Continents & Habitats Learning Story

Learner: Brooklyn, Markus and Alex     Date: July 2015

Learning Area: Science                           Learning Coach: DWilkes

Learning Observed

The learners are beginning learning in the area of animal habitats, adaptations and survival needs in preparation for our trip to the zoo.  During the session the learners began to build their scientific language and develop their ability to communicate in science.  In matching the animals to different continents Markus & Alex began to recognise that living things are suited to their particular habitat, Brooklyn really enjoyed this activity.  They can recognise that all living things have certain requirements so they can stay alive.  While learning the continent song, they actively participated and could sign and say the names of all of the continents.  They could also identify them on a world map.  Brooklyn, Alex and Markus can define what the word habitat means and they can state which continent certain animals are found eg. panda in Asia, giraffe in Africa

Evidence of learning

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

The three of them were enthusiastically engaged in all aspects of the lesson participating and contributing while demonstrating strong collaboration with each other. They asked each other for help and didn’t hesitate to check for understanding with other learners or the learning coaches. During the matching activity I observed some good questioning and problem solving strategies. While some of the animals were matched incorrectly to the continents, they persevered to get it correct showing a strong desire to develop their capability in this area. They are able to make connections between what a habitat is to an animal and what a habitat is to humans drawing on new learning and prior knowledge.

Next Learning Steps

more practice matching animals to different continents review saying the names of the continents - use the continent song here reading about animals at home, visiting the zoo website or playing these games http://switchzoo.com/games/habitatgame.htm http://www.abpischools.org.uk/activescience/module2/home.html http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ey/science/animal_h/index.htm http://interactivesites.weebly.com/habitats.html

Alex-Reading Narrative Assessment May 2015

Learner: Alex U                 Learning Coach: Margaret Patrick     Date:  May 2015

Learning Area:  English- Reading Narrative Assessment

Learning Observed

Alex chose the text “A supermarket” for her PM Benchmark Level 19 reading assessment. This was a non-fiction text. Alex is a NZSL user and signs in English word order as she reads. She vocalises as she reads but these are mostly undecipherable. This assessment was done by Mrs Williams. She was able to initiate skimming the text prior to reading. She showed quick recognition of high frequency and attempted most unknown words using visual clues eg: “parents can put your/young  children in these seats”  and sometimes visual and meaning eg: “green beans are put/ packed in bags”. Her  self-correction rate was 1:11. She attempted the retell of the story from memory then stopped looking stressed. Mrs Williams told her she could refer to the text and she continued pointing to words and recalling events. Her recall of details of what happened  was comprised of up to 4 word phrases. eg: Trolleys have a special seat at the front for young children. Alex’s response- children they sit chair. She was able to answer the questions and scored 100%. Answers were in NZSL grammar style but not correct NZSL grammatical order.eg: Question: Why do people leave their cars in the car park? Answer: walk close inside shops. The length of  response has increased from previous 1-2 signs.

Evidence of learning

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

Alex’s goal in her IEP was to be reading at Level 18 with 95% reading accuracy, 60% Comprehension and 70% VADEC retell.  Her assessment reveals that Alex’s  instructional level is 18.  Scoring 100% in the comprehension questions was an excellent result. This maybe due the  the text being a non fiction text.  Alex needs to improve her reading accuracy and retell scores. She is demonstrating and developing her capabilities in Using Language, Symbols and text.

Next Learning Steps

to retell the start , middle and end of a story in NZSL with added details for each part. read at Level improve the accuracy of her signs when reading. answer questions in correct NZSL grammatical sequence. take videos of herself and use to reflect on her accuracy for the above. attend regular sessions with NZSL teacher or tutor.