Carolyn

Carolyn's reflections on her students. Diagnostic results, what next profile, POL adjustments and resources sent to develop skills.... Feedback and reflection of successes and barriers Other teacher's comments and reflections on the processes...


 * This year I'd like to focus on my interactions and programme for 2 very different students, A & B.**

A is year 10 and from a high support family, itinerating around NZ. Her 2 younger brothers are also in my class. She is working at the level expected for her age, but needs plenty of feedback and feedforward to meet the potential she is capable of. She has the potential to fly as long as she keeps her expectations high, and I am encouraging her to do this. 2 March
 * SST510 on Children's rights, completed showing depth of thinking - sent an excellence certificate. Her English showed that she could identify topic sentences and add interesting details, before writing a paragraph that used descriptive language.

Feedback: It’s important to persevere through the parts that are less enjoyable, as often those are the skill areas to develop. Make sure you put some time aside for writing every day – get into the habit of reading back and “recrafting” your work, changing sentences and content to add interest and clarity. 8 March : spoke with A about her presentation for TAH04 Extremes. She presented a clear and interesting oral presentation over the phone, engaging her audience and providing relevant information. Commended her on the effort and thinking she had put into this. Discussed goal setting and I look forward to having a more in-depth conversation about these next week. 18 March: Talked to A about her SEP goals. She is working well at level 4 - overall reading asTTle of 4A - with consistent levels across all strands. Discussed purposes for reading and what she needs to progress further. Finding information across a range of texts will be a focus. She feels that writing is something she doesn't enjoy as much as reading - talked about how to engage the audience, and how her favourite authors do this. A has a mature outlook and is clear about her goals and understandings. Came up with 3 ideas for investigating, career-wise. 23 April: I have received further work from A, and fed back ideas about journal writing and building up her writing techniques. Discussed learning preferences and she is interested in the Enterprise unit for TAH - an interest in cafe work. Discussed programme with father who will be supervising this term and the importance of discussion about what is done and planning. Sent out a "thinking" worksheet to look at a range of thinking skills around chocolate cookies. 30 June : What's happened? I think I've lost this student. Phone calls are very distant and she has lost her enthusiasm. Returned work is done "ok" but no sparkle to it - no response to feedback, and no unsolicited phone calls from A. Am I expecting too much from her? Am I being to hard on her in my feedback? She didn't "get" the Enterprise unit and told me her mum was going to phone and tell me that her and her brothers should be "withdrawn" from Te Ara Hou and just sent curriculum materials. It's such a struggle to find something this girl is passionate about that will engage her in her learning, everything is just "ok". I'm wondering if the fact that mum has not been present to supervise means that work has not been supervised this term. Now mum is back home, will the standard improve? I get the idea that the important thing for the family members is to keep to their timetable and get the work done, without thinking about the learning and discussing issues and ideas with each other, supervisor or teacher. Next term will be important to get back on track and on side - engaging and encouraging A to aim high and strive for her potential. 18 August Lately I've been impressed with the content of A's work. She is getting to grips with using descriptive language and adding personal reflections to her writing. Her recent Novel Study "Whale Rider" showed that she cqn make connections between her own experiences and those realted in the story. I am giving as much positive feedback as possible and encouraging her with her descriptive writing, it is much more mature than the ant serial she perisited with in the first two terms. There is still little communication initiated by A, As we work towards the end of the year, I will aim to provide her with more opportunities to work on high end level 5 material.

B is year 8 this year and his family have been on TCS roll since 2001. Again the family itinerates. B is struggling in his comprehension of what he reads and at times I find it very frustrating to receive his work and see that he has not read or understood the questions or instructions. His step-sibling is at the same year level, but B is not working at the same academic level. I am looking at what interventions we can put in place to develop his reading levels, and at present are trying to get some SPELD testing done to try and identify and blockages.

Feb 22: Student B has been visited by the LT to follow up on some queries I had. One comment was quite revealing: This certainly reflects what I am seeing in his work, that there is no preparation or thought before starting work.A teacher aide or close supervision would help, but the report also stated that there was increasing frustration from the mum about this students attitude to school. The LT made another useful observation: March 12 I had a phone call from the Speld assessor clarifying a few points about her meeting with B. She is waiting for the results of sight and hearing checks on B before making recommendations. B has since told me that his eyesight test showed no problems. The assessment brought up that B has a very short term working memory - which explains the conversation I had with him today, where he had forgotten the purpose of /and the task I had set him yesterday. His oral language is ok, but listening comprehension very poor. I'll wait for the report's recommendations, however I have applied for SEA grant funding for TA assistance to support him. April 23 The report has come in for B's Speld assessment and it shows that he is a "slow learner" with extremely limited short term and working memory, limited associative memory and reasoning ability and auditory discrimination issues. recommendations include short repetitive exercises, consistent and frequent practice of new skills. I have sent out some worksheets on synonyms and antonyms as suggested in the report and will work on word definitions and building vocabulary knowledge. Requested family to investigate Skype - so I can share documents and work online with B to help work through some of his blockages visually. B has been granted funding for a Speld tutor once a week, and we will again focus on building memory and repetitive practice. May 4 Frustration abounds! B has returned work that shows a real lack of supervision as well as complete lack of understanding about the information asked of him and where to find it! A reading book with comprehension and Cloze exercises at RA level 7 1/2 - 8 missed the mark completely. Cloze gaps were filled with words/ideas not even in the book - eg: //Blackie was Tom's horse// - but no horse in the story at all - it was about a dog! and //He kept money in a duck pen// - does he even read what he's written? I'm currently following up about the SEA grant and how it can be best used to support B's learning! Even here there are questions as to whether a Speld tutor is the way to go, but then there are issues about appointing a TA to an itinerant family. May 18 Now I'm tearing my hair out! The latest return of work is completely missing any coherence or semblance of understanding what he's doing. Basic reading comprehension exercises show a lack of supervision and the maths is not much better. B has discovered Twink and is using it liberally to cover errors and change answers, not always correctly. I have spoken to the LT prior to his visit to the family today, We need to get a TA set up quickly and encourage more supervision/checking of what B is doing so that some learning is taking place. I'm concerned that currently things are going backwards and options are being closed off for B to have any chance of achieving. The LT is going to raise again the idea of returning to F2F school so that more support can be put in place for B.
 * I helped B with his //Bike // unit. He does not read the question first but just starts to write an answer. I spent some time getting him to read the question and then plan an answer. He started to write better sentences once we had two or three tries. I still had the feeling as soon as I left he would revert to just writing straight away.
 * The session with B was hard work, but he does show good skills when focused. He is a hands on person, so any units that have tasks to do will be attractive to him.

August 18 B has had some changes - recently has started working with a TA in a local school, with some success. He still needs to be supervised and asked to read carefully the task. I recently worked through ILA115 with him in a Skype session, in order to look at how he adds details to his writing to make it more interesting and give essential information. Upon receiving this work at the school, i saw that he made no extra changes despite being asked to. He is still focussed on getting the work returned and finishing it so it's done, rather than revisiting and refining it. His brother has returned to f2f school, and this has meant a change in B's work habits - reportedly for the better. LT and supervisor comments state that he is improving in his attitude towards his learning. Latest report is that B will also return to f2f next year for Year 9. this is fantastic news!