2019 INQUIRY

Achievement Challenge 5 

Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and texts


My Inquiry 



Last year I had the opportunity to work within several Manaiakalani schools and with a range of students with additional needs. The common theme amongst the teachers I worked with was their ability to know exactly what their students knew so they could plan the next learning steps. If a child with literacy skills that were below a level they could test on a running record or AsTTle or PAT, teachers didn't know what to do next and these students were often recorded as a zero in the teacher records.

The concern with this is it gives us no information on exactly what the student does know and what skills they do have. If we don't have this information how can we plan the next steps and engaging explicit acts of teaching?

I found some common themes amongst the students I had the opportunity to assess:
Areas of concern or limited skills in the following areas:
Auditory sequential and visual sequential improved sequential memory can help improve your child’s reading skills.
Auditory sequential and visual sequential memory skills are the ability to remember things seen and heard in sequence. 
Visual Sequential Memory is the ability to remember visual details in the correct sequence.