Evaluation - Bursts and Bubbles Presentation

Bursts and Bubbles Presentation

The catalytic aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was raising reading comprehension through expanding the vocabulary of students
I identified this as my focus when I noticed that only 20% of my class was reading at stanine 5, with not a single student achieving beyond that.
To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used PAT reading and vocabulary data, lesson observations, running records and anecdotal notes.
The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling phase were that students had limited life experiences and therefore limited vocabulary.
The profiling of my own teaching showed that I had strengths in using ESOL strategies but that my students would likely make more progress if I developed my pedagogy in vocabulary acquisition and use.
The changes I made in my teaching included doing more whole-class texts. This made it more inclusive, easier to discuss as a class and to elicit prior knowledge and vocabulary. We used the chunking strategy together with deep-diving and transcripts accompanied by videos. Students were encouraged to read the text into screencastify with the chunks in place. This enhanced both meaning and fluency.
The literature/expertise that helped me decide what changes to make was Dr van Hees as she modeled deep-diving and chunking and did observations of my teaching, followed by feedback sessions. I also used the book by Dr van Hees and Dr Paul Nation, ‘What every primary should know about vocabulary’
The easiest and hardest things for me to change was to stop using vocabulary maps. It was easy because after speaking to Dr Jannie and getting feedback from students I realised they were of very little value. It was also the hardest thing to change as it was one of those activities that kept students occupied for long enough for me to work with another group without interruptions. This meant that I had to further inquire into my own practice to find truely engaging activities that had real educational value.
Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as extremely encouraging with 80% of my focus group making progress and 60% making accelerated progress.
The evidence for my rating is the end of year PAT scores. I now have to look closer at the learners in my target group and compare their  progress to the norm,  data from last year, and other comparative learners in school.

Intervention Review

                         

Monitoring Success

The most difficult part of my inquiry is learning new things - it's human nature to want to continue using what we know because we are comfortable with it and we've refined it! It is extremely hard to take on board new learning because new learning inevitably comes with mistakes and sometimes failure. 

One of the biggest challenges I  encountered was not having as much to show at the end of a lesson as much of the work was done during the lesson- my lessons had become more interactive. I had become so accustomed to having several pieces of work to show that the work had been covered, but in hindsight I can see that I was more concerned with quantity rather than real quality. 

I can see that deep diving and chunking has made a difference to most students in my class, but I will only have the data to back up my observations and anecdotal notes once we do our end of year PAT tests.

 

Observation by Dr van Hees- Changes in Practice

Dr van Hees had modelled a reading lesson in my class in Term 2 and I have been using the strategies that she showed me. I had an observation today, as I wanted to be sure that I was doing it correctly.

The students enjoyed the reading using chunking, and are almost able to  do chunk independently. I used a whole-class text with lots of scaffolding of vocabulary. Vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly, even though most vocabulary learning occurs incidentally, through engagement with spoken language and reading. The number one requirement for vocabulary learning is large amounts of of language input at the right level for the learners.  Research by Farkas and Beron (2004) shows that the vocabulary gap between high and low socioeconomic learners is established by about the age of 5 and is persistent unless there is a determined effort to support a very rapid gain of vocabulary knowledge for learners who have lower levels of vocabulary knowledge at an early schooling age. - excerpt from 'What every primary school teacher should know about vocabulary' by Jannie van Hees and Paul Nation.

Some feedback from students about doing whole-class reading, using chunking and deep-diving:

Sam: "This is so much better than doing vocabulary maps. Vocabulary maps are boring and it takes long to complete."
Sau: " No-one feels dumb 'cause we're all doing the same story."
Lathaniel:  "Spending lots of time on vocabulary makes it stick."

How do I monitor/track progress?

My achievement challenge is to lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Maori students. I have attempted to do this by focusing on vocabulary acquisition.

Even though PAT tests will only be conducted in term 4, I am able to formally track the progress of my students by using e-asTTle tests each term.

The mid-year e-asTTle data showed that 87.5% (or 21 students) were working within their curriculum level and 12.5% of students (3 students) working below the expected curriculum level.

