Week 5 Term 3 - Lockdown Diary continues (August 23 - 27)

August 23 2021: 5:08pm - Spent most of the morning going through my whanau group COVID tracking sheets. Executive Dean, my co-HOD and sister - Ms Amber George - was and is helping the House Leaders organize and collate a list of students who need support (from food, devices to chargers). It is a bit of an undertaking and I cannot imagine how difficult a task like this can especially under the limitations that come along with Alert Level 4. I am grateful for my mentor teachers and the follow up that they have done with their students since our first lockdown. It was a matter of clicking on the tracking sheets that we made in March during our first lockdown this year, from here I was able to see what the students need (or do not need). I had one online class today - 9KLe - with four students in attendance. All they wanted to know was what they were working on and they decided to work on this independently. I had a two of my Level 2 students working online, with one of them completing their final assessment - 91101 Writing Portfolio - achieved with Excellence. A relatively quiet and laidback day, something that I appreciate for the beginning of the week. Online learning continues as we enter an extended period of Alert Level 4 (until Tuesday August 31st). I am feeling a little concerned for my senior students and how they are going during the lockdown. I know that at times like this prioritizing learning can be something that take a back seat. The 'teacher' in me is thinking about the time restraints around online learning, meeting deadlines and credit criteria with NCEA. However I do know that what I see as a priority, my learners may view differently. I hope that I can meet with my students online and see where they are 'at'. I am hopeful for a good, interactive and productive week! *Side note - Last night at the supermarket, I decided to venture from my typical snacks of choice and get a bag of the Harvest baked pea crisps. The BEST snack I have had in a long time. I regret not getting more! 

Monday morning - The Chase + marking Level 2 English assessments

 

Seriously, these are good! 

August 24 2021: 7:51pm - Today has been a full on and productive day. Started with the 9:00am staff brief online. The message for our briefing today was 'focus on what matters and, what you can control'. A message that has been reiterated in my department meetings and with my house mentors. The nature of this lockdown and the increase of COVID cases in the community is as viral so with this brings a degree of uncertainty and anxiousness for everyone. The last thing that anyone wants to feel is pressure when working online, it is not going to help anyone's well-being if the expectation to deliver and perform to a high standard whilst working from home. For my learners, what I realize and understand is that they just need to know how to access the learning, that the online learning is available and that I am available to them - working online. Expecting online learning to mirror how I teach in person to a timetable is not the best way to approach remote teaching and learning. The approach is much more relaxed and flexible for both myself and my students. I had two online classes today - Level 2 and Level 3 English - I met with both classes (7 students in total - 4 Level 3 students and 3 Level 2 students). I gave them a run down on what they are working on this week and asked them how they would like to work online (would they like me to teach online in real time, create rewindable teaching videos or be available online). The students opted for the last option, I am more than happy to accommodate and work with what they want and what is comfortable for them. To be honest, this is the most flexible I am as a teacher (working online) as it is a completely different ball game and the element of control and structure that I am used is not exactly easy and appropriate with online learning. Overall, I am happy with who I met with today. Some of my students are close to finish assessments and will share them with me today, one already shared an assessment with achieved with Merit. Focus on what matters and what I can control means that I need to prioritize myself and my well-being in order for me to be properly available to the people I work with. I spent the last part of the day in three online meetings - Deans meeting, House Leaders meeting and English Department meeting. It is great to meet and reconnect with colleagues and students. I appreciate the team! *Side note - ready salted chips and gherkin dip is on the menu tonight for my post-dinner snack.  

Some of the amazing English Department post-meeting 24/08/21

August 25 2021: 9:47am - Today has been a quite and relaxed day. I have not scheduled any Google Meets for today, my students are working online and I am going to spend the day marking work, updating my calendar, talking to my Year 12 students from Totara House and my House mentors. A relatively quiet day on the teaching front but it has been anything but quiet on the social media front and how the media and people have used the online space as a place to turn the virus into a racial targeting game. One of things with working from home is that I am distracted more by going onto my phone throughout the day. So with this I have started reading through the threads on twitter regarding the misrepresentation the media have put onto South Auckland in relation to the COVID cases in Mangere. I am more disturbed than sad to see how some people have made racist remarks towards the Pasefika community online. The media have a responsibility in ensuring that the representation of the all ethnic groups. I have spent most of the day reading through the commentary, which probably has not helped how I already feel. I think I am going to take a break from this and have something to eat. * Side note - Bhuja Mix for lunch. 

