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Progress and achievement

Each learner is on a unique pathway of development. Although there is wide agreement about what they can be expected to achieve at particular points in their progress, there are always variations in students' expertise and in their routes and rates of progress. Whatever level a student has achieved, it is important that teachers recognise what they already know, and can control and build on their expertise in any given learning context.

The English learning area and the  Progression in English levels 6–8, as well as the Principles, Vision and Key Competencies of The New Zealand Curriculum provide a starting point for what students are expected to be able to know and do in any particular year level.

Snapshot 18: Using the AOs to identify learning needs
This snapshot describes how the teacher of an all-boys class went back to the curriculum to identify and plan for the learning needs of their students – with results that surprised everyone.

Questions to think about in your school context

The following questions can be used when planning your next steps:

• What information have I gathered from my inquiry? Where can I go next?
• What knowledge and skills do the students need?
• What are the students' strengths? What evidence informs this?
• What are the students' learning needs? What evidence informs this?
• How can I most effectively change what I am doing with my students in order to achieve better outcomes?

Assessment processes

"Assessment processes" means more flexible and variable assessment strategies or activities that are designed to improve teaching and learning. Such processes are part of the ongoing interaction between teaching and learning. Much of the evidence gathered will be 'of the moment', with analysis and interpretation taking place in our minds as we seek to shape our actions to ensure students’ progress.

Examples include: informal observation, teacher-student conferences, using exemplars, and records of how students make meaning of information as they listen/read/view text and create meaning for others through speaking, writing, and presenting text. Student voice and reflections are also extremely valuable insights into where your students are with their learning.

Snapshot 11: Reflective journals
This snapshot describes how a teacher greatly enhanced the effectiveness of her feedback by introducing her students to the use of reflective journals.

For more information on assessment processes:

• Overall Teacher Judgments (OTJs)
• Moderation
• Assessment Online
• New Zealand Curriculum Assessment (pp. 39–41)
• Assessment for learning

Assessment for learning
Judy Maw, assistant principal and network learning facilitator, discusses student first assessment in an English context.

Analysis and use of assessment information

Teachers of English can reflect on these three questions to guide them in using assessment information.

• How can I use what I learn about students’ strengths and needs to plan for further learning?
• How can I support students in self-regulating their learning?
• How can I monitor the effectiveness of my teaching practice?

Snapshot 1: Ngā hau e wha
This snapshot describes how a school used close reading of Māori and Pasifika poetry to address the diverse needs and interests of its students.

Key resources

• Assessment Online
• Assessment Resource Banks: English: The diagnostic assessment tasks in English (developed by NZCER) allow teachers to investigate a particular focus for assessment (for example, inference) in depth. They cover all curriculum modes, from levels 2 to 5.
• Literacy Learning Progressions: This resource shows English teachers the knowledge and skills that students need to meet the reading and writing demands of the New Zealand Curriculum, from school entry to the end of year 10.
• Thinking About How Language Works
  This resource from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) provides teachers with additional information about language that will help them to analyse student responses to Assessment Resource Bank items. It will be of use when analysing responses from students with English as a first or subsequent language. 
 

Teachers can also refer to the relevant sections in the Effective Literacy Practice books:

• Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1 to 4 (pp. 61–69): This resource helps us develop our understandings of what we do that leads to improved literacy outcomes for students in years 1–4. Pages 61–69 discuss analysing and using assessment information. They are available from  Down the Back of the Chair.
• Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8 (pp. 62–71): This resource helps us develop understandings of what we do that leads to improved literacy outcomes for students in years 5–8. Pages 66–71 discuss analysing and using assessment information. They are available from  Down the Back of the Chair.

