Week 10 Term 2 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry 2023: Create: Crafting a creative text (CAT Term 2) (June 26 - June 30)

The inquiry journey so far ... 

This term, I have been able to explore and establish some good stepping stones in my inquiry. From the reading groups (specific level reading groups), to the differentiated reading responses to the effective reading strategies - I have really enjoyed journeying through my inquiry with my focus class and teacher aide. I have particularly enjoyed documenting and blogging about some of the highlights throughout the term as it has helped me to reflect, review, appreciate the journey and evaluate what next steps that I want to take. Please see the blog posts that I have covered for my inquiry 2023 so far. 

Alby’s Blog Entry Post - 02/04/23

Alby’s Blog Entry Post - 06/05/23

Alby’s Blog Entry Post - 21/05/23

Alby’s Blog Entry Post - 12/06/23

The students have spent this term reading for learning in their reading groups and writing through specific frameworks tailored to their writing strengths. For the end of Term 2, my inquiry has taken myself and my akonga to CREATE - in particular creating and crafting a creative text. From Week 5 - Week 8, the students spent the time reading through the final short text (Witi Ihimaera's Big Brother Little Sister). From Week 8 - Week 10, the students are now crafting their own short text using the ideas and messages from Big Brother Little Sister. 

9TKl - Crafting their creative text

Creative Writing (Crafting the text) 

The Creative Writing assessment is part of the Common Assessment Tasks that they have to complete throughout the year. So far the students have completed the Formal Writing Assessment (Term 1) and this Term they will be completing Creative Writing and Create a Visual Text. The Creative Writing Assessment that I have offered to the students is inspired from the Creative Writing assessment that we offer our NCEA Level 1 students. A creative writing unit designed by one of the English Department members - Mr Spruyt - has become the springboard for my Year 9 inquiry creative writing task. 

Creative Writing Assessment Inquiry 2023

The creative writing task is broken up into 5 main areas, there are three main areas that they need to work through to help them craft their text. These areas are: 

• Prompt - The students will go through different prompts for the creative writing to help students design an idea on what they can write on. 
• My Chosen Image - The students are asked to go through a slideshow of images that are inspired from the text that they have read. The images reflect the different themes, symbols and messages.
• Planning Space - The students will start planning their creative text. The planning place is scaffolded so that the students can organize each phase of their text. 

Prompt + My Chosen Image: 

Prompt/My Chosen Image presentation

The students were asked to go through the slideshow (on the assessment document) and choose ONE image that they will base their creative writing on. The images on the slide deck are linked to the imagery, themes, symbols and messages from the text Big Brother Little Sister. Prior to this, the students discussed the imagery, themes, symbols and messages through the effective reading strategies that we went through during the reading. Once they have chosen their image, they will move onto the planning space section. 

My inquiry class enjoyed this part of the assessment and they spent time discussing each image and how it is connected to the text. We did this as a whole class discussion and also in their reading groups. Students also have the option to choose their own image (if they find one that they like outside of the presentation). I had one student who chose their own image and checked it off with me. 

Planning Space: 

Creative Writing Planning Space Inquiry 2023

This step is crucial to the crafting of the text. In this section the students planned out who their characters are (based on the person/people in their chosen image), the setting (where the story takes place, the time in which the story takes place). Finally, the students were able to plan how each paragraph (3 in total) would look like. The three paragraphs are broken up into three sections: 

• Paragraph 1: What is happening before the photo? - Here the student is asked to establish the setting, introduction of the character. Here the students can create a background story on who the character is, where they are placed and what has happened to them. 
• Paragraph 2: What is happening in the photo? - The student is asked to describe what is happening the photo, describing the colour, mood, tone, character and explore the story. 
• Paragraph 3: What is happening after the photo? - The student will create the last part of the text where they write about what has happened to the character after the photo. 

9TKl - crafting of the creative text (phase 1)

My students found this part fun because they were given full license to create and craft a story on their own. Some used the ideas and imagery from Big Brother Little Sister which is something that I expected. I encouraged my students to try and not to write to the text, but to come up with their own character and story line. Some decided to write a sequel to the text which I really liked. Once the students completed the planning space, they started to craft their text fully. 

9TKl: My student's response

The students responded really well to the assessment. We are in the final stages of the writing, there are four students who have already completed the writing. The students who have been really engaged with the creative writing and who have completed it are from the Level 2-3 Reading group. I believe that the scaffolding of the planning space and prior reading strategies that they went through in Week 5, helped them to understand what they need to do to craft a short text. The response has been positive and I am look forward to sharing about this in my Term 3 blog posts. 