August 26 2021: 1:57pm - My students hardly respond to the emails that I send out regarding online meeting times. The are a few who reply, who attend online classes and who email me questions they have about the work they are doing. If there are students who I need to talk to, I have found that they often reply through messenger. I have spent most of this morning on messenger talking to students about their assessments. It is interesting that the response is instant when I communicate with them on messenger, I am not surprised as most of them use this is app with their family and friends. I think I have more response from my senior students via messenger than through email. Today has been another quiet but productive day. I am trying find better visual ways to communicate the achievement data to my students when we have our assembly. I have come across a few graph makers online, so I have spent some time playing around with them. Here is my first attempt at pie graph, I do not like it so I am going to keep on shopping around and find one that does what I need it to do. * Side note - bacon, eggs, baked beans and toast. Hearty breakfast for brunch! 

Adobe was good but there weren't many options to choose from re: color and labelling. 

August 27 2021: Constant communication can be tiring. There is something about the constant communication online whilst working from home, which is tiring and draining. Home is a place where one typically unwinds and disconnects from work life but when you are in lockdown and working from home that line blurred. Now do not get me wrong, I think that communication especially in lockdown is so important but the volume in which we communicate online can be tiring at times. It is not a bad thing, it is just taxing and I have found that I have opted to have less online classes this week compared to last week. I will pick it up again next week but for now I am good. I have had a few one-on-one google tutorials which have been good, it is actually working better than my whole class meets. I had one this afternoon and it went on for a bit but the main thing is that the assessment is finished and that student feels good to finally close the loop on this assessment (which he has been working on since the end of Term 2!). I had my online meeting for Totara House - another message filled assembly. We spoke about 'Whare Tapa Wha' which is a model for understanding Maori health and well-being. The symbol of the wharenui represents the four cornerstones of Maori well-being. 

Whare Tapa Wha - the four cornerstones for Maori Health + Well-being - Taha Tinana, Taha Wairua, Taha Hinengaro + Taha Whanau 

I asked four of my student house leaders to speak on each cornerstone. Here is what they said. 

Taha Tinana - Physical Health - Sam Liu
"Stay fit and make sure that you find a balance with everything so you are not stressed out with school work."

Taha Wairua - Spiritual Health - Soana Telefoni
"Take time to think about what is important to you and what you are grateful for."

Taha Hinengaro - Mental + Emotional Health - Toni Kava
"Make sure that you take a break from work, from family - get yourself right, go for a walk or do something that makes you happy emotionally."

Taha Whanau - Family + Community Health - May Sinafea
"Stay connected, go to your online classes, talk to your family and friends online - you are not alone in this."

We then finished the assembly by celebrating some of the NCEA Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 achievement for Totara House. The students have been working hard, there is still a lot of work to do but considering the climate of situation that we are in with lockdown, I am pleased with the progress. I am happy that this week is done, I am looking forward to the weekend! 

Totara House: NCEA Level 1 results for Week 5 Term 3

Totara House: NCEA Level 2 results for Week 5 Term 3

Totara House: NCEA Level 3 results for Week 5 Term 3

 

Week 5 Term 3 - Close Meaning + Opposite Meaning Words

Dr Jannie's 'Word Group' program has come to a halt since we have been in lockdown. Just before we went into lockdown, Dr Jannie met with 9KLe and took them through one of the final steps of the program - finding words who have close meaning and opposite meaning to 'survive'. Here is a run down of how that lesson went. 

Review of Word Association

• Dr Jannie gives feedback on the word association activity that the students completed.
• She has encouraged the students to check their word associations and explanations, the students are to check it out and to make sure that they have justified their word associations.
• They are to then look at their peers word associations and to find their best word association/explanation.
• The students will share with each other their word associations and explanations.
• The instructions are: 1) Check out your association(s) and the explanation you’ve written. 2) Clear, well explained 3) linked to ‘survive’ and 4) correctly punctuated.
• Students then share which association stood out for them from the PowerPoint Student Word Association

Next step: Close Meaning + Opposite Meaning Words

• The students are to come up with 8 words in total - four words that have close meaning to ‘survive’ and four words that have opposite meanings to survive.
• We will then compile a list of words as a class. The student has to remember what the underlying meaning of ‘survive’ is when compiling the list (to stay live for now and for the future)

Feedback: Student list of words that have a similar meaning to ‘survive’
Adapt (association word but not similar in meaning)
Live
Existing
Remain
Continue
Living
Outlast
Outlive
Overcome
Persevere
Carry on
Endure
Withstand
Alive
Sustain

Feedback: Student list of words that have opposite meaning to ‘survive’
Extinct
Neglect
Discontinue
Cease
Die
Dead
Depart
Expire
Non existing
Non living
Perish
Fade

Students will make a table of close and opposite meaning words and then write sentences using the words.

