Reading Together - Pasifika Power Up Programme

On Monday evenings I have the privilege of being one of the tutors at the Pasifika Power Up
programme run at Riccarton High School. This is an opportunity for parents and communities
to come together in all ages to talk about education, work on their current projects, have extra
targeted tuition and prepare for exams.

In the past I would tutor the Year 4 - 8s however recently I have been running the reading
together programme with a group of parents who are dedicated and willing to find out about
how to accelerate their children's learning.

Here is my reflection about the course sessions and a collation of ideas from its
implementation.

Throughout the course of the programme it was wonderful to watch as the parents built trust
with one another and gained confidence to voice their concerns with the group and with each
other. A few of the main concerns that were echoed among many of the parents were the
following:

Parents were concerned about their pronunciation and grammar. They realised that especially
with their older children who were more involved with the english language in school and social
activities that their english language was not always correct.

We followed this by talking about the value of their knowledge and cultural capital. That they
were experts in Fijian, Tongan and Samoan and that they could relate to their child by
explaining the word in their own language. The child could balance this by helping pronounce
the word in English. The basis of this however was a safe and settled time for reading and
listening to each other. There were also strategies that they could use such as voice type and
google translate.

Many parents were also concerned about the effect digital devices and their children’s use and
addiction to devices was having on their family life, conversation and reading time. We
addressed some of these concerns in session 2. Discussion mainly supported the key R. T.
point of developing strong routines and keeping the focus on what was positive: a healthy
lifestyle, family time and regular reading times that had clear parameters.

Parent discussions

One of the strong points of this course was the relationships that developed between myself,
the parents and the whole group. As sessions developed there was more time to engage
individually with parents and time to follow up on previous discussions, catch up about children
and learn from each other.

A few highlights were hearing parents share ways in which they read and experienced life
with their children. Experiences ranged from library visits to visits overseas. One parent was
interested in the course to learn how to teach Fijian to his high school aged children.
Many brought ideas into discussions that involved their culture and values. This was very
precious and it was encouraging to see how much parents began to see that their culture  
and relationship with their child came first and reading was a way to develop that.

Changes in Mindset

Many parents referred to their upbringing the relationship they experienced with their parents
and the ‘Samoan’ way. It was very rewarding to hear their reflections and responses in
discussion regarding having more patience with their children , a desire to set aside time
to build on their relationships with their children and a commitment to begin approaching the
reading times at their child’s level.

Teaching Process

All four sessions for the first teaching course closely follow the course outline in Section 6. I
added some time in the second session to address some of the parents concerns regarding
digital devices and had a brief look at how digital devices were changing schooling and how
we could work with a positive mindset towards managing these in the home. Other adaptations
stemmed directly from parent discussions which I believed to be the most productive and
engaging parts of the course development.

Unfortunately, there was not enough weeks to fully complete the second course fully and so I
adapted the first session to include some of the key points throughout all four. Instead of
choosing a child to read with as this took extra time and had varied results since the children
could not be prepped for a session I used a video link of a student reading. Notes for the
session are linked here.

Personal Reflection

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to engage with the parents at power up, many
of whom are well respected leaders of their communities and have far more cultural knowledge
and expertise than myself. Their acknowledgement, feedback and engagement in the sessions
was very rewarding.

The clear structures and prescriptive layout of the course was helpful for creating and
delivering strong and consistent information. I found the excerpts and resources to be helpful
and engaging for the parents. It was easier to work with the group when we had a physical
text to discuss.

Because of the nature of Power Up and the varied levels of children ranging from pre-schoolers
to highschool students the reading with the children session not as successful as quiet a few
parents had no children to read with. In retrospect this could have been better organised and
adapted to for this setting in future.

It was highly encouraging to  receive the feedback comments from parents and to know that
they appreciated the course content.

Feedback on Course Content

It would be helpful for some of the content to be adapted to address the pedagogy of our
current schools. With many students now doing reading and research online from as young
as year 1 many parents are seeking for advice on how this is followed up in the home.
Children are now requiring support in other ways too such as receiving parent feedback
on blogs, reading other children’s blogs and using their chromebooks to access all kinds
of texts that are more diverse than written form.

I would like to give a big shout out to the incredibly supportive Pasifika community and also

to Emma from the ministry who have invested and made the implementation of this
programme successful.

Thank you all for your time and please feel free to comment below.

Hotspot Writing - What does this look like in the Digital World

Kia ora Everyone!

It has been a while since I have posted last.

Most days at the start of our literacy session, Literacy group 2 enjoy a 'hotspot' writing time. This varies with activities including blogging, news discussion, free writing and writing goal prompts. These times are also silent writing sessions where we build out writing stamina.

At this time I have been writing with the children. This idea sparked from silent reading where Kate Mclachlan led by example and would read silently with the children as they were reading independently. This is a fabulous opportunity for students to see me leading as a writer and in seeing this realising that everyone should be seen as an author if they write. It also allows them to see the strategies they have been learning being used in real time.

This piece of writing has been done over the period of around a month during the one to two narrative hotspot writing sessions each week. For free writing session the children can use the prompt provided or write from their own ideas or experiences. This particular prompt is from the Pinterest writing prompts board.

Children are prompted or encouraged to copy and paste their current writing goal or a set writing goal into their 'date section' and keep this in mind when they write. It does not need to be copied each time they write.

No one ever saw the wizard. We just knew he was there because of the otherworldy items that floated downstream from his home.

8-5-18

We all assumed he lived somewhere in the Black forest that bordered the Pemberly village
as the Blue water stream originated from inside its depths, flowed through the village and
on to the lake three villages down.

Dean and I were fishing one day on the bank of Blue Water. We were close to the forest, tucked
under the overhanging roots of a large weeping willow.

“Holy Mackerel!” yelled Dean suddenly. I nearly fell into the stream. He was pointing at a strange
object floating downstream.

22-5-18

A roundish, glass object, with golden rings, little switches and silver buttons. An object made of
glass and metal shouldn’t float, but this one did. It bobbed and dove through the current, dancing
as if under the spell of its own magic.

“ Quick! Pick it up!” I yelled, as we both staggered up from where we were sitting, scrambling our
way down stream. I pulled of one shoe and then another, hopping on one foot and slipping on the
roots and mud. Wading into the water I scooped up the glass ball.

It felt light in my hands. And then it started to hum.

6 - 8 - 18

• Spoken words need to be in speech marks (“Help me!” cried Mark.)
• Start a new line  every time a new speaker speaks .
• Use the correct punctuation consistently

“What is it?” asked Dean bumbling against my shoulder. We were still standing in the stream.

“I don’t know. Something magic I guess. We should take it back to the wizard”

“I wonder what it does. Let me hold it.” Dean grabbed at the ball.

“Oi!” I pulled away. The glass ball began to vibrate in my hands.

“Don’t drop it!” yelled Dean. But, his warning was too late and the magical ball, jiggling out of my
hands, tumbled towards the stream and suddenly stopped.

It hovered above the water, floating just above the ground. Dean reached out for it and as he
did so it began to move, gently scooting over the surface of the water and up the bank, floating
about two feet of the ground.

Relationship Based Education

Relationship sits at the center of my ethics and purpose in life and it is no surprise that it is the driving force and greatest reward in my work. It is encouraging then to read that developing research has begun to discover and support what we know to be intrinsically effective.

A couple of highlights from the article:

"Music can make you a more creative and mindful person"
"Taking care of other might be good for your own resilience"
"The individual and social impact of Social and Emotional Learning programmes might last a long time"

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_top_10_insights_from_the_science_of_a_meaningful_life_in_2017