Activity 2 Videos: Science of Reading; Why kids are struggling to learn how to read.

Human brain not hardwired to read

Why do some kids struggle to read? Dyslexia in particular.
Not much info on how skilled reading works.
Kids with dyslexia. DON:T need different from everyone else may need more of it but not different.
Relates well to introduction of Aroha Spelling program and out TAI

Science of Reading:

Two important concepts

1. Reading comp is the product of language comprehension (words you know how to say) and your decoding ability. So kids coming to school need to work out how the words they know how to say are written and decode that - written language. How their spoken language is represented in writing

phonics about decoding words but skilled readers don't decode words. They are are automatically in our brain. How does this work?

So the goal is automatic recognition of words. We don't recognise as whole words

How does it get stored in our brain? through way it sounds (phonology) and spelled (orthography). Looking through the word a lot and it's mapped into (orthographic mapping).

Developing reader So basic teach sounds (alphabetic principle) Phonics of words. SO need to go through a word from left to right all the different sounds and letter combinations then it is mapped into your memory. E.g we know the difference between house and horse as we can quickly see every different letter.

All good readers need phonic skills.

Talked about Balanced Literacy what is being done ATM and not correct: base of phonemic and phonetic knowledge and alphabetical principle. A little bit of everything all at once but this is not what kids need.

Skills that kids need is being lost at the start of school.

Reading needs to be broken into tis parts 

Foundation  etc went through stages like iDeal

Need a sequence to teach kids and if they are in year 5 phonics still is important if they haven't mastered it

Unless you listen to every kids read out loud all the time we're not going to know what pattern they struggle with. 

Important as we don't have time and so need a system to checked kids haven't missed

It was found that Teachers not learning this when being trained nor are they learning abut the structure of English language themselves.

Phonics isn't boring to teach to older kids! Nonnegotiable HAVE TO TEACH PHONICS

It's fun to teach!!!

SO spelling patterns interesting to see where they came from. Fun to teach MUST teach phonics.

Dyslexia means have a phonological weakness brain processes speech sounds differently so need more training- based on neurology.

To sum up teachers need this knowledge!

Video 2: Mark Seidenberg 
What has research taught us about how children learn to read?

Again child learning to read: Has spoken language and their immediate problem is to learn how print relates to the language they already know

Video 3: The Brain Prize Presents: Stanislas Dehaene

Studies reading: To grasp the alphabet first one must learn to speak

Scope and sequence: Need to master the sounds on the page to a word before you can make meaning of the word. As become expert reader this conversion becomes faster and faster like who words rather than parts/letters when learning. - This has implications for teaching: IN the past the learning of whole words DOESN:T help the reading process at all. What is needed is the explicit teaching of correspondences between letters and sounds. This kind of teaching gets to the correct part of the brain.

Video 4 The Matthew Effect

Analyses The difference between proficient and non proficient readers.

Gap gets bigger as you get older

Help for non-proficient readers is to gain more vocabulary.

Best way is by reading or listening to a series of reading on the same topic.

Video 5: Spelfabet How children learn to read and spell

Video 5: Spelfabet How children learn to read and spell

Alison Clarke

Phonological awareness

Rhyme

First sound and 

Syllable

As opposed to when they get to school they need to read and write so they need to learn

Phonemic awareness: 

Segmenting: Pulling worlds apart eg. first, last medial sound etc important for spelling 

 Blending: Important for reading putting it all together

Manipulation

Kids need to learn orthographic awareness. English language is so tricky:

Kids have to learn e.g letter  “o’ has so many different sounds depending on where it is written Not, Son, note, do  etc Also graphemes and where they are located.

Morphemes

‘Campt’ but we write with ‘ed’ as it’s past tense

Jobz but we write with s and it’s plural etc

Video 6 The Simple View of Reading

Decoding and language comprehension.

Have to be a good decoder and well as good language knowledge

Teach adn test these things separately

Child having a problem reading have to dig deeper. First ask: Is the problem decoding? Is the problem the student doesn;t understand what they are reading? Or do thye have both ans if so have to address separately. If problem is language then 2 questions to ask. Is it vocabulary background ( relatively easy to fix) or is it reasoning and syntax ( Just don;t get it, miss the idea)

Webinar The science of Reading

Interesting about struggling readers tend to use the right side of the brain when fluent use the left. Pointed out that this cold b due to poor instruction such as kids using pictures and guessing does it look right sound right etc when being taught to read this encourages the right side of the brain.

We want kids instead to be looking through a word from left to right decoding and using knowledge of

So systematic teaching. I do we do you do modelling, explicit instruction

Scope and Sequence: Specific continuums to cover at each level to work through. Clear and specific laid out for teachers.] from less complex to more complex elements.