MY THOUGHTS: 

This was a great lesson, the students enjoyed it and they were able to really think - dig deep - into word associations. It is unfortunate that this has come to a pause but I am confident that when we do get back into, it will pick up from where it left. The whole point of breaking down each phase is so that the students can do this fluently when they are given new focus words. Once the teaching is done, Dr Jannie would like to break the students into 3 or 4 groups and get each group to focus on a different springboard word (like 'to survive') from our focus text, Brian Paulsen's 'Hatchet'. 

Week 4 Term 3 - Alert Level 4 Lockdown Diary (August 16 - 20)

 August 16 2021: 9:37pm -  New Zealand goes into Alert 4 from 11:59pm. Yes we are going into another lockdown for 7 days. What is going through my mind? I am not going to lie, I am extremely happy to work from home. The last couple of weeks have been full on and I am looking forward to shutting off from the real world and taking time to be at home, work in the comfort of my own space and to just 'be'. However I am concerned about venturing back into the world of online learning. My anxiety around this is not geared towards what I am going to do - the first lockdown in 2020 has and was a lesson in how I need to be prepared for anything and everything. I am confident in the content, the online platform I have in terms of my class sites and how I will navigate my students through this. My main concern is how this lockdown is going to impact my student's learning and in particular my senior students. I know that this lockdown will influence the achievement for my students. As this is the 5th lockdown the pattern that I have noticed with my students is that they typically shut off from learning. There are some who are super eager and jump online everyday and engage. Whilst others - the majority - are usually disengaged and will check in here and there. I am concerned for the learning of my students, my senior students in particular. I know that this lockdown will push both students and staff back in terms of momentum with NCEA. *Side note - I went my local takeaway 'go-to' and bought my usual - cheeseburger, $3 chips and x3 crab sticks because I am like everyone else and have to have my last 'fix' before everything goes into lockdown :D

August 17 2021: 5:00pm - It has been 160+ days since we were last in lockdown. That is a pretty impressive run! I have forgotten how easy it is to get distracted whilst working (or trying to work) from home. Watching YouTube videos, scrolling through my phone during meetings (not that I don't do this in person), sleeping in - I have found myself falling into this comfortably. Online meetings have kicked into full swing and the 'work-from-home' life begins. The first day of lockdown is done. My principal emailed all staff and said that we will start online learning on Thursday August 18. Today is all about well-being, making sure that we are settled in well with our families and to use the time to make sure that our online learning programs are ready for our students. If there is anything that I have learnt from the early lockdown periods is that I need to be prepared for the worst. So since 2020, I have made sure that my websites, Google calendar - everything online - is up to date and available for all my students to access. I feel confident in what I have prepared and it is just a matter of making sure that my students know that it is there for them. Most of today was spent checking in with my colleagues and making sure that we are all good. The most important thing for all of us is that there is no need to stress. We have been here before and we will get through it. *Side note - I made the brave decision to go to the supermarket today. It was relatively empty, easy and no queues. 

Back to the home office!

August 18 2021: 12:20pm - I have had two online classes so far (Level 2 English and Level 3 English). My Level 2 English Google meet was an exciting 10minute lesson with one student in attendance. My Level 3 English Google meet consisted of me waiting on my class to turn up and then I logged off after 20minutes of starting at myself. However I did receive a few apologies from Level 3 English students and questions about what they need to work on. I have also received a completed assessment from one of my Level 3 English students which made up for lonely lesson I had by myself. All sarcasm aside, today has gone well. I also met with my Whanau mentors and checked in with them. My final online session is with my Whanau House student leaders, we have an online assembly scheduled for Friday August 20, so I want to make sure that they know that they are presenting and what I need them to do for this meeting. Finding a healthy balance between my expectations for my students versus their reality when we are in lockdown, is something that I am becoming more in tune with. The reality is that not all of my students are going to engage straight away, not all are going to get stuck into assessments and use this time to complete it. I am OK with that - well, I am now. Initially I was stressed and worried (I am sure like every other teacher out there). But I am good with this now, this is our (dare I say it) 'new normal'. *Side note - my lunch today was a bowl of porridge. This has become a typical staple in my lockdown diet (with brown sugar of course!)

