Transcript Our Journey So Far

Our Journey So Far
Bethal Primary School
Ayla Kaygisiz
Bhophinder Kaur
School overview
• Located in Meadow Heights, northern
suburbs
• Approximately 250 students
• More than 60 % of students come
from a Language background other
than English
• Nearly 80 % of families receive EMA
Before Achievement
Improvement Zones
• 7 High Reliability Literacy Teaching
Procedures (HRLTPs) were trialled in a 5/6
classroom last year, with support from Pam
Siostram who provided the literature by
John Munro
• Students were engaged and I was
impressed by the depth of conversations
that followed
Trialling Getting
Knowledge Ready
• Unit co-ordinators were informed about
Getting knowledge ready and were asked
to share with their teams and implement it
in their classrooms.
• Staff were approaching Learning Leaders
for reassurance about what to do.
• This created a need to develop a uniform
approach throughout the school.
Challenges
• Time – when to fit it all in
• Incorporating Early Years and Middle
Years strategies – how does it fit in?
• Reluctance of some teachers to take
the information on board
• Applying it to all year levels
Getting Knowledge Ready
• Staff were given an overview of
Getting Knowledge Ready at an after
school PD as well as an
implementation plan.
Implementation Plan
GKR
• 5 week trial in every classroom
• Daily focus, 10 - 15 minutes in whole
class Reading session
• Explicit language to be used by
teachers and students
• Explicit questioning
• Pre and post test
Implementation Plan
week 1
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
GKR –
Visualisation
given the title
only. Students
ask themselves
“What does it
remind me of?”
Give them time
to visualise
what might be
described in it.
Students draw
or orally
express
visualistions.
GKR –
paraphrase the
title/suggest
synonyms
What’s another
way of saying
the title?
What words
might come up
in the text?
Read the text
and make
comparisons
with list.
GKR – use a
different
picture book.
Talk and write
in sentences
about the
pictures they
see in the text.
Also ask “How
might the
picture be
different in 20
minutes etc..?”
Read the book
GKR – read a
picture story
book.
Ask students
“What are you
going to do
before reading?
How are you
going to get
your knowledge
ready?”
What are some
5W and H
questions that
we can ask
based on the
text?
Catch up
lesson
Implementation Planweek 2
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Pre-test Given
2 pictures
(front cover of
picture story
books),
students to
write out GKR
strategies
taught ie. In
sentences,
asking questions
etc. Students
to spend 5-7
min doing pretest.
GKR –
Visualisation
given the title
only or using big
book.
GKR –
Paraphrase
title/suggest
synonyms and
what words
might come up
in the text.
Read the text
and make
comparisons
with list.
GKR – another
picture book.
Talk and write
in sentences
about the
pictures they
see in the text.
Catch up
lesson
Pre and post test
• Students were given two pictures and had
5 minutes to write about the pictures,
based on what they know about Getting
Knowledge Ready.
• At the end of five weeks, there was a post
test, to see if there was an improvement in
what they had learnt about Getting
Knowledge Ready.
Initial Staff Response
• ‘I don’t think they can write their
information in 5 minutes’
• ‘why are we doing this?’
• ‘little ones can’t do it’
• After a demonstration by Learning Leader,
staff were amazed at the standard of
work produced by their students
Our findings
• In most of the grades, students could only come
up with a few sentences during the pre test
• The improvement was remarkable in the post test
– students made predictions and what could
happen in ten minutes and asked questions.
• Students were asked to do a self evaluation on
the post test to see how they did and what they
could do better
Staff feedback
• A grade 1/2 teacher said that when working out
meanings of new words, her students are saying,
“Let’s use our meaning making motor.”
• “I did the GKR and Vocabulary because I was told
to do it, but now I can see the value of it. The
students are asking questions and trying to work
out meanings of words without looking them up in
the dictionary. They are starting to think of
synonyms before I can even ask them.”
Vocabulary, Reading
aloud and Paraphrasing
• One strategy is introduced each term
• Teachers are given an overview at an after school
PD and are also given the implementation plan
(week by week, day by day)
• Teachers were given the opportunity to provide
feedback and share their experiences or critical
incidents
• We initially planned for 5 lessons per week, but
have now cut it down to 3 to allow teachers to
focus on other aspects of Literacy.
Applying the HRLTPs to
other curriculum areas
• Teachers were also asked to apply
the strategies taught to Maths,
Integrated Curriculum, P.E.
Performing Arts and Art lessons.
What next?
• Term 4 we will be trialling Paraphrasing
• Term 1 2009 – revisit the four strategies
taught in 2008
• Terms 2 – 4, 2009 trial rest of the
HRLTPs
• By end of 2010 we expect a 15%
improvement in Literacy