Beyond a Blackboard

My inquiry focussed on supporting students to monitor their own understanding of a text. Ultimately, I wanted my students to recognise when they did not fully comprehend something and employ a strategy/strategies to increase their level of understanding. This came from analysis of their test results, in class observation, conversations with students and the recognition that I was not teaching them to self-reflect. In June I conducted a mini inquiry into my own teaching practice. I gathered student voice , watched videos of my teaching , gathered feedback and analysed my  learning design . Overall I realised that I frequently got students to self-reflect and discuss their level of understanding in maths, but rarely did this in reading! I also found that although I explicitly taught the use of comprehension strategies, I did not discuss when to employ them, or ask the students questions about their use of strategies. Changes to the way I teach reading I decided to include a time for ...

 This year my inquiry has focussed on supporting my students to monitor their own understanding of a text. At the start of the year, I noticed that my students would continue to 'read' or scan their eyes along a text, even if they did not understand what was happening. They did not consider stopping or employing a strategy. I noticed that this was particularly the case when they encountered lengthy or challenging texts, or when they were required to read several different texts in a short time period - such as on a PAT test.  At the start of the year My students PAT scores did not match up with their reading age or in class behaviour. I noticed that my students could unpack a complex text well with scaffolding, such as the conversation that occurs in a group reading lesson. They also performed well in running records as the nature of the test requires the students to re-read a text and verbally answer questions without a time limit.  My students also struggled with twist ...