This year St. Pat's teacher have participated in ongoing Professional Learning to enhance the teaching and learning of writing in our school.

The Writing Revolution is being implemented across the school and enables students to master the skills that are essential if they are to become competent writers.

In turn, those skills equip students to become better readers, to communicate more effectively in writing and speaking, and most importantly, to elevate their thinking.

The Hochman Method is a set of specific writing strategies that teachers use in every grade and in all subjects, including Religion, History, Geography and Science.

The Six Principles of The Hochman Method

• Students need explicit instruction in writing, beginning in the early elementary grades.
• Sentences are the building blocks of all writing.
• When embedded in the content of the curriculum, writing instruction is a powerful teaching tool.
• The content of the curriculum drives the rigor of the writing activities.
• Grammar is best taught in the context of student writing.
• The two most important phases of the writing process are planning and revising.

I visited Year 4/5Y classroom who were incorporating this approach to their MAPPEN Science based unit of work. Students were encouraged to write a statement or a question about the topic of planets. Here are some examples;

Zoe;

Statement; Science is a dynamic process of questioning and discovering the universe.

Question; Why does a planet have to orbit around the Sun?

Hannah;

Statement; Scientists discuss each others discoveries.

Question; Does a planet have to be in a spherical shape to be called a planet?

Colin;

Statement; Scientist are changing their previous ideas of our solar system and the universe.

Questions; Are Pluto and Ceres considered planets? What does the word planet mean?

Students were also working with a partner to write interrogative sentences.

An interrogative sentence asks a direct question and is punctuated at the end with a question mark. 

In Year 3/4 students have embraced our CMC maths program. Part of the program requires students to have exemplary bookwork. Setting out their mathematical tasks so they can easily calculate the answer. Mrs Scott Pegum and myself were visited by 3 students who have been demonstrating excellent bookwork. Well done Kye, Charlotte and Savannah.

STUDENT PROGRESS

Student progress monitoring is an important part of education — and it’s not just about the students! Regular formal and informal assessments provide teachers with valuable information on the progress and achievements of their students. Not only this, but monitoring student progress also gives teachers the opportunity to reflect on their own teaching and assess the impact of the instructional strategies they use.

At St. Pat's our teachers have been working hard to track student progress throughout the year. We want to acknowledge student growth and are able to do this through tracking Reading Data (DIBELS, InitiaLit and PAT Reading tests) and Maths Data (CMC Progress Monitoring and PAT Maths).

Photo below shows Mrs Franco conducting DIBELS (Reading test) with Thea to track student progress.

What Are the Benefits of Monitoring Student Progress?

#1 Collecting Useful Data

Carrying out regular assessments and collecting student samples of work is a useful way of gathering informative student performance data.

This data is helpful when monitoring the progress of individual students across a range of learning areas, as well as tracking their achievement throughout the year. The data can be used to identify where a student is placed in relation to their personal learning goals, the other students in the class, or other targeted benchmarks. It’s also valuable information to share in your parent-teacher communication.

#2 Improving Teacher Instruction

One great benefit of monitoring student progress is that it allows the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of their own teaching. If the majority of the class is finding it difficult to understand or demonstrate a specific objective, it may not be the ability of the students that is the issue. The teacher may need to re-evaluate the delivery method through which the concept is being taught. To do this, it is especially important for teachers to assess their own instructional strategies to see if they are working.

#3 Encouraging Student Growth

Monitoring student progress on a regular basis also enables the teacher to analyse a student’s current performance level, as well as evaluate growth throughout a school year.

#4 Enhancing Differentiation Opportunities

Finally, an important benefit of ongoing monitoring of student progress in the classroom is that the teacher is able to identify students at risk and provide intervention when required. Additional support and instruction can be given to at-risk students and areas that need to be retaught or taught differently can be identified.

Monitoring all students on a regular basis ensures that no student “slips through the cracks” along the way. It also highlights which students require extra help or additional challenges.