Building Strong Classroom Reading Communities

 

Being part of the RPI programme has given me the chance to think deeply about what makes classroom reading communities thrive. I’ve come away with so many practical ideas that I can apply directly in my teaching, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed the learning journey.

One of the key insights for me has been the importance of visibility. When students share their reading through blogs or digital platforms, their learning becomes visible not only to their peers but also to teachers and whānau. This sense of being seen can be incredibly motivating. A simple post like, “This term I’m going to read five books”, creates both accountability and celebration. Over time, these posts provide a rich record of learning that students can look back on and reflect upon as their reading identities grow.

Feedback has been another powerful focus. I was reminded that sharing is not just about finished products but also about conversations along the way. Effective feedback should be specific, formative, and forward-looking. The reminder–scaffold–example framework is a clear and practical way to achieve this. I also valued thinking about the role of peer-to-peer feedback. Encouraging students to comment on each other’s work or engage in activities such as gallery walks not only builds collaboration but also develops responsibility and strengthens the sense of community.

I found the discussions around AI-generated feedback particularly interesting. While AI has the potential to support teachers and students, it also comes with ethical considerations. Feedback is most powerful when it is trusted and personal, so it’s important to be transparent about when and how AI is being used. This reflection has made me think carefully about how to balance innovation with integrity.

Most of all, RPI has reinforced for me that engagement, visibility, collaboration, and feedback don’t just happen by chance—they need to be intentionally planned for. When we create opportunities for students to share, respond, and reflect, we help them grow not only as readers but as active members of a learning community.

I have loved being part of RPI and have taken away so many practical strategies, but also a renewed sense of purpose and excitement about my teaching. A huge thank you to Nalmi, Georgie, and Kiri for leading such an inspiring and meaningful programme.

Reading Survey Results

 

It was valuable to have the opportunity for the children to complete the reader survey again. The students were engaged in the process and responded positively to the questions, and it was encouraging to review the results. When I conducted the survey earlier in the year, the findings were slightly different. At the time, the survey on children’s reading habits in my class showed that 77% of students are currently reading a book for enjoyment, while 23% are not. It is pleasing to note even a small increase in the number of children reading for pleasure.

It is also important to acknowledge that the overall number of respondents has grown, as new students have joined the class during the year. Another noteworthy outcome from the survey was that most children recognised the benefits of reading, with many identifying that it can help them become smarter.

Creativity with Purpose.

 On RPI Day 8, Dorothy emphasised the crucial role teachers play in designing opportunities for creativity in learning. She highlighted that creativity isn’t an optional extra but a powerful driver of engagement and achievement. Dorothy urged teachers to embed creativity across disciplines, noting its proven links to academic success. She also discussed the importance of capturing creative outputs and the rise of digital tools like AI-generated videos to enhance learning. Creativity is essential for transforming knowledge and inspiring lifelong learners.

Creativity in the classroom extends far beyond digital tools-it encompasses aural, linguistic, gestural, and spatial modes of expression. Providing students with opportunities for agency and creative choice not only enhances engagement but also gives us valuable insights into who they are as learners and individuals. When students design, perform, or create, their choices reflect their comprehension, personal interests, and identity. Multimodal creative tasks, whether through voice recordings, visual storytelling, drama, or hands-on projects, allow students to construct meaning across different forms of communication. The goal is to harness that creative spark in the classroom and provide authentic ways to share it with a wider audience, beyond the classroom walls. Creativity supports both emotive and cognitive development—fostering enjoyment, self-efficacy, and deeper comprehension—while also building essential soft skills like empathy, collaboration, and cultural understanding. By designing learning experiences that merge creative expression with meaningful content, we empower students to become confident, reflective, and capable communicators.

Incorporating routine opportunities for creating ensures that creativity becomes a regular, manageable part of classroom practice, removing “lack of time” as a barrier. Quick-fire creative tasks—before, during, and after reading-can be designed with either tight or loose instructions, allowing teachers to scaffold learning while still fostering student agency. “Tight” tasks, like sketching a setting, annotating book cover symbols, or using stencils and templates, provide structured parameters to focus thinking. Conversely, “looser” tasks, like role-plays, improvisations, or designing character costumes, open space for students to explore and express ideas more freely. Designing with both constraints and flexibility ensures that all learners can engage meaningfully, while also offering opportunities to deepen comprehension through multimodal responses. 

