I have been looking forward to today's discussions on pulling our program together as I have found with so many changes and adaptations this year, I feel like some of my routine practices have eluded me and after last time's discussion on the Reader Apprenticeship model I am really keen to see how I can implement it well in my junior secondary setting. I have been totally successful with getting my students independent enough at times to engage regularly enough in a guided reading program and I really want to be able to do this by next year.
Then there are the,,,,, "but...but .... buts" in my head. Our kura is undergoing some interesting new changes that are still being worked out and wanting to get my head around the Reading Apprenticeship model in secondary was seeming a bit daunting with all the rest of the curriculum, timetable, staffing and sometimes resource challenges. Thankfully Kiri helped make it seem accessible today with these key slides:
This first one - gave me some cool ideas as to how to improve some things further and perhaps teach students how to use calendar for themselves if I use it to show planning. More than that, this slide reminded me that my Reading Apprenticeship program does not need to look exactly like the primary Guided Reading Program, which I found tough to keep going as it is so fast for squirmy little ones who really want your attention. (Hats off to those primary teachers all the time for their reading/writing/maths rotations - they are pros!) But first I amy need to book a session with Kerry from Manaiakalani to do so. (Thankful too that both Kiri and Kerry are coming to Ōtaki College next week for a staff PLD session and I can touch base then).
This guideline slide by Kiri - is a lifesaver for me! It has taken a bit of pressure off to help me think about how I may make this manageable as I only see my students about 7 times a week for both English and Social Sciences (in Humanities). Often I teach the content/skills integrated but sometimes it feels more like it is integrated literacy in Social Sciences and not as much English/literary skill building as I would like in groups. This slide makes me think, I can arrange to see most groups twicea a week and perhaps 1 group three times a week.
Program design - supports for independent learning:
Discussions around building and designing our program then led naturally to different resources - apps in this case. I am keen to explore Readworks as I think it has some features that might be more useful for Humanities 9. Watch this space for further developments. I hope our departments or even kura might engage in conversations around which apps/tools we might use to help:
a) narrow costs for departments
b) lesson the variety to be more purposeful selection and targetted for student use
to support staff (students and whanau) who get overwhelmed and confused about different apps and programs being used in different departments.
Lastly - I have known that I let my mahi trackers go a bit this year. Time to get them back on board and may try a new one as I fumbled and mucked up so much last year trying to zhuzh them up too much last year.
I am looking forward to having a play with my overall program design this next few weeks to see if I can get it tightened up.
PS The strategies were great reminders today - and I was glad to see I was familiar with most of them.
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