Jim's Inquiry Blog: Target Kids Evidence

TEACHER INQUIRY 2016

Target Children;

I have chosen two Year Three maori boys as my target children for writing. They are Woki Taha-Ransley and Rakei Washer. While these two boys are the target focus, the other children in their writing group will have the same exposure to the following deliberate acts of teaching.

Woki is confidently discussing his ideas and attempting to record them. He is not using correctly formed sentences with correct subject/verb agreements. Woki is attempting to spell challenging words with correct initial and final sounds. He is using a mixture of upper and lower case letters within words and will add a full stop to the end of most sentences. Woki is attempting to add precise detail from his personal vocabulary range.

Rakei is attempting to communicate his ideas from his personal viewpoint.When guided, he is confidently sharing his thoughts and ideas while thinking through correctly formed sentences. He is missing contextual verbs and nouns that give his audience time and place context. Rakei is attempting to spell challenging words with correct initial and final sounds. He is using a mixture of upper and lower case letters within words. Rakei forgets to finish sentences with full stops. Rakei is attempting to add precise detail from his limited personal vocabulary range.

WHAT DO THEY NEED TO KNOW TO BE AT THE STANDARD?

Woki; To move from 1P to 1A in writing.

Rakei; To move from 1B to 1A

To do this they will need;

Explicit teaching of clear structure for the writing purpose with logical flow and sequence of ideas
Ideas will need to be developed with precise nouns, verbs and adjectives and further detail. Topic sentences followed by explanations or examples as the year progresses.
Teacher lead discussion of precise vocabulary (key words) will enhance each sentence. Key words will be used to build up sentences.
Oral discussion of each idea/sentence prior to writing it.
Questioning/reminding to start and finish each sentence with correct punctuation.
Hard to spell words will be modelled by teacher. Alphabet charts/high frequency lists will be used to enable quicker spelling in sentences. Shared spelling sounding out will be used in writing group as a model of identifying correct spelling.
Symbol imagery of high frequency words will be taught by a T.A. trained by R.T.Lit. Helen Jenkins.

WHAT DO THEY KNOW ABOUT THEIR LEARNING?

I aim to increase their writing group participation, personal confidence and overall achievement in their writing group through personal experiences that lend themselves to higher topic engagement.

Target Kid - Rakei Washer