RPI Day 4 - Small Group Reading Instruction

Today we had a great day diving deeper into Guided Reading and Comprehension:

• Need-based grouping for explicit processing and strategic reading support

• Discussions to extend and deepen understanding

• Clear, explicit teaching points to target instruction

• Independent response-to-text tasks to consolidate learning

Today’s content was a good reminder that small group reading is just one piece of the puzzle, but it is a VERY IMPORTANT piece. We also need to plan for reading to our learners, shared reading, and independent reading. Small groups are a great instructional opportunitiy for focused teaching (definitely not 'round robin' reading!), but not everything has to happen there.

I couldn’t agree more about not overloading a guided session. It made me reflect on how, early in my teaching career, I tried to 'accelerate' learning by planning and giving too much — most likely just confusing my learners :) It's more efficient and practical to focus on one or two key teaching points (but do them really well and in depth) and save the rest for another time, like shared reading. It’s also important to keep the joy of reading alive while helping learners grow.

The framework for a guided (small group) instructional session is a quick 20-minute session where we introduce the text, might listen to learners read, have a conversation about the text to begin with, but really focus on a couple of key teaching points max. Afterwards, students work independently on teacher-planned follow-up tasks, including vocab work, comprehension, any other form of “response to texts’ and learners reflection.

Digital Modelling book - great way to plan, deliver and monitor group reading (one of possible formats)

Guided reading cycle:

Introducing Text and Purposes:
Background knowledge - focus on relevant, and necessary information for comprehending the text.
Plan how will you develop this knowledge - vocabulary, video, some reading before the guided group session, explaining, integrated with other subjects 

I found the following activity very useful because analysing student-teacher interactions made me reflect on what I can do during small group sessions.

Recast (research term) is similar to revoicing in Talk Moves, where the teacher elevates vocabulary, reinforcing and feeding new words and ideas.

Observing students while they read is crucial for informing your teaching and guiding their next steps. I really like the idea of using fluency rubrics and was excited to listen to and analyse the students' reading.

Discussion

Discussion is now explicit in Te Mataiaho - Oral language Strand (Communicating ideas and information)

It’s useful to keep the PAT question types in mind — we need to include them in our programme so students can feel confident, but also challenge them to think more deeply about the text and the topic.

Literal (Retrieval) *concrete evidence (one sentence)

Vocabulary *Synonyms, antonyms & visualisation

Reorganisation (Complex Inference) *combine evidence (more than one place or order)

Inference (Local Inference) *deducing & interpret  implied meanings

Evaluation (Interpret & Integrate) *making judgements

Opinion (Critique & Evaluate) *perspective/conclusion based on the above

Letting students drive conversations, teacher is monitoring and there to prompt if really needed but let them talk - remember that some conversations won’t happen naturally, so it's important to scaffold, set ground rules for talk, and provide clear purposes and content. It all ties back to the teacher’s planning and delivery.

Teaching points need to be clear, based on the curriculum, and informed by what you know about your learners. Focus on making strong purposeful teaching points and designing a meaningful response to the text.

Final thoughts:
Today’s session really helped me step back and think more carefully about how I’ve been shaping my small group reading sessions. It reminded me how important it is to keep guided reading focused, to create space for real, student-driven conversations about texts, and to keep the joy of reading alive for every learner. I’m excited to take away some practical, deliberate steps that could make a real difference for my students over time.

The framework we explored today offered clear, practical ways to refine teacher practice - from planning and delivery through to student reflection and the non-negotiables for effective small group teaching and response to text. It reinforced the importance of planning and delivery with greater purpose, clarity and consistency. I'm confident teachers will appreciate the practical approach and shared resources that help design rich reading experiences truly focused on student growth. I honestly wish I'd had this PLD back when I had my own class! 

RPI Day 3 - Text Selection

Text is a focus in the curriculum, Need to build holistically 3 big skills: decode, make meaning and think critically about text!!!

Today we looked at 

• Choosing appropriate texts

• Grouping and selecting texts

• Planning and compiling texts

• Texts for the wider reading programme

Specific planning guidance includes:

• Range of modes - written, oral visual, audio, gestural

• Range of combinations - multimodal, conventions, genre

• Range of technologies - print, digital, tactile

• Multiple entry points -video or visual text can build background knowledge more efficiently

• Connections cross-curricular - text sets can be helpful for this

I’m very excited to learn more and dive deeper into each of these planning guidelines. This resonates with me, as it aligns perfectly with how I’ve been working with my class. I’m especially excited to fine-tune my approach in light of the new curriculum.

The Importance of diversity in texts - plan for a balance - find tests in which children can see reflections of themselves - but also look through and see other worlds!

Vocabulary - need to deliberately extend students’ vocabulary. 

Think about the independent level vs instructional for reading independently or when the kids are with teachers. Make sure to find texts where vocab is not beyond their levels!!

• Independent Level - Relatively easy for the student to read (95 - 100% word accuracy).

• Instructional Level - Challenging but manageable for the reader (90 - 94% word accuracy).

• Frustration Level - Difficult text for the student to read (less than 90% word accuracy).

