GOTCHA Challenge

I got this lovely email from Lily. If you follow the link you will be able to find out about what "Gymnaestrada" is. There's a GOTCHA for the first person who can explain what "gymnaestrada" is and tell me what equipment you'd need to take part.

Hi Mr Corlett,
Its Lily here, only one and a half weeks till we go away to Austria and the World Gymnaestrada. If you would like to see what it involves you can look at their website www.wg2007.com , I will write to you about what we are doing there when we go there. And I will tell you about Paris and Disneyland!
Bye for now from Lily

THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM

What Do We Teach In Our Schools.

Last week on Wednesday we had a Wacky Hair Day. It was great—kids and teachers all decorated with wild and creative fanciful hair styles and adornments. We had a display and parade around the tennis court, and Bevan thanked us all for participating and for the $300 raised to go towards Hugh Campbell’s trust fund.
So why have such events at school—where does it fit into the curriculum? There is no formal planning, no success criteria laid out to guide student learning, no goals to be achieved, and no test at the end of it.
And yet I see a whole lot of learning taking place—and a ready example of the “hidden curriculum”.
The hidden curriculum refers to the things we teach that are outside of the range of the curriculum documents and statements. It includes the things that are not explicitly taught but are implied and exhibited in what we do. It includes the values and attitudes that are intrinsic to our behaviours.
Here are just some of the hidden messages I see from last Wednesday’s Wacky Hair Day.

School and education is a social enterprise— involving community, social negotiation, collaboration, compromise, and sharing.

The world is not about me—I am not the centre of the universe. When something happens there are things we can do as a community to protect, care for and support each other. In fact it may be viewed as a community responsibility. We can build “community”.

We are a school “family” —we care about each other and the difficulties that happen others in our wider school “family”.

We can be different and creative—not carbon copies.
We can explore fanciful and way out ideas in a safe context without fear of ridicule or being laughed at.

We can be resourceful and use what resources are available in our environment. (Some children didn’t have any alternative head gear when they arrived. We raided the vegetation from several gardens and after some collaborative activity those who wanted could wear their very own ivy crowns.)

And finally, SCHOOL CAN BE FUN!

These are all valuable lessons that made the activity of great value to our school.

There are also wider implications which are beyond the scope of this week’s newsletter comment—Given the power of the hidden curriculum, there is a personal, professional and community responsibility for teachers to act ethically. As teachers we do have a code of ethics.

Think spot:
The hidden curriculum is not just for teachers to consider. It also has implications for us as parents and families. What is the hidden curriculum you “teach” in your home? (You are welcome to provide your ideas on the Rm4 Blog.)


Have a great week,

Peter Corlett

Waikanae Art Gallery

Proposed Art Trip
Due to parent interviews being on Tuesday afternoon there will be no Waikanae Library visit. I have, however, managed to arrange an alternative. Many school events have an associated cost that we are aware can be difficult for some families. This is another event your child can be involved in for FREE, has some valuable educational benefits and can be fun for all our Room 4 children. No permission slip is required as it is a local venue. Last week we were able to do a flying visit to the art gallery on our way to the public library. Afterwards I asked who would like to go again and spend more time there. Nearly every child put up their hand. I have been able to organise with the gallery for us to do a proper visit on Monday afternoon. . However it is conditional on several things.
The first is the (unpredictable) weather and the second is having a parent who would join us to help supervise.

The aim of the visit is to:
Observe the range of artworks on display.
Describe the features of some of the works and the feelings they might provoke.
Do some sketches of our own, a response to the artwork we observe.