                                            

It is great to see the increased engagement and confidence during reading lessons. The most exciting 'win' for me was a year 6 student who had been on reading level 8 for an extended period of time, finally moving on to stage 11 during his recent Running Records reading assessment. This was huge for me as this student showed no interest in reading. After having an informal discussion with him, he revealed that although he still dislikes reading, he does find our new reading stories more interesting and not so 'babyish'.  I use less journal stories and use various articles from Kiwi Kids News and Newsela

Using transcripts in conjunction with videos

An interesting tool that I learned from Dr van Hees was using the video transcript along side the video. This allows the students to use their sense of hearing and sight together to make sense of their learning. The transcript from YouTube is not always accurate and you will definitely need to proofread and edit it. It can be done as follows:

 Step 1: Open your video as normal

Step 2: Click the three dots

Step 3: Transcript will pop up on the side

It is easy to assume that the students are able to listen to the video and make sense of it but we've all sang many misheard lyrics to know that this is not always the case.

Banishing Vocabulary Grids

An activity that I always used with my class after reading was a vocabulary map. This was a worksheet that I had adapted from a well-known educationalist. After discussing it with Dr van Hees, I have decided not to use this worksheet any longer, as it didn't really improve the students' vocabulary acquisition. The form took really long to complete and I was getting enough 'bang for my buck' to justify its continued use.

                    


Instead new vocabulary was thoroughly discussed, dissected and used deliberately in many situations. Students are no longer allowed to just copy and paste the meaning from the dictionary. They are still allowed to use dictionaries, if necessary, but the definition must be written in their own words.

New Plan

I had a meeting with Dr van Hees today. She was able to help me make clearer meaning of what I had read in her book. One of the things that I found particularly interesting was Dr Paul Nation's vocabulary lists. I googled it (naturally!). After finding what I thought was 'the' vocabulary test, I administered the test to my students. It was important to me to get another source of testing in order to compare the results at the end of my inquiry.

My students found the set-up of the paper-test very confusing and performed poorly. On showing Dr van Hees the test that I had administered she confirmed that it was not the right test. Instead she talked me through various strategies that were bound to have a positive impact on my students vocabulary-acquisition.

Dr van Hees suggested I tried' deep diving' with my students. Deep diving is unpacking the text using ‘chunking’ to get meaning and to identify the main ideas.  Jannie also suggested using more interesting texts. After looking through the texts that I normally use, she suggested two useful websites, where I could find interesting, levelled reading texts. These websites were National Aquarium of New Zealand and Newslea. I was previously disinclined to use whole-class texts as I have such varying reading levels, from 8- the high 20's. Dr van Hees assured me with proper scaffolding, chunking and having lots of talk accompanying the reading, all students should be able to cope.
We ended our meeting with Dr van Hees gifting me a slide presentation for me to use with my students. I feel really inspired after talking to her and I'm looking forward to deep diving with my students.

Holiday Reading

Reading 'What every primary school teacher should know about vocabulary' by Dr Jannie van Hees and Prof Paul Nation has been really inspiring! I can't wait to try some of the strategies in my classroom!

Word Wall

Like most classrooms in New Zealand I had a word wall where we put up new or interesting vocabulary.
After speaking to Dr van Hees she suggested that the word wall display be more interactive. As well as having a static, permanent display of new vocabulary,  I now duplicate all the words that go onto the word wall. The extra set of words live in a snaplock bag that is also attached to the wall, but these words are now used by students to test their understanding of vocabulary that they have encountered. We also use these words as an end of the day reflection tool - recapping new words encountered during that day. This is also an opportunity for students from different reading groups to explain to the class about the new vocabulary that they have encountered. This serves as another opportunity for children to interact with new vocabulary.

Chain Talking

"Chain talking" is a phrase coined by Dr Jannie van Hees. It relates to the to and fro conversational talking. Each speaker has to listen to what has been said and then add to that conversation, by gifting the listener  more vocabulary.
Chain talking is generally referred to as 'conversation in the classroom'.
This is one of the first attempts of 'chain talking'.

2019 Inquiry Focus

I teach in a single-cell classroom with 24 Year 5/6 students. I've chosen to focus on reading because after completing the Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) it was clear that this was the greatest area of need in my classroom- just 20% of my students are working at stanine 5! I hope raise the comprehension of my students by focusing on vocabulary acquisition. 

 
      Room 10 PAT Stanine Levels (Year 5 & 6)

     

Reading levels vary from reading level 8 through to level 28. There is a distinct difference between the achievement of Year 5 and Year 6 students. Many of the Year 6 students in my class qualify for teacher aide hours as they have been diagnosed as having additional learning needs.

      
 Year 5 PAT Stanine Levels







  Year 6 PAT Stanine Levels