A takeaway for me today is the realisation for the need to increase the level of choice I offer in the “Create” phase of my teaching, ensuring students can select from a wider range of creative mediums that reflect their interests and strengths. By expanding options that include both digital tools and hands-on, collaborative, and performance-based tasks, I can foster a greater sense of ownership and engagement, empowering students to express their learning in ways that are personally meaningful and socially connected

Moving Beyond the Literal

 One of the most valuable skills we can nurture in our learners is the ability to move beyond the literal meaning of a text. Strong readers don’t just understand what a text says- they engage with what it suggests, implies, and argues. They bring together knowledge from different sources, reconcile differences, and create new meaning through thoughtful connections.

A useful way to think about this is through Bloom’s Taxonomy, which reminds us that thinking develops in stages. It begins with remembering and understanding - those essential literary skills - but quickly moves into applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. In the classroom, we need to deliberately build opportunities for students to climb this progression, using texts as a platform for deeper interpretation and reasoning.

A key part of this is encouraging learners to zoom in and zoom out as they read. Zooming in allows them to notice the small details- the clues and figurative language that shape a text’s message. Zooming out helps them see the bigger picture: the author’s purpose, the perspective being presented, and how different texts connect or contrast. It’s this ability to shift between close reading and broader analysis that supports strong comprehension and critical thinking.

Equally important is helping students recognise that all texts carry a position. Every author makes choices about what to include, what to leave out, and how to frame ideas. Supporting students to identify these positions, consider alternative perspectives, and evaluate the messages they encounter is essential for developing thoughtful, literate citizens.

Finally, it’s about ensuring learners get the chance to respond creatively and critically. Not just through teacher-led discussions, but independently forming opinions, making connections, and challenging ideas through writing, dialogue, and personal reflection.

When we plan with this progression in mind, we equip students with the tools they need to think deeply, read widely, and navigate an increasingly complex world.

RPI Day 6- Vocabularly - More than just a word!

I have loved all the practical tips we have been given on Day 6 of RPI tody.It has made me really stop and think about vocabulary and how it makes such a huge difference for our kids - especially those who start school already behind. Dorothy shared some eye-opening stats about the number of words children from different backgrounds have heard by the time they start school, and the gap is massive. The good news is, as teachers, we can help close that gap.

We talked about Word Consciousness, which is basically about being aware of words, curious about their meanings, and noticing how and when new words are used. People who are word conscious are motivated to learn new vocabulary and can use words confidently and effectively.

Here’s a fact that stuck with me: vocabulary knowledge makes up around 80% of what affects reading comprehension. So, if we’re serious about growing readers, we have to be serious about teaching words.

Some easy ideas we looked at to enhance teaching vocabulary, many of which I will use in my own teaching.

• Word Spotlights: kids tick where they sit with a word — never heard it, sort of know it, or could use it in a sentence. It’s a quick way to see where everyone’s at before and after a lesson.

• Keeping key words visible in the room so they stay front of mind.

• Giving kids multiple chances to hear, see, and use new words in meaningful ways.

• Rhebus or Dingbat problems which are fun brainteasers based on vocabulalry.

• Word Associations where you are given some words and you choose the best fit and explain your reasoning. 

• Which would you....Connects to students’ lived experiences and reasoning deepens active processing.

We also explored how not all words are equal. There’s a tier system:

• Tier 1: everyday words (like run or happy).

• Tier 2: words that turn up more in books or school work (like reluctant or fortunate) — these are the gold for teaching.

• Tier 3: specialist words for topics (like photosynthesis).

We also explored morphology — which sounds fancy but is really just breaking words down into their meaningful parts like prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Teaching this helps with reading, spelling, and understanding tricky words. The updated curriculum is big on this now, and it makes sense to start with base words and build from there.