Sooooooo…….
If you are available to go on the trip with us, please email me back so I know I have a helper.
Ask your child to bring any Waikanae Public Library books back on MONDAY so we can drop them into the library while we are down at Mahara Place.
Have a great weekend,
Peter

Class Blog (Best for broadband connections) rm4waikanae.blogspot.com

Amy's email

Hi Mr Corlett and room 4,
We went to a wildlife park and I saw a koala, Crocodiles, Kangaroos, Lizards, Platypus(only found in Australia), Owls, Cassawary called Princess, Snakes, Dingos, Bilbys which are like big mice and I think they are really cute.We went back to Dreamworld on Tuesday and I went on the Tower of Terror. This is a ride that looks like a car goes up a tower 119m high and gets up to 160km/hr in 3 seconds. I closed my eyes when I went but when we stopped at the top I opened my eyes and the car went backwards and I shut my eyes again. Daddy said I had a look of terror on my face , like everyone else. At the end of it I said " That was cool and I was buzzing. Mum was too scared to go on it but me and Dad weren't scared. I got Mum on the kids roller coaster and she screamed like me. I went on the Vortex 5 times again. We got soaking on a log ride but Dad didn't because he hid behind the towel and I was mad. I am making a really cool scrapbook with all my photos and I will show it to you when I get back. We fly back soon and get back in the weekend. See you all on Monday.
from Amy.

Miss Lake teaches us Te Reo - Maori language

BIRD IN THE WIND SONG
Ka manu
Ka manu
Rere runga hau

Ka pakipaki hau
Rere runga hau

Email from Amy

Hi Mr Corlett and Room 4,
I got on the airport really early in the morning at 3.30am, yawn yawn. When we came down my ears were really sore. First I went to Dreamworld. My favourite ride was the Vortex, it was spinning around so fast we could climb up the walls and lie on our backs. Mum felt sick like a dog. I saw SPonge Bob and Patrick but i was too late to take a photo with them. We saw two whales swimming off the beach at Surfers Paradise. We saw their tails and flippers and I was putting the sand on my feet. Its really hot even at night. I am taking lots of photos to show you when I get back. Mum Dad and me went indoor bowling and we wore glowing shoes and after I played some games but I didnt know which ones to pick. Tommorow we are going to a wildlife park and we are going to see kangaroos and koalas and maybe crocodiles. We saw tigers and there was a show at Dreamworld of sponge bob and Patrick and the tigers. They can jump really high and they can do tricks. I will see you when I get back.
From Amy

Isn't it great to hear from Amy.
If you would like to send an email to Amy, please email me here at school and I will forward it on to her.

Educational Change

Last week we had a staff meeting led by a small group of us who have the role of looking at the change issues. The purpose of our time together as a staff was to begin discussing some aspects of educational change.
One of our first questions was “What might a 21st Century learner require?” It is a good question to ask and has several underlying ideas. The first is that education is about children and their needs, not about simply maintaining the status quo and perpetuation of the established educational intuitions.
Secondly it acknowledges that times have changed and that we can’t assume that the skills we needed growing up are necessarily the same as today’s children need. And thirdly there is an implication that the imperative is to find out some answers if what we do in our schools is actually going to be of value to the children we work with day by day.
A recognised sociological life stage is where individuals come to the point where they want to know that all the effort, energy and hard work they do counts for something, and has made some positive change in the world. How great it would be as teachers to get to the end of our career and conclude that all the hours of preparation, all the bits of paper, the meetings, the marking, the conferences, the professional development and study was worth it because we see that the children we have taught are thriving in the world. How sad it would be if they weren’t. So the answering of the question is important for all those involved.
While there may be some simplistic answers to the question such as “Be able to use computers and other technology”, the answers have to encompass much more. What sort of attitudes, values and skills will your child need in 10 years time. And given the increasing pace of change in what we term the Information Age, Digital Age or the Information Society, what will our world be like in a decade from now? This is uncharted territory.
You are welcome to add your ideas and views on our class Blog.

Welcome Back Luke

Luke has been overseas for a couple of weeks. He has been able to share some of his experiences with the class and had a very origonal looking ukalale to show us.

Welcome back Luke!

Thank you Zak for taking the photo.

TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN

TIMES, THEY ARE ACHANGIN

Have you wondered why the things that you were taught at school don’t seem to be the things your child is learning? Like general knowledge, various facts and figures such as the names of countries of the world, the names of the continents, their capital cities and flags, what the 7 ancient wonders of the world were, and who lives in mud huts.

One advantage of being a teacher for a number of years is being able to observe short and longer term trends and changes that have (and are) occurring. Some changes have been fads— for example perhaps some bright idea that someone in the Ministry of Education came up with that someone had seen working well in one context and then tried to transplant into other schools and communities. Sometimes a change was as a response to some high profile incident, with the proposed remedy being “ to provide children with more education about X,Y and Z, in our schools”. Hence our “crowded curriculum” where there is so much to be taught that there is no way to adequately cover everything, and teachers get burnt out trying. Some things which were seen as “best practice” when I first began teaching went out of favour and are now returning, albeit packaged in different language, but never-the-less, the same.
Some may regard many of these as superficial changes. However there is a more fundamental change that is occurring, a change that will forever change the face of education world wide. Such a change occurred in the time of the Industrial Revolution , with the replacing of a largely agriculturally based society based on manual labour with a one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. Along with this came great sociological change. We again live in such times. (See the video over on the right hand side of this page).

Not only is there change, but the pace of change is increasing. The change we are currently going through, and the resulting society our children will be living in is sometimes termed the Information Age, Digital Age or the Information Society.
As a school we have begun a process of investigating what this means for us as educators and for the children we teach, your children. There is a realisation that as adults, the world they will be in will be quite different from the world we grew up in, and even the world as we know it now. Over the coming weeks I may share further on this topic.

Have a great week,

Peter

Learning Styles - Multiple Intelligences

Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligence
From the feedback, the multiple intelligence information seems to have struck a chord with a number of people. So if we accept the idea that different children have different strengths, what are the challenges for teachers and parent as they work with the children? And how can a teacher apply this to classroom practice in a class of 30+ children, so as to meet the needs of the greatest number of students?
This week I’ve included some information about LEARNING STYLES. The concept of learning styles meshes well with what I have already covered about multiple intelligence.
There are three primary learning styles and ways of gaining information for the brain to process. ie- eyes, ears and touch.
While it would be great if we could teach using the child’s main learning style, logistics and practicalities make it difficult. Also, as with intelligences, a child may exhibit a combination of learning styles so teaching practice that addresses just one style may miss the mark. There is benefit in not just limiting our teaching to the preferred style of a child if we are wanting the child to develop a more rounded educational capability. Instead, a best practice approach may well be to try to include some aspects related to each of the learning styles (seeing, hearing, touching) in each lesson. This would provide a chance to cater for a preferred learning style, while also encouraging and supporting the development of the weaker ones. In spelling for example, for some, this may involve –looking at a word to get a picture, then tracing it with their finger and then saying the letters in order using a “sing-songie “voice.
In maths, when learning the times tables, children may look at charts, write them down, listen to them as a rhythm or chanted sound pattern. I even have a rap tape of the tables that some children have found useful Together these cues helps to cement the learning.
You may wish to try these ideas out for your child and let me know if it makes a difference.

Have a great week,

Peter

So What About The Strugglers - Part 3-

So what about the strugglers? - Part 3-

How many of us have identified ourselves as “strugglers”? For some, exploring the concept of multiple intelligence is more than just an interesting concept … it can be a journey of that involves a rebuilding of confidence has been knocked by past experiences in traditional schools—schools where academic excellence was demanded, and where some individuals didn’t feel they fitted.
If you or your child demonstrates a wide number of related skills in a particular area this may indicate that other forms of intelligence. For some parent reading this, there will be a sense of regret that the perceived value of the education they received was too narrowly focused and that their strength in what was called “non-academic” areas was somehow seen to be of little value, and maybe called a skill, but was not seen as an indication of an alternative form of “intelligence”. The statement of “…. no good at academic stuff, but being great with their hands” was one often repeated.
In this weeks newsletter I have included the other two forms of intelligence identified by an educationalist called Gardiner.

