The two years I have spent in Learning Space 2 has helped me to make the most of my learning time in Reading and Writing. That means I have moved my learning to the next level. Last year I helped trial activities in lockdown for Sheena Cameron and this year I have taken part in a literacy program run by the University of Auckland.
One of the many skills I have learnt in literacy is how to take part in an extended discussion, and I understand how this helps me strengthen my connections to the learning. Instead of answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question, I know I need to share my opinions and ideas and have the evidence from the text to support my perspective. I listen to the ideas shared by other people in my group and I know I can agree and disagree with their opinions. Most importantly we all understand that it is important to respect each other’s statements.
Mrs Anderson and Mrs Fisi’iahi have also taught the T-shaped Literacy program. This means we read lots of texts about the same topic. At the start of the year we explored the Mood and Atmosphere in texts when we learnt about the Pioneer Maori Battalion. Mood is the feeling you get while reading each line in the text, whereas atmosphere is the overall feeling we get when we read the whole text.
After that we learnt about characterisation. This is where the author describes what a character is like, which influences the reader to feel sympathy, or to look negatively at the character. One example I remember is the wolf in Three Little Pigs. He is the antagonist in the story as he is portrayed as the enemy.
Our final unit this year was looking at the author’s perspective. To do this we looked at what point of view was used in the story by thinking about who was telling the story, or who’s perspective we saw the events from. There are 5 perspectives, first person, second person, third person, third person limited, and third person omniscient.
I have also had some of my activities featured in Sheena Cameron’s Literacy books. These books give guidance to teachers and I am proud that some of the different literacy activities I have done will help others learn.
Each time we learnt something new I tried really hard to understand what it was I needed to know to be able to do the work. A lot of the work we did was done collaboratively because in LS2 our teachers remind us that we learn best when we learn with and from each other.