R.I.S.E. Term 1 2019

Shivonne and I started our RISE journey on the 20th March. This is our first attempt and the discussions alone provided for great learning. Shivonne and I both decided to focus on Guided Reading. I taught in Year 5 and Shivonne in Year 2. We wanted to tackle the same area so as we were able to compare and contrast our strategies and styles and the effect they have on student learning. It was terrific to have someone provide feedback to me who undertakes a similar teaching role.

From the video Shivonne and I believed that the lesson flowed well and that the criteria for success was made explicit. The lesson allowed the students to have a lot of input but the questions were very teacher directed. The use of their own examples to show their understanding of new vocabulary was helpful and the fact that all students had input was invaluable for them. The learning space was used well and was conducive to the students being able to share their feedback effectively. The use of think pair share was a good tool for this lesson. We discussed the need for students to be given a more active role in their reading groups and use roles of the reader to help them have more ownership when deciphering the text. We also thought giving the students some of the more challenging vocabulary before the lesson would be helpful.

The goal set was to provide students with the opportunity to participate in peer discussion as a form of feedback with a focus on using the roles of the reader to support their learning. My future directions could include incorporating roles of the reader cards but I would need to make sure I walked the students through these explicitly. I will aim to provide students with the opportunity to create their own questions around the text and learn to articulate effective feedback to each other about their responses. This may involve providing them with question guidelines.