Taking animation to the next level

For both term 1 & 2, I have been trying to find ways to encourage collaboration within my class.  So far the best way I have been able to achieve this is in reading groups.  The Maihi reading group absolutely loved Maui and the Sun and asked if they could create an animation from the story.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for them to work together and take their animation to the next level.

It was manageable because it was such a small group (only 4), had it been a bigger group I would have had to split them into 2 groups.  They had to rewrite the story in their own words, draw up a storyboard, choose the most appropriate music and using audacity we recorded them telling the story and edited the whole animation.

What was easy?
Hooking them into the activity, they were keen and loved the idea of creating it, at first they weren't able to visualise the finished product as I had no examples to show them, but as we worked on it together, the group grew more excited the more they saw the animation unfold.

What was hard?

There was a lot of scaffolding that had to happen during the process, I was able to use my teacher aide but on the digital side, there was a lot of explicit teaching that had to be done. I left notes and comments, and continuously gave feedback and feedforward which they appreciated.

Where do I go next?
Now that I have a student example as above - I will use this for our narrative unit, I do have some idea on what to anticipate and what would need to be scaffolded and taught.  Looking forward to rolling this out again.

Maths with Dianne - T2

Met with Dianne Ogle today and looked at the PACT tool. I was able to see which of my students need more support. Together, with the rest of the staff we shared what we noticed about the curriculum and what we noticed about the students.

What did I notice?

When using the pact tool, I could identify aspects where my tamariki need further developing support, I also have more awareness of what is expected at each level.

We had a brief look at concept maps and I think next time I plan a unit I will use concept maps, I am also planning to take the information I have learned with my tamariki to set up workshops to help them.

RKRT W2Workday - Te Manu Tuhituhi

For the next part of our hui, we began to explore Te Manu Tuhituhi which is a Maori resource aimed specifically to teach writing. We looked at the layout of the books and Whetu, our RKRT team leader discussed how it is used:

The concept of Te Manu Tuhituhi is likened to a bird when they start off, they have no feathers and cannot fly, however, the skills that they learn for writing is likened to feathers, furthermore, the more skills that they acquire, the more feathers they will have.

Purpose of the kaupapa is given. It has samples for you to use, however, it is recommended to use the text available in the Maori resource room for now.

Each page has the language features of the genre.

Each genre comes with Blackline Masters which includes a cameo and a template for your tamariki to use.

It also has suggestions for reading activities, oral language activities, topic ideas, Learning intentions for writing and spelling.  What I really like about Te Manu Tuhituhi is the holistic view that it has on teaching all components of literacy.  Today was an introduction to the rauemi, and we will need another time set aside to really go in-depth with Te Manu Tuhituhi, I have decided for now to re-look at the Learning intentions for spelling and include these into my spelling programme for Pungakupu Maori as well as Pungakupu Pakeha.

He Kura Tuhituhi Manual

Ka Oho te Manu ki te ao Tuhituhi
Ka Rere te Manu ki te ao Tuhituhi