Session+4

5.30 -7.30pm
 * Session Four facilitated by Lorraine Wilson **

Meet and greet – finger food and drinks provided

(Apology from Pippa)

Sharing of progress of __Action Research -__ Around the table, group-share to provide information about the research project to date: Marina (Prep) - Phonological Awareness and Rime Deb (Prep) - Pre-reader developmental stages and text levels Rosemary (Year 1/2) - Passion for Writing - Scaffolding descriptive recounts (in conjunction with Literacy Coach) Glenda (Year 3/4) - Process of Poetry writing Rosemary (Year 5/6) Reading, Research and writing Kirsty (Year 2) - Spelling Strategies Sapna (Year 2) - Spelling Strategies Julie (Prep) - Investigating "Voicethread" for oral language development Kon (Year 2) - Personalised Spelling Alison (Year 5/6) - Reading Comprehension Strategies Belinda (Year 1) - Creative ways to engage ESL students in reading (eg Reader's Theatre)

Overall comments from the group:
 * Modifying the language of instruction has impacted on learning
 * Scaffolding - what a different it makes! Previously I was making it hard for the children to experience success
 * Keep planning tools for students simple - no need for graphic organisers all the time and sometimes not necessary at all
 * Just "let them write" - changes in practice and expectations can make a difference.
 * Challenges of presenting to staff.......in contrast to this group - we're here because we want to be here! Atmosphere of collegiality.

Presentation – Lorraine Wilson __"What is writing?"__ (View the handout here)
 * Two strands of writing to consider in the classroom
 * Personal Writing (as in the Graves model)
 * Required Writing (eg. text types from the curriculum)

Read aloud a story (we tried it with "The Island" by Armin Greder) As the story is read, think and feel as a character** Following the reading, with students, you can "hot-spot" with a microphone - talk in role around the group as a response to the text. Read again, when finished, re-write story as your alloted character. This is not a simple re-tell because the perspective is different according to the character. The task is narrowed, yet still authentic. If we were to form into threes, we could use this task to write a play, screenplay, dialogue. What did they use in writing to convey meaning? What did they use in drawing to convey meaning? = =
 * __Task__ -"Listen, Talk, Write in Role" (from the work of Canadian - Susan Close)
 * the stranger
 * the fisherman
 * the villagers

Next session ** - a focus on //Poetry//