9TKl - Crafting of the online book (phase 3)

9TKl - Crafting of the online book (phase 3)

The next phase of the assessment focuses on the students taking their writing and creating an online book. They will use the app - www.bookcreator.com - here they will create an online using the templates the app provides. They can create character images for the characters in their story. They full creative control on how their book is presented. I look forward to blogging about this once they students complete this final phase. 

Week 9 Term 2 - Totara House: Journey | Destination - Looking back on Term 2 (June 19 - June 23)

The journey is all the little and big things that happened on your way to the destination. (Karthikk Pandit)  

Totara House Leadership Team @ Anzac Day - Term 2

Making time to reflect on your journey is important. The act of reflection can help you understand and appreciate what you have achieved whilst working towards your goal. Term 2 has been a very busy time for Totara House. At our last House Assembly, we spent time reflecting on the last 8 weeks and what we have achieved this term 2. It is very easy to get caught up in business of school, that you can often over look or miss the opportunities and blessings that you have gained along the way. The student leadership team and I felt that it was necessary that we used the time at our assembly to acknowledge what we have done, what has been done and show our gratitude especially to the students who contributed to the success. I also used this time to highlight the learning journey (something that I have always done in during our whanau time) in particular looking at the learning journey for our NCEA students. It is important to check in and look at the learning data with our students so that they are aware of where they are at so that they know what they need to do going forward. 

Celebrating our Identity, Language + Culture

'Knowing and understanding that the shared and ethnic-specific identities, languages and cultures of Pacific learners underpins the way they think and learn, which is fundamental to their well-being and success' (Tapasa 2019). Celebrating and acknowledging the different cultures, has become a highlight in the school calendar for Tamaki College. We celebrate this through different events throughout the year. In Term 1, we have Polyfest and in Term 2 we have two language weeks where all the students are encouraged to get involved and participate (Samoan Language Week and International Language Week). In Term 2, both the Samoan and International Language Weeks were placed together (Week 6 and Week 7). As the dean, I know that Term 2 is an exciting time for our house as we have opportunities to come together for the language weeks and work together as a team with the different events that each language week presents. 

For Samoan Language Week, we had two groups participate in the two main events (Siva Samoa House Dance Competition and the Volleyball Competition) both of which Totara won. For the International Language Week we had a number of students present their cultural story to the staff, play in the Soccer Competition, present a speech at a whole school assembly and perform a cultural dance at the assembly. We are really proud of the effort, time and commitment that each of the students from Totara House put into both language weeks. 

Totara House SLW Volleyball Team - Term 2

Totara House SLW Siva Samoan Group - Term 2

Totara House ILW Presentation - Term 2

Totara House ILW Soccer Team - Term 2

At our most recent House Assembly, the House leaders wanted to celebrate the journey and what was achieved in the journey this term. Specifically focusing on the language weeks as it was a important event in our house calendar. Totara House Prefect - Alo-Ki Hakau Hingano - acknowledged all of the students who participated in the Samoan Language Week competition. He said "Thank you to all of our Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, 12 and 13 students who all took part in Samoan Language Week. Learning about a new culture was fun because it made me appreciate my own culture as a Tongan." Fellow Totara House Prefect - Anika Crichton Ward - acknowledged the students who represented their culture for International Language Week. "thank you to all of our international students who represented not just our house but their culture for international language. Speaking in front of the whole school and performing a special cultural dance is a big thing, we are so grateful for what you did and for representing us well." Finally our Head Boy - Christian Kava - closed with a word of encouragement - "Thank you to Totara House for embracing new cultures and for respecting all of the new learnings that we have learnt this term. We have done things together as a House and we have represented our house and cultures well. Thank you on behalf of the leadership team for doing this with us." 

Reviewing our learning journey

Totara House NCEA Data Overview - Term 2

I went through the NCEA data overview at the House Assembly. This is an opportunity for the students to see their progress as a collective - to understand where they all sit as a cohort. I use this part of the presentation as springboard to talk to the students one-on-one about their individual NCEA learning journey. Term 2 is all about the numbers, making sure that the students meet credit protocol and so I know that it is vital that the data, the numbers, is shared with the students (both as a group and individually) so that they know where they are at. The focus was spent on what has been achieved and what the next steps and goals are. 

Gratitude is one of our House values for 2023. I believe that a spirit of thanksgiving, practicing gratitude and acknowledging it helps to shift our focus as a house. It is important to do this in your journey as it helps to give you perspective on what you have done, what you have been able to accomplish and not necessarily focus on what has not worked out. It allows you appreciate the journey whilst making your way to your destination. This was needed at this time of the term for my House. I wanted them to reflect and appreciate their story, in the hope that it will motivate them when they come back in Term 3. 