Learning task 1

Activating prior knowledge and introducing them to the topic. Identifying text features and how they help us understand a text/find information

1. Introduce the topic to students through a picture dictation task (ELP Years 9 to 13, page 48). Explain to students that over the course of this unit they will be exploring issues facing the earth and its inhabitants. The purpose of picture dictation is to get students thinking about what these issues are and how they can be represented in a visual format.Students are also listening carefully to oral text which helps them to identify key vocabulary or ideas. Read each issue out to the students twice. They are to draw an image that they feel represents this issue. Once all 5 issues have been read students first discuss their recollections of the issues with another student. This enables them to clarify their understanding. Students then write down their recollections of what the issues are in their own words. OPTIONAL: Give students a copy of the issues (exactly what you read). The issues can be read directly from the text book ‘Earth Under Pressure’, page 2 or alternatively write 5 statements relating to the issues you have decided to focus on. For the purpose of this unit, students will explore two issues as a class and then complete an inquiry in to an issue of their choice.

   What the teacher is looking for:

   • Can the students understand the statements read and translate them in to visual images?
   • When rewriting the visuals back in to words are they able to use topic specific vocabulary?
   • Do they show an understanding of the words/ideas?
2. To get students thinking about vocabulary associated with the issues ask them to brainstorm words/ideas that they think are linked to each issue. Students create a mind map of their ideas and then add these to a class brainstorm that can be displayed in the classroom. They can then refer back to this throughout the course of the unit and add to it. This is also a good indicator of what prior knowledge they already have. For example: Are they aware of any topic specific vocabulary already? Can they define these?

Introducing Students to topic specific vocabulary

The following links have valuable information outlining why it is important for students to be exposed to and to understand key vocabulary.

http://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/research-and-articles#vocabulary-and-comprehension

http://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/research-and-articles#science-vocabulary

1. Provide the students with a selection of newspaper headlines that contain specific topic related, technical terms, for example: Biodiversity, recycling, bio-degradable, quota sample headlines.
   Students highlight or underline the words in each headline that they feel are specifically topic related. At this point students create a glossary in their books that they can add to during the unit. This can then be referred to over the course of the unit. The glossary should contain all topic specific vocabulary and the appropriate definitions. It is a good idea for students to include in the glossary their own definition as well as the dictionary definition.

2. Ask them then to write down the definition for each word (1. Their own definition. 2. The dictionary definition.) Allocate each student with a word that they are then to illustrate for a word wall in the classroom. This activity also provides an opportunity for students to explore the vocabulary associated with the topic in other ways for example root words/prefixes/suffixes.

   An alternative or additional learning task to focus on vocabulary is to do a Term/definition mix and match. Have words and definitions cut up and laminated. Students then match the definition to the key term. This activity is a good pair/small group task which students can collaborate on to get the correct pairs. This can also be used as a clustering activity where students group together words that they feel belong in a particular group, for example words related to endangered species. Can they identify words that belong in more than one group? Students should do the clustering task in pairs or small groups so that discussion is taking place around what the words mean and how they could group together. Students are then able to identify words they already know and be introduced to new words. It also enables peer discussion and support for students at a range of levels.

Orientation to the textbook

“Visuals are a central feature of many texts. Students need to learn about the purposes of visual features and the relationships between visual and written aspects of texts in order to comprehend and interpret such texts.” ELP Years 9 to 13, page 84.

More about orientation to the text:

https://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/how-understanding-text-features-benefits-reading-comprehension

Introduction to textbook - ‘EARTH UNDER PRESSURE, People, Pests and Pollution’. This textbook makes use of a range of text features to convey various types of information. Text features used include: Graphs, tables, diagrams, headings, Photos, sub-headings, bold/italics, colour, activity boxes. As outlined in the ‘Literacy Learning Progressions’ page 18 students at Year 10 are often required to read texts that include the following:

• complex ideas and multiple items of information (in both longer texts and short, information-dense texts);
• academic and content-specific vocabulary that expresses abstract concepts relating to a range of topics within and across curriculum areas;
• terminology, text structures, and conventions that may have different meanings or function differently in different curriculum areas;
• non-sequential organisation, which may include complex sections and graphics that are not clearly linked to other parts of the text.

To introduce the students to text features choose 1 to 2 pages within the text that make use of a range of features. Photocopy and cut the page in to segments and allocate each segment to a student or pair of students. Students are then required to identify the key ideas that are presented in their segment and report these back to the class. (Refer to page 84, ELP Years 9 to 13). Students then move in to small groups and see if they can identify ways in which the different segments may relate to each other or how they present information that is not referred to in the written text. As a class discuss how the different kinds of information complement and support each other.

