School stories

Lifting Literacy Aotearoa (LLA)

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy actions noted: collated responses taken from the school stories on LLA. 

Celebration of diversity and individuality: 

• Personalised learning needs was the driver: not a "one size fits all" approach - 

• can be customized easily for each student as has a clear pathway (scope and sequence) 

• replicated process of SL in immersion unit and developed a Scope and sequence for Te Reo (Mahina) 

• We take a developmentally appropriate approach, children work their way individually through a series of goals that are based on brain development once we feel they are safe and happy at school.

• Using the explicit teaching practices of  Modelling "I do" then "we do" before "you do" reduces anxiety  

• "We want assessment to be for learning, not of learning" Diagnostic assessment one-on-one, conversation and observation. Dynamic assessment which is just part of the learning process.

Principles of akō

• leaders were set aside to lead the way - then all staff were involved with learning together. 

• Sharing and learning from each other -observed each other - coaching feedback; tuakaana teina across the staff.

• There was a lot of just-in-time learning (just before we were teaching). We made sure teachers knew that this was okay and we moved slowly with our staff meetings to make sure people were feeling comfortable.

• Developed shared understandings for staff - teachers have shared understanding and consistent approach. 

• Utilise other schools ahead of you on the journey. Schools further along on their structured literacy journey were very open to sharing their experience with us.

Whānau engagement 

•  information sessions via meetings and by videos (during COVID) 

•  We use real time reporting (via Seesaw)  We use Seesaw to post evidence of students work, so parents may see photos and videos of what their child is doing in class, teachers have to post at least one sample for writing and reading each a term.

• We incorporate some literacy based activities into our playbased ones and where possible use parent help to facilitate with the playbased activities.

• We changed all our literacy goals at the beginning of 2019 to reflect our new approach and we report to parents against these

• When children are learning new sounds and connecting them to the alphabetic code, we use cards for between home and school learning and teach whānau how to say these correctly and play games to help learn. 

• Ran a workshop for parents detailing the literacy approach at our kura.

• "My child moved to XXX during Year 7, he could not read or spell. They put in a great deal of work and the progress in 18 months was amazing. He went from not wanting to go to school to wanting to go and learn. Teachers spent time explaining things to him, he never tried to get out of going to school. I wish he was back there. (This child arrived midway through year 7 reading at magenta, when he left as a year 8 he was reading at turquoise)."

Integration into the school kaupapa

• We all examined what was in place   - no more repeating programmes that were not making a difference. 

• Integration of literacy into akoranga (project based learning) and play-based learning 

• Intervention aligns with classroom practice,  EQUITY of access for all learners

• We still do shared books, shared writing and poems - all the rich language that was been done before SL.

• One school's set up:

  • Juniors: We operate our class through play, pull children for short sharp sessions based on phonological, phonemic and phonetic understandings and read individually as they are ready.

  • Seniors: This is largely based on The Code (Liz Kane) - Fun sessions to start the day focusing on a sound - Spelling games linked to this. Investigating encoding and decoding in groups for those that need this. Shared reading of chapter books. Flexible dependent on need of the children, some individualised with a decodable text to focus on the sounds they are learning. Dictated text as well as a variety of writing in different genre.

Outcomes: 

• student participation, confidence and achievement has lifted. This was mentioned in every school story

• students are excited and motivated - they respond to the structure and predictability of the lessons. 

• increased participation - "Our students enjoy the structure of a lesson and the level of focus that they show is great, they are engaged and are very interactive in a lesson, whereas before they would just sit in a guided group with a vague purpose and answer questions about the story" 

• increased confidence

• able to help and support peers. 

• After six months we started to see some amazing results in our new entrant learners who had never learnt in another way. In our Tier 2 and 3 learners we saw such a lift in their self esteem and their attitude towards learning. They stopped trying to avoid work and engaged in their reading and writing. They talked about being able to understand and work things out.

• Students are so engaged. "They are engaged as independent readers and as participants in the activities related to each instructional stage. Their confidence and belief in themselves, especially among our struggling readers, is just magic to see."

• We use a tiered approach (Tier 1 - whole class, Tier 2 - smaller target groups and Tier 3 -  individual support. The benefits of using a tiered approach: 

  • The effectiveness of the intensive intervention is being reflected in the assessment data gathered.

  • Teachers and support staff are working together better to ensure support is consistent and targeted.

  • Children who go to Tier 2-3 support are being pre-loaded with information so that when they are in the class they can answer questions and feel like the ‘experts’. We have noticed a real difference in self-esteem and confidence in these children.

How has doing Structured Literacy made you feel?  (Student voice)

"It makes me feel really good - I can spell words like other people do and I am more confident in myself and I can get my work done a lot quicker."

"I have felt more confident in my reading and it makes me feel good because I can get the words right."

"I feel so much more relaxed because I can get my spelling right."

"Reading is so much easier."

"Happy.... I get to learn new things that I didn’t know."

"I feel happy because I can write new words."

"It makes me feel confident in reading and writing."

"I know I can do stuff now that I couldn’t do before, I know I’ve got the skills."

Outcomes for teachers: (Teacher voice) 

• "I finally understand how learning to read works for children. I now understand the link between reading and spelling and the vital nature of phonological awareness. I feel empowered."

• Teachers had to unlearn some of their previous practice. This was challenging, and confronting for some. 

• "I love how we are all talking the same language and there is consistency across the levels - we are not all doing different programmes with no links..."We have used many different interventions in the past but nothing compares to this in terms of student progress."

• "The assessment gives you such rich data that is so relevant and I have the knowledge and resources to know how to move the students forward."

• "It is so reassuring this approach is based on science and evidence - it feels robust."

• "I feel so like I can give parents a much more detailed and accurate assessment of where their child is sitting."

Tips from school Principals:

• Think about speech clarity, focus on the way children and teachers are articulating sounds, this is a massive area of learning for many.

• Read, read, read, watch, watch, watch - Allow time to watch videos on how the brain learns to read and more specific ones on orthographic mapping.

• Consider a pilot project. This is a good way to test the waters and show people what can be achieved. Pilot results led to Board agreeing to extend across the school

• A shift to structured literacy can be overwhelming. Develop an implementation plan that breaks the process down into smaller, more achievable goals over an agreed timeframe.

• Recognise it can be quite an emotional shift for some. All journeys are valid and should be supported.

• Remember who you are doing it for. It might seem easier to stick with the status quo, but we all know children we didn’t serve that well. Structured literacy could have been the missing link for that child. As a core instructional model, structured literacy can prevent future learning difficulties for many children.

Robertson Road School, Auckland.

School story on Lifting Literacy Aotearoa webpage. 

https://www.liftingliteracyaotearoa.org.nz/support/case-studies

August 2021. Report here.

Next steps for Robertson Road school:

• Continue to support our Samoan Bilingual Leader as she develops Samoan structured literacy including writing her own decodable readers. This is very exciting for our Samoan bilingual learners.

• Supporting our Whakatipu Akoranga Kāhui Ako schools who are looking at developing structured literacy in other Pasifika languages e.g. Tongan.

Their school website: https://www.robertson.school.nz/our-learning/structured-literacy

School stories from Learning MATTERS Chit Chats with Carla McNeill.