Have a
great week,

Peter

What are the types of Multiple Intelligence?

Interpersonal Intelligence
The ability to relate and understand others. These learners try to see things from other people's point of view in order to understand how they think and feel. They often have an uncanny ability to sense feelings, intentions and motivations. They are great organizers, although they sometimes resort to manipulation. Generally they try to maintain peace in group settings and encourage co-operation. They use both verbal (e.g. speaking) and non-verbal language (e.g. eye contact, body language) to open communication channels with others.
Their skills include:
seeing things from other perspectives (dual-perspective), listening, using empathy, understanding other people's moods and feelings, counseling, co-operating with groups, noticing people's moods, motivations and intentions, communicating both verbally and non-verbally, building trust, peaceful conflict resolution, establishing positive relations with other people.
Possible Career Paths:
Counselor, salesperson, politician, business person

Intrapersonal Intelligence
The ability to self-reflect and be aware of one's inner state of being. These learners try to understand their inner feelings, dreams, relationships with others, and strengths and weaknesses.
Their Skills include:
Recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses, reflecting and analyzing themselves, awareness of their inner feelings, desires and dreams, evaluating their thinking patterns, reasoning with themselves, understanding their role in relationship to others
Possible Career Paths:
Researchers, theorists, philosophers
Source: http://wilderdom.com/personality/L2-4GardenerMultipleIntelligences.html

There is also debate about the inclusion of a further intelligence related to individuals who display abilities such as “green fingers”.

Information from:

www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#usical/Rhythmic%20Intelligence

So What About The Strugglers - Part 2-

So what about the strugglers? - cont-
Can we help all our children be more powerful learners by identifying the kind of learners they are? As I indicated last week, there has been considerable academic work around “learning styles” and about “multiple intelligence” that may be helpful for you as you work with your child. The idea behind such a concept is the recognition that different children have different strengths in different areas, and that means that if we can tap into the child’s strengths, it may well make the difference for your struggling child.
On the next 2 pages I have included information on Multiple Intelligence that may help you better understand your child, your partner and yourself. One premise is that much of our education system, and the traditional emphasis on oral and written testing, has favoured some children over others, and that the usual concepts of the Intelligence level of an individual may therefore be flawed. The theory suggests that we do not have just one area of strength. Instead it is likely that individuals will have a combination of intelligences, with a tendency for some to be stronger than others.
While this is a brief summary, a wealth of further information is available via by Googling “Multiple Intelligence” including a range of online tests you can do. (The quality of such tests vary so if you want to try them out, I’d suggest you do several and see if there is a trend in the results.)
This week you may wish to share your thoughts / discoveries and let me know. I can provide an anonymous summary from responses in next week’s newsletter.

Have a great week,

Peter

Feedback about what works for your family and learning spelling.
Here is one response.

Have found that my children - not sure with others however - respond well with a routine of homework and making spelling procedures as much routine as possibly can be
- so hellishly boring but they pick it up and like the accomplishments we all make. By the end of the week the children are doing all the work easily and I just throw a spelling word at them - either asking them to write it or say it - whichever they decide at the time. The prep work is done the old fashioned way I suppose!

And less is best (ten words is too many for someone having trouble grasping spelling - 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 progressively - 20 is defeating really)

- look at the list of words
- say them out loud
- say what they mean (using a sentence or text as well)
- look at them for a while and say each letter to oneself out loud or quietly
- put them down for 10 minutes or do something else or do the next step straight away with some kiddies.
- parent or whoever pronounces the word - correctly!
- child writes it down how they think it is spelt
- some words don't sound as they are spelt - "just a little trick" to learn about the English language
- tick or mark with a dot - no crosses
- circle where the word went wrong
- write the correct word next to it as going through list with child
- compose another spelling sheet with space for writing under it
- child to look at correct spelling then write out 5 times each word saying a goes in head or out loud
- pop paper aside for the next day - never chuck it in the bin till they are competent at spelling it!

