Week 8 Term 2 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry 2023: Effective Reading Strategy 2 Week Intensive (June 12 - June 16)

In my inquiry reflection, the focus was on tailored writing exercises (response to text) for the 4 reading groups (see Alby's Blog Entry Post - 21/05/23). Since then, my inquiry journey has been focused on the final short text study (Witi Ihimaera's Big Brother Little Sister). It is an awesome story (appropriate for Year 9 English) that outlines the realities of Maori living in urban New Zealand. There are some dark moments in the text which highlights a dark reality that some families face. 

For this part of the inquiry, I wanted the students to spend two weeks deep diving into this text - reading the text, understanding the plot, characterization and the sequencing of events. Ultimately the study of the text and the comprehension activities would support the students in the crafting of their own text  - a creative writing assessment (something that I will blog about when we roll it out in the coming weeks!)

During the reading the text, my focus class had the privilege of having Mr. Milford (literacy expert) join in and support. This turned into a 2 week deep dive into the text (something that I did not plan for but totally welcomed). In the two weeks that we have covered the text, Mr. Milford initiated and shared some effective reading strategies that have 9TKl read for meaning and unpack the text through each phase of the story. The students have worked through the reading strategy in their reading groups. Marc has focused on the Level 4 - 5 Reading Groups (Pink and Yellow Group) whilst our Teacher Aide Viv and myself have worked with our Level 2 - 3 Reading Groups (Grey and Green Group). I will highlight two reading strategies that the students have been focused on this week and my take away for each. 

PRE READING STRATEGY

Pre Reading Strategy for Big Brother Little Sister

This strategy is an opportunity for students to increase their vocabulary bank. In this strategy, the students are given a list of words from the text and they are to sort the words into four categories - Setting, Characters, Plot and Tone Words. Once they have sorted through the words and placed them into the categories they then write a prediction on what they think the text is going to be about based on the activity. This helps the students to develop and build on their own general knowledge and to do their own thorough research and deep dive around the text before they read it. 

UNPACKING THE TEXT IN CHUNKS

Chunk Text Strategy for Big Brother Little Sister

The students read through the text once as a whole class. Once they did this, they worked through the text again in their reading groups. Mr. Milford broke the text into chunks, in their groups they read through chunks of the text and then completed a series of activities. One of the activities that they had to do was to highlight the key words from the excerpt. This helps to build their vocabulary and also it helps to reinforce the key characters, ideas and language that pertains to the text. The other activities would ask the student (after they have read the chunk) to list the events from most important to least important and then justify why they ordered it this way. Other activities would be a recount activity where they would have to write a one sentence summary of the chunk they have read - the summary must include the words that they have highlighted from the text. 

Grey Group

Pink Group

The student's response to this strategy has been positive. They like it because even though they are working in their groups, they can work at their own pace. Some students spend a lot of time through the text and highlighting the key words and then re-reading it to understand it. Others have enjoyed the short interval reading and completing the summaries as they are able to explain what they have read because it is done in smaller chunks. I would like to acknowledge Mr. Milford for sharing his expertise, time and strategies with 9TKl, it has been a valuable learning experience and one that we hope to continue on with for Term 3 and Term 4's text studies. 

I believe that these strategies have helped my learners not only deep dive into the text but read the text in a way that works for them. I have enjoyed the strategies that Marc has introduced because it has shown what I can do to better support my students in their reading journey. I look forward to taking the learnings from the reading strategy and use it to help the students craft their own creative story.