Evidence based: the how the practise of reading.

Readings from iDeal

The Science of Reading. Evidence of a new Era of Reading Instruction:

Laura Stewart

Instruction must be explicit; explicit instruction begins with direct instruction and includes guided practice with decreasing levels of support. In explicit instruction, the objective of the lesson is clear and teaching is intentional

Instruction must be systematic; systematic instruction provides a definite scope and sequence of skills from less complex to more complex and includes cumulative review. When instruction is systematic, nothing is left to chance;

Instruction must be engaging: Student must know purpose and

Instruction needs to be intensive. Instruction is data-driven and focused on essential skills.  Students at risk are identified early on and are provided with specific, targeted instruction; progress is monitored and adjusted continually

Reading in the Brain - Stanislas Dehaene

Learning to Read

Reading acquisition involves three major phases: 

the pictorial stage, a brief period where children “photograph” a few words; 

the phonological stage, where they learn to decode graphemes into phonemes; 

the orthographic stage, where word recognition becomes fast and automatic. Brain imaging shows that several brain circuits are altered during this process, notably those of the left occipito-temporal letterbox area. Over several years, the neural activity evoked by written words increases, becomes selective, and converges onto the adult reading network.

Dyslexia:

Impaired ability to process phonemes. Also confuses left and right and makes mirror errors in reading

Reading and the Brain

Parts of the brain used in reading: A number of brain regions are involved in reading and comprehension. Among them are the temporal lobe, which is responsible for phonological awareness and for decoding and discriminating sounds; Broca’s area in the frontal lobe, which governs speech production and language comprehension; and the angular and supramarginal gyrus, which link different parts of the brain so that letter shapes can be put together to form words.

In addition, there are several important white-matter pathways involved in reading, White matter is a collection of nerve fibers in the brain—e tracts to a highway system that connects the back of the brain’s reading network to the front.

white matter tracts are compromised in children with dyslexia, 

How do we return to school. Life after Covid 19 Level 2 plans

Reading collaborative Teaching Advantages/Disadvantages

Background reading to how we can sort our Space

Focus on the advantages How can we get to this in Aroha?

More flexible and creative use of instructional time that advantaged students;
• Knowing more about all the students and seeing different student strengths given the opportunity to
view them in varied learning contexts;
• Greater shared ownership of students and student learning;
• Increased reflection on individual and collective teaching practices;
• More learning from and with colleagues about students and about teaching and learning;
• Increased collective expertise resulting in greater effectiveness with a variety of students;
• Decreased teacher isolation, increased support and feeling valued by colleagues;
• Itinerant teachers experiencing varied collaborative designs and strategies then being able to share
those experiences and ideas across classrooms; and
• Having more energy and greater enjoyment from teaching.” (p. 317)

Disadvantages pointed out from the reading

“• Loss of instructional and decision-making autonomy;

• Decreased flexibility and creativity given a set schedule for when additional instructional personnel

would be present in classrooms;

• Increased communication demands given instructional interdependence

among teachers;

• Role shifts and confusion about how to share instructional time (e.g., who leads, who follows, how to

co-teach) and how to share responsibilities (e.g., assessment, reporting);

• Feelings of insecurity because teaching became public and teachers were expected to work with

more diverse students than they had in the past; and

• Differing “philosophies,” which was the term often used to describe differences between teachers

related to orientations or beliefs about instruction and professional practice.” (p. 318)

Collaboration, Cooperation, Coordination:

Examples of this:

example of the same group of teachers taking a task, breaking it up into parts, and

then, individually, going off to complete the different sections of it. Later they return, between them

putting the pieces together, and using this approach, complete the task. Is this collaboration?

Thirdly, the example of something needing doing, an event needing organising, and one person

taking it on, coming back to explain to the group what is going to happen. Would this be

collaboration?

teaching team sense, there’s not such a neat and tidy movement through the stages. Instead depending on the task, the purpose,
and the level of input required from everyone, maybe teams shift between collaboration, cooperation
and coordination.

Team Meeting Questions to discuss

Remote learning Journey

Week 1
Planning was rather complicated and some subjects not engaging
I had the idea to create a Celebration slide for students to see what others are doing as well as a model/ semi exemplar for those students who hadn't done much or any mahi to have some sense of direction of what others were doing.
Celebration of the Learning Week 1

Week 2/3 

Introducing Maths by the maths teacher and students to join their Math Google Classroom

Screencastify to connect for Maths first so we are all consistent then when teachers are happy with the tool, we are to use it for all slides
Celebration of the Learning Week 2
Parent feedback letter sent individually for their  comments put into a Google Sheet to feedforward on.

Thank you very much for supporting our online learning programme. We would appreciate any feedback you might like to give us in regards to whether there is too much or too little, or if any more support is needed. Please forward any feedback by emailing me.