August 19 2021: 1:21pm - Woke up early this morning to go and get tested. My wife and I were at one of the locations of interests on Friday August 13. We contacted Health Line and they recommended that we go and get tested. So we woke up early and decided to 'wait in line' at 7:00am (for an 8:00am opening) at our local testing clinic. Well, 5 hours and exactly 17 minutes later we have made it home. Tested and slightly over sitting in the car. My online assembly was scheduled for today at 12:30pm and as you may have guessed, I had my assembly online, in the car whilst almost at the top of the line for my test. The last thing I wanted to was have my swab public online so I made my way through the assembly in a very swift fashion which is totally not my style - all of my assembly times whether they are online or in person - go over time, I like to talk! Nevertheless the assembly happened and it was a great time to check in and to share some words of encouragement during an uncertain and strange time. I am thankful to my Year 13 student leaders who are always saying yes to my requests (poor kids) and who always deliver when I need them to. It has been quite a morning, actually it has been quite a week for all of us especially going into a full lockdown. The business of life and when that does came to a halt, the often over-looked but beautiful simplicities in life - like sleeping in, cleaning the house (I have neglected my house for some time so it has been good to reorganize everything), spending time with loved ones and just chilling out - are a much needed reminder and comfort to enjoy right now. I am going to sign off for this week and go and watch the latest update from our PM and her team. *Side note - lunch today was another bowl of delicious porridge. It has not hit the spot so I may indulge in some toast with marmite! 

Deputy Head Girl + Totara House Leader May Sinfea sharing at our online assembly: "Stay positive, stay in your bubble, remind yourself of your goals and we also understand that these tough times are never easy. So if you are ever in need do not be afraid to reach out. But most importantly we encourage you to continue with your learning, we have been blessed with technology so remember to join our online classes so you can keep track of your assessments especially for our senior year levels. We just want to let you know that you are loved and definitely not alone. In the meantime continue to work, support one another and stay safe"

Week 4 Term 3 - Word associations

We become what we associate ourselves with. Whether it is people or values and beliefs, typically what we align ourselves with is manifested in our character. The same can be said for word associations. Every word has a team of words that have some type of association to it. This next part of the Word Group program enables the students to explore word associations to the focus word 'survive'. Below I have detailed how this next step took place. 

Reviewing + Unpacking the grammatical role

• Review the shared sentences from the Shared Sentences: 9KLe (click on the link to access the presentation) - Dr Jannie asks the students to share how they crafted the sentence.
• Dr Jannie asked the students how they could change the sentence structure - where can they edit and add proper punctuation. The purpose of this is to show the students how to craft a sentence, enforce what a sentence is (a contained idea that can stand on its own).

Looking at word associations to ‘survive’

• Word associations to ‘survive’ are introduced. We refer to the original powerpoint WORD WORKS focusing on part 4 onwards. (click on the link to access the presentation)
• Dr Jannie highlights her word associations to ‘survive’ - take the risk, believe in yourself, give up easily, adapt and adjust, genetic variation, family supported, think through and consider
• Students then talk to each other and explain why Dr Jannie has chosen ‘take the risk’ links to survive. They then share their thoughts with the class.
• Dr Jannie then explains how ‘take the risk’ links to ‘survive’ and shares a written explanation to the students. At times, taking a risk can result in a disaster. The five high school boys killed in a car accident last weekend is an example. High risk resulted in four deaths and the miraculous survival of the driver. His decision as a driver has had disastrous consequences.
• Dr Jannie and I asked the students to talk about what the association for ‘genetic variation’ has to ‘to survive’. Some great discussion going with the students and great feedback!
• Now the students will have to come up with their own associations and then they have to explain the association with how it links to survive. The students on a shared presentation: Student Word Association (click on the link to access the presentation)
• Both Dr Jannie and I worked with the students in groups and one-on-one. In speaking with two groups, we started to talk about reality television, in particular ‘Survivor’ and what the contestants had to do in order to survive. The students used these ideas such as ‘facing a challenge’ and ‘cheating to get to the end’ (ideas they thought of from the Survivor series) as their association to ‘survive’.
• Some students used the association of ‘mental health’ and ‘therapy’ as a form of survival.
• We will continue to work through the word associations with the students and get them to share their explanations of their associations.
• Dr Jannie said that there are no right or wrong answers, they only have to justify their word association.