Approach next day the same with all words

Do this 3 to 4 times a week
At end of week should be able to say a word in amongst a sentence or ask them to spell it and they can. Let them chuck it all in the bin when they've learnt it well!!!!!

Times tables the same way and put them in a song - it helps. Walking a word out or whatever can help at this age also or doing some kind of movement.
Who knows - they're all different at the end of the day but this works!

Thanks for your ideas and comments Pam.


What is Multiple Intelligence?

These are only 3 of the 7, (possibly 8) that have been put forward.
span style="font-size:85%;">(The others are in later posts)

Conceived by Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences are seven different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability.
Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
Ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and eye-hand co-ordination. (e.g. ball play, balancing beams). Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information.
Their skills include:
dancing, physical co-ordination, sports, hands on experimentation, using body language, crafts, acting, miming, using their hands to create or build, expressing emotions through the body
Possible career paths:
Athletes, physical education teachers, dancers, actors, firefighters, artisans

Visual/Spatial Intelligence
Ability to perceive the visual. These learners tend to think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information. They enjoy looking at maps, charts, pictures, videos, and movies.
Their skills include:
puzzle building, reading, writing, understanding charts and graphs, a good sense of direction, sketching, painting, creating visual metaphors and analogies (perhaps through the visual arts), manipulating images, constructing, fixing, designing practical objects, interpreting visual images.
Possible career interests:
navigators, sculptors, visual artists, inventors, architects, interior designers, mechanics, engineers

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
Ability to use reason, logic and numbers. These learners think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns making connections between pieces of information. Always curious about the world around them, these learner ask lots of questions and like to do experiments.
Their skills include:
problem solving, classifying and categorizing information, working with abstract concepts to figure out the relationship of each to the other, handling long chains of reason to make local progressions, doing controlled experiments, questioning and wondering about natural events, performing complex mathematical calculations, working with geometric shapes
Possible career paths:
Scientists, engineers, computer programmers, researchers, accountants, mathematicians


Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
ability to use words and language. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers. They think in words rather than pictures.
Their skills include:
listening, speaking, writing, story telling, explaining, teaching, using humor, understanding the syntax and meaning of words, remembering information, convincing someone of their point of view, analyzing language usage.
Possible career interests:
Poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, translator

Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
ability to produce and appreciate music. These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticizing what they hear. Many of these learners are extremely sensitive to environmental sounds (e.g. crickets, bells, dripping taps).
Their skills include:
singing, whistling, playing musical instruments, recognizing tonal patterns, composing music, remembering melodies, understanding the structure and rhythm of music
Possible career paths:
musician, disc jockey, singer, composer


There are 2 other formally recognized Multiple Intelligences
Interpersonal Intelligence
Intrapersonal Intelligence

