First, I must say that it is a privilege to be a part of this pilot; reading is a critically important part of any child's education, and for those who struggle with it, or do not have the confidence needed for self efficacy it is important for us as teachers to take a hard look at how we teach reading in our classrooms, and to work together to develop a plan to accelerate our learners to reach their full potential.
What did I learn that increased my understanding of the kaupapa and pedagogy of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme?
The Manaiakalani Pedagogy allows for us to place our own learning, and strategies into a ore contemporary framework, one that views education through a modern lens, where it is not simply the student's job to learn, but also to give them the opportunities to create, and to share their opinions, viewpoints, and ideas with the world. Reading is a lens through which to view the world, and by developing higher-level reading skills we help our students to become more critically minded, and through that mastery, take control of their own learning.
What did I learn that could improve my capability and confidence in teaching reading?
I think through this program it will allow me to fine-tune my practice for the primary sector; having trained as a secondary English teacher reading has been a very analytical topic, where students have a certain amount of background/prior knowledge on a wider variety of topics, whereas with primary students a lot of the reading they are doing is their first introduction to a topic. By building a robust plan on how to best deliver reading content we can create a more cohesive literacy program for our students that works for them.
What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
The importance of student choice is something I will be more conscious of in my own planning; not necessarily giving students free reign over subject matter, but to allow students to conduct their own research, to locate, and find books in libraries, or book collections on subject matter which is interesting to them then we can increase engagement across the board.
What did I learn that could be shared within my wider community, with either colleagues, or whānau/aiga?
Starting off I would share with them the importance of student choice in their own self-efficacy, and how allowing students choices will increase engagement, and with increased engagement comes motivation, with motivation comes mastery, and with mastery comes confidence to repeat those patterns with different topics, and eventually with reading in general.
This program, once up and running, will be a very effective tool, allowing for reflection, conversation, discussion, and co-construction of practical ideas which will help to accelerate our students.
