Setting the Scene

  Monitoring: Following our work on Ahi Ka, Bastion Point and the recording of interrogational events throughout the process it became apparent my audio recordings were not showing the improvement I had anticipated.  The historical study began at Michael Joseph Savage's legacy, his burial at Bastian Point and finished at the conclusion of the land occupation. I broke the study into two distinct areas:    The non fiction and the fiction.  The non fiction  included reading and researching this historical time frame looking through old newspaper clippings, movie reels and journals. During this time we hot seated the Crown to find out why they actioned the burning of the homes on Bastion Point. The Crowns response left the students angry and frustrated. Now that the students knew the history of the area we could move into the fictional side. The fictional aspect focussed on the emotions and feelings running through the characters involved. It required the stu...

During Mitey 2 Lab we discussed ways to integrate Mitey throughout other curriculum areas! Here's something I'm doing with the new Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum. With support from School Kit we have delved into the history of Bastion Point. Following the non-Fiction investigation we are now moving into the Fictional side! The   Mitey  side...What was going through young Joe Hawks mind as he watched his home being torched while sitting up in a tree in the orchard? What if the community came together planning and designing a Pa and Marae on the Orakei reserve that provided healthy safe homes, gardens, a medical centre also incorporating Tikanga. How would the Crown react to this? Would the view for the Queens arrival be more acceptable? Could we avoid the burning of so many homes and a future land occupation? Not to mention the death of a child?Under (a loosely formed) Mantle of the Expert, students are researching, designing and putting a plan through hoping they can change ...

 This week I was invited to speak at our Mitey2 Lab where St Pat's journey to date was shared and celebrated. It was an honour to be asked to speak and share my experience using 'The Backpack,' one of Mitey's wonderful resources supporting mental health and well being. During the day discussion was lead through Pods where representatives spoke about current in-school initiatives, what was working and where to next.  Lots of ideas to mull over and put in to action to hopefully cause a generational change towards the role of mental health and well being being second nature!  

By further developing students interrogative skills through the integration of Process Drama into the Reading / Literacy program will Reflective Discussion and Critical Literacy improve? Will this improvement be reflected in the their inferential and evaluative scores in Probe? Or just in their ability to verbally, during audio recording, offer multiple deep responses to one question? Will, adding in a new form of Process Drama (MoE) be advantageous for the students or benefit only the teachers desire to continually invigorate practice?  I do believe adding in Mantle of the Expert (MoE) will not only give another avenue for development of interrogative skills BUT also another method of  inquiry AND a starting pathway into the new Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum.  I have created a presentation where the history of Bastion Point is researched and discussed looking at the use and misuse of power. Following the input and understanding  of this historical informat...

Relevant Aspects of My Current Reading Program Looking at my current practice, under a Reading lens... I have 4 groups with reading ages ranging from 9-13+ years. Each group has an assigned levelled Journal / reader which is accompanied by Slides made specifically for that text. The Slides include a variety of comprehension questions, word work, research areas and a create aspect where information and understanding is artistically expressed ready to be Blogged. During the week I see each group at least twice at an instructional level, not including 'on the spot' discussion and check-ins. The main component of instruction is comprehension and understanding of the text. Interspersed with Group Reading there is usually a Newspaper article from current events that we break down as a whole class. This includes: unpacking any technical language, discussion points and answering a variety of question types. This is also linked, in discussion, to how it relates to each student and their...

The most eye opening data collected with regards to Critical Literacy would be that from 'Voice Memo'   and the associated 'Anecdotal Notes' where it was made clear that many students were unable to participate in reflective discussion and questioning. For success in comprehension, whether it be evaluative, inferential or critical literacy the ability to question both intra and interpersonally in depth is an advantage. This competence is reflected across literacy in both reading and writing. These findings made me research further into the effectiveness of two particular areas of Process Drama:  Hot Seating and Mantle of the Expert (MoE) Both of types of drama provide an excellent opportunity for reflective discussion.  Both Hot Seating and MoE allow for the exploration of multiple perspectives which can be adopted to strengthen view points with the opportunity to walk in other peoples shoes. Viv Aitken in 'Connecting Curriculum Linking Learning,' discusses ...

Preliminary Findings Individually, each piece of data informs different strengths and weaknesses in the different areas, however there is a cumulative effect. During 'Hot Seating' the first Voice Memo seemed to be very constrained with one question / one response being recorded by the whole class. Questions were asked in isolation with no follow up or follow through to  'find out more' by digging deeper in particular areas.  Anecdotally, while watching movement and process while creating a 'Postcard ' (where one child is added at a time to replicate a given scene), some students were unable to physically express  themselves as part of a group interpreting a before and after scene. This alluded to the fact that they were unaware of the physical surroundings being portrayed in the story and as such were unable to mentally re-create the situation using spontaneous flexible problem solving.  Following two very disruptive years differing  PAT Reading Comprehension ...