Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

This year, I have a leadership unit to oversee and support our approach around ESOL teaching and learning, and to raise cultural awareness at our school.  I am co-ordinating a team of staff representing each year level, and together, we are working on strategies to improve cultural awareness and empathy amongst staff and the wider community.  At our first team meeting, I shared some of the factors migrant families face, having learnt about this from my study (2019-2020) through Massey University.  These factors may include:  Cultural and family dislocation, and possibly also a sense of loneliness/cultural isolation  Finding employment at a similar level to what they had in their homeland  Many migrants report an initial joy and excitement about their new homeland, but after weeks/months, many report a sense of disappointment or isolation Migrant children may be reluctant to speak their mother tongue, yet research shows that maintaining the first language ac...

Full presentation by Caroline Morrit Background Reading and writing are reciprocal processes.  Reading and the spelling part of writing rely on phonological awareness.  Spelling involves encoding sounds and reading involves decoding sounds.  A cohesive approach best supports students' overall literacy development...or students are best supported to learn if spelling is taught explicitly.   Key Terms Phonology (spoken) - The organisation of speech sounds into words. Orthology (written) - The written spelling system of language. Morphology - The structure of words and parts of words - affixes and bases. Phonological awareness - An awareness of the sound structure of spoken words.  It includes words in sentences, syllables, rhyme, alliteration and phonemic awareness. Phonemic Awareness - The ability to isolate, identify, blend, segment and manipulate individual phonemes in words. Phoneme - A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech in a word.  The word...

Readings:  Margrain, V., Murphy, C., and Dean, J. (2015)  Giftedness in the Early Years: Informing Learning & Teaching. NZ: NZCER Press Cathcart, Rosemary (2020) They're Not Bringing My Brain Out : Understanding and Working with Gifted Learners. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. 4th Edition. Note: The author of this book is the founder of NZ's National Gifted Education Centre and One Day School. Key Learnings:  * Gifted students need opportunities to work with "like minds" who can think, talk, co-create, play, pretend, read or work at a similar level to themselves. They may often prefer working with adults than children  because of this need.  * Giftedness may encompass a striking ability in these 3 areas: above average ability (e.g. in maths, thinking, language use) + highly focused task commitment + creativity (Renzulli & Reis, 1986 in Margrain, Murphy & Dean (2015, p.6) * Giftedness can be understood as possessing both extreme intensity / focus on specific...

Structured Literacy_     Liz Kane Professional Learning, 4 Nov 2020 Updated after Caroline Morritt's presentation on The Science of Reading 29/1/21. Reading Intervention Planner - use to plan interventions based on students' needs . Tips/things to research:  Reading League David Kilpatrick Webinars,  Louisa Moats,    Dr Deheane & the reading brain,    Five from five website,  Multi-lit website ·       https://littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au/chitter-chatter-chant-speed-sounds-videos/ ·       Whole school approach: mentoring, buddies to discuss, trial and implement...possibly across school Possible Resources ·       LLLL Free Downloads o    Heart words o    Milo’s craft letters   The Science of Reading (Laura Stewart) .... related theories 1. The simple view of reading: D x L = RC (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) D=d...

It was a pleasure to have Rob in to observe this lesson, and provide useful tips on how to improve student engagement. Problem:  Seth had 15 pieces of lego in his tower, and Shikani had 32 pieces of lego, and Zac had 23 pieces of lego. Who had the most? Who had the least? How do you know? Draw, build or make it to prove it. Goals for the session: * Teach/develop the collaborative inquiry skill of justifying e.g. ‘How do you know?’ ‘Can you prove it?’ * Explore knowledge of number size, specifically, students' ability to identify and order numbers to 100 * Differentiation provided through an enabler and extender. Enabler: Seth had 2 pieces of lego in his tower, and Shikani had 12 pieces of lego, and Zac had 8 pieces of lego. Who had the most? Who had the least? How do you know? Extender: Can you prove it another way?  * Children to work in pairs and use varied ways to justify their learning (e.g. materials, by drawing, through an equation etc) My professional goals (areas for ...

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It was a pleasure to have Sue Leadbetter (Assistant Principal) observe my teaching of reading, using a new phonics based approach and book range. Various staff across the school are trialing this approach at present, and I am loving having an opportunity to learn and build my skills in this area.  The full observation and reflection can be found here.  Key positives which Sue noted:  * Children had a positive disposition in the reading class. I have worked hard to show a personal love of books, and to present our material as fun and engaging.  * I showed a sense of trust and belief in the children's abilities... this is very true, I believe they are all smart, inquiring children who have every potential. I believe they can become great readers with the right teaching and resources from us, and engagement and effort from them,  * Explicit teaching of phonics related skills were clear, e.g. fast blending.  Possible challenges/next steps (with my reflections h...