Reader writer support and making changes in our classrooms

This week I have been thinking about SAC and reader writer support in our teaching and learning programmes.  I posted the comment below to the English online forum, and then thought I would post it here as well, as SAC support is one of the strategies I am using for two of my priority learners in my inquiry this year.  One of my next steps is to find expertise to interpret the data to a level/in a way which means I understand how I can support my student in English.  

This year we have not used reader-writers for either PAT reading or asttle writing for our juniors. We use this testing for all students at the beginning and end of year 9 & 10. The advice we have had from MoE and NZCER is that a reader-writer invalidates the test. Students who are being trialed for reader-writers for NCEA are still able to use a reader-writer for other assessments in English and across the curriculum. We can then look at how much difference the reader writer support has made against a control.

Further to this, we don't offer reader-writer support for 1.4, 1.5, 2.4 or 3.4. We do offer it for the unfamiliar text standards at every level. Having someone read it aloud is little different to using the read-write application on a device, which a person could use in the workforce or for further study.

I don't think the writing standards are the best way to support students with reader-writer eligibility in an English programme. I think that I and my colleagues have a responsibility in English to prepare students who have reader-writer eligibility for the wider world, whether that be the workforce or further study. The connections standards, the close viewing, each of the externals and research all allow students to develop both their writing skills and their skills at using a reader-writer to develop their best ideas and arguments, without having to worry about the highest levels of technical accuracy. Students can use grammerly, read-write and other tools which they can take with them when they leave school when they are working on these standards which involve writing but do not explicitly assess writing. They can, of course, also use reader-writer support for these standards. The reality is that reader-writer support can only ever be available for some of each assessment, and so other tools, and developing student capacity to overcome their challenges with writing, always matter.

There is so much to say on this topic - I wonder what we are doing with the current trend for an increase in reader writer support. I have a hunch that if someone were to do careful research throughout the country (and it is part of an international trend in education), they might find that numbers of students with reader writer support have risen exponentially, and across the country they have the support of people who are often barely trained and sometimes not even paid, but that the results of the testing that led to reader-writer support in the first place have not actually been interpreted in ways that have led to changes in teaching and learning in New Zealand classrooms. This thought came out of asking questions about a recent LASS test at my school for a priority learner where I didn't just want a reader-writer assigned, I wanted to understand what the student actually had difficulty with according to the test and how I could alter my teaching and resources to make a difference. When I went to the LASS website, the information was focused on fast testing for schools for reader writer eligibility, and no mention that I have found yet of what else could be done with the results. Lots of money involved for big international testing companies.

learn create share and key competencies

This year, I wanted to use learn-create-share to lift confidence and collaborative learning in 10QI students. My hunch was that if I could build student confidence in sharing with each other and the wider world, they would be able to work more cooperatively and help each other make progress. Student voice indicated that there were factions in the classroom but if the teacher managed groups and mixed up student-chosen group activities with some teacher-assigned activities, then they were willing to try new sharing. Blogging feedback showed that if I drip fed the blogging from the most willing first and eventually to everyone, then the fear of online sharing reduced hugely. 

My new learning (ongoing) has so far been a blend of relationship building with my class, with individuals and with groups and also the important mahi of building a class team ethic. It has also involved working with other 10QI teachers to find out what and how they are learning in Maths and Global Studies. For my ORS student, it has involved working with Jason, Bev & Cherie to make resources and strategies for sharing work for Max. I'm pretty excited about Max's progress, particularly his growing confidence to speak in front of the whole class.

A key challenge last week related to a key competency challenge that arose when I was off sick yesterday - some students wrote inappropriate comments on the padlet on our class blog (inappropriate content now gone). I rehearsed my speech in the shower about how we are a team and need to show team pride to the world. The class took my grand speech with the seriousness I had hoped for but not presumed, and those students who could not remove comments on their padlet posts asked me to get rid of the inappropriate content for them. We could carry on with our research with our heads held high.

This week we are looking at participating and contributing in class. We have some tension in the room, and I want all of the students to be welcomed and welcoming in our class, not all-minus-one. So I've been working with the class, and with the dean, and we are going to run a restorative process. I'm not sure that I have the skills to do this on my own, and I'm looking forward to learning from the two deans who do have the restorative training for this project.

I have two important next steps for the next fortnight:
1. We are evaluating resources. I've started to prep this section, and I'm going to bring SOLO back into our skill set.  We were a very committed department in terms of SOLO about four years ago, and I don't want to drop that ball as we bounce so many others.

2. I've organised for my appraiser to observe me in ten days' time.  It's precious time that people give up when they do observations, and I want Scott to be able to collect useful information when he watches us (10QI & I).  I figure we will be ready for some significant sharing of our research by then, and so we can test progress on using sharing to improve key competencies and, in turn, raise achievement.