Credited to : www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

So, What About The Strugglers? -Part 1-

So what about the strugglers?
For some children a scary word is the word SPELLING. I still remember struggling with spelling - and the tears - when I was a kid about the same age as the children in our class. It was not a positive experience, and my Dad grew more and more frustrated as I got words right and then the next time made a mistake. I know some children are still struggling with learning to spell the numbers. It is NOT a lack of effort that seems to be the cause— parents have shared the same story as I have about me and my Dad. As I recall that experience I still find some quite strong feelings. I know that as a child I was doing all I knew to do, to try and achieve that illusive goal of 10 out of 10 and the acknowledgement of my parents and my teacher.
Of the children working on them last week, while about a third of the class have now mastered all or nearly all of them, the average test score for those who haven’t yet mastered them was around 12 out of 20 I wonder if it would help to identify the kind of learner your child is?
There has been considerable academic work around “learning styles” and about “multiple intelligence” that may be helpful to better understand how to best help your child. The idea behind such concepts is the recognition that different children have different strengths in different areas, and that means that if we can tap into the child’s strengths it may well make the difference for your struggling child. So this week I’m asking you to conduct an experiment. One of the recognized intelligences is kinesthetic, learning through interaction with one's environment. It promotes understanding through concrete, hands-on experiences. My Dad, a builder, was like that.
Here are several ideas.
If we had play-dough and got him to make the letters and spell out the word, would that be a fun, and an effective way for him to learn? (Just do a Google search for “play dough recipe” if your not sure how to make it.)
Or a set of magnetic letters your child sticks to the side of the fridge so that they have to be physically manipulate the letters to spell the words. Another option is to get him to type them in MSWord. In a sense it is a self-checking activity – in Word it will put a wiggly line under it if it is spelt wrong. The words can be printed out in large bold letters and put on the wall. He can look at them and say / write / spell them aloud. He then has little pieces of paper that are Bluetac-ed to cover 2-3 letters that are the tricky part of the word and tries again. By writing them he can then remove the letter masks and self-check. Or get a tray of sand and get your child to write the words, so they “feel” the letters.
For the child who is struggling, personal confidence and self-belief can often be an issue. We need to make the “bites” small enough to swallow. Let your child choose a word from their list. Eg “Today we have 1 word to learn, and only 1 – so which is the first word you’d like to choose from your list?” So before your child is allowed to watch their favourite TV program he/she has to spell the word, and before they eat their meal they have to spell it, and before the light gets turned off they have to spell it/ write it. This gives multiple exposures to the task. IF they still get it right the next morning then they move on to another word. And celebrate every gain! It doesn’t have to be a party but simple a “Well done, you must feel proud”, a hug, or a smile!
If they improve by several words in a week and consistently get it right, let them email me to let me know. When I email back to say “Well Done!” the acknowledgement may be the kind of thing that will help your child feel that their effort is worth it.

Have a great week,

Peter

Let's Hear It For he Parents!

One of the things that impresses me about our parent community is the commitment to do the best for their children. This shows itself in a number of practical ways.
· Providing the things their children need for school.
· Coming on school trips.
· Emailing or writing notes with helpful information to help me better understand their child.
· Giving their child the experience and responsibility of looking after the class pets for a weekend.
· Signing the homework sheet and writing little comments that show they are aware of and proud of their child’s achievements.
· Letting their child bring special or expensive treasures to school (e.g. valued books, digital cameras) that will help them with their learning.
· Asking for ways they can help their child at home with spelling or maths.
· Being part of the P.T.A.

It is apparent in the way another parent does road patrol supervision to help keep all our kids safe.
It has also been reflected in several conversations with parents last week—and the great questions they were asking and comments they made. After years of teaching I am convinced that the right emotional climate , including the classroom emotional climate, is an important part of creating a great learning environment for a child. When the child feels safe and cared for they are more able to face the challenges of learning. For instance they are more likely to ask questions if they know that others won’t think that they are “dumb”. A child will offer their ideas and views in a discussion if they know that what they say will at least be accepted, even if it is not agreed with.
I appreciate the way that the parents of the children in Room 4 help set the Room 4 emotional climate. For instance it is demonstrated in the way one parent often arrives at school early and sits and reads with their child on the big comfy chair in our library corner. It is great to see others, where it is part of the family culture, give their children a hug or kiss goodbye. (Yes—It is also normal for some of the older Room 4 children to be at the “It’s embarrassing “ stage, and so we don’t deliberately set out to embarrass our children.)
So this week I simply want to thank all of you as parents for your interest, and the way you support, encourage and nurture your children, and how, in turn, it makes being your child’s teacher a rewarding and satisfying experience.

Have a great week,

Peter Corlett

What ABOUT READING?

This week I have outlined a more specific theme. Having done some in-depth reading assessment on the class I have been able to regroup children to ensure that they are on the most appropriate reading material. The tool we use is called a “Running record” and it involves listening to children read while monitoring what they actually say and do especially when they encounter unknown words. We note what strategies they use and how fluent they are. We also see whether or not the phrasing of what they read and intonation are appropriate to the text. Foe instance, if a child ignores punctuation cues like full-stops, commas and speech marks, it may well mean that they are “reading” the words but have lost understanding of the text. There is further information relating to helping your child solve unknown words, on the next page.



