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Set up a Learning Centre. "Kites" books, photographs, information sheets, hot link pages: Introduction to Kite Flying
(Kite flying may have originated in China where it is an ancient tradition to fly kites on the ninth day of the ninth moon).
Discuss and compare these two stories. What is the same? What is different? Make a Venn diagram.
Read other kite stories throughout the unit School Journal Stories (see resources for a list). Shared, guided, independent reading.
Newspaper Kite - This kite uses rolled up newspaper. Read and follow the instructions. (Kite making activities could be in the school hall, or any large space that allows children to work on the floor.)
This topic is broken into 3 subtopics – click on a link to see the activities in each subtopic:
In each subtopic, students:
Topic objective
What you need
Monitoring and recording student progress
You can monitor and record student progress using the examples of good assessment practice in the English language learning progressions.
"Associative link-making to students' prior experiences and knowledge is fundamental to the learning process and one of the recurrent and strongest findings in research on teaching" (Alton-Lee, 2003, p.48). Activating prior knowledge is like preparing the soil before sowing the seeds of knowledge, says Jim Cummins.
The short story "Return from Oz" by Witi Ihimaera was selected because it was felt that ESOL students could link the theme of returning home to their own experiences. In many cultures, there are key times when a family needs to return to their home-town. Many students would be able to relate to the concept of parents sacrificing to give them better educational opportunities and the conflict of trying to have the best of both worlds.
Close reading and discussion of a text provides the necessary vocabulary, ideas and structure needed before students begin their own writing.
Begin by reading the first paragraph of the story to the students and/or sharing your own experience of a journey home.
Prompt the students to talk about their journey experiences by mentioning such traditional journeys as "Thanksgiving Day" when Koreans visit their ancestors' graves with prepared food. Use the discussion starters (Word 40KB) to activate prior knowledge, make links to past experiences and familiarise students with vocabulary and the themes of the short story.
The starters are on three levels and can be used in a variety of ways.
Follow up with free paragraph writing by students about their journey experiences. Encourage ESOL students to write in their first language.
Other strategies you could use to activate prior knowledge include:
Ihimaera, W. ( 1977). Return to Oz. The New Net Goes Fishing. Auckland: Heinemann 1977.
Pre-teaching essential vocabulary is critical in enabling students' to reach their learning goals and teachers need to carefully select which vocabulary to teach. Concentrate on the words that students will encounter most frequently. It is also helpful if teachers of all subjects incorporate vocabulary from the Academic Word List.
There could be a wide variety of key vocabulary that students will need when writing about their own journey. Some of this will have arisen from pre-reading activities and some will be highlighted through reading the text.
e-Learning enables learning opportunities to be tailored to students’ individual needs and interests, improving achievement and increasing engagement. In Literacy, this may mean using e-Learning to raise literacy levels; using devices or software to engage reluctant learners with texts; or creating self managing learning opportunities to suit different learning pathways.
Pedagogy and e-Learning:
e-Learning and implications for New Zealand schools: a literature review (2010)
Stop motion animation to promote literacySue Martin uses stop motion animation with her students to promote narrative skills, particularly sequencing and retelling. After teaching them how, her students now work independently during reading time in the animation corner for about 10-15 minutes at a time. She encourages student self and peer reflection by asking questions at the end of each session. Parents provide positive feedback via the class blog.
Student ownership of reading goals supported by QR codesKonini School teacher, Vicki Pimenta shares her approach to using the literacy progressions for raising student achievement in reading. By including student voice and encouraging the students to know where they are and what their next step is going to be, students own their learning. In the classroom she uses QR codes to help them with this.
Using digital tools to build literacy skills across the curriculumAccess to tools that can support literacy across the curriculum are increasingly at student’s fingertips. As part of a Universal Design for Learning approach, choices and supports for all students are built into the learning design at the outset. Consequently, students should have access to tools that personalise learning and match their needs and preferences across the curriculum. Here are three ideas teachers and students can use to support this approach.
Literacy teaching and learning in e-Learning contextsThis report presents the findings of a research project on literacy teaching and learning in e-Learning contexts carried out by CORE Education and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) for the Ministry of Education in 2009.
Raising literacy levels using blended e learning: A design based approach in New ZealandThis paper reports on a design based intervention in urban primary and secondary schools serving culturally diverse students from low socio-economic (SES) communities. It creates further evidence about how new technologies and blended e-learning are being implemented in low SES classrooms and the relationships with valued student outcomes.
Enabling e-LearningView school stories, snapshots of learning, and resources that show how schools are using technologies to support collaboration, personalised learning, and authentic learning experiences within the English learning area.
Knowing about current developments in literacy
Maori resources
Pasifika resources
Your school’s literacy focus can be described as ‘sustainable’ so long as there is continued improvement in valued student outcomes. It is important to start creating the conditions for sustainability from the beginning of your literacy intervention.
Indicators of a culture of student-focused inquiry
Indicators of a culture of student-focused inquiry include:
Embedding ongoing literacy inquiry
Ongoing literacy inquiry can be formally embedded by specifically requiring it to be a feature of:
Professional learning communities
Some characteristics of professional learning communities able to sustain ongoing improvements are that:
Leaders maintaining momentum
Some characteristics of leadership that sustains ongoing improvements are:
Lai, M. K., McNaughton, S., Amituanai-Toloa, M., Turner, R., & Hsiao, S. (2009). Sustained acceleration of achievement in reading comprehension: The New Zealand experience. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 30-56.
Lai, M. K., McNaughton, S., Hsiao, S. (2010). Sustaining improvements in student achievement: Myth or reality? set: Research Information for Teachers, 1, 10-17.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development: Best evidence synthesis iteration (BES) Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.
Download the Teacher Professional Learning and Development Best Evidence Synthesis.
Read more about professional learning communities:
Ka Hikitia - Managing for Success: The Māori Education Strategy 2008 – 2012
What literacy knowledge and skills do my students have in Mathematics?
Use multiple sources of information to determine the focus of your inquiry – student voice, assessment information, diagnostic tasks.
What literacy knowledge and skills need to be developed?
The purpose of this style of writing is to recall an event or experience for the reader's information or enjoyment. It differs from a narrative in that the events are portrayed in chronological order - in the order in which they occurred rather than manipulated for maximum impact or drama.
Writers should remember that while the purpose is to retell they still need to craft their retelling to be interesting to the reader. Rather than retelling every minor detail, the writer needs to select the important information or events, and expand on these in an interesting manner. If you were recounting a sports day, you could focus on the place, time, events and results (which may be appropriate for a report), but to interest the reader think about what would lift this above the dreary detail - What was the highlight of the day for you? How did you feel when you tripped just before the finish line? Did anything funny or surprising occur?
It is often a good idea to brainstorm all the things that happened in the event or experience, and then select and sequence those that you will use.
Popplet is a tool you could try for this - double click anywhere on the screen to add the events and then move into chronological sequence. You can then add title ideas and personal comments or anecdotes.
Planning
eBook tools
IllustrationsA recount does not always require illustration, but for some audiences or some formats, such as eBooks, illustrations could well enhance the retelling. Illustrations could be drawn freehand and then scanned or photographed for inclusion in a book or eBook, or they could be drawn on computer using free web 2.0 tools or apps.
PhotosAttendance at an actual event often yields good digital photos to add to the recount. These can be cropped, rotated and enhanced using free software or apps.
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