Enabling Access

"I feel like a website developer after the last two DFI sessions."

This week I had a Reading observation which looked at how I execute my reading lessons against the Manaiakalani criteria to find patterns. The feedback was to be more explicit in the purpose of reading. I completely agreed with this feedback as by the end I could of rounded the session better with my group. My goal from this observation is to make the reason for reading more visible and defined. However, I have questioned how and when I make the purpose of learning visible because I'm torn between giving the WALT right away and following an inquiry model that focuses on coaching students through critical questioning to have student think and develop the purpose of learning themselves. For now, I am going to work using both ways of teaching. For example; Students explore the topic to guess what the concept might be, then coach the students to 'create' the purposeful outcome before making it visible and going deeper into the learning. It is a discussion I would like to hear more perspective on.

Today's lesson was about making our class sites more visible and accessible for all to locate the learning in one place. It takes good planning and patience to create a site that has visual appeal and good user experience. I think an engaging site is one that highlights the personality of the classroom and clearly reflects the learning.  My goal this session was to create a math site that visually displayed stages and lesson plans, as well as differentiated learning activities all in one place to create student choice and be challenged in how they learn. On my previous math site, I had 5 subpages depending on math topic and activities uploaded to the page with no organisation or structure. Now I have one main math page and a subpage for DMIC work to be more visible to parents and viewers outside of school. 

I have linked my Class Site below if you wanted to have a look.