Case Studies – RWMP

ICAN Cluster, Porirua

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This is an account from one of the schools, or clusters of schools, that have received funding from the Reading, Writing and Mathematics Proposals Pool (RWMP) to support programmes in reading, writing and mathematics for students years 1 to 6.

The issues

Cannons Creek is one of a cluster (which began with five schools, a sixth school joined the cluster in the second round) of six schools in the Porirua area who have formed a strong network to improve achievement among their largely Pacific Islands children. The cluster, known as ICAN – "Improving Co-operative Achievement Networks" – works together on a number of projects. Its participation in the Reading, Writing and Mathematics Proposals Pool involves five of the six, with Cannons Creek at the hub.

Results for the children from the School Entry Assessment (SEA) tasks, the 6-year-old Observation Survey, and PATs indicated that average achievement levels in all five participating schools were well below the New Zealand norm. Children were simply not making large enough gains in their achievements during their school years.

The planning

The schools reviewed their baseline data to identify their current strengths and weaknesses, and decided to undertake a comprehensive, continuing professional development programme. The aim was to significantly raise teacher expectations, and to increase their expertise in literacy. The initial emphasis was to be on year 1I children, with the stated aim to have an increasing number of new entrant children achieving within national norms in the Observation survey at age six. To achieve this aim, teachers had to set aside their assumptions and traditional practices, and focus on best practices in teaching to meet children at their point of need.

Support

Cannons Creek sought funding to engage a consultant to analyse individual school information, provide appropriate professional development sessions and continuing support, and train lead literacy teachers (in addition to the designated Literacy Leader) to sustain mentoring throughout the cluster.

The actions

The schools employed a highly expert consultant, Dr Gwenneth Phillips from The Child Literacy Foundation to facilitate their work. Her first task was to analyse and evaluate the data that the schools had collated and provide feedback for more detailed planning. A series of professional development sessions were held with all teachers of year 1 to 6 children from all the schools, focusing on specific areas of practice. Lead teachers are also receiving training focussed on equipping them to become skilled observers and mentors, able to work alongside their colleagues and give them productive, effective feedback.

Professional development

The emphasis in professional development was on "getting what is said off the page" – having children recognise that in text, someone is "talking" and inviting the reader to respond to ideas and concepts. Reading sessions moved away from "item-based" teaching, in favour of fostering processing strategies and encouraging children to explore ideas and messages through talking and writing.

Changes to classroom management

This change in emphasis has required considerable change in classroom management. Teachers needed many opportunities to share ideas about how to address issues as they set about making changes to their planning and procedures. Very small literacy groups are now formed, in the first year of schooling, with careful planning of purposeful activities to make sure that other children stay gainfully employed. Each group has at least three such sessions each week. Support for teachers is vital during this time until both teachers and children are confident in how things are managed, such as making sure that groups working with the teacher are not interrupted. Volunteer readers from the community are available from time to time and, provided they are appropriately trained, can also provide support.

Small-group sessions

Small-group literacy sessions involve reading and writing, with lots of small-group work. In selecting texts, teachers try to choose a range of titles and themes which build on important and interesting "big ideas" at increasingly sophisticated levels. Themes pervade the programme and "Reading to" is more akin to reading as a parent than traditional teacher reading to children and the children are freed to interact with ideas in the text, and the experience.

Literacy and numeracy dominate each morning, with science, health, technology and social studies integrated as important contexts for reading, writing, and spoken dialogue. Particularly from years 2 to 6 both fiction and non-fiction support the development of a range of comprehension strategies as well as research and study skills. Science is an area of high interest to the children, and science texts, with illustrations, diagrams and other features, provide excellent material for interpretation and response.

The results

Teachers and parents are delighted about the significant progress that children are making. Results show that, given thoughtful, reflective, tightly-focused teaching, children in these schools can achieve within national norms in most cases. Children also demonstrate a great improvement in their motivation and attitudes – they are excited by their new knowledge and often choose to read. There is a real difference between the children whose whole school experience has been with the approaches developed in this project and children who entered school earlier. Even whilst training the number of successful students rose. Two schools with stable staff and all teachers trained have 78.3 percent of their students reading at expected levels for their age. This is remarkable for decile 1a schools. Over all the percentage has risen from very few to 48.1 percent at or above the expected range.

Lead teachers

Within the cluster, there will be four lead teachers who will be released for a half day each week to go, as required, to work with another teacher in any of the schools. They observe and give feedback, and then return to continue with their own class groups so that continuity is maintained with their classes. Teachers will have peer support at the times they need it most. The collaborative model of working among the schools will deepen the relationships and help all to learn from each other.

Transience

There is quite a high level of transience within the Porirua area. The cluster schools have found that working together and using consistent approaches (including uniform assessments) has helped them reduce any negative impacts for children who move schools.

To find out more, visit the Cannons Creek website at:

http://sites.tki.org.nz/cannonscreek

November 2001

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