Hastings+Primary+School

Hi everyone. My name is Simone McDonald. I'm a Leading Teacher at Hastings Primary School. I am fulltime in the grade and am currently teaching grades 5/6. I am also the Literacy Coordinator for the school and the Upper School Leader.

We've had a couple of Literacy Coaches at our school in the previous few years and I have found the experience of working with coaches valuable. So when I found myself part of a large team (across 3 schools) with a TPL project this year (2010) I immediately thought how coaching would fit so nicely into the e5 Instructional Model.

Our TPL focus was to look at the Evaluate phase of the Instructional Model and subsequently use this to investigate teacher practise to then then drive future teaching and improve student outcomes.

After mentioning many times to the other team players that coaching would fit nicely into the model we were looking at, I was made aware of the Establishing Literacy Coaching course. I was lucky enough to get into the second group for the course.

__ My role in 2011 __
===In 2011 I will be in the classroom on a fulltime basis. This is the role I have chosen above being given the opportunity to become a coach within the school. I feel for my career path I have made the right decision. I am also very confident that I will be able to practice coaching skills through the use of an Independent Reading Programme and Beyond Buddy Reading and Writing. Through my 2010 TPL project I am seeking to improve my teacher practise in the Evaluate area of the e5 Instructional model.===

__ Beyond Buddy Reading Programme __
One of the resources that impacted on me greatly was the Beyond Buddy Reading programme. I was impressed with how the students were talking with each other in such a directed and focussed way. As I had already established an Independent Reading Programme with my 56 grade I was confident they would be able to pick up and run with BBR quickly. And of course being in a grade fulltime it also meant I had a way to practice some coaching strategies.

As part of my Independent Reading Programme I conducted regular teacher/student conferences on 'just right' books of student choice. The students were already very familiar with setting themselves SMART (specific, measureable, actions, realistic, timeframe) goals and with myself questioning them (at times relentlessly) they were reflecting upon these goals (albeit with teacher guidance).

What I really liked about the BBR programme was that it was setting up students to really focus on their goals and to help younger students set, focus, reflect and refine their goals as well. I was able to use the resources that another Est-Lit Course member had posted to the Wiki (many thanks) to begin the journey with my grade. I liked the fact that the goals were already written with their own criteria (I always talk 'actions' with my students). As it was already the near the middle of the year (with Urban Camp fast approaching) I decided to trial the programme just within my own grade of 5/6. I carefully selected pairs of quite differing abilities in an attempt to create as similar dynamic to the programme we were introduced to as I could.

My intention has always been to encompass the 2/3 grades next year (2011) so that there is cross grade involvement in the BBR programme.

Although the resources on BBR that I have Uploaded to the wiki site are similar to what is already there, I have also included a small booklet of guiding questions to help the students lead into their questioning. As they have become more familiar with the process I have noticed them branching out and beginning to ask their own questions of their 'coaching partner'.

__ Beyond Buddy Writing Programme __
Following from the Beyond Buddy Reading Programme I am trying to establish a similar programme around writing. I have previously had success with students pairing with a critical friend to share their writing and also team writing. The rich discussion between students that is focussed on their own work is helping students to see their writing from the 'readers' point of view. At this point in time I have only begun to modify the resources of the //Beyond Buddy Reading Prog// to facilitate a similar 'coaching process' for a **Beyond Buddy Writing Programme.** Whilst I used the Beyond Buddy reading Goals as a template for the goals in the BBW programme I used the VELS for Writing in Levels 3 and 4 to ensure I was in line with expected student outcomes. My intention is to begin this BBW programme in the new year within my grade 56 and to also introduce it to the Senior School. As part of our current SSP and AIP we have identified Writing and associated spelling as focus areas. I believe that the BBW programme will help to fulfil our targets in these areas. During this year our school will be going through a Review Period and I would imagine that Writing will remain a fairly high priority within the Student Learning component of the SSP and subsequent AIPs.

24Feb 2011 - At this stage I have not spent any more than 4 days in my grade. I have attached the Beyond Buddy Writing documents and invite any comments about them. I am going to introduce these to my grade the week beginning 28th Feb. I am also keen to introduce a Writers Notebook with the idea of encouraging free writing tim ﻿ e.



