Preparation for High School

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As soon as we walked through the gates of Tamaki College, I was struck by the realization that I know very little about how New Zealand Colleges operate and how NCEA is structured. As someone who completed Cambridge exams, I need to develop my knowledge of NCEA and prepare my students for this as oppose to the high school that I attended.

Fortunately, we were given the opportunity to spend our PLG day looking at other schools in the cluster. I spent my morning with a year 9 literacy class (lead by Vaughan Spudle) and was really interested to see how the class was run. I was especially impressed with the accelerated reading program that they ran as I could see the benefits it would have with some of my learners.  In this program the students spend 20 minutes a day reading a book that is appropriate to their reading level. After completing books, they take a short comprehension quiz to determine whether they are ready to read a book at the next level. The students were all engaged with this program and were experiencing success with their reading.

Integrating SOLO Taxonomy with writing
I loved the way Vaughan used Kahoot as an interactive exit card and teaching tool. The quiz was based upon the content the students had been studying and the class discussed each question and answer to reinforce what they had learnt. I will definitely be using this with my learners in the future!
I also thought that SOLO Taxonomy had been integrated into literacy very well and I will be sharing this with my colleagues as we also use SOLO at Glenbrae.

After visiting Tamaki College I returned to Glenbrae to visit some of the other classes. It was really interesting for me to see the type of work the younger classes were doing and how it lead into the content that we cover at intermediate. I also took this as an opportunity to talk to Georgia, who gave me a crash course in NCEA which was extremely helpful!

Georgia, Room 7 and I after playing volley.

Comments

  1. Unknown5 July 2016 at 09:14

    Glad you enjoyed your day! Let me know if there is any more you need, happy to help :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown5 July 2016 at 09:14

    Glad you enjoyed your day! Let me know if there is any more you need, happy to help :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Danni Stone5 July 2016 at 10:22

      Thank you! It was really helpful and I am sure I will have more questions for you soon haha :)

      Delete
  3. Anne Sinclair7 July 2016 at 09:24

    Thank you Danni for your incredible enthusiasm and support of others. What you are doing with your class is motivating and expansive. I am constantly in awe of the creative and inspiring activities you plan for your class.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Danni Stone11 July 2016 at 12:23

      Thank you for your kind words Anne, and for all of the support you have given us this term!

      Delete

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