Big Books Learning Circle

 This year I have the privilege of teaching a Year 4/5 class of 49 students in a collaborative space. We soon realised that the low academic performance that we are seeing is a direct result of COVID. Students missed out on the very important foundation part of their education. My colleague and I sat down and brainstormed how we can support our students the best way we can to try and get them up to standard, especially around independent activities. We then started talking about the value of the Big Book. Not reading to...but genuinely using the Big Book for what it is meant to be and decided that our students need this kind of focussed teaching. 

As my colleague never taught junior students, we decided that we will investigate the value of the Big Book by using it in Term 1. Our main focus is to use it to build up students' vocabulary, use of punctuation, sentence structure and language structure. This will also enable us to support students in understanding the connection between reading and writing. And finally, it will support our ELL students to gain confidence in attending to the text, illustrations, diagrams, and photographs while hearing the language used in an authentic context (TKI). 

So, we created a learning circle that will

read up on ways to use the Big Book, plan for it during our daily writing time and set out independent follow-up activities for each day. 

This is what we learned so far just by looking at some of the lesson plans in front of some BIg Books. 

Day 1 - Read with expression

Day 2 - Read again - pay attention to vocab - decoding

Day 3 - Read again - Pay attention to vocab and its meaning (build up word wall)

Day 4 - Read again - Pay attention to punctuation

Day 5 - Students read - Teachers stand back - students do a recount of the story

This is what TKI say on Shared reading: 

Shared reading is an essential component of the literacy programme in years 5 to 8. It allows for a high degree of interaction and is a great way for teachers to help students extend their understanding of themselves as effective text users. During shared reading, teachers and students can participate in collaborative reasoning to solve literacy-related problems.

Through this approach, teachers can deliberately extend their students’:

• understanding of themes and ideas;
• use of reading strategies;
• appreciation of literary devices, such as imagery;
• vocabulary;
• knowledge of the purposes and characteristic features of different text forms.

For more information on Shared Reading (TKI) follow this link. https://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Planning-for-my-students-needs/Effective-Literacy-Practice-Years-5-8/Approaches-to-teaching-reading

If you have experience in using the Big Book in your literacy programme, please feel free to share your thoughts on its value. 

Learn with the Expert: When We Partner, Everyone Wins: Family Engagement in Education with Dr. Karen Mapp (Seesaw)

 Evidence proves that partnerships between home and school benefit families, students, teachers, districts and communities.

Interesting: Even the look of your class can show whether your school is a student or adult-centred school. e.g. what is on the walls (Students work or teachers posters), is the teachers desk the centre attraction in the class, or activties where students are engaged, the way teachers approach visistors etc. 

Good partnerships reduce high-risk behaviour, increased family involvement, and high-level participation in after-school activities, and increased high school graduation. 

Parents know more, understand more and do more than educators give them credit for.

Strong partnerships between schools and families make us more resilient against global crises such as Covid. Due to Covid, people are more ready to engage in these strong relationships. 

People feel respected if they felt listened to. 

Families want to know: what is our goal, and where we want our children to be at the end of the year. 

Conclusion: A very insightful webinar. Something I want to improve on this year as it links in strongly with our vision for Mangapikopiko.