Flexible grouping

We watched the video of ‘flee in the jar’ and this is such a great metaphorical representation of how ability grouping can put limits on students, actually same in maths and all other areas of learning... and life!

Plan for multiple opportunities to read for students:

• Reading to Learners
  helps them engage with texts they might not be able to read independently, teaches them how good readers think and read, sparks their enjoyment of reading, and helps them connect to key concepts and themes.
  - do it regularly
  - select a book wisely, get to know the book

• Shared Reading
  - Enables all learners to access the text
  - Great for integration
  - Have a rich discussion

• Paired Reading
  Reading aloud gives kids a chance to practise in a safe space, take on teaching roles:), and be in charge of their own learning - follow their interests and enjoy reading with their friends!! It also opens up discussions about the text. Nice bookmark can support this activity.
  - need to timetable this!
  - have right resources in place for your purpose!
  
  

• Independent Reading
  Encourages fluency and stamina by giving time to practice;

Provides opportunity to read widely and enjoy enthusiasm and engagement:
- timetable! 

- not just 10 min SSR, make sure student have books to read at their level!
- how are they accountable for what they have read?

Final thoughts:

Throughout the day, we explored a great range of practical approaches, resources and activities to evaluate, reflect on, and learn what an effective reading programme should look like. I was actually pleased to see that much of what was shared is already part of my practice. I think RPI is an incredible programme, and I wish I had done it earlier in my career... but even now, I’ve gained so much from it! For example, I realised that I needed to rethink independent and buddy learning, as these powerful approaches hadn’t been well-structured in my programme. While students had multiple opportunities to read in different settings and flexible groupings, I often channelled their interests towards our inquiry topic or project.

I love that reading for enjoyment is now in the curriculum - it’s a great reminder, especially for always-time-poor teachers who feel we have so much to cover and often don’t prioritise it in our programmes. Thanks Naomi, for putting so much time and effort into breaking down the curriculum into clear, manageable progressions! I’m sure this will help so many teachers and learners! The RPI resources and holistic approach to reading are so motivating and well-explained, making it much easier to implement in practice, and I just love Georgie’s book recommendations:)

RPI Day 2: Knowing Learners as Readers

Assessment:

Formative (Sharing results with learners, getting them to pick their next learning goal) 

+ Summative (Using data to make a judgement for reports) = more reliable judgement

These assessments can be used formatively and summatively - PAT Pānui/ Running Record / Reading Skills Record / Connected Text/ e-asTTle/ Noticings/ Body language/ Collaborative discussion/ Surveys and Pre/post tests

Teacher Content Knowledge

Being so busy with the maths curriculum, I’ve only had a quick look at the Literacy curriculum. Great to see Oral Language, Reading, and Writing becoming the ‘Strands’ - very similar to the Maths NZC, with a common practice model built in. Hopefully, the curriculum document will be used consistently across NZ classrooms.

Awesome to see vocabulary really being unpacked, especially how to teach it, including the meaning of word parts (morphology). That’s exactly how I learned, and I know how important it is to support comprehension.

Important to use LI and SC to raise assessment capable learners, empower students by teaching reflection and setting next steps

Data treasure hunt - what a great activity to make sense of PAT data and make connections to the NZC teaching sequences. 

Tracking Reader Survey Profiles - very important 

Reading for pleasure is now PART of the curriculum!

Measure progress and achievement

PAT reports - using summative assessment formatively to inform going forward and accelerate

Scale score (PAT and EdPotential to see the class/ school/ cluster data and reflect on your teaching)

The individual and Item report ‘will provide you with rich, relevant diagnostic data” ….

Analysing report data and Moving forward: Use the PAT questions to identify next steps and provide good practice opportunities for students (practice multi choice, identify distractors - build their reasoning skills, strategies to reread the question, look for important information, teach a range of comprehension skills, vocabulary and background knowledge)

Teaching Sequences in the NZC, LI and SC

Activity where we explored teaching sequences and how to convert them to Li and SC for our learners.

Final thoughts: I really enjoyed today’s learning. All the aspects we covered are so practical, just like pieces of a puzzle coming together to create a comprehensive literacy programme for our learners. Often, teachers don’t get PLDs like this to unpack different types of assessment, including dispositions. Personally, I don’t think I even saw a PAT report until my fourth year of teaching! Obviously, I was using other sources of assessment data... but wow, what a gap that was!

We got to dive in and explore the curriculum, resources, and assessment by doing - such a great approach, and exactly how people learn! The resources we were gifted are brilliant and will definitely support teachers with practical implementation. Reflecting on my classroom practice, as well as my TL and BT mentor roles, I’m really impressed with the new curriculum and the RPI take on it. It’s going to make planning and teaching so much clearer for our young colleagues…and not just for them:) I love that ‘reading for pleasure’ is now part of the curriculum.

I also love the RPI taskboards - such a great way to structure learning while giving students the right balance of explicit teaching, guidance, independence and ownership over their reading. I can see these being incredibly helpful and practical in the classroom!

