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The Key Ingredients For Effective Maths Learning, 25/5/21

Planning (Digital copy of presentation saved in personal filing) Helping our students learn and succeed in maths requires careful planning.  The termly and weekly plan should include these  proficiencies :  Procedural fluency  Adaptive reasoning Problem solving Conceptual understanding Productive disposition Children need time and practise in each of these competencies, across each dimension of maths :  Number & algebra  Geometry & measurement Statistics (image courtesy of Rob Profitt-White) Example: (image courtesy of Rob Profitt-White) Use the NZMaths Curriculum Elaborations to guide planning. NZ Maths Long Term Plans  -  use the thematic plans to cover each area of maths over the year. Weekly Strategies To Engage (group or individual) Move It, Prove It - start of week (diagnostic observations) and repeat end of week (summative show of learning, and spent more time reasoning and justifying so all understand the concept) Have students mak...

Structured Literacy - Staff Only Day - 21/05/21

Two teachers from Kaiapoi North shared their experience of Structured Literacy practise Presentation from Mel & Felicity, teachers at Kaiapoi North School. This presentation includes recommended further reading and resources . Group Teaching Maximise learning and provide students as much practise as we can.  Sound pack - focus on pure sounds   (add in new sounds a students are ready for them). Revisit several times a day - start of day, in literacy, end of day, after breaks Heggarty or similar phonological awareness In small groups, decode and encode (read and write) the sound or rule (e.g. floss rule words or CVC words with middle a, middle i etc) Move groups through word level, sentence level practise. Sometimes decodable text, other times dictation Heart words Senior sound pack: also have to understand and say the meaning of the word part Junior Section What Kaiapoi North do in Year 1 and 2... Keep: Yr1-2 poetry, independent literacy activities, modelled writing, d...

Raising Cultural Awareness, 2021

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...

Implementing The Code Spelling Programme (Science of Reading) 29.01.21

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...

Working with Gifted Students

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...

Science of Reading and MSL Workshop Liz Kane & Science of Reading Presentation, Nov 2020 and 29.01.21

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...

Maths Observation with Rob Profitt-White, Term 4 2020

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 ...