Planning a Reading Programme: Day 5, Term 2

We started the session with reflections. I found that my tamariki are enjoying recording themselves while reading. They are becoming more confident in accessing their weekly tasks independently. They are able to check off the success criteria and articulate their learning clearly.

The LTR recordings have allowed me to identify the exact mistakes children make while reading, which helps me provide targeted support and ensures equity for all learners.

             Equity

Planning, maintainning and sustainning of a reading programme

The session also focused on the planning, maintaining, and sustaining of a reading programme. Learning through the class site allows learners to access their learning easily and independently, as everything is organised clearly for them. My task board includes “Must Do”, “Can Do”, and independent activities, which help learners manage their time and learning responsibilities effectively.

Digital Reading Apps

We also explored a range of digital reading apps such as ReadTheory, Epic, LiteracyPlanet, and Sunshine Online. I am already using most of these apps. I learned how to assign reading books to support children’s reading with follow-up activities, which is a great time saver. I have added theme-based books for my class on Epic and ReadWorks.

From next week, I plan to use the follow-up tasks from Sunshine Online, including writing activities, quizzes, and opportunities for children to record their reading. These tools will help strengthen learner engagement and provide more purposeful reading experiences.😃

There were also examples of timetables shared during the sessions. At the end of the session, I had the opportunity to review my own timetable and make adjustments by adding videos and other digital resources to better support learners’ engagement and understanding. Time was also provided to update my task board with follow-up activities and a mahi tracker.

The integration of reading and writing was explained well, and it encouraged me to place a stronger focus on frontloading learners with vocabulary, and before reading tasks. This will help build understanding, confidence, and success for all my learners.

Thank you for the great session today!👍👍👍👍

Reflection on small group teaching 

Currently, our school is using a theme-based approach where children are exposed to key vocabulary across learning areas. Prior to reading, I use videos, stories, and vocabulary activities to frontload learning for the class. Students are also encouraged to research using key words and phrases. As the theme is integrated across most curriculum areas, it helps strengthen understanding and creates a lasting impact on learning.

To support structured literacy, I can use explicit and sequential teaching of reading skills alongside these themes. This includes pre-teaching vocabulary, modelling comprehension strategies, teaching phonics and word patterns, and giving students guided practice during shared and small group reading. Using modelling books, word cards, and repeated exposure to key vocabulary helps students make connections between reading, writing, and oral language. Structured literacy also encourages deliberate teaching where skills are broken into manageable steps and revisited regularly, helping learners build confidence and deeper understanding.

8th May 2026 – Term 2
Day 4: Small Group Reading (Comprehension)

Today's session began with a recap of the previous lesson on text coverage. I have banks of books for my different groups now. I am adding using different genres and using themed bases.

The focus today was on how we are moving forward with small group reading and encouraging students to generate their own questions while engaging with a text. In the new English curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, there is an emphasis on explicit teaching, sequential approaches, deliberate planning, shared and buddy reading, and the importance of strategic actions when processing complex texts. Preloading vocabulary and concepts is also essential.

I am using modelling books to record learning intentions, success criteria, students’ responses, unknown vocabulary, and group discussions. This serves as a valuable tool for learners to refer back to. There was a great disussion on this today and how to use e-modelling book. 

It was a great session introducing texts and their purposes using a structured cycle.

It is important to build students’ background knowledge by using pictures, images, videos, and oral discussion, as well as identifying key vocabulary from the text. Making vocabulary visible through word cards and encouraging predictions using illustrations helps make reading more engaging and memorable. Very interesting!

Running Records

It is helpful to know that we can use any texts to analyse what learners can and cannot read by identifying reading patterns. Take away is the fluency scale as this gives the progression as well asking the learners to assess their reading. 

I found the Rob and Wiseman and Ragtags methods useful as well for demonstrating fluency to learners.

My reflection on running records is that I need to focus more on encouraging self-correction in my learners.

There was an in-depth discussion about fluency learning what we observe as teachers when a learner reads aloud. Using a fluency scale is a great tool to inform and track student progress.

I will introduce  rewatchable videos allows learners to self-reflect. It helps them build awareness of their own learning as they rate their own reading and that of their peers.

For learning discussions, I want learners to justify, explain, and articulate their understanding of the text to strengthen their oral language skills. I will also use self-assessment slides with my class that was shared in the session today.

Response to Text – Follow-Up Activities

There are many ways to assess comprehension. I will continue using the samples provided in the session and include videos in the task board before reading sessions to support understanding. The importance of asking questions were specific and sequenced that I will start using in my class.

In order for me to understand my learners progress

The session was interesting. Thanks Team!

Reflective Summary: Text coverage

Curriculum Design & Engagement

I have successfully developed a comprehensive teacher workbook featuring  text sets suitable for whole-class and guided reading sessions. By integrating a diverse range of resources like including School Journals, novels, fiction, non-fiction, and Journal Surf. I have ensured that learners interact with a wide variety of platforms and genres.

This  were some lkey benefits:

• Increased Engagement: Access to varied media has sparked a genuine enjoyment of reading.

• Collaborative Learning: Students have more frequent opportunities to share and discuss their insights.

• Cross-Level Connection: The introduction of middle school buddy reading has significantly boosted students' oral language skills and overall reading confidence.

Navigating Challenges

While the initiative has been successful, the  organizing of complete text sets presented some hurdles. Sorting through mixed resources was time-consuming; however, this challenge ultimately became an opportunity. The heterogenous sets allowed for:

• Greater Flexibility: We were able to adapt learning pathways on the fly to meet specific student needs.

• Spontaneous Discovery: Students were exposed to a broader range of supplementary books they might not have otherwise encountered.

Learner Outcomes

The increased text coverage and variety have led to measurable growth in student literacy. We are observing marked improvements across four critical areas:

1. Fluency & Pace: A noticeable increase in reading speed and flow.

2. Decoding: Improved ability to navigate and figure out unknown vocabulary.

3. Comprehension: A deeper understanding of literal text meaning.

4. Critical Thinking: Enhanced inferencing skills and the ability to read between the lines.

After the growth coaching meeting, we had aggreed on theme topic for 2 weeks ANZAC where children had turn to explore through inquiry research and transfer there findings into information writing and art work.

The themed topic has provided lots ot opportunities to produce rich/topic related words and understanding the topic better.