What the teacher is looking for:

• Are the students becoming aware of how written and visual information within a text can support each other?
• Are the students critically analysing the quality of the information presented?
• Over the course of the unit:
• Are the students showing in independent tasks that they are noticing and making use of all the information presented in the text?

This is an activity that may require revisiting over the course of the unit. It is also important to expose students to a variety of texts so when using a new resource with students , brainstorm as a class the text features that they can identify within a particular text and why they think this particualr feature may have been used. Constant reinforcement means that students’ will develop the ability to quickly identify text features and why they may be important. A cross curricular approach to this is also valuable. For example, can the science and maths teachers of this class run a session on text features within their textbooks? This then enables students to develop transferrable strategies for developing understanding. Students then also develop the realisation that their ability to find information within a text is not isolated to one particular area. If students are conducting research it is also valuable to run this exercise with a piece of text from an electronic source as many students struggle to find reliable information due to their inability to find information within a website.

Providing opportunities for reflection

Learning logs or reflection logs provide the opportunity for both students and teachers to reflect on the learning process and identify next steps.

At this stage in the unit introduce a reflection log to the students. The reflection log can be completed weekly, daily or lesson by lesson. It provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their own learning (what they have learnt), what they would like to learn, what they have found interesting and what they might need to relearn (or would like retaught). By reading their reflection logs the teacher is able to gain a picture of what they are learning, what they may need to reteach or explain in a different way and ideas for next steps.

Teddybears

Teacher Bronwen Thomas

Teacher Background Reading

• Visual Language - English Exemplar Project
• English Exemplar Project: Introduction to Character Writing
• What next

Teaching and learning activities

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

Learning task 1

Learning task 2

Curriculum Links

Maths - Height of bears, seriate bears. Graph bear information. Mapping route to Goldilock's house.

Art - stuffed calico teddybears.

Technology - teddybear waistcoats for picnic, construct a bear house.

Links for Students

Assessment

All assessment is based on work done during the activities listed. Notes may be kept on each child to be refered to later when making a summative assesssment.

The teacher observes and assesses the students' understanding of the role illustrations play in books and their understanding of narrative, recount and and poems throughout the unit.

assessment-1 (RTF 6KB)
exemplars (RTF 5KB)

Resources

Print

• The National Library has an excellent collection of books and videos.

Other

• Look for Old Bear stories on video and audio cassette at local library.
• Poems

Come fly a kite

Teacher: Anne Girven

Adapted for ESOL students: Elise Soothil

Teacher background reading

• Writing instructions
• asTTle - Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning activities

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

Learning task 1

Learning task 2

Assessment

Assessment task

On-going assessment, monitoring the students' ability to read and follow instructions (teacher).

Introduce and discuss key indicators with the class. To design and write instructions on how to make a kite (student).

Self Assessment (RTF 248KB)

Assessment Schedule (RTF 38KB)

School Journals

(Go to Journal Surf to search for more School Journal texts)

Electronic

• 'Making Manu Taratahi', on Creepy and Other Stories electronic storybook
• Assessment Resource Banks - Make a Purerehua (ARB username and password required to view this resource)
• How does a kite fly?
• Kites.co.nz
• History of Box Kites

Learning task 4: Drafting a piece about your journey

1. Read the four exemplars. Note that Going Up North is exemplar D. Discuss what aspects of the student writing are successful and what aspects could be developed further. Look at the assessment schedule which is also linked to the exemplars.
2. Use your chart from task 2 to draft a piece describing your memories of a journey. Write at least 300 words. You may not include material from the exemplars in your own writing.
3. After writing a first draft, work in pairs following the stages on the content card to help improve the content of each other's writing.
4. Use the stylistic suggestions sheet as part of a focused drafting process.
5. The structural suggestions sheet and characterisation sheet can be used in a similar way.
6. Prior to writing the final draft, you should return to the assessment schedule and the exemplars to decide what changes or additions are needed for the final draft.
7. Begin writing the final draft. At this point you will need access to dictionaries, spell checkers, language guides. Complete a final proof-read of your own writing.
8. If you are serious about taking your writing further and want more writing advice, links to sites, organisations and magazines, you should visit The John Hewitt Society.