Term Two is set to mark the begining of Beyond Buddy Writing in my grade. I plan to begin with each student having their own Writing Ideas Journal for their ideas, reflections and free writing sessions. To begin with I will plant some 'seeds' in the journal with some directed writing sessions where the students will create lists for topics such as: likes, dislikes, great things, terrible things, special people, pets, holidays, things I never want to do again etc Together we will brainstorm different ways to express ideas on paper - //Writing Ideas: jokes, arguments, recount, list, labelled/annotated// diagram //etc// The students will be given the opportunity to have free writing time each week where they can choose topics and text types. During a weekly BBW session the students will discuss their writing while they focus on the BBW goal that they have selected. Term Two, week three and NAPLAN is about to begin. Again I find myself wondering where the time has gone and not having yet implemented the BBW into my grade. Witht the pressures of NAPLAN preparation and completion behind us in week four I am confident a time slot will emerge.
 * __22 April 2011__**
 * __9 May 2011__**

__**Making Your Thinking and Learning Visible**__
**Dear Mrs McD** **I really love the Independent Reading Programme. The thing I really love about it is I get to choose the books I want to read!**
 * ===__**Coaching Journey - Actions, Reflections and Insights**__===
 * Last year (2010) when I embarked upon a significant TPL programme I had in my mind that a Coaching position was the career path I would pursue. I was made aware of the Eastablishing Literacy Coaching Bastow course, enrolled and included it as part of my TPL. I looked at 'Coaching' as having significant impact on teachers reflecting on and improving their practise within the framework of the e5 Instructional Model. After many discussions with a mentor colleague in late 2010 I made the decision to remain full time in a grade and utilise my Leading Teacher position to impact on teacher learning and of course my classroom teaching position to impact on student learning. I knew that I would be able to use the 'coaching' skills that I had been introduced to in my role as both classroom teacher and Leading teacher.**
 * ===__**Actions/Reflections/Insights**__===
 * I guess my journey really started after I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Principals meeting (in 2009) where Di Snowball was speaking. She was outlining an Independent Reading Programme. During that presentation I had a //'light bulb'// moment - During reading time students should be reading! I guess I had fallen into the Early Years trap of reading a text and then spending the next few days responding to the text in a variety of ways. Of course this response is primarily writing! I went back to school inspired to introduce my grade 4/5 students to an Independent Reading Programme. During that year I was also fortunate enough to have an ongoing involvement in the Literacy Improvement Initiative and again attended several PD sessions, one of which went into Independent Reading Programmes in greater depth.**
 * I was now witnessing students who had been reluctant readers picking up books and reading, reading, reading. Students were recommending books to each other and bringing books from home to read and share! Armed with a Reflective Reading Journal students were encouraged to write to the teacher on a weekly basis about how they thought their reading was going. I always responded to their letters. As their understanding deepened, so did their critical analysis of themselves. They were in fact harder on themselves than they often needed to be. Teacher student conferences were meaningful and at absolute point of need for each student. Discussions were recorded in the students Reflective Reading Journal.**
 * Students were scaffolded to set themselves goals for their reading. We used the SMART goal process. Specific, Measureable, Actions, Realistic, Time Frame.**
 * A goal had to be specific. It had to be able to be measured so that you knew when it had been achieved. Students had to include the actions they would take to achieve their goal. To be realistic it meant they, the student, had to be able to be in control of the goal and then finally they had to set a time frame to achieve the goal. It took a while to develop student skill in setting their goals and we began to utilise a 'critical' friend during the process of setting a goal.**
 * I was also seeing hard data (Lexile and On Demand Testing) improvements with this particular cohort of students. In many cases it was quite remarkable. Reluctant readers were making solid progress. It was exciting to witness!**
 * At the end of the year I asked the students to write me a letter to let me know what they thought of the Independent Reading Programme we were using in Team 45M. I assured them that it was essential they told the absolute truth and that I would not be offended in any way. I informed the students that I needed them to do this so that I could reflect on my practise as a teacher and this in turn would help me to make changes so I could improve my teaching and therefore improve student learning. One of my initially most reluctant boy readers wrote me the following...**


