What are literacy leaders doing?

TKI has a new portal full of examples for Accelerated Lift in Literacy - CHECK IT OUT 

Literacy Online 

U kite ako tu tanga ai āpopo.

Excel in teaching so our learners will excel in the future

The power of a quote to start dialogue about the role of leadership 

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader

Trues leadership lies in guiding others to success, in ensuring that everyone is performing at their, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. Bill Owens 

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself. Joel Barker.

Classroom Observations

Timperley (2013) 

Routine Experts  

Teachers transmit content and skills to students and give them opportunities to respond to that knowledge and practise these skills

Adaptive Experts 

Teachers who focus on 

• promoting valued outcomes for each learner
• continual learning professional 
• promoting outcomes for each learner
• know each learner 
• find content or way of teaching them that will help them
• ongoing inquiry to advance how their student outcomes
• adapt their teaching for every learner
• acquire more sophisticated knowledge of the learner and their learning

Start with the WHY; Great leaders inspire everyone to take action

Why? 

Protocols

Feedback

Why do we moderate? 

Tasks get more complex over time 

How consistent are we in our understanding of the literacy progressions? 

Do we align with National Standards?

Our OTJ's need to be defendable and justifiable 

PACT tool has a literacy exemplars that are awesome

Think Big

Think Real World

Think broad context about literacy

How do I get them spelling correctly?

Strategies to improve proof reading and spelling 

- Explicit teaching and modelling of the process

- Daily expectations to form letters correctly and spell high frequency words correctly reinforcing visual memory

- Stand up and turn around - now you are a reader

- Practise class pronunciation of words to develop correct sounds

- Visual aids

- Cut up sentences to discuss parts of a sentence

- reread yesterdays writing

- Use models - children's own writing examples around the room, quality published pieces of text

- Word Search (lower case only, horizontal only to develop good visual recognition)

- Sound boxes

- Proof reading in a structured way - 1st punctuation, 2nd meaning

- Dictation - Read whole sentence, children repeats then writes. Proof read.

- Make it multi sensory!!!!

What does a Literacy Leader do?

Literacy Leaders

The people that we lead have....
- diverse perspectives
- make assumptions

This is a mum who sold the last shovel at a hardware store during a snow storm. 

The Ladder of Inference Creates Bad Judgements

Question your assumptions and conclusions

Seek contrary data 

How do the roles within our school with dual roles

Collaborative Activities 

Buy, Sell and Exchange - 6 statements each then meet with a buddy to reduce to 6 then meet with four then eight. At the end 8 people 6 statements. (What is the role of Literacy Leader?)

What do we think a Literacy Leader does?

Rich dialogue and Conversations 

- provide provocations to challenge current beliefs respectfully and reach new depths of understanding

Quality PD

 - content knowledge (what)

- pedagogy of learners (how) 

- moral purpose (why)

- current curriculum knowledge

- developed from needs analysis and analysed school wide data

- meeting student and teacher needs to raise student achievement

Be a Learner 

- grow, inspire, develop in and out of school

- online

- professional development

- conversations with colleagues

- build a team around you to support the journey 

Support and guide 

- open to learning relationships

- humour

- interpersonal skills

- children at the heart of all that we do

- effective communication - celebration or difficult conversation

Multiple perspectives 

- awareness of up to date approaches

- understanding of neuroscience of how children learn new information

- respectful of journey of teacher

Systems 

- growing capabilities 

- assessment and tracking and monitoring for student achievement 

- support that is appropriate and timely

- distributive leadership

A Literacy Leader has very strong focus on.....  

- focus on student outcomes

- leaders as learners

- leaders of learning - what is worth doing and what is not. Being able to say NO

- collaborative relationships with fellow teachers and collaboration encouraged

Robinson's Leadership Dimensions

• establishing goals and expectations
• strategic resourcing
• planning, coordinating, evaluating, teaching and the curriculum
• promoting and participating in teacher learning and development
• ensuring a supportive learning environment

How Great Leaders Inspire

We believe - 

each and every child deserves the opportunity to become empowered in their own learning journey to success. 

Leadership Strategy 

Put together a portfolio of readings relevant to school / teacher needs

invite staff to flick through and choose a reading to read over the holidays On the first week back we will have wine and cheese and have discussions around what you found out and how it will impact your classroom practice.  

Connecting whanau to our learning 

Invite parents to write a brag letter about their child. 

Protocols of Observations

Have a clear procedure for observation visits

1. Pre-visit conversations 'the why'

2. Sharing and the conversation that happens afterwards

DO NOT ask - How do you think that lesson went? 

