Week 5 Term 2 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry 2023: Reading Groups + Tailored Writing Activities (May 22 - May 26)

Over the first three weeks of Term 2, I have made some progress with my inquiry for 2023. My inquiry focus for this year is to see  how I can help improve reading and writing engagement with my Year 9 students through creating mixed ability groups within my Year 9 class. I have written two reflection posts on this so far  - defining what my inquiry is for the year (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 02/04/23) and what I have done so far (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 06/05/23). I have really enjoyed the journey so far and I am encouraged by the student's positive response and efforts. Here is my reflection on what we covered in Week 3 and Week 4 of Term 2. 

READING GROUPS: 

In the first three weeks of Term 2, my focus class (Year 9 - 9TKl) have been put into their reading groups according to their Term 1 PAT Reading data results. There are four groups which have been identified as a color (for now, eventually I would like to rebrand/name the group to something that is more localized and relevant). We have the: 

• Green and Grey groups (Level 1, Level 2 and lower end of Level 3 stanine reading group)
• Pink group (Level 4 stanine reading group)
• Yellow group (higher end of Level 4 and Level 5 stanine reading group)

Grey Group working Dear Ex Dad reading log/questions

Green group working on their reading logs

The students have responded well to the reading groups and they have started to feel comfortable and settled in the new grouping system. We have covered the following texts in class so far this term. 

• P.O.W (Alicia Keys)
• Sometime I Cry (Tupac Shakur)
• Dear Ex Dad (Jillian Sullivan)

For each reading, we have read the texts together as a class and we have had a whole class discussion around the text. The students have also discussed certain aspects of the text in their groups and they have fed back to the class in a wider class discussion. At first, the students were shy to share to each other in their groups because they were not used to each other. However, once we started the discussion for our first text (P.O.W) the students were comfortable to share when we moved onto our next two texts (Sometimes I Cry + the short story, Dear Ex Dad). 

Yellow group completing their questions

Pink group peer checking/editing each other's reading logs

The small group discussions were awesome as they were able to share freely in a smaller group setting and they were able to bounce ideas off each other. The Green and Grey group's discussions were facilitated and supported by myself and our teacher aide Mrs Jenson-Jones. Also, with the reading of the texts, students had turns to read the text to the class and also amongst their groups. 

TAILORED WRITING ACTIVITIES: 

In week 3 and 4, I started to differentiate the writing and reading comprehension tasks for the four groups. For our third text, Dear Ex Dad, we read the text together as a class (we did 2 rounds of reading of the text) and then we discussed the text in small groups and in as a whole class. From here I gave the four groups different sets of questions to answer. All questions were designed for each group based on their comprehension skills. 

Group questions for Dear Ex Dad

The Green and Grey group had the same set of 5 questions which took them just over three periods to complete. The Pink group had 7 questions to complete and the Yellow group had 7 questions to complete which took them both two periods to finish. This activity was good as the students were able to work together in their groups, discuss the questions, craft their answers together - deep diving into the texts. The differentiated questions were good in that they were able to specifically hone in on that specific area in their groups and they were able to talk about it amongst each other. 

The students then had to complete a reading log. They had to choose ONE of the texts that we have covered so far and write a reading log for that text. The reading is broken up into three phases (essentially three paragraphs). Like the reading comprehension questions, I designed a specific reading log template for each group. Each template had similarties for phase one and phase two. However the third phase (paragraph 3) was different for each group. 

Green + Grey group Reading Log Template

Pink group Reading Log Template 

Yellow group Reading Log Template 

The students responded really well to this activity. With most of them completing their first draft of the reading log in one session. Students in the Green and Grey groups responded well, as they had spent time unpacking the texts and they were able to transition confidently into the reading log where they had to talk about the text. The students will use the first two sessions in Week 5 to complete their final draft of their reading log. The students have chosen either P.O.W or Dear Ex Dad as their chosen text for their reading logs. 

I am encouraged by how well they have responded to the group set up and also to the texts. They have done extremely well so far and I am looking forward to the next part of our learning journey. I think if anything, building a safe and positive culture around literacy is a priority for me. 

Next steps: 

• The students will read their final text for this unit in Week 5 - A short story (NZ Writer)
• They will go their another set of group questions
• We learn about the conventions of how to craft a text
• The assessment task: Creative Writing
• The students will write their own short text + complete their final draft on the app Book Creator