Accelerate the reading progress of your akonga using culturally responsive practices and digital technologies

I had the great opportunity to attend a break out at U lear 2016 on "Accelerating the reading progress of your Akonga using culturally responsive practices and digital technologies"
This was hosted by Takanini School. Some of the aspects talked about in the session are listed below:

• Relationships: Between teacher and student, whanau and community, School: These are important in being able to accelerate student progress.
• Always referring back to the SC-agency as a learner: Using the SC as referral point. This is how children know how they will achieve their learning intention, 
• Using a familier context when teaching then a new strategy: students having background knowledge on, accessing prior knowledge-Using realistic contexts in learning that children can relate to such as their cultural backgrounds. 
• Choosing text that build on from each other: Bikes, bike race etc.
• Learning focussed conversations : talking about their learning, and making learning visible. 
• Growth mindset, learning pit
• Explain everything: recording, making a video etc, screen cast to help with fluency.  
• working things out together: choices working together or individually.

What really caught me during this session is when the presenters talked about "Growth mindset and the learning pit". These are two aspects that I refer to in my classroom setting. 

The children in my class know that for them to get to the top of the mountain they must first encounter struggles and challenges in their learning. And for deep learning to happen, we will encounter mistakes and failures, but it it through this growth mindset that we grow in our learning. 

I also like when the presenters talked about being culturally responsive. This to me means being able to bring the cultural knowledge that the children have into their learning and embracing this. 

It also means using a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students' unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student's cultural place in the world.

It also means creating bonds with the children-building good relationships with them in order for the children to be in that Zone or proximal development.

I liked the theory the presenters talked about which was on careful scaffolding" I do, we do, two do, you do". This is where the teacher models, then they do it together, then they do it in pairs, and then individually. This gets children talking, communicating, and sharing their ideas and knowledge and also creating new knowledge. This I would most def. try and implement with my Target group in reading, writing and maths,