MY THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed this part of the program. Initially the students took some time getting settled with this step but once the discussion (small group discussions) happened the students started to connect and engage. One group in particular started to talk about reality television shows such as 'Survivor' and 'The Voice' and how the contestants on these shows experience survival. This conversation alone was a great springboard in that it helped the students to find other associations and meanings that connect to 'survive'. Some students found connections with mental health and how tools such as talking and therapy is an act of 'surviving' or getting through a difficult challenge. I have asked Dr Jannie to continue working through word associations as I believe that there was some rich learning going on. Going into Week 4 we will continue to work through this step of the program and then finally work through the final step. 

Week 3 Term 3 - Know Your Role

 Understanding our why, our purpose and our reason is important. It helps to ground us, shape us and it creates a foundation for us to navigate ourselves through. Applying this to how we understand words is affective as it helps us to know the role words play in any text. Dr Jannie has spent Week 1 and Week 2 of Term 3 introducing the students to the Word Group program. So far they have spent time unpacking what the concept of 'to survive' (survive being our focus word) means, discussed the meaning of the word, identified members of the 'survive' word group and have crafted sentences using the word group members. Here is a break down on what the students did when they crafted their own sentences using the word members. 

Crafting Sentences: Put the word members into sentences. 

• Put the word into a sentences. You are to make sure that the sentences are well thought out. You cannot start the sentences with your word members for 'to survive'. 
• Students to share their sentences

Exemplars: Student's crafted sentences using word members from the survive word family. 

• Timote: The thought of being among the several survivors from the war haunts me because so many were unable to return.
• Anamaria: Pressure solidifies… the remaining survivalists are protecting their handful of food supplies, one is struggling with the risky shelter, another’s health is deteriorating.
• Asher Is Cool: I hadn’t even had time to test my survivability, I was forced straight onto the battlefield.
• Louis: I returned home unscathed, but my comrades were unable to Survive.
• Mata: A person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died.
• Diego/Deeko: The long drop from this mountain down to the ocean seems “survivable”
  
• Laina: He walked away from at least non three survival accidents.
• Limi: Even though Bob survived, he died later of old age.
• Kena: It is a miracle that he survived his huge plane crash.

 The next part of the program is all about focusing on the grammatical role the word member plays in the sentences that they have crafted. This part of the program is quite high-level thinking - the students have responded well though. With a lot of prompting and sharing of different examples, the students have been able to go through the process quite well. Here is a run down on what happened when the students focused on the grammatical role. 

Part 1: Grammatical role

• Students read out the examples that they created on Tuesday August 3
• Dr Jannie speaks to each example (complimenting on how the students crafted the sentences)
• What is the grammatical role? Unpacking the sentence and finding what the grammatical role is for the springboard word. An example that the students discuss with Dr Jannie is prepositional nouns. 

Class discussion: What is a prepositional noun? Dr Jannie shares examples of prepositional nouns (among, with, from) Students are to discuss 5 more prepositional nouns

• Among
• With
• From
• In
• At
• Within
• Without
• Out
• To
• (Students are to google frequently used prepositions)

Part 2: What is the grammatical role for your word member?

• Prepositional nouns tell us the position of something
• Dr Jannie explains the next part - unpacking your crafted sentences and finding the grammatical role for your word group
• She goes different examples via the powerpoint presentation - Your Word Member Sentences (click on the link to access the PowerPoint)
• She explains what the grammatical role is for each word and how the guiding questions have helped her identify this
• Students are to discuss their crafted sentences with their partner and talk about what they think the grammatical role is for their word member.
• Students have access to the the powerpoint Your Word Member Sentences - they are copy slide 14 and paste it onto their word group powerpoint that they have been working on Name my Word Work (click on the link to access the PowerPoint)
• They are to write down their crafted sentences onto Slide 14 and then explore/identify what the grammatical role is.

Part 3: Share your crafted sentences

• Dr Jannie has asked that the students share their crafted sentence and grammatical role break down onto a shared presentation - Shared Sentences: 9KLe (click on the link to access the PowerPoint)

MY THOUGHTS: 

We are heading into a new week with a focus on progressing into the last stages of the program. I would like to see the students spend a bit more time on the grammatical roles that words play in a sentence structure. This is a definite advanced step that needs time and I feel that the students have only just scratched the surface. I see how this can be explored in depth with a class over the course of a 10 week term. I am looking forward to going further with my students. 

