CoL teacher Inquiry - Identifying valued learning outcomes: Welcome to 2023!

What an unexpectedly weather focused start we have had to the year! It has felt a little wobbly at times with heavy rain, flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle. Thankfully our school community has been kept safe and dry. My class has been coming to school everyday (I’ve had 100% attendance everyday - and long may that last). I have a class of seven five year olds, three who have been at school for a term and four who are new this year. Here's a photo of my class on the first day of school (missing one has he only enrolled in week 3). 

Today I sat and reflected on the year that has been (2022). I thought about what I’d like to take with me into 2023 and what I’d like to leave behind in regards to my literacy programme.

I thoroughly enjoyed studying with the University of Canterbury in 2022 and teaching using the Better Start Literacy Approach in my classroom. I learnt so much about the teaching of reading and believe it was the one of the best pieces of professional development I’ve completed. I now feel much more confident in my understanding of teaching reading and how our brains learn to read. It sparked a passion for me in reading further and learning more about the science of reading. Upon reflection, after teaching using purely the Better Start Literacy Approach, following the lessons exactly as they were prescribed for the year I noticed a few places that this approach could be adjusted to best meet the needs of the learners with my school and elements of the approach where my tamariki really thrived.


I noticed that:

• Our e-Asttle writing results were the biggest win with half my class of 2022 gaining a 1B in writing - this was a decent shift on the previous years results.

• My class loved the structured and repetitive nature of the programme, they settled well and knew what was expected of them and how all the “games” worked.

• The shared picture book was an excellent way of growing my tamariki’s vocabulary - especially when used along the posters (these were created by another BSLA teacher and really scaffolded the tamariki well into remembering and explaining the meaning of the new words). Here is an example: 

• The speed of the teaching was a one-size fits all approach- each week the children were presented with 2-3 new sounds (regardless of their progress learning the sounds that were taught in the previous week). This did not work for many of my learners as it was simply too fast. 

• It was challenging in a new entrant classroom for new tamariki beginning school during the school year. They would be faced with a whole class teaching session - many many steps beyond their own abilities, for example: the class might be learning about split digraphs but they are yet to recognise the first sound in their own name.

• The BSLA whole class sessions required lots of mat-time - something my tamariki coped with but I felt there could be other ways to achieve the same learning while also allowing them to get up and move around.

• Many of my tamariki did not enter school with phonemic awareness required for a good foundation for literacy learning (they could not isolate or manipulate the sounds in spoken language, for example; identifying rhyming words, the first sound in words, or blending and segmenting sounds). Within the BSLA the tamariki do focus on phonemic awareness, but I believe the gap in this area for my tamariki needs more explicit teaching to cover other elements of phonemic awareness (that are missing in the BSLA). For example; simple listening games, rhyming words and syllables. 

I then had a think about my tamariki and what I'd love for literacy learning to be like for them in our classroom this year:

• I’d love to create learning based on the science of reading.  

• I’d love for  literacy in my classroom to not be a “one size fits all” type approach but an approach that that honours my five year olds and everything they bring to the classroom.

• I’d love literacy in our classroom to honour my tamariki who have arrived at school not yet ready for the curriculum. Many of my tamariki are not yet ready to sit still, listening carefully to the teacher, or have not yet developed the fine motor skills needed for a strong pencil grip.

• I’d love  literacy in my classroom to honour my tamariki’s home life. My tamariki bring a home life with them to school that is often complex, at times unsettling and often doesn’t align with the expectations for school life.

• I’d love literacy in my classroom to be a time that honours my tamariki’s need to move and develop their gross motor skills - rather than spending extended periods of time sitting.

• I’d love to create literacy learning that is at a pace that is appropriate for their cognitive abilities.

• I’d love to create literacy that honours the gap in words that my tamariki enter school with, that grows and develops their vocabulary. I'd love for the shared picture books that I use of connect with my learners - I have been on the lookout for picture books by Pasifika authors.  

But most of all I’d love for my students to not leave their learning at the classroom door but for them to see how what they are learning in the classroom connects to their world.

Nga mihi nui!