How’s your child at reading?
Recently Room 4 children were tested for reading levels. It shows, as is usually the case, that we have a wide range of reading abilities in the class. Fortunately we have most children reading around or above their chronological age.
The reading process has two major components. The first, and arguably most important, is to be able to understand both the obvious and implied meanings the author is attempting to convey. The second component is decoding the text.
Through discussions in the reading groups and questions as part of activity sheets we endeavour to promote reading comprehension. When it comes to decoding ability I have noted a trend especially amongst those that are weaker readers—they seem to lack a range of strategies to decode the unknown words. When encountering an unknown word they seem to be able to utilise a single strategy to decode it—something they call “sounding it out” or “stretching the word”. This may have been what some of us were taught when we were at school— and sometimes it can be more of a hindrance than a help. While it may seem to work with little words like “hat” or “up” it fails when you try words with silent letters like “lamb” or double vowels like “ceiling” or “journal”.
Reading research has shown that there are alternative strategies employed by successful readers. I have outlined the way I would like the children to use when they encounter unfamiliar words. This week we will be practicing these, especially the 1st one. I would suggest that you or your child save this newsletter and use the chart below as a reminder of an appropriate method of improving decoding skills.


MY WHAT-NOW READING CHART
When I am reading and come to a word I don’t know I can......

1.) Say the sound at the start of the word and read on UNTIL I come to a comma or fullstop.

2.) Re-run the sentence 3 times.

3.) Try words that fit in and make sense.

4.) Try looking for and saying groups of letters from in the word. (i.e. Look for little words in the big words.)

5.) Look at the picture for clues.

When I have found a word that starts the same way, fits in, and makes sense, I can check that the word has the right letters to be the word I think it is.

Try this out.......
it works!!



Have a great week,

Peter Corlett

Powerful Questions, Powerful learning. - Rewards

This term we continue the theme of becoming POWERFUL LEARNERS.
I remember the stage when my own children were quite young when they learnt a to use that dreaded word —WHY?
I suspect that the purpose at times wasn’t to actually understand the statement or instruction that I, as a parent, had given them. (Please wash your hands. Sit up at the table. Share your toys with your sister. Tidy up your things.) I suspect it was more a delaying tactic or just plain designed to drive a parent crazy! As teenagers exploring boundaries and finding their place in the world, the question wasn’t always so blatant, but was never-the-less implied in some responses.
Research in education clearly indicates that ownership of learning is increased through the learner understanding three things -
WHAT they are learning.
WHY they are learning it.
HOW will I know I have succeeded.
(ie What might the outcome might look like?)
It might be that the WHY question is the key one to making learning purposeful. Classroom research indicates that this is often the one that children have the most difficulty with.
One useful way to approach these questions so as to really help children grasp what a learning task is about is to ask a child to complete the following three statements.

· I am learning to ….
· I am leaning this because ….
· I know I have achieved my goal when ...
These can be made at the start of a learning task, re-visited during the task, and again at the end of a unit of work. This principle can equally be used for any of our homework task.
CAN YOU PLEASE TRY ASKING YOUR CHILD THESE 3 QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO ONE OF THE HOMEWORK TASKS THIS WEEK.
I would be interested in hearing back some of the things your child says. Are they doing the task
· Because I have to. (ie For someone else)
· I get a sticker (i.e. For an extrinsic reward. )
· Because its fun. (Intrinsic reward—pleasure)
· Because I want to know … (Intrinsic reward)
· Because I get to do it with Mum/Dad. (Intrinsic emotional reward?)
· Because it will help me ….(Intrinsic reward)
It may well be that there are a combination of reasons at work. As children progress through the school it is desirable that with regard to learning, the balance to move from external motivation towards internal motivation. The WHAT, WHY, HOW is one of the steps to helping your child do this.