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. 

Week 7 Term 2 - TOD: Manaiakalani Cluster Teacher Only Day (June 6 - June 9)

The Manaiakalani Cluster Teacher Only day took place at the end of Week 6 Term 2. The primary focus of the TOD was 'CREATE' specifically 'Creativity Empowers Learning' - For Manaiakalani Create/Hanga is built on engagement and empowerment. How are we harnessing Create to motivate our learners to ENGAGE with reading to learn and learning to read? Here is a break down on what we covered in our TOD: 

• Session 1: Research + Data Analysis: We spent the first part of the TOD looking at the data for our akonga across the cluster (specifically Year 1 - Year 10) in writing, reading and math data. This was a deep dive presentation where we were able to analyze and reflect on our cluster and school achievement data. 
• Session 2: Quality Learning Circles: In the second session, we broke off into smaller groups within our own schools (Quality Learning Circles) where we were able to share effective practice that meets one of the new literacy and communication curriculum progress steps. 
• Session 3: Create Workshops: In the last session we went to different workshops that focused on how to harness creativity and how to use this to motivate our learners to engage with reading. 

Manaiakalani Cluster Teacher Only Day 02/06/23

In this post I am going to reflect on my take away from Session 2: Quality Learning Circles and Session 3: Create Workshop. 

Session 2: Quality Learning Circles

Quality Learning Circle session 2 (TOD 02/06/23)

The focus of this session was for kaiako to share effective practice that meets one of the new literacy and communication curriculum progress steps. The group that I was in was made up of my colleagues across the different learning areas. We looked specifically at our Year 11, 12 and 13 students in relation to literacy (reading and writing). We were able to share the strategies that we use and that we think we are effective for reading and writing in our learning area. I shared the literacy strategies that I have used with my Year 9 English class that links to my inquiry for 2023 (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 02/04/23 - for what my inquiry focus is). It was awesome to hear the different strategies that my colleagues are using with their junior and senior classes, specifically what is working for them but also what challenges that are currently facing and the next steps that they want to take to address these challenges. 

Feedback from session 2 (TOD: 02/06/23)

There is good practice going on across the learning areas when it comes to effective practice of literacy. Some of the practice that we find to be effective with literacy (with reading and writing) is understanding the data and helping our akonga to understand their data. This is something that we want to do better in our teaching practice so that our students know where they are at and what their next steps to move onto the next level in their reading and writing journey. Teaching vocabulary specific to the subject area and exploring this language is another strategy that is effective specifically in Science, English and PE. Deep dive in certain words that are linked to a text study or to a topic can help build vocabulary banks for our students. Robust and positive feedback is an effective strategy that we all agreed on. Our students and in particular our senior students need and appreciate our feedback. I wrote a post on this (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 15/03/22) on meaningful feedback and why it is important for our akonga. Setting high expectations is an effective strategy across all subject areas, believing that our students can and affirming the strengths that they bring to the classroom. I enjoyed this session as we were able to share and reflect on what we are doing but also learn from each other. I appreciated everyone's journey and the reality that we are working in. 

Session 3: Create Workshops

The focus for this session was to see how CREATE in our cluster is all about engagement and empowerment. The purpose of the Create worships is to see how we as kaiako can harness Create to motivate our learners to ENGAGE with reading. The workshop that I went to was 'Create with A.I' which was an introduction to a range of of AI options that could be used by akonga or kaiako to create as part of the learning process. I really enjoyed this workshop (led by Mrs Dorothy Burt), we were introduced to a range of AI options that we could use with our students to help encourage and engage them with reading. Some of the options that I really liked were: 

Click on the image to access the site: CRAIYON

CRAIYON: I really liked this AI option. It is an online AI image generator where you can type anything that you want and it will produce an image. What I like about this is that Craiyon is able to generate an image that is a result of what you type in the draw engine. It could be a good tool for students who like a visual component to their reading. They could type in descriptions of the setting or pull quotes from the text and it can help students visual the text that they are reading. If they are creating a visual text, this AI option can help bring the text that they have crafted to life. The advertisements on the landing page could be overwhelming but there is no sign in required so that is a plus. 

Click on the image to access the site: MUZIFY

MUZIFY: This AI option enables users to create a playlist for a text. You can type in the title of your studied text or chapter and Muzify will generate a playlist for the text. This is a great way for students to connect the studied text to other texts (something that we do across all year levels specifically in Level 1, 2 and 3 NCEA English). Also after reading the text, students can pull a character's name or an important quote and generate a playlist on this. It is relatively easy to use and does not require a sign in. 

I look forward to sharing this with the English Department and also hearing about the workshops that they attended!