Writing with Gemini AI

One of the things we have been thinking a lot about is how we include our Maniakalani Learn, Create, Share pedagogy with our BSLA program. 

This week, my Literacy class was reading the story "Staying Afloat."  We have been working to write complete sentences using lots of good detail and description. After we discussed the elements of the story, the class had 10 minutes to write their own retell. Then, they were shown how to put their retell into Gemini AI to get a picture based on their writing. They learnt how to modify their writing to include the best detail to get an image that properly illlustrated the main idea of the story. 

 Here is an example that was written by a student in class: 

  One day kele and Vika, also granddad, were going on a boat. Granddad told them to wear a life jacket but kele didn’t want to wear one so he told how a boy who was in tonga,  but strong  fell into  the sea. Kele gasped so he had to wear one at last. When they were fishing kele fell into the water too but grandad could get him in time. At last Kele was out  grinning because he got a snapper and said who is the best fisher now!! Here are our first two tries at an image. 

The first image didn't show grandad or the sister Vika and it didn't show Tongan children so we made a few changes (as seen in the above paragraph).

   

 But, we were still not happy because there were no life jackets in the second photo and they were in a motorboat. 

So we got back to work and this is how we modified it to get the best photo from Gemini: 

 One day a Tongan family went fishing in New Zealand. Kele, his sister Vika, and granddad, were going onto Grandad's vaka. After putting on his green life jacket, Granddad told them to put their life jackets on. Vika put on her pink life jacket but Kele didn’t want to wear one. Grandad told how as boy growing up in Tonga, he fell into the sea. Kele gasped so he had to wear one at last. When they were fishing kele fell into the water too but grandad could get him in time. At last Kele was grinning because he got a snapper with his blue life jacket on!!

BSLA Conference Day 1

 Over the next three terms, I will be working through the University of Cantebury to become a trained BSLA (a structured literacy approach for reading) teacher. I am excited to continue this process as I spent some time during term 1 trialing the year 4 program before it was released to be used more widely. 

Here is a brief overview of the notes that I took during day 1 of our conference at the Waipuna Conference Centre. 

Day 1:

Morning Introduction: 

10 weeks of teaching (term ¾?)

UN: Target Goal 4.6 All youth achieving literacy by 2030

Children’s literacy achievement is strongly related to educational success and well-being

-need to accelerate learner needs

-extend exceptional learning capacities

Systematic and explicit teaching approaches (IDA 2019) evidence based approaches for dyslexic students

Year 4-8 Breakout

Oral Language         Reading         Writing

Communication Skills Word Recognition Transcription

Language and Reading Comp. Comp. Composition

                Critical Analysis         Writing Processes

Assessment; Dibels ORF,  Dibels Maze (ASAP and again at 20 weeks) and PhoM

Excellence in Assessment Practices 

Valid and reliable assessments to monitor students’ growth and celebrate success

In 10 weeks….who is tracking who needs support who needs extending?

Focus on what children can achieve and then identify next steps for learning.

Why are we using the assessments we are using? Above: Guides for Assessment Selection 

BSLA Assessment Website: still be developed for yr 4-8

Year 4-8 Assessment:

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF):

• Assess students’ ability to read connected text with speed and accuracy

• 60 seconds measured individually

• Scoring=words correct per minute and accuracy percentage

Maze: 

• Assess students’ ability to reason through a passage and select the most appropriate word to fil in blanks

• 3 minutes measure administered individually or in groups

• Scoring= number of words correct minus ½ the number of words correct. 

Grade Administered Should be:  Year - Minus 1 year

Middle passage for baseline and end for the 20 week assessment

After analysing all testing data (colour coding)

Then total number of green & Blue scores 

At least 50% of the whole class teaching at year level

What assessments should we do in the next week or two? ORF and MAZE then compare with PAT scores keeping in mind current reading levels 

PhoM Assessment

Purpose: 

-Track progress over time before/after taumata (and after 30 weeks of teaching)

-3 taumata a year

-Recognise strengths in knowledge and next steps for learning

-Ensure teaching remains responsive and targeted

Assessment Schedule:

For kids who score in the “red band” give them the year 3 spelling screener and input their data into the assessment website and follow the action plan there (score analysis)