Junior Journal

An instructional reading series primarily for year 3 students, the Junior Journal acts as a bridge to the School Journal by providing texts at the top end of the Ready to Read colour wheel while introducing students to the miscellany format of the School Journal. Each issue is aligned to level 2 of The New Zealand Curriculum.

The Junior Journal is an instructional reading series for students who are working at early level 2 in the New Zealand Curriculum and reading Ready to Read texts at Purple and Gold.

The Junior Journal supports students to make the transition from individual Ready to Read texts to reading the Curriculum level 2 School Journal. Texts in the Junior Journal have fewer illustrations and denser text layouts to prepare students for reading longer texts. Junior Journal builds on students’ previous learning, encouraging fluent and independent reading behaviours on longer and more complex texts and providing opportunities to learn across the curriculum.

Looking for our latest resources?

An online catalogue has been created for Instructional Series.

You'll find Teacher support materials (TSM), audio files and digital copies of the text where available.

To order resources please contact  Ministry of Education resource catalogue by e-mail at  [email protected], or by freephone 0800 660 662 or freefax 0800 660 663.

Literacy and students with special education needs

Responding to the needs and strengths of all students is one of the foundations of an inclusive classroom. The successful participation of neurodiverse learners in literacy tasks across the curriculum involves a team response to individual needs – and participating at a suitable level often means academic success.

Assistive technology for literacy

Captioning to Support Literacy
One motivating, engaging, and inexpensive way to help build learners’ early reading skills is through the use of closed-captioned and subtitled television shows and films. These supports can help boost foundational reading skills, such as phonics, word recognition, and fluency.

Using Storybird to improve literacy skills
Susan Lee, teacher at Te Kura o Kutarere shares how using  Storybird, a free digital story writing tool, with learners has made a significant impact on the literacy development of her students. She describes how students have become self-motivated and proud of their work. Using Storybird has meant reluctant writers are now, "constantly reading their own work and reading other students stories and the writing is just flowing because it's not pen to paper it's keyboard, choose a picture and tap away." 

Working together: writing with iPads
Avondale School teacher Rae Marsh talks about how using iPad writing app Screen Chomp has made a difference for one of her Year 5 students in learning how to form letters correctly. With a combination of Google Docs and Screen Chomp, her student is able to participate in class activities and express his creativity.

1:1 Netbooks - Allowing excellence in the classroom
Tyler is a Year 6 student at Parkvale School. He has dyspraxia. Using a netbook gives him the freedom to write creatively instead of being inhibited by the speed of his handwriting or his ability to form letters. Tyler comments, "It is the best thing that ever happened to me at school. It’s just completely changed everything. It’s been much easier. I’ve been able to actually complete my work and generally just have a good time."  

Using an iPad to support independent writing for a student with ADHD
Daniel, a student with ADHD, and his teacher, Kate Friedwald, explain how he uses apps on his iPad to support his reading and comprehension. He can now structure his own learning because he can see and hear what it is he needs to be doing.

Literacy support for students with complex communication and learning needs
In this EDtalk, Sally Clendon discusses technology support for literacy learning in students with complex communication and learning needs.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning difference which is constitutional in origin and which, for a given level of ability, may cause unexpected difficulties in the acquisition of certain literacy and numeracy skills. Dyslexia is not an intellectual impairment. (Dyslexia Foundation NZ)

“Constitutional in origin” refers to the fact that dyslexia has a substantive neurobiological basis.

Structured literacy teaching is essential and can impact positively on the progress and achievement of students with dyslexia.

Neuroscience – Research that informs practice

Cognitive neuroscience provides significant insight into what happens in the brain during learning.

We all learn differently

All students learn differently and require a range of supports and flexible options to engage with learning, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Findings from neuroscience indicate that the human brain learns using three primary networks.

• Affective networks influence our emotions and motivations.
• Recognition networks influence what we perceive and understand through our senses.
• Strategic networks influence how we organise and communicate our thinking.

