate words to study and explore. When such words are identified I put them on the whiteboard and get students to ‘explore’ them via a number of different means. Sometimes this might be getting students to find any parts of the word that they recognise or breaking the word into sounds. Other times it I direct students to google the word to find its definition and discuss any connections stemming from this. During these times my students are more engaged than earlier this year in actually wanting to engage with the word and discover its meaning.


What’s the plan?
Already this term I have begun the process of retesting all of my students to give me valuable information on their progress. Specifically for this inquiry I am wanting to see the progress, identify the needs (new or old) and use this to influence my inquiry direction going forward. So far within my inquiry group there has been a mixture some improvement in their decoding, whilst still for others it’s a big need.


Going forward this term I have a few areas of focus:
  1. Repetition: I want to set up a Padlet, doc or presentation where I can get students to record the words we discuss and use this as a place to revisit to ensure we get good repetition of words.
  2. Sounds: Look more specifically at sounds within words: Word endings, Contractions, Middle sounds, & Medial Blends.
  3. New Vocabulary: I want to get my students to become more independent at decoding and defining unknown words. To do this I want to find ways that my students can independently record unknown words, research them and finally share and discuss them with their group.

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