Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

April  2015 Learning is Challenging! "It is too hard, I don't want to do this anymore." "Ohhhhh....not balancing equations again!" "...but I am no good at..." These student comments have really struck me...and made me look further afield. How can I help students realise that learning can and is tough at times; that you don't necessarily "get it" straight away; that all of the greatest thinkers and doers had to persist through challenge? A colleague suggested reading Karen Boyes' blog  and post on Modern Learning Environments - the underlying philosophy to success. , especially: ' Explain to your students that your job is to cause learning to happen and this will not occur if you give them easy work. However you must also give them the skills to cope with the hard. Can your student persist, think flexibly, be creative, take responsible risks?' I took Helen's advice, and the following day my co-teacher and I ...

20 November 2015 Teaching as Inquiry: Writing This year, I have been working on the following goals for 8 'at risk' Grade 3 & 4 writers. All are currently working toward the curriculum standard for their year. Our goals: Say and write 6+ sentences in one session Correctly form all lower case letters Spell Essential Lists 1, 2 and, if ready, List 3 Improve engagement in writing Results for Term 4 THESE RESULTS ARE FOR 6 CHILDREN. One child refused to complete assessments (behaviour). Another child has significant literacy difficulties, who has been referred to an Resource Teacher Literacy (RTLit) for further support. Children show: * Increased or maintained correct number of essential spelling words * All students forming 25 to 26 alphabet letters correctly * All stude nts have improved the length of their work, and now write 5-12 sentences * For the child under RT Lit support, he has shown improved engagement, story length, and now includ...