3. Remember this is a sample - one piece of evidence. You need a series of evidence to know what is going on. Formally and informally.

What else would you add to this? 

Having protocols around observational practice keeps personal being in tact. 

It is the actions and outcomes as a result of these actions that we are interested in. 

Feedback - 3 types

What we appreciate

To improve practice

To address an issue or concern

Resources 

Joan Dalton - Learning Talk 

Ontario Capacity Series 

What's the key to literacy leadership?

Getting the talking started

www.conversity.co.nz - awesome resource!!
Great conversation starters about culture and NZ

One of the best questions you could ask someone;

What's your name and why are you called that?

Māori Proverbs from ron mader

The best in a child can be seen in many different ways. They may be strengths that you don't even value. On reflection of our classroom culture - is it inclusive?

What is going on for our learning in all of their contexts? How can we provide them with poker chips to help them the risks and build resilience?

Is there someone in the room who believes they will become a success in their lifetime.
Gathering student voice is the data for important conversations.  The students you ask will be the ones who need the support the most.

Equality and Equity!
Providing the right scaffolds will assist all children to access the learning.

English is a learning activity. Literacy is the glue that holds the NZC learning areas together - reading, writing, oral language. This is how you gets lots of opportunities to write throughout the day.

Not one is more important than the other. 

These should be evident in all classrooms. 

Literacy is the last things to put on your planning. 

What writing skills can we deconstruct and then apply to this teaching to become the glue for other teaching. 

Teaching of literacy skills is different from teaching English.  

Every piece of writing has a structure is organised, language features, mechanics of writing. 

Making a shift 

What can we do in our area of the school that we don't have to do it that way. 

A blanket statement will not work 

Change the people you are responsible for first

Great tool for classroom observation 

I see, I hear I wonder 

No judgements made just questioning. Remember to have conversations before the observation and after.

How are identity, language and culture embedded in literacy practice?                                                            
What are the students doing in response to the teaching?
How are the students engaged in their learning?

What is a Granny anyway?

Shared on Facebook by Kathy Eyles. How gorgeous is this as an exemplar. I wonder what else this could inspire in their writing?

How can I improve my formal writing?

How do we construct complete sentences?

Although we write sentences daily,  do we truly understand what we are teaching?

If we know the language of grammar, writing sentences will be really easy. 

Because writing records our language, writing a sentence is easy.

Mmmmmmm!

This clip demonstrates clearly the difference between simple, compound and complex sentences. 

Important notes  

- compound is very different from complex - compound is joining 2 complete ideas or independent clauses

- subordinators, and relative pronouns are used for creating a complex sentence. Do you know what these are?

Very simple way to understand how to construct a simple sentence and the different types we can build. I really like how it teaches the language of grammar. I believe this is really important from a very early age even Year 1. This helps understanding how to build complete sentences with comprehension of what they are trying to achieve, ie; they know what success looks like. 

Wicked links;

https://janiceannemalone.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/fragments-be-gone-simplifying-the-complex-sentence/

http://flamingosandbutterflies.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/when-i-was-little.html

See it in action.....

How can I improve writing with a purpose?

21.03.14  

A day with Gail Loane inspires the most reluctant student or the busiest teacher.  Here is a list of inspiration (notes) from a 5 hour workshop with Gail. It was valuable to confirm what we do well, challenge our current beliefs and extend ways we can make our writing real, purposeful and meaningful for our children. Great tips but also a structure that will reflect progress for all children.

We are teaching children to notice, looking and recording.

We want children to grow up valuing writing as a satisfying skill.

Prose – transactional writing, anything that is not poetry; a natural flow of speech that applies grammatical structure.

Record of progress

1.    Jottings

Mileage (writing daily)

Jottings, writing to learn, lists

Learning buddies – fast processing

2. Purposes

Writing to record experiences. What curriculum would that be? Recording personal experiences, English, science, health,

‘I’ve Got Something to Say’

‘How am I going to say it?’

Annotate and deconstruct your model

What is in the curriculum?  – use different text for different purposes. Make it real.

Use real world opportunities NOT what is on the plan!!!! Writing should be embedded in what we do in a day.

Seek opportunities for writing from events in your day

3.  Evidence of student crafting and editing

Writing needs to be on every second line.  Why are you doing that?

Edit as you go. Bad advice is to finish writing then go back to edit/ Read write, reread, write. Prevents having to start again.

Goal – recorded in book in different colour. Not a big laminated one but one that lasts only two days. Goal – to reread each sentence. Stop bad habits in surface features carrying on.

