Results are in...

So what effect did teaching reading through multimodal texts have? Check it out:

My biggest wondering is: how much did using multimodal texts actually influence the data? 

I used a multi-pronged strategy which included building relationships at home, increasing 1:1 reading time through TA and parent help, using our school librarian to 'advertise' books to the learners, regularly visiting the school library, using the pizza challenge competition to increase home reading, having the children create multimodal responses to texts in meaningful ways, as well as crafting specific lessons using multimodal texts aimed to maximise engagement and extended discussion.

I am left wondering how much of an influence multimodal texts had, amongst all this! I suspect it had a big influence in engaging the learners and helping them make connections and use specific strategies for inferencing and supporting their ideas.

Another wondering I have is how could I have pushed those learners who were below standard to achieve at standard? Despite all the methods used above, 2 learners stayed below standard (although they did make 12 months progress) and one learner is still well below standard. These children all have processing difficulties. How might I have tailored the learning to get greater shift here?

Overall, I am pleased with the journey the learners and I have taken. It is gratifying to see reading progress being made, and even more so to see these learners now wanting to read for pleasure,  knowing what books spin their wheels and being intrinsically motivated to read more. Ka mau te wehi!

New Term, New Tack!

This term my co-teaching buddy Mel and I are trying out a series of critical literacy lessons. This came from being inspired by a colleague during a PL session. 

We plan to incorporate lots of role play and drama along the way to boost the children's speaking and listening skills. 

This will hopefully be a real integration of using multimodal texts to support and extending writing. 

Our first lesson... aiming for that sweet spot!

Co-Teaching

This term my I had the privilege of co-teaching with a talented colleague, Mel Prasad. We both teach similar cohorts in literacy and it worked really well to have someone to bounce ideas off. This doubled our enthusiasm and halved our preparation time. Combining both groups also meant we were able to tailor the learning in a different way, as one of us could provide more support to certain groups, while the other teacher taught at a different pace for the rest of the learners. 

We hooked this kids in to creating their own super heroes and super villains, and this culminated in them creating their own plays. This also tied in to our school production, in terms of script writing and acting. We created sock puppets to act out the characters of villain or hero. 

Sharing Practice

This week we shared our teaching inquiries with our colleagues. Really amazing to hear about all that is happening in teachers' practice at Stonefields School!

A next step for me is co-teaching with my colleague Mel Prasad. We have similar literacy groups with similar needs and have been inspired to pursue teaching a deeper level of thinking through using a critical literacy approach. Watch this space!

Creating a multimodal lesson to enable making connections

This week I am trying to push these learners further into making meaning. 

My recent gap analysis of my focus group learners showed we need to work on comparing and connecting. I did this using Schooltalk.

I have crafted a workshop using 4 different texts, one of which is a chapter book. Children will explain the connections they make using the digital tool Coggle.

Focus Group Data

I have 5 boys who I have been targeting to make 18 months shift in 12. Here is their mid-year data... not as dismal as I had thought, but then again lots of room for improvement!

This equates to 2 boys already making 12 months progress, and 3 boys making 6 months progress in 6 months. 

Mid year data

The first set of data here at is my whole literacy group data, who have received teaching through multimodal texts.

This group consists of 20 learners comprised of 15 boys and 5 girls. From the graph below, you can see all boys have made progress, 4 boys making 12 months and 11 boys making 6 months. The girls have mixed results, for various reasons.

It is gratifying to see the shift in the boys progress; not as much as I was hoping for, especially for the learners who started the year at below or well below. My colleagues have given me more strategies to try and raise achievement even further using multimodal texts.... watch this space!