Use a range of multisensory approaches that align with these three learning networks when working with learners who have dyslexia by:

• presenting material in multiple ways 
• enabling students to express learned content in different ways 
• providing increased opportunities for students to engage in learning. 

(Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014)

The reading brain

Reading involves multiple sites and systems in the brain for processing letters into sounds. Systems for phonological processing are affected in learners with dyslexia (Birsh, 2019, Kearns, Hancock, Hoeft, Pugh, & Frost, 2019). Providing a multisensory approach, within a structured phonics-based programme, strengthens the neural pathways needed for reading (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004, Birsh, 2019). 

Video: Dyslexia and the brain, on the Understood website

 

Resources

Dyslexia resource kete
The Ministry of Education has developed a kete of resources for educators in schools and kura to support learners living with dyslexia, with more to come later in 2020. The resources promote a range of options for helping students living with dyslexia to learn in ways that work best for them.

The release of this kete of resources is another step towards strengthening resources and approaches in this critical area of learning support. The kete promotes a tiered approach to universal support for learners living with dyslexia that reflects the principles and practices of Universal Design for Learning.

The full dyslexia resource kete includes:

• About Dyslexia: Supporting Literacy in the Classroom
• Dyslexia and Learning Guide: provides information about dyslexia and classroom strategies to support students’ learning and wellbeing across the curriculum. This guide also includes a range of additional resources and links (available from mid-2020)
• Parent pamphlets on Dyslexia: one pamphlet for all parents and one with a Te Ao Māori perspective. The Māori pamphlet is available now and the English-medium pamphlet (available from mid-2020)
• Māori-medium videos: to support effective literacy teaching and an introductory booklet to dyslexia in Maori-medium settings
• A bank of non-Ministry of Education resources that either support students with dyslexia or have a New Zealand phonics focus
• The New Zealand Dyslexia Handbook: available now from NZCER Press

The Inclusive Education guide to dyslexia and learning has a range of helpful resources and videos.

Gifted students

Worldwide, it seems that classroom teachers are facing the same problems and asking similar questions about how to cater for gifted children in the literacy classroom: Who are gifted children? Who are gifted readers? Are all gifted children gifted readers? How can I cater for these children in my classroom? (Vosslamber 2002). It is important that teachers are able to find some answers to these questions because, without them, school is not always the inspiring and challenging experience it could be for gifted children.

Gifted children are not necessarily "successful readers and writers", and this is one of the reasons that they are not always identified as gifted. Although many gifted children do indeed achieve excellent results in literacy and a range of other academic areas, others underachieve, and some even experience great difficulties in reading and writing.

from  Catering for gifted students in the literacy classroom, Taylor, Tand Oakley, G, 2007

Resources

Catering for the learning needs of gifted and talented students in a New Zealand context
A qualitative research project conducted by Adrian Smith ASB/APPA travelling fellowship 2013.

Self Review
Self review tools, strategies and questions to use when reviewing GATE programmes in schools.

Literacy Strategies for Gifted Learners
A series of slides describing the characteristics of gifted readers and writers, and some strategies for creating effective teaching and learning programmes.

Competitions for students
Links to a selection of (non sporting) competitions gifted and talented learners might be interested in.

Gifted students with special learning needs (twice exceptional)

Twice exceptional (or 2E students) are sometimes also referred to as double labelled,or having dual exceptionality. These are gifted students whose performance is impaired, or high potential is masked, by a specific learning disability, physical impairment, disorder or condition. They may experience extreme difficulty in developing their giftedness into talent.

Gifted students with disabilities are at-risk as their educational and social/emotional needs often go undetected. Educators often incorrectly believe twice-exceptional students are not putting in adequate effort within the classroom. They are often described as "lazy" and "unmotivated". Hidden disabilities may prevent students with advanced cognitive abilities from achieving high academic results. 2E students perform inconsistently across the curriculum. The frustrations related to unidentified strengths and disabilities can result in behavioural and social/emotional issues.

Twice-multi exceptional learners helps you to understand the particular strengths and needs of twice/multi exceptional learners.