Again, thank you for your continued support,

Nga mihi

Megan Akkerman

Google Sheet with parent responses

A lot of time is spent problem solving and what we think is our next step is to have a Google Meet with our students next week to connect as that seems to be what is missing.
INtroduce Sunshine books

Sunshine books New resource. I have set up your passwords and have uploaded the user manual. You may wish to use
this for some of your students. 

Week 4 adaptions to home  learning after listening to parent feedback it became obvious that this is what is missing
Google Meet for connecting with students. The safe way so they can't get into Meet earlier than the time set up by the teacher

The following link is a good video. I think! I will be trialling it

https://youtu.be/CVCazmHBfac

Here's how to create a Google Meet with restrictions so that the students can't join the meeting early or try to join after the teacher has left.

The meeting must be created via the Google Meet site and using the 'nickname' function (not through calendar).

Follow these steps:

1. Share the meeting details with the students via Google Classroom or email e.g. You have been invited to a meeting on Monday 4 May at 9am with Mr Mills. You will need to enter the nickname 'Millsmeeting' in the box.
2. When you are ready to start your meeting, go to Google Meet and just enter your chosen nickname into the box (see below) and the meeting will start. You will be the host and the students cannot join until you have joined.
3. When the meeting has finished, just make sure everyone has left before you leave. 
4. It is recommended to use the same nickname for every meeting you host just for convenience e.g. AkkermanYear5. Every time the teacher joins a meeting, it generates a new hyperlink so students can't join without permission (even though they know the nickname).

I hope this is useful. Let me know if you have any issues. It's a great function because it only works with users who are in our school Google account e.g. students and teachers. I am happy to create a generic instruction message for the students that you could share with them for next Monday's meetings.

Week 4/5 Hattie Distant Learning

Some takeaways for me and things to consider and adapt and also encouraging as we are making changes as we go through this journey which adhere to the advise given by Hattie.

Holidays for recharging the batteries

On parenting

Help parents see their role as creating routines for learning and allowing their children to not know: Tell

them that there is no point having their kids learn stuff they already know, not knowing is a sign of

readiness and excitement of learning. Create opportunities for teacher-student and student-student

interaction.

But keep in mind that there is a work balance not only for students but also for teachers. Deliver mini-

classes using social media, make them clear, and provide oodles of opportunities for feedback. Make it

skill-based and provide exciting ways to practice, and not just project-based which can (but does not

need to) lead to busy work with little learning. Worry more about subjects that parents are least likely to

be able to help with, like math and science, and encourage kids and parents to read, read, read and also

talk about their reading, so the story is important, the vocabulary is stretched, and then simultaneously

keep teaching the skills of reading to make reading pleasurable.

What it should look like content

Optimize the social interaction aspects (we do not want to be talked at, but learn with)

● Check for understanding (listen to the feedback from the students about their learning even

more when you do not have the usual cues of the classrooms

● Make sure there is a balance between the precious knowledge and the deep thinking (too often

online favors the former over the latter)

Gorgeous appreciation from a student

Hello Aroha Teachers , just wanted to Email all of you guys to say Thank You soooo much for all the hard work you have been doing to keep our learning up at home during this pandemic, all of you are amazing role models to all the kids, especially the year sixes as this is our last year, and an interesting one it has become, Thank You and keep it up, and we will catch up later in the coming weeks, MISS YOU ALL!!!

Loi

What if our children are ahead?

Interesting words to answer the worry from parents who think their children might be left behind.

A message sent by a UK Primary to their parents:

If they cancel the rest of the school year, students would miss approx 13 weeks of school. Many people are concerned about students falling behind because of this. Yes, they may fall behind when it comes to classroom education...but fall behind whom?

BUT WHAT IF ....

What if instead of falling “behind", this group of kids are ADVANCED because of this? Hear me out.

What if they have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more creative and entertain themselves, they love to read, they love to express themselves in writing.

What if they enjoy the simple things, like their own garden and sitting near a window in the quiet.

What if they notice the birds and the dates the different flowers emerge, and the calming renewal of a gentle rain shower?

What if this generation are the ones to learn to cook, organize their space, do their laundry, and keep a well run home?

What is they learn to ride a bike, play a board game, do simple crafts, learn to bake, climb a tree, play without a screen?

What if they learn to Understand the value of money, what’s important and to live with less?

What if they learn to plan shopping trips and meals at home.

What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to share in the small delights of the everyday?

What if they learn to just be, to be more resilient, to be content ?

What if they are the ones to place great value on our teachers and educational professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential support workers like truck drivers, grocers, logistics, and health care workers and their supporting staff, just to name a few of the millions taking care of us right now while we are sheltered in place?

