…

BEEN ON A LEARNING WALK

Now what?

Reflecting on TeachingWhy?

• Educators, as well as researchers, recognise that the ability to reflect on teaching is the mark of a true professional.

• It is through critical reflection that teachers are able to assess the effectiveness of their work and take steps to improve it.

Consideration for new forms of action. Easier to build bridges between theory and practice.

Personal responsibility for learning and improvement.

What are the purposes of Learning Walks?

• Learning Walks serve to:• Develop a learning community• Develop a deep understanding of teaching and learning• Develop a shared vision of every child in every

classroom enabled to meet or exceed high standards• Assist in “coaching” for improved practice• Reflect on professional practice• Gain new insights and understanding

Why do we advocate Learning Walks

•Gain a sense of the current state of instruction and learning.•Enable educators to share strategies with one another •Create a system of excellence in teaching and learning •Facilitates discussion and reflection on what is working well •Continuous learning and improvement

What protocols are followed?

• Orientation of staff

• Orientation of walkers

• Classroom visits for 10 minutes

• Examine artifacts and student work

• Corridor talk

• Debriefing

• Written or verbal communication with teachers

When we leave a classroom, what do we talk about?

We talk about:

• Evidence of Best Practices in:• The lesson• The student assignment• Student work products

When we leave a classroom, what do we talk about?

-Level of questioning

-What the students were learning.

-How the teacher assists the learning.

-What the students said in response to questions.

-Ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that were used effectively.

- What we saw or heard

What occurs after a Learning Walk?

• The observers will debrief immediately after the classroom visit.

• The lead walker will lead a discussion.

• The observers should come away with ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that can be used effectively in the classroom and a deeper understanding on how to improve instruction.

WE ARE THERETO SUPPORTTEACHING AND LEARNING

Not to evaluate.

Step by Step (what you did)

•Pre-walk discussion•Learning Walk in classrooms- 10 minutes

•Catch up in corridor -5 minutes•Reflection for walkers (Where we are)

Post Discussions• Write on post it notes things you noticed

•What you saw or heard

- Level of questioning-What the students were learning.-How the teacher assists the learning.-What the students said in response to questions.-Ideas, strategies, and/or techniques that were used effectively.

• One thought for each post-it(No inference)

Bundle

1. Clean away any post its that are not facts– no inferences

2. Bundle into like arease.g.• Strengths of practiceMake some group statements about what you have noticed. (These will go back to the school with the lead walkers)

3. Learning walk – as a group walk around to see what others have written

Reflection• Take a few minutes to discuss with your team about how

Learning Walks might impact teaching and learning in your school.

•Self to Text• What am I going to do next at my school

WRITING CONVENTIONSP-12Loddon Mallee Region

Our purpose as teachers-

to teach the writer not the writing Lucy McCormick Calkins

Session Outline• What are Writing Conventions?• Are they important?• Writing conventions in context of AusVels frameworks and standards

• Delving deeper

What are Writing Conventions?

Writing Conventions are:

• Grammar includes vocabulary, punctuation and patterns of text structure and organisation

• Spelling• Punctuation• Handwriting or computer generated text• Layout

What is grammar?Grammar is a way of describing how a language works to make meaning within a particular culture.

It includes:• Phonology- sound system• Semantics- meaning systems • Morphology- rules of word formation• Syntax- rules of sentence formation• Lexicon- vocabulary of words

World News

London 2012 can legacy by verbing

the noun

Team GB may struggle to gold or

even podium but we can still lead the

world in lexiconing new jargon

Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

Why is Grammar Important?It helps us to:•reflect on how English works•develop a shared meta language•examine patterns of language and word choices to critically analyse texts and use language effectively, appropriately and accurately

Useful Resources for Grammar• http://www.schooltube.com/video/21001073474c1934489

1/

Noun song• http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.fr/Movie segments to assess grammar goals• http://www.scoop.it/search?q=grammarGrammar quizzes

Spelling• Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters present in an accepted standard order Wikipedia

• Writing provides spelling with its context: without writing, spelling has no purpose and no audience

• Conventional spelling helps writers express themselves to a range of audiences in a way that is clearly understood First Steps WRB pg 160

Why Spelling is Important• In a published piece-‘Research shows that five or six misspellings in a three hundred word text can cause the reader to say, “I can’t read this.”’

