Week 6 Term 1 - Literacy Project 2022: Department Self-Review: Specific Actions (Mar 07 - 11)

INTENTIONAL: done on purpose; deliberate.

The final part of our Self-Review for the literacy project is focused on what our specific actions are going forward. We spent Week 4 and Week 5 reviewing our current literacy practice is and what opportunities we would like to pursue within literacy. This last part of the review is all about refining the 'opportunities' to manageable, realistic and purposeful actions to take going forward. The English Department began the discussion around specific actions for Literacy and our goal was to be more intentional about what we thought was the best approach with literacy (for Year 9). We used the guiding questions from the Kaiako Literacy Action Plan to help direct the conversation. 

What can we do as kaiako to ensure that we promote literacy in our classes?

• Marc has been wonderful with my Y9s and I value both his and Dr Jannie’s input and advice during my Y9 classes and would appreciate their continual support.
• Marc has done evaluations during his time in my class and we are working on strategies, based on the outcomes of these evaluation.
• Take help from Marc and Jannie to create literacy programs for our class
• Have discussions with our students about literacy and why this is important for them in their learning journey.
• Use literacy strategies
• Work with Dr Jannie + Marc in the classroom with our students (especially those who need literacy support)
• Inform my Year 10 mentoring group about upcoming NCEA changes, as future NCEA Level 1 students, in regards to numeracy and literacy.

There is a mutual understanding and desire to use and learn from our Literacy experts. Dr Jannie Van Hees and Marc Milford are two people that are integral in how literacy is delivered at Tamaki College. We know that we need to prioritize time and space for Marc and Dr Jannie to come in and work with not only our students but also us a department. Working with the experts is important in that it gives us as teachers the support that we need and it also allows us to learn. We know that there is so much to learn from Dr Jannie and Marc and we are hopeful that we can do that going forward. 

What actions can we take to learn more about our akonga?

• Literacy survey
• Surveys
• One on One Conversation

Dr Jannie suggested that we create and share a literacy survey to our focus group, Year 9 students. The idea around this is that we can get an idea on what the students think about literacy but also how they see themselves when it comes to literacy. We were talking about data and how we share this with the students, initially we thought that the students knowing their literacy data (where they are at with reading and writing and what areas they need to improve on) was the key to learning more about our akonga. However as the discussion progressed, we agreed that we did not want the students to be discouraged about the numbers or to feel that their literacy journey is defined by data. Although important, it is more than that. The idea of the survey is to approach the students in a way where they can reflect on what they know, like and dislike about literacy and then see what the opportunities for them to grow. 

What can you do now to reflect on and further develop effective teaching strategies to support literacy?

Again, utilizing our experts and learning from them on what we can do better in our teaching. We are always looking for literacy strategies that work and that are meaningful. Some of our team shared some great literacy tools that they are using in the classroom. I think that when we do meet for our weekly meetings, we can set a time for staff to share good practice in the hope that it will inspire the team. Here are some links of literacy practice that were shared during our self-review discussion (from Mrs Christine Williams) 

• Word Wipe

Learn fast how to create words from a string of mixed letters here.

• Outspell Scrabble

Select each letter and create new words until the time is out.

• Microsoft Word Games

More word games in one game just for you ready to play!

• Casual Crossword

Play smart with a free casual crossword game on your laptop.

• Just Words

Online multiplayer game with scrabble words and letters to..

• Text Twist 2

Rearrange letters online with your friends and twist like pro..

• Daily Crossword

Try new crossword scrabble every day by day with clues.

• Word Finder

Find real words inside the table to finish the game because..

What action(s) can you take now to develop systems to collect, share and use what you notice about the literacy learning of your ākonga?

• Unpacking the data: Continual discussions and analyzing of student data is required - really unpacking and deep divining into the literacy data is key and that is where our literacy experts come in to help all of us to understand. 
• Department + Appraisal goal: Our department goal and individual appraisal goals all feature a connection to literacy - this is one way of tracking teacher progress and engagement with literacy. 

This part of the self-review is about being specific and intentional about our approach going forward. We want to make sure that we are doing all that we can to help improve our knowledge and practice of literacy. Ultimately we want to make sure that our students can see themselves in this journey and they can feel some sense of empowerment in their learning. I look forward to reflecting and documenting how the next part of our journey.