When completing my reflection at the end of Term 2, there were several things that I identified that I wanted to trial to help my students have equal opportunities for success:
- Only giving a few instructions at a time.
- Preparing a parallel example with visuals that can be used to get students started.
- Create a visual To Do list that can help one of my students stay on track during S.D.L
- Applying the concept of low floor, high ceiling to all areas of the curriculum (not just maths)
- Using a positive motivator to encourage one of my students to have more independence during S.D.L
With respect to only giving a few instructions at at time, I believe that this is something that I have improved on. Giving students the opportunity to read the material using a T/P/S format has worked well to shorten the amount of instruction I have had to give. Doing it this way results in instructions being based on student questions, which means I am not going over the parts that they already understand, thus speeding up the process. I would like to implement a 'walk away' point where students can begin the task when they have read and understood the task and do not require any further instruction. This year I have set myself a 15minute time limit for instructions to be given as I identified earlier in the year that my students lost focus and their attention waned after 15 minutes.
I did not end up creating parallel problems as I decided that this would be too time consuming. Instead, I set up a buddy system so that the student had someone that they could check in with when they joined the class once the lesson had already begun. Doing this also negated the need for a visual timetable as the student got into the habit of first checking the instructions himself and then checking-in with his buddy if he still needed help. I would also make the effort to check in with him to see if he needed any help in between my group teaching.
To make learning accessible for readers of all levels I have focused on using comprehension activities which are simple enough for students that have difficulty reading to understand and complete, but also have the scope for more able readers to extend themselves by adding extra detail. This links in with the low floor, high ceiling approach. Here is an example of such a task:
In completing this task students had the choice of three texts which enabled students to pick a text at their level. It also gave students the option to extend themselves and try a harder text, which a number of students did.
Additionally, I have trialled mixed ability reading groups this year. Students choose their groups at the beginning of the year and are given the choice of texts that they want to read at the beginning of each session. It has been remarkable to see the rise in status students have experienced as a result of this. There is no longer a bottom reading group, rather each group consists of students of varying reading levels. I have noticed as a result of this that it is quite often the lower level students who are most proficient applying comprehension strategies to a text and a they often bring some interesting insights and prior knowledge to our sessions. I was initially concerned that lower level students would be disadvantaged reading a harder text, however there has been no cause for concern as even if some students can't effectively decode the text they are still able to follow along when other students or the teacher reads aloud. I have noticed that less able readers have felt more inclined this year to give reading aloud a go as they are with their friends and feel more confident. There have been a number of occasions where more capable readers have helped less able readers to sound out words. This is often evident at the start of the session when the students scan through the text to identify words that they don't know how to say or what it means.
Using a positive motivation has worked well to help my student who has been operating a 'Now' 'Next' system. The positive motivator that has worked best for this students is to have positive news shared with home. The deal was if the student worked to the best of his ability I would text home to let his mother know the good news. The student got a real kick out of this and was motivated to complete his work as a result.
Since the middle of the year I have also developed a self directed learning 'Must Do' 'Can Do' menu for one of my students who is a low level reader and has difficulty completing the literacy tasks that the rest of the class are doing. Included in this menu is maths learning as she is often withdrawn during our maths sessions to have extra literacy support.
I have also identified that one of my girls was having trouble with her fine motor skills which was impacting on her handwriting. To help develop her ability to control her pencil, she regularly completes a handwriting activity which is designed to help her to achieve greater accuracy with her script.
Another initiative that I have trialled in the second half of the year has been to insert an audio recording to instruction sheets so that students can click on the file if they need to view the instructions again. I only tried this a couple of times and am unsure if the effort put into creating the files translated into usefulness for students. A work around for this could be to have a student record the instructions as they are being given and then make this accessible to students who want to re-hear the instructions.
Thinking towards next year, I still want to focus on this area as something to continue to build on. Some of the ideas/strategies that I will consider are:
- Use the beginning weeks of the year to identify students that require extra support to complete independent learning tasks.
- Having a 'walk away' point of a lesson where students that already understand the instructions can walk away and begin the task
- Trialing mixed ability literacy groups which will be used for both reading and writing.
- Having instructions recorded so that students can refer back to them if needed.
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