‘What are you learning about while you are writing about this?’

Get kids talking about their goals

Spelling

5 minute tutorials for spelling to address needs for that child.

4.  Teacher Presence - Not teacher feedback

Teachers must sight every piece of work so you know what to do tomorrow

Monitoring work to ensure progress is being made. No incomplete work. Monitor children making repetitive mistakes.

There must a teacher in a learning partnership with each child.

Colour code your feedback

Feedback should be around what the child is doing.

 Models

Use authors as our teachers

Stuck in the child’s book

What are your beliefs?

-          They drive what you do and the quality of life. Your beliefs create the learning environment.

Believe in what you have to do and live it.

	Vowel Practicing Say it as they write it aaaaia iiiiiei

 

Strategies for Writing

Quick Write

5 minute talk about a model of writing – 3 minute writing

Song Lyrics

Poetry

Choose poetry that helps children to think

Entrainment – the process of putting images in their mind.

Writing territories

Personal, Local , National, Global

What’s going on in my world?

What’s going on in my life?

Structure or models 

Provides support for success

Topics

The sign of Autumn

Who I am?

A reminder of what I care about

I’ve got something to say about …… what I care about

I can hear you... (sitting in nature, playground, classroom )

Favourite piece of clothing you ave grown out of

Sprint - being chased

Resources

School journals

readers

environment

picture books with rich language - fancy nancy

magazines

Parts of Speech

Activate a noun = gardens wilt, grass faded, cicadas jingle

Nouns do something

Lisiting sentences = drawing imaginary towns with chalk on the street, holding impromptu bike races to the dairy for ice cream, fishing for eels in the creek and making elaborate huts in the bush.

Interrupter - adding extra information between commas.

Commas – add more detail between commas.

Selectively dialogue to bring closure, humor. 

Teacher Language

- Your use of ........... will help us. Can you share it with the group.

Use specific language - strong verbs, specific nouns, 

Don't compare work or state its the best to other children.

Don't do the death by WALTS! Keep the magic and mystery of the writing. 

Discuss teaching at end, show not tell, explore then describe

Use of our Investigating Books

Creates a  space to practice without being judged

- wonderings

- noticings

- bring to shared reading, music listening, 

- science reports, facts, 

- sketching

- practice of new learning printing, word building

Model behaviors how to use the investigating books

Creating suspense

emotive language

-legs trembling, heart thumping, 

-short sentences

- dialogue "GO! GO! GO!"

Use of questions - Where's the dog?

How can I get all the marking done?

Manageable Marking

-          Unlocking Formative Assessment – Practical strategies for enhancing pupils learning in the primary classroom.  Shirley Clarke

Chapter 4 Pg 53 “Research shows that marking is often directly responsible for regression in many pupils and that traditional practice tends to demoralise and overwhelms pupils...”

Do you believe marking is a vital aspect of learning and development?

Focused Coded Marking       -   A real tool for learning and improvement

1.       Set sli from plan (task must match sli) Involve children in creating success criteria looking at what is to be learnt rather than what is to be done.

2.       Share sli orally and visually with students at the beginning of teaching

3.       This sli is your focus for feedback. Only mark against sli, otherwise it will take us too long to mark and for children to comprehend.  Imagine if every lesson was a test and you were being marked on everything you did while learning something new! There is a danger of giving too much information making it overwhelming and difficult for children to take in. Have expectations for neatness, spelling, but don’t mark unless these are your sli. Focus on learning rather than effort.

4.       Introduce 1 thing at a time, teach it, and develop the skill. Make sure they apply it by testing at regular intervals, but let the children know you are checking.

5.       Children will develop skills of self reflection against their sli using self evaluation

Distance marking  - marking without the child present

1.       Highlight 3 places of success in their work that is evidence of sli. (1 for younger children) Read all of work first so you are selecting highlighted parts overall not all in first or last paragraph.

2.       Respond to individual learning needs by inserting an arrow to margin where improvement can be made. Add a comment that will help close the gap – reminder, scaffold, or example prompt. Give clear strategy for improvement. This information will become your next teaching step.

3.       Develop  skills for children to self and peer mark

4.        Allow time in teaching plan for children to read and respond to your feedback.

Beware that stickers don’t distract from feedback. Use explicit focuses on achievement gained and celebrate.

Children’s work books become record of progress over time.

Teach the children how you will be marking their books.

Writing Blog

This brilliant blog has everything you need for great writing in junior school. Well organised and loads to choose from.

http://www.carlscorner.us.com/write.htm