• Students need to understand the impact spelling has on the readability of their writing to value it and set high enough expectations of themselves as a writer

Regie Routman Writing Essentials pg 164

A site to sharehttp://www.wordnik.com/

PunctuationPunctuation marks are the traffic signals of language

•Word Punctuation – apostrophes, hyphens•Sentence punctuation

– terminating marks (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark)•Marks used within sentences ( comma, semicolon, colon, dash, ellipsis points, forward slashes)•Quotation marks (direct speech and quotations)

•Capital letters•Shortened forms

•Shortened words (abbreviations and contractions)•Shortened phrases (acronyms and initialisms)•symbols

Why is punctuation important?• Clarity of meaning• To communicate and express your ideas, and

arguments, more clearly.• Crucial for successful writing.

AnalogyWhich house would you find more interesting?

The impact of punctuation

A woman without her man is nothing

Handwriting • A complex task accomplished over many years that characterises a particular persons penmanship

• A way of forming letters or words in writing• Must be legible, accurate and fluent so the writer can give more attention to the message

Computer Generated Text• For the same reasons, it is important to develop rapid, efficient keyboarding skills

Why Handwriting is Important

• So people can read your writing

• Not having to labour over forming letters

• Allows freedom to concentrate on writing

Layout• Refers to how text and visuals combine on a page or electronic screen

• It is about the spatial arrangement of the text such as: headings, columns, paragraphs, dot points, numbering, pictures, graphs, tables, page and word orientation

Font Variations• Refers to size, colour, plain text, underlining, bold, effects, themes

Is it Important?

Reading timeArticles:•Is cursive writing Obsolete?•Five Questions teachers ask about spelling•In the age of Tweets Teachers Hammer the Grammar

Discussion Builder activity•In a group of 4Each person has a set of discussion cardsGoal is for every person in the group to use all cards in the discussion

Report back to others who have read a different article

• Issue /article read• Key points from the article• Key points from the discussion

General Discussion• How could you use these articles in your school?• How could you use this process?

Australian CurriculumA fundamental responsibility of the English curriculum is to develop students’ understanding about how the English language works. This is because such understanding gives students:

• coherence and cumulative learning across the school years

• learning that is portable and applicable to new settings across the school years and beyond.

http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_English.pdf

Language

literacy

Reading and Viewing

Writing Speaking and listening

AusVels http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10#level=7AusVELS is the Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum for Victorian

government and Catholic schools for implementation from 2013. AusVELS outlines what is essential for all Victorian students to learn for F-10 and includes the Australian Curriculum F-10 for English, Mathematics, History and Science.

It provides a single, coherent and comprehensive set of common achievement standards which schools use to plan student learning programs, assess student progress and report to parents.

Cross Curriculum Priorities

Writing Conventions•Spelling•Handwriting•Grammar•Punctuation •LayoutWhat is the document saying

Australian Curriculum- Grammar• Explicit teaching of grammar in all years of

schooling through three strands:*Language *Literature *Literacy

• Grammar is both the language we use and the description of language as a system: structure(syntax) and meaning(semantics) at word, sentence, text level

• In Contextual framework: how language functions to enable us to interact with others, to express and develop ideas, and to create coherent text

Australian Curriculum: Spelling

•Major strategies: *phonic *visual *morphemic

•Strategies established early and consolidated and extended throughout schooling

Australian Curriculum: Handwriting “Students to be taught to handwrite fluently and legibly using correct letter formation at each Year K-7.”

