Level 2 Learning and AWS

 When New Zealand went into Lockdown the AWS programme went on hold. A few of the children worked with me doing some elements of AWS online but most didn't. When we moved into Level 2, I was part of the team teaching in the Year 5 space but due to the distancing requirements small group teaching was not incorporated.

During Lockdown the online learning the year 5/6 team did was based around a theme. The literacy, numeracy and inquiry tasks all related to this theme with daily variations. My tasks predominantly, for the rest of term 2, was to produce more supportive tasks on the same themes for those whose literacy levels meant they found it otherwise difficult to independently access the learning.

The most noticeable positive effect of this was the level of engagement and motivation. These children (who typically have had tasks and activities that differed from what the rest of their peers were doing, due to the level of their literacy skills) were now exploring the same topics and doing similar activities. 

Not long after small group teaching was back up and running, the AWS programme groups also started up again. (Week 10 Term 2) However the children continued doing the supported independent tasks related to the theme. At this point also we added in an extra 13 children so there were now 24 children from the 2 classes on the programme ranging from Level 3 up to Level 18. They were split into 5 different groups. With each group taking about 20 minutes (30 minutes with groups where an instructional reading lesson was also included) I managed to see 4 groups each day. As there were mornings where Kiwisport was timetabled in, this meant that the groups were getting on the whole 3 AWS lessons each week. In the second to last week of term (Week 11) it was evident that the New Entrant numbers were building so I would need to be starting the new class in Term 3. At this point I started training one of the support workers to take over the AWS lessons. She has continued doing this for Term 3 until we went into lockdown again.

Even with a disjointed attempt to implement the AWS programme into the Year 5 classes this year due to Covid-19, the positive impact it has had is evident (a view supported by the classroom teachers involved). Children who have made little progress in their 4-5 years of schooling are starting to make shifts. The children are keen to come to the lessons and feel success. Incorporating it into the normal literacy lesson rather than as a withdrawal group I feel has also been very positive. It has meant the children  are not missing out on other activities and it is just part of their literacy learning. When there have been circumstances where a group have missed their lesson they are disappointed and ask when it is their turn. 

Training up a support worker to continue the lessons has also been a positive factor. This has meant the children are also able to continue guided literacy lessons with their teacher so the AWS lessons are on top of this. 

This however highlights a point of difference with what is advised in the AWS programme. (Something we need to keep in mind and monitor.) The programme suggests that the reading that should accompany the lessons is only that which reinforces the emphasis on learning the basic sound chunks they are practising in the fluency sheets. However this has been something I am not convinced about as the texts provided are very low level. This means there are not really opportunities for the children to practise all the other skills needed to be a successful reader. I understand there is the need for the children to retrain their brains away from using their go to strategies, strategies which will only get them to a certain level and no further without the basic phonological knowledge they need to master. However the length of time it takes to work through the different fluency sheets means that is a long time of reading very low level texts. I feel that if children were introduced to the AWS programme earlier or if we were more deliberate in ensuring all our children in Year 1 and 2 developed these sound phonological skills, these books would then be more useful. 

My approach to dealing with this problem was to incorporate the supported texts (texts with audio) so children were still able to develop  comprehension skills that were more related to their thinking level rather than their reading level. However we also have continued to have guided lessons at their instructional reading level to help them develop all the other skills they need related to becoming good readers. But this does mean they are encountering words that don't fit the phonological patterns they are trying to get fluency at. At the moment we are not using the texts included at all. On reflection maybe we could be incorporating them also into the programme, but my gut feeling is that it would not be wise to take out any of the components we currently do. Another factor I am not sure where it fits in is the learning of the basic words '(words that most often don't fit the most common phonological rules the children are learning in AWS.) These are both areas we need to monitor and reflect on to see if we need to make changes. 

On the whole though I feel the move to incorporating the AWS into the normal literacy classroom programme has been very successful. It has meant that one teacher or support worker has been able to have a significant impact on many (24) children in a daily morning block of 2 hours.  

Agility With Sound in the Classroom.

For Term 1 of 2020 our new entrant enrolment numbers meant I was not needed in the classroom. Instead I was able to spend time getting an Agility With Sound programme set up in the Year 5 space. After testing all the children, who were reading well below their Year level, I set up 3 groups involving 11 children whose reading age ranged from Level 9 through to Level 18. Of these children there were a couple who had had a brief introduction to AWS at the end of 2019.

I started taking these children for lessons in Week 3 starting with learning the independent tasks they would be expected to do.  In week 5 I started taking them for AWS lessons also. The idea was to get these children familiar with the routines and expectations and then add the other identified children once we had got underway. The intention was also to support the teachers in moving to taking over the AWS lessons once the children had become familiar with the routines, In general the children I took predominantly spent the literacy block being under my supervision and completed both reading and writing tasks I had set them. 

This initial setting up phase took longer than I expected. Some of the children were easily off task during their independent work and needed lots of check-ins and monitoring. On the whole though the children were happy about doing the programme in class and enjoyed the lessons.. There definitely felt an improvement in the engagement and focus when compared to the previous year's groups where I had withdrawal groups after morning tea and in the afternoons and the children were often missing activities they would liked to have been doing.

Here is an example of the daily tasks.