 * It wasn't a long letter by any means, but it said plenty and once again provided me with yet another 'light bulb' moment. Students who had power, had motivation.**
 * That brings me to 2010 with a grade 56 and the desire to continue to run an Independent Reading Programme and the need to share with colleagues and spread the word.**
 * At the beginning of 2010 I had the opportunity to share with my teaching colleagues during the Curriculum days at the beginning of the year, the notion of an Independent Reading Programme. Teachers in the middle and senior school began to use the approach in a moderate degree. Students were provided with an independent reading box where they kept their 'just right' selection of books. Teachers were to use the independent reading time as an opportunity to conference individual students and have meaningful conversations about student comprehension of books. I was able to work with the two other senior grades and modelled a couple of Independent Reading sessions within their grades to demonstrate to the teachers how to incorporate all the factors of a successful independent reading programme (Book Chat, Mini Lesson, Independent reading and teacher conferences, Guided teacher groups, Independent tasks and sharing time).**
 * Towards the end of 2010 the Senior school and a grade 4 class moved into our new BER building. At this point I was geographically more able to monitor the use of the independent reading programme within this sub school. What I discovered were teachers using the independent reading time to conference students and use the reflective journals to record these conference notes but not for much else and certainly not for the students to set any goals for themselves. Teachers appeared to not be having any formal guided time with groups of students and those students who were not working directly with the teacher having a conference didn't appear to have much direction other than to read quietly.**
 * Where and when appropriate I provided further assistance and guidance in the hope that teachers would continue to develop their Independent Reading Programme. I believe that this year (2011) there has been a greater uptake in the Independent Reading Programme within the senior school and after a couple of further PD sessions the teachers in that area have a more indepth understanding of the components of the Independent Reading Programme.**
 * __**Beyond Buddy Reading**__
 * In the second semester of 2010 I introduced BBR to my grade of 56 students //(as mentioned at the top of this page).// The students took to this programme like they had designed it for themselves. Already used to setting goals for their reading, students were now able to select very specific actions to assist them in attaining the goals within the programme that they deemed appropriate for themselves. Of course in some cases the students required further guidance from the teacher to really look at themselves as a reader and make a more suitable goal selection.**
 * Working with partners also helped facilitate a more flexible use of the space the new building had provided. Students developed their use of the learning space by branching out and finding a space that provided them with less formal approach to their learning (students using the floor with beanbags and cushions etc). The trust given to the students in using the flexible space also seemed to assist them in taking real ownership for their goal.**
 * I was delighted with the positive approach made by the majority of students and their genuine desire to participate in the programme and work towards improving their own learning. I did notice that even though their had been quite a bit of modelling around the type of questions to use when listening to your partner that students were finding that aspect difficult. At this point I developed a set of guiding questions for the students to follow when working with their partner. This has helped the students remain more focussed upon the goal of their patner and has provided a framework to branch out from. It has been encouraging to hear students beginning to ask questions of their own.**
 * __**Here in 2011 Beyond Buddy Reading**__
 * After successfully trialling BBR with my own grade in 2010 and also introducing the concept to the other 56 grades (very briefly) I approached my teaching colleagues in the senior school with the notion of using Beyond Buddy Reading as a more 21st Century approach to our teaching practises and the learning experiences we were providing the students. I initially supported the staff through the provision of all of the resources. I supplied the staff with a guidline discussion sheet so that they could facilitate a meaningful discussion with their students about reading and how it was that we come to be readers, albeit that some of us are further along in our skills. These discussions prefaced the sessions I ran with the students about selecting goals and using the actions to work towards your chosen goal.**
 * The Senior School teachers then let the students select their own Beyond Buddy Reading Partner. In only a few cases did we make suggestions to the students about a rethink and in one case we intervened and changed a pairing.**
 * Initially the students got together with their partners and simply articulated their chosen goal and the action/s they were going to begin with.**
 * The next session saw myself modelling the use of the guiding questions with a couple of students who had been in my grade the previous year.**
 * Finally the students got together with their partners for their first formal session of BBR.**
 * Initially I struggled a little bit with the mass of students and the level of noise they generated, until I realised that the noise was busy and productive (in most cases) and that when I really stopped and listened it was lowering to a more acceptable level.**
 * I had an interesting moment when I was listening to a couple of my students and guiding them through the use of the questions when a colleague approached me and asked me if he could do some photocopying for me. When I asked him why, he replied well the students are reading and I've got a spare moment. I realised at that point that I had not been explicit enough with my teacher expectations and responded with "Why aren't you listening to your students?" The point was very quickly taken, but it did give me a great opportunity to reflect on my own practice (in leading teacher learning) and also to reapproach my colleague and reflect on how valuable it was to listen to the students and how essential it was for us as teachers to give guidance where it was required, but to also relfect on our own practice as teachers to ensure we are delivering meaning and purposeful teaching. I was able to share the way in which I gathered my notes and have since seen the teacher participating fully in the programme.**
 * Since the implementation of BBR programme in the senior school I have noticed a couple of Grade 5 students using their BBR resources and conducting sessions with each other during their grades Independent Reading Programme. They also began asking me when we could do BBR again. (It has been timetabled in on a weekly basis - non negotiable). To me that is a clear success indicator of a programme having a positive impact on student learning. Both students also agreed to be videoed for hte purpose of this course.**