• If conventions get in the way of the message they have to be addressed, explicitly taught

• Handwriting is important

Implications for my school

Writing Conventions in VCE Students are expected to use writing conventions in line with Australian Standard English (spelling, punctuation and syntax) to ensure:

1. accuracy 2. coherence of form, language, text type, subject matter, purpose, audience and context

VELSWriting Indicators of Progress

• Ideas communicated in writing• Conventions of Writing• Writing Strategy • Conventions of Spelling

English Continuum – Writing Dimensionhttp://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/englishcontinuum/writing/default.htm

Writing video 1.0 -punctuation Writing Video 3.0-grammar, vocabWriting Video 5.0 -readability Writing Video 6.0-cohesionWriting Video 6.0b- layout choices

Naplan Writing NAPLAN is about assessing student ability to:

• use conventions of text forms • make vocab choices to match the audience• use spelling, grammar and punctuation to ensure reader engagement

Support and sample materials are available on the NAPLAN website www.naplan.edu.au

Vocabulary The range and precision of contextually appropriate language choices

Cohesion The control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of grammatical elements (referring words, text connectives, conjunctions) and lexical elements (substitutions, repetitions, word associations)

Paragraphing The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument

Sentence structure The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences

Punctuation The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text

Spelling The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used

NAPLAN LANGUAGE CONVENTIONSLanguage conventions section of Naplan includes

•Spelling

•Grammar and Punctuation

References ReadingsLanguage conventions P- 10 planning and teachingDiane Snowball and Faye Bolton•Spelling pp 6-21•Punctuation pp77 – 81•Grammar pp 102 – 114

Western Metropolitan Region publication

Teaching Writing Prep – year 9 Dale GordonChapter 7 Teaching the craft of writing

Consider:

Over attention to Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling should not inhibit writing fluently or the written message

Teaching Writing Conventions

Effective Writers Think about:•What to say and how to say it clearly•How to write so the reader is interested and engaged

•Real life purposes for writing•The important role of conventions

Conferencing Student Writing1.content 2.text structure and sequence 3.sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary4.spelling,handwriting, punctuation

Deb Sukarna

Best advice from Regie• Be relentless in refusing to do for students what

they can do for themselves. • Content is personal; editing is not. • Editing is an expected convention and courtesy for

the reader. • “The writer has a contract with the reader to get it

right.” Regie Routman, Writing Essentials pg 234

CONVENTIONS

“Effective language users are able to make choices about the mode of communication, the type of text, the grammatical structures, the presentation style, and the words that are most appropriate and effective in a particular setting.”

First Steps LATL p 19

Literacy Frameworks

to know what writing conventions students have control over and what they need to learn through explicit teaching

to make informed decisions about the learning needs of the group and individuals within the group

gather data about what students can do, checking against the VELS standards.

gather this knowledge in writing conferences and guided writing groups to help us personalise learning and match daily instruction to a students learning needs

Know the correct conventionsTo spend time discussing it together

73

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY

MODELLINGThe teacher

demonstrates and explains the literacy

focus being taught. This is achieved by thinking

aloud the mental processes and

modelling the reading, writing, speaking and

listening

The student participates by actively

attending to the demonstrations

SHARINGThe teacher continues

to demonstrate the literacy focus,

encouraging students to contribute ideas and

information

Students contribute ideas and begin to

practice the use of the literacy focus in whole

class situations

GUIDINGThe teacher provides

scaffolds for students to use the literacy focus.

Teacher provides feedback

Students work with help from the teacher and peers to practice the use of the literacy

focus

APPLYINGThe teacher offers

support and encouragement when

necessary

The student works independently to apply the use of literacy focus

Role of the teacher

Role of the student

Pearson & Gallagher

DE

GR

EE

OF

CO

NT

RO

L

LITERACY ELEMENTS

• Read Aloud

• Shared Reading

• Guided Reading

• Independent Reading

SPEAKING & LISTENING

OBSERVATION&

ASSESSMENT

• Write Aloud

• Shared Writing

• Guided Writing

• Independent Writing

Year 5 Year 7

Resources• ACARA- AustralianCurriculumwww.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_English.pdf

• LATL First Steps• VCE http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/english/English-ESL-SD-2007.pdf

• VELS- Writing Continuum http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/englishcontinuum/writing/default.htm

• Writing Essentials, Regie Routman• Authorial/secretarial• Writer’s Workshop Deb Sukarna• NAPLAN marking guide

Reflect• FEEDBACK- please complete the feedback form• Concluding Circle