Week 2 Term 3 - Word Family

Whether we like it or not, we all belong to a family. Our families may look and feel different compared to others but the fact remains, we are connected to a family. This idea of 'togetherness' and 'connection' in family does not only apply to us but in language and literacy. Word families is a concept that for the most part, especially as you grow older, one can recognize and understand. This is a concept that I believe is taught in primary schools but as learners transition into college, the concept becomes less of something that is taught and more of something that learners are expected to know. Twinkl.co.nz defines it as "A word family is a group of words that may share a common root word with different prefixes and suffixes in morphology. They're used for teaching spelling. Word families are groups of words that fit into a certain set of letter patterns with the same root words. This means that these groups of words have a common feature, pattern or meaning. They're often linked together through meaning, grammar or morphology (roots, prefixes and suffixes)." Examples of word families include: 

These words all belong to the same word family:

• writer;
• written;
• writing;
• writes;
• rewrite.

What do they have in common?

These words all come from the root word 'write'. This means they're part of the 'write' word family

Learners are expected to learn between 15-20 words a day, I did not know this, but I have read that young people should be able to retain new words daily. I can remember struggling with words as a young learner in primary school and this was (I now know) directly linked to my poor reading skills. A blogger by the name of Ron Gullekson writes "I’ve seen estimates that say it takes seven meaningful exposures to really learn a word, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to 20 or 30 exposures. And these exposures can’t all come in the same day. A word is really “acquired” when you’ve seen it again and again over a period of time–weeks and months." Dr Jannie has introduced the word family concept to my Year 9 class, 9KLe and over the course of Week 1 Term 3, the students have begun unpacking the focus word 'to survive'. So far the students have discussed what they know of the word 'survive' and have found a visual concept that links to the idea of 'to survive'. That was just the first step! The second step (which I will get into soon) connects to what Gullekson said in that it exposes the students to word and encourages the students to actively and independently find the words that are related to form the word family group. Here is my breakdown of how step two has gone so far with Dr Jannie and 9KLe (please forgive my observation notes - I was trying to multitask and co-teach/write at the same time!) 

Part 1: Introduction of Step 2: Define the word 'survive' (independently and as a group) 

• They have to (in pairs) explain what the word survive means (clearly, precisely, briefly)
• They cannot look up the word
• They cannot use the word to define the word
• They cannot write an example of the word
• Students write down their explanation of the word on a piece of paper.
• Dr Jannie ask the students to share their explanations

Part 2: Student feedback - What does the word survive mean?

• "To continue to live or exist"
• "To carry on living and/or persevere through tough times"
• "Fighting to stay alive and having challenges and facing them"
• "Stay alive, to be able to look after yourself"
• "To stay alive"
• "Overcoming a situation that may have been dangerous"
• "Living longer to see a future"

Part 3: Find the dictionary definition. 

• Students then have to look up the definition from either the dictionary or electronic dictionary.
• Students are to choose which one they want to do
• Students are to write the definition next to their explanation
• Students read out the physical dictionary definition and electronic dictionary definition
• We have looked at your explanation, dictionary definition - we now know the core meaning of the word survive.
• Now we can look at the word family
• We are looking for words that link to the same meaning ‘to survive’ - belong to the word family

Part 4: Introduction to Word Family

• Looking at word family members presentation (click on the link to access the PowerPoint)
• Dr Jannie explains the word family members
• Students now think of other words that link to ‘to survive’ - in pairs. What other words belong to the family - surviving, survivor, survivable, unsurvivable
• The students cannot look up the word
• Students feedback on words that belong to the word group for ‘to survive’ - ‘what’s another member of the ‘to survive’ family?’ Can you explain what ‘survival’ ‘survivalist’ ‘survivalism’ ‘survivable’ means
• When you know and can explain a core word and think of its members you grow your word count. Students complete the slide show where they compile the information that they have been working on for the first 2 steps. Name my Word Work presentation (click on the link to access the PowerPoint)

MY THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed this part of the journey. The students were able to engage and connect with the word group concept. They were able to really think of words that are related to the springboard word 'survive' and use their prior knowledge and creativity to think of words that are associated it. To see the students feel confident in what they were doing and how they understood word groups was a highlight for me. This also showed me that going back to the basics and giving time and space in your classroom to explore these 'basics' is important. Understanding word groups is one of the fundamental elements in literacy and I have enjoyed learning from Dr Jannie just as much as my students have.