Have a great week,
Peter

Powerful Learners 2 - Rich Questions

Over the last few weeks I have outlined how we are seeking to build powerful Room 4 learners by helping children ask deeper questions aimed at helping children internalise learning. We found that “WHY” was a powerful word. The purpose and application of this to classroom teaching is for the child to ask WHY they are doing what they do in class. If a child can think about and articulate the reason behind a learning task they are engaged in, if they can understand WHY they are doing a task, if a child is able to understand the relevance of work they commit to, then there is likely to be a greater motivation to be a learner. “Because the teacher said so” can be quite a weak reason for getting excited and enthusiastic about a task.
Think about when you were at school. Certainly for me at primary school I was given no choice in what I was taught. The teachers chose what was taught and when. (As a beginning teacher I was taught that to plan a unit of work, look and see what resources were available and build what I taught around those— there was no reference to children helping shape teaching content.) The expectation was that as a child I would learn the information or skill and then I would be graded on how successful I was through some kind of test or activity. My report card gave me a rating (poor, average, good, excellent) and somehow the teacher put a tick in a box to show how much “effort” I had exhibited. In hindsight I wonder just how this measured my interest, my depth of learning or even what I had achieved that was actually relevant to me.
Research in education clearly indicates that ownership of learning is increased through the learner understanding WHY they are doing a task, and WHAT the outcomes might look like

Powerful Learners 1

Displayed prominently at the front of the classroom there are some sheets that are headed up Room 4 Learners. On these your child has identified some of the characteristics and traits they think someone who is a powerful learner might display. As we build on this theme I am hoping that when we revisit this your child will be able to build on their initial understanding, adding new ideas and skills that they would personally aspire to.
At the start of the year when I asked the class after explaining something if there were any questions, some children would put up a hand. They then would make a statement or tell a story. So the first step has been to help children differentiate between a question, a statement and a story. Once they understand what a question is, they need to recognise that some questions will elicit interesting and perhaps useful information (a fact). e.g. “What time does the bus leave after school?” However there are other questions that can be more powerful, demanding more processing and thinking that may result in a wider range of understandings and even more questions. There is a place for both types of questions—It is not a case of one being “wrong” and the other “right”. It is more a case of the appropriateness and purpose of a question than defines it as being rich or powerful.
This week, as we continue to build on the idea of ...
What are powerful, rich questions? What do they look like? How might I recognise them and learn to use them as a learner?
Some of the most useful words in a learners vocabulary are How? Why? Who? Where? When? They are akin to phrases that in “kid- speak” might be “Is this …..” , “If ….” , “Might there be ….” “How come …”.
When we are doing classroom tasks I encourage the children to begin to ask those rich questions. I have also included an optional task on page 4, asking questions as a homework activity this week.

Have an awesome week,

Peter Corlett

Personal Goals

Hi! I am looking forward to meeting up with a few more parents tonight at our Family night. What gives me a real buzz is to hear children telling their parents about what they have been doing at school and the things they have learnt to do.
Our theme this week is “Personal Goal Setting”. The two key tasks are our cone runs and our spelling. For the cone run we see how far we can run in five minutes around a track marked with cones. There are at least three children who can run further than me! We recorded what we thought we could do today based on previous runs. My final score today was 28. In order to model what goal setting means I talked to the children about how if I had worn shoes I think I could have done 29 because I limped across the stony bits and across the berries under the trees. I also talked about it was my responsibility to do what was needed to achieve my goals and asked the question of what they felt they could do to achieve the goal they had set.
As for last week in spelling we did our pretest and not only recorded our score but I also asked every child to set a goal for the test on Friday. Some children are cautious while others were overly optimistic. We talked of making goals achievable, but not too easy. On Friday they will be able to compare what they hoped to get with their final score. For some they will need to take ownership of the amount of effort they put in, while other will be able to celebrate their success of meeting or exceeding their targets. While this process is a challenge for some of the younger ones it does build the concept of being a learner and provide a clear strategy for measuring personal progress.