RPI Day 1 - Reading is Core

Reading is Core and rocket science! Dorothy has reminded us about the detrimental effect of poor reading and the vital role of teachers for students' future success.

A good reader “has the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Readers can construct meaning from texts in a variety of forms. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers in school and everyday life, and for enjoyment.” Progress in International Reading Literacy Studies (PIRLS), 2021

A good reader profile (my takeaways):

• Decodes, understands and uses texts in a meaningful way

• enjoys reading (widely and explores different genres)

• has strategies to process texts for different purposes

• draws on background knowledge to make sense of new information

• thinks critically about what they read - engages with texts emotionally and intellectually

• believes they can improve and grow as a reader (growth mindset!!)

• participates in reading communities at school, home, etc (range of context, connected to their lives and interest!)

We completed the Reader Profile as teachers and got a sense of what questions we could ask our learners about their reading preferences, and behaviours. We also read through the results of a survey completed by a sample Year 5-6 Class.

Reflecting on my Reader profile compared the the student’s responses to the same survey:
1. How similar/different are your reading habits to this class (see Qu. 4 & 7)? Write why you think  it’s important to be a teacher-reader for your students?
- I love reading fictions - same as many kids
- Borrowing books from the library - similar to some of student, I often find books online (esp research) and online libraries/ open resources rather than going to the library
- My interests are obviously different from kids:)

I noticed from students' responses that they see the teacher as a role model. They need teachers to plan and promote reading, give them time to read, and expose them to different genres!

2. Write the title of one text you would make the time to read (from Qu.10-11). Write why:

David Walliams books - so much fun, humour, engaging, love to know what my learners read and enjoy.

As Teachers, we need to know our students, know children’s literature and to share our enthusiasm for reading, being a role model and read to the class as well as encourage reading across curriculum and for pleasure (plan and allow time for this in the weekly programme)

Reading across the curriculum (example):

Link the multimodal learning to promote reading - purpose, real life application and understanding to extend their learning across the curriculum (science and reading)

Reading for enjoyment - Robyn’s case
Reading for enjoyment is more likely to raise student achievement in reading!!! They need to read outside of the classroom to achieve this!

There is a reinforcing reciprocal relationship between oral language influencing reading development, and reading influencing oral language development.

J., Hattie - Importance of the Extended Discussion

For planning - just write “Student discuss/ talk” to mark that you expect the extended discussion. Plan how will you facilitate the extended discussion

Developing the right environment to promote and achieve ‘extended discussion’

6 Ground rules for Talk:

1. Actively listen (includes not talking over others);

2. Respectfully take part giving ideas, reasons and evidence; 

3. Ask questions;

4. Be inclusive: invite the participation of others;

5. Stick to the topic;

6. Look at other sides of the issue (e.g. fully informed to think critically & make best decisions)

Could start by posing a provocative question or “would you rather’ question to practise these rules.

Use a game (see Rob’s class on air) - provide opportunities to talk, teach, scaffold and practise the use of Ground Rules.

We had to use the ground rules for talk to have a productive group discussion about: Which Reader Profile graphs would you share with these Year 5-6 learners and why.

Thanks to Naomi and the RPI team for including this activity - I really enjoyed practicing the ground rules! I believe my group did really well but I noticed that it's really important to go over or clarify the question to ensure a common understanding and stay on topic during the discussion.

Reflecting on this from a learner's perspective, I wonder if, when my students share additional (but not totally unrelated) thoughts, it might be because they’re not 100% sure about the question. Maybe it’s worth asking one of the students to repeat the question before or during discussion:)

Research Readings:
I chose to read:
Quote: “...None of these actions speeds a reader along. None of these can be done without thinking” (p.29)

My takeaway: Quality over speed! Let students stop, reflect and discuss, eg, reading one paragraph and then summarising in their own words before moving on.

Quote: “The most learning was obtained when multiple strategies were taught in combination.” (p32)

My Takeaway: Teach, scaffold and practise different strategies because by using a range of different strategies, kids stay engaged and actually understand what they read.

Comprehension isn’t just about answering questions, it’s about getting kids to think about what they read, connect it to their world and talk about texts in a way that makes sense to them. By using different comprehension strategies, students will move from passive reading to real, deeper understanding.

Final thoughts on Day 1 learning:

RPI Day 1 was such a great day - so much learning and so many reflections! I’m now itching to finally pick up that book I’ve been meaning to read for ages but never seem to have time for… Well, my weekend is officially sorted:)

This session reminded me that I’ve been on the right track in my teaching, which is always reassuring.
What I’d do differently now? Get familiar with the new curriculum! But it’s not about reinventing the wheel… It’s about improving consistency and making small, intentional tweaks that enhance good practices into more powerful targeted habits. For example: teaching students to find a good-fit book, making reading for enjoyment a structured, supported experience, modelling positive reading habits, encouraging discussions where students share discoveries, recommend books and connect reading to other learning areas.

I’m walking away from today feeling inspired to keep building on what works, fine-tune for effectiveness and consistency, and make reading an even bigger part of my classroom culture... And actually also getting some ideas for the MPI:) Thanks Naomi and Georgie!