What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a slower pace and a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life?

What if they are AHEAD? 

The Well in Our Being

Keeping thr Well in Our Being - Mary Ann Murphy

Ripple affect - If we keep ourselves happy it will keep others happy.

2 typesStress that drives us to achieve

Unhealthy stress, chronic: The stress n the graph is the stress that affects our wellbeing


Emotional intelligence are a set of skills WE CAN LEARN

Our primary senses enter at the base of the brain and messages from there must travel to the front region of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex before we can think rationally about our experience. However, before they enter the rational part of our brain some signals travel through a series of structures referred to as the limbic system. This is a place where emotions are most acutely experienced. Emotional intelligence requires effective communication between the rational and emotional processing areas of the brain, and a ‘broadband connection’ between and across these areas is critical for developing high emotional intelligence.

“Plasticity” is the term neurologists use to describe the brain’s ability to change. Your brain grows new connections as you learn new skills. The change is gradual, as your brain cells develop new connections to speed the efficiency of new skills acquired.

Our ability to understand and reflect on our emotions helps us to use this

information to arrive at accurate judgments and take positive, constructive action.

The ‘Psychological Prisons’ from which They Never Escaped: the role of ability grouping in reproducing social class inequalities JO BOALER

Paper about ability grouping leads to psychological prison

instead we need equitable and effective grouping polices that promote high achievement for all.

This statement in the reading: One of the most important goals of schools is to provide
stimulating environments for all children; environments in which children’s interest can be peaked and nurtured, with teachers who are ready to recognize, cultivate and develop the potential that children show at different times and in different areas. It is difficult to support a child’s development and nurture their potential if they are placed into a low group at a very early age, told that they
are achieving at lower levels than others, given less challenging and interesting work, taught by less qualified and experienced teachers, and separated from

International Perspectives on Ability Grouping

Japanese concept of group education, not individual education. Because we want everyone to improve, promote and achieve goals together, rather than individually. That’s why we want
students to help each other, to learn from each other (...), to get along and grow together – mentally, physically and intellectually.

Response to text to  how we run Aroha: Draft notes so far

Students grouped according to curriculum level. Within these groups are mixed ability groups and specific goals taught. Teachers know when students have achieved a goal and will move accordingly. We are constantly assessing and reorganising groupings. Currently we are sorting and assessing for HERO.

Mixed ability lesson's are taking place. Still students have the feeling sometimes on they are not good enough as problems progress. 

Yes it is good for students to help others and explain the thinking. This can help with large numbers

I think there needs to be a balance of both. Extending all students which also means extending the top students.

Is the online approach very much a part of this such as KHAN when students are able to move at their own pace. 

A mixture of all and a balance.

This is also where workshops are important and the students having access and knowledge of what is needed at certain levels and what this means. They can self nominate into workshops

Also from the teacher's perspective - knowing what to teach in the limited time we have etc

Discussion from Senior Leadership Team

Discussion points: 

FORUM (2002) revealed that 88% of children placed into sets or streams at age 4 remain in the same groupings until they leave school.

In Sweden ability grouping is illegal because it is known to produce inequities.

Japanese educators are bemused by the Western goal of sorting students into high and low ‘abilities’....That’s why we want students to help each other, to learn from each other (...), to get along and grow together – mentally, physically and intellectually.(teacher B) (Yiu, 2001)

There is no escaping the fact that mixed ability teaching is difficult and it requires advanced knowledge and practice of pedagogy (Boaler, 2004, 2005)

...teachers had regarded everyone as a high achiever…. Learn about equitable and effective grouping policies that promote high achievement for all and reduce rather than reproduce social inequalities.

Purpose of collaborative teaching and learning - to model and support as teachers in the classroom. Question for us as teachers - are we moving away from collaborative teaching? A good time to be reflective on our teaching practice. We must be collaborating as teachers to be growing our capabilities and supporting each other through collaborating practice. 

It is a real challenge to mixed ability groups - use workshopping more using HERO to teach to a goal rather than a level e.g. could be a fluency goal but could have children from lower and higher levels. 

Collaborative planning & teaching whether in a single cell or ILE

The WHY is easy .. we understand but what it comes back to is the HOW - keeping children motivated, settled, engaged in rich learning - come back to the Key Competencies - how are we managing that with the children. 

 A great reading to provoke our thinking around our collaborative teaching and learning, ability groupings & collaborative practice.

When teachers collaborate children and teachers benefit from each other.

As a leadership team, we need to come back to our WHY? Perhaps with a change in staff and environments we  need to come back to look at this together to grow our pedagogy / capability as to what this should look like - our aspirations.

How do we overcome the barriers to allow this collaborative practice to happen.