Teaching and Learning

Student Learning Experiences

Once again, we have had a busy few weeks with our students engaging in a number of experiences to broaden their knowledge and skills. Some of these included a visit from History Box, a visit to Sandy College to watch their Dance Showcase, writing workshops and beginning to plan and organise the work of our Upstanders.

Most of our assessment is now complete, which means the teachers have plenty of useful data to ensure our students' learning experiences are aimed at their point of need.

Virtual Writing Workshops

This week, I have chosen to share a piece of writing created by Vic (L5) during a writing workshop with Suzanne Gervay. The theme of the workshop was around writing about things that matter. Well done, Viv - such a thought provoking piece of writing.

But The Stars Are Still There – by Viv L5

This land has been the shape it is forever. Years and years of the sleeping woman on the horizon and the hunters in the stars. Now the water has swallowed up everything, beat back the land, left it bruised and empty. In a week, the giant has rolled over in her sleep and everything has changed.   But the stars are still there.

Now that the land is gone, we are left to our own mountains and rivers. We must go inside ourselves, find our own seeds to sow, our own fields to till, our own trees to climb. The flood has eaten its fill, but the stars are still there.

We must wade through the rubble, roll up the damp carpets, reupholster the armchairs, redefine our existence. Things, objects, no longer revolve around our lives, we must remake it all. The town is gone, but the stars are still there.

Through the pain and the sorrow, there has always been people. When we are drowning, we can lean against the knowledge that someone will save us. People will gather, hold hands, talk just to drown out the silence. People will weep until there is no more weeping left. People will bring us up to the surface.

 The world as we know it is gone forever, but the stars are still there.

Professional Learning Community (PLC)

As part of the PLC cycle, we assess the impact of our work. Over the term, our teachers have undertaken professional development and carried out research around the area of teaching reading fluency.  This has resulted in some change in practice in the way reading fluency has previously been taught. Students in all classes have been developing their skills to become more proficient at reading fluently, which should then have a positive impact on their reading comprehension. 

Over the next 2 weeks, all of our all teaching teams will prepare a presentation to the staff to showcase the work done, their change of practice and the impact this has had on our students' fluency and comprehension skills.

Some strategies to increase reading fluency that you can do at home:

• Choral reading- read a section of your child's book together
• You can read a passage and ask your child to follow with their finger. When your child is feeling confident, reread the passage and ask your child to read along with you. Finally, ask your child to reread the passage following along with their finger and you just listen.  
• If your child makes a mistake, correct him/her at the time of making the mistake. But, if your child is making too many mistakes, the text/book/passage is probably too hard - choose another book.