Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Progress so far One student is on track to achieve standard.  Three of the five students are now saying, writing and re-reading as they write. Four of the five include initial, middle and end sounds in their words. All children will aide ideas with teacher prompting/questioning. Three of the five children include spaces in their work, and two include full-stops. My next steps as a teacher * Continue to offer writing experience activities in reading and writing to build formation - tracing, bead threading, write around the room, labelling, list writing * Sent home tracing booklets * Trial small group teaching for the students most at risk - using Early Words resources - AA, TP, IG, KRL, RMC, LR * Modelled sessions on using spelling aides in the room, and on capital letters * Continue to have students say their story and then re-read to self and to me * Have clear purposed based writing e.g. to make a book, a letter etc * Try sharing progress (written vocabular...

As part of my current University study around Curriculum Leadership, I have conducted an action research project on my mentoring strategies. The research involved a literature review of writing strategies for NE children, and two conversations with a colleague. The colleague and I collaborate on planning and teaching our classes. I was particularly interested in finding out her thoughts on what helps our students: * Engage in writing * Develop independence in writing Our conversations and the literature review helped me to realise that our N.E. students most need: * Writing experience activities to build fine motor strength and letter formation * Purposeful tasks, to give them both the motivation to write, and to help them realise the varied uses of writing in their lives. Examