Learning to love reading! This term I have worked with students from Aroha Pod who are 7 and who needed support to become more fluent and confident readers. We have had a strong focus on Science through 'The Kitchen Science Cookbook", STEM and making, especially with "Epic Cardboard Adventures". This has involved a lot of problem solving, discussion and increased exposure to more vocabulary in a meaningful context.
We start each session with me reading to the students as a 'warm up'. This has lead to good discussion and the right 'mindset' to start thinking about reading as something that is enjoyable and fun! Students have come to ask: "Can you read our story?" which is awesome to see them start to love being read too! It's also a lovely way to expose students to books and authors they may become interested in themselves.
Secondly, I have used a variety of fiction and non-fiction journals at suitable levels and tried to find out about passions and interests to guide these. For example we read 'The Maize Maze' about mazes which lead to students wanting maze reading activities. They then transferred that to using Dash and making mazes for him to move through.
Making a maze with Lego was also really popular. I just ran with their passion areas and tried to tie in as much reading and writing as possible. Most students recorded their ideas on Seesaw which meant they were reading and recording their own ideas as well.
Halfway through the Term I came across this wonderful book and my students have absolutely loved using it.
It tied nicely into the Aroha Pod's instruction writing and reading. Also, although technically not being STEM/STEAM it still lends itself nicely to trial and error and problem solving. Some students really shone in this area of problem solving and as a result their reading fluency and confidence started to improve. It has taken an intensive two months of this type of instructional high interest reading alongside carefully selected high interest journals to see a boost in these areas.
We also tried to do a Science based cooking experiment using The Kitchen Science Cookbook once a fortnight. Students could opt into this. If they choose this they read and highlighted unknown words and concepts. We drew sketches to explain concepts and wrote down questions before embarking on the food experiment. Again this instructional reading was useful to immerse students in different vocabulary. They could follow a process and 'problem shoot' if things might need a tweak along the way.
The edible candle or confectionary candle
Bread in a Bag
Our final project was to make a small three tier greenhouse and to plant and grow sunflower seeds. Students read the instructions and made the greenhouse themselves. they then found out he best way to plant the seeds. Afterwards we had to watch instructional videos to find out why some of the seeds may not be growing. So there was a lot of problem solving and thinking tied into our acquisition of new vocabulary.
Students have really enjoyed being given lots of choices for their reading. I think it's this voice and choice that has been the real winner. Alongside getting to know my learners really well and finding out about their passions and interests in depth. It will be interesting to ask them what they have enjoyed and how they think learning together this Term has helped their reading!
Nga Mihi
Bex