Key takeaway: If we don’t teach them, they might not pick these words up on their own. And it’s not just about new words — it’s about giving every child the tools to understand what they read, join in big conversations, and feel confident in their learning.

This has definitely given me a few new ideas to try out, and a good reminder of how much power there is in something as simple as a word.  Thanks for another Great day ( and for the Netflix recommendation!!!!!!)

Reflection of a change in my Reading Practice

 My reading practice has improved by placing a stronger focus on exploring new vocabulary within the Māori pūrākau we’ve been studying. The rich and descriptive language in these stories provided valuable opportunities to unpack new words and phrases with the children, breaking them down and discussing their meaning in context. This not only helped grow the students’ vocabulary but also supported their ability to infer meaning, as they began to use clues from the text and the language around new words to better understand what was happening in the stories. It’s made our reading sessions more purposeful and deepened comprehension through a focus on language.

RPI Day 5

 Day 5 of RPI has provided more new ideas, and practical tools to help us with our literacy programmes in our classrooms. 

One of the key messages from today’s learning was the importance of having a dedicated space for reading in the timetable.
This needs to include all the aspects of reading, including shared, independent, guided, read to and visiting the school library. Research has shown that when reading has a visible, valued place, it encourages engagement, supports personalised learning, accelerates achievement and empowers students as readers

It reminded me how essential our teaching of reading is , not just for instruction, but for pleasure too. We want our students to love reading. 

We also talked about the power of ubiquitous learning — the idea that learning should be accessible to all children, at any time, from anywhere. With tools like Class Sites offering instructions, and places for learners to learn, create and share, it’s never been easier to connect reading and writing tasks beyond the classroom walls.

A great practical tip: get students to bookmark their learning site on their devices so they can access it independently.

We explored and got introduced to some new apps and sites:

Muzify: An AI tool that turns books into music playlists — a creative way to connect stories with sound.

The Taonga of Storytelling: A site exploring the cultural history and storytelling traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand — perfect for authentic, localised reading encounters.

We also revisited the importance of thoughtfully choosing apps that build comprehension, vocabulary, engagement, and critical thinking, while remembering that not every independent activity needs to happen on a device.

A big part of our planning conversation was about ensuring our programme balances the three essential strands:

Reading: Are we still creating opportunities for recreational reading, library visits, and authentic text encounters?

Writing: Are we providing chances for students to write responses, answer comprehension questions, and use new vocabulary in context? Are we modelling writing ourselves?

Oral Language: Are we supporting extended discussions, setting ground rules for talk, and teaching students to evaluate their discussions?

These three areas support one another, and we need to keep them on the boil throughout the school year.

We acknowledged the challenge of timetabling reading when school expectations and demands vary. Some key points included 

Prioritising reading for pleasure, shared reading, paired reading, and group reading.

Spending more time with students reading below the expected level.

Using tools like Mahi Trackers and learner timetables to track independent work and help students self-manage.

Building in collaboration and choice — students should have opportunities to pick what and how they read and respond.

I particularly liked the anticipation sheet idea — a true/false pre-reading questionnaire to gauge prior knowledge. A great way to spark curiosity and discussion before diving into a text!

One of today’s teaching focus areas was inference — a crucial comprehension skill where students make clever guesses based on clues in the text and what they know.

We broke it down into:

Default Inference: Quick, automatic guesses based on common knowledge.

Reasoned Inference: Thoughtful, evidence-based guesses combining text clues and prior knowledge.

We discussed how to connect reading and writing meaningfully:

Use exemplary texts to model the kind of writing we want students to produce.

Encourage students to write in response to what they read — comprehension answers, reflections, or creative extensions.

One activity I especially enjoyed was creating our own paragraph based on a mentor text. I’m excited to try this in my own classroom.

Day 5 was another good reminder that a thriving reading programme isn’t about isolated lessons — it’s about connected, intentional, and flexible learning

experiences that empower our tamariki as readers, writers and thinkers.

Whether through digital tools, clever timetabling, targeted skill-building, or rich discussions, we have so many ways to foster a love of reading and a habit of critical thinking in our learners.