Text Selection thoughts

Over the last 3 weeks I have been thinking hard about the text selection that I have incorporated into my reading programme. During the last two terms, I have used a lot of fiction based texts, with a little bit of non-fiction. As a class we have worked our way through 2 novels; The Witches by Roald Dahl and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. So far this year I have not incorporated any poetry and I would also like to create a couple of novel studies for my more advanced reading groups.

RPI: Day 3: Text Selection

 Text Selection                                    

Power of the digital - Dorothy talked about the more ubiquitous 

aspect to it and the need to scaffold opportunities for higher level thinking. 

Doesn’t just have to be words in text it can be Multi modal.

Reading apps such as Read Theory, Steps ect are really good to track 

and provide accomplishments that have occurred with the students. 

These apps can be really effective as they provide accountability for the

students. 

It was good to review ways to get text from the paper back into 

the digital form - Voice Typing / Google Keep / Preview Software 

using a Mac.

Dorothy spoke about the power of Google Docs - 

Where you have the ability to play with so much more of

the text by using functions within it such as smart chips and

building blocks. It is also really handy because you can use 

the highlighting tools to extend out critical thinking with your students.

You can also give really good feedback with this tool as well.

Google Forms - We discussed how they are great to get feedback on

learner selected texts and then you can show your whole class the 

responses. In turn making a more inclusive classroom reading programme.

We were exposed to the Text selection Pioneer -Rudine Sims Bishop

Important point with the mirrors and windows concept that she pioneered

 -Can students see themselves and the cultures

 represented in the texts that we choose for them?

Naomi made a good point that integration across the curriculum

is important to decrease planning loads. 

Good resources online: 

• TKI Instructional Series

• Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs)

• International Children’s Library

• Kiwi Kids News

• Read Theory

• Discovery

• National Geographic kids

• Vooks Poetry

• Manaiakalani Multi-Text Database

Themes with Rebecca Jensen - What does a main character learn……

 ie: Learning from others around us ect. 

In the afternoon we covered: Summarizing - With an expert

I especially liked the point made about deleting the parts that are not 

necessary. Really good way of filtering what is important from what is 

not. 

What my reading group data is telling me

After analyzing my PAT data along with my Probe/Running Record data for one 

of the groups in my class, I have established that they really struggle with the 

comprehension of text in particular inferring meaning. As such I have used an inferring LO to focus on and my mentor teacher and I have co-constructed success criteria to support this which is shown below. 

 

RPI: Day 2: Know your learner

The morning started off with Kiri Kirkpatrick (who took Dorothy's place) 

and discussed about the Korero Point England Podcasts, 

where children at Point England made podcasts about the books 

that they had read. Essentially trying to sell these books to their audience. 

These podcasts gave kids an international platform/audience 

(They were among the top 20 podcasts on Itunes for a number of months). 

The lure of podcasting was getting an authentic audience. 

This podcasting had a really positive impact on the students and their 

reading outcomes. 

John Hattie - determined through a lot of research that the

 biggest impact on being an expert teacher in reading was how we:

In our everyday reading practices it is important to build assessment

capability with our learners. This is where we communicate clear 

learning intentions and success criteria. Understanding where they 

are going and why they are going there. 

Going over responses from my ‘Reading Survey’ I have identified 

another book that my children really enjoyed which was

the Big Friendly Giant. I endeavor to read this to them in the coming terms.

It was interesting to note that there are ‘3 question types’ 

when evaluating a PAT reading comprehension test:

Key point: Naomi stated that inferencing is an ongoing enduring skill 

especially as the text level increases.

A good example of a teacher planning to improve students 

inferencing skills based of data from the PAT:

Practice for PAT’s working on questions the students got wrong

 - Log into NCER-  Go under ‘list report’ then look at the

 particular question that they got wrong- from there you can find a question

that the majority of the class got wrong and focus in it. An awesome bonus

Is that when you click on that particular question you can then go across to the right corner of the page. This then takes you to the NZCER professional services page. I will need to double check whether our school has the login code for it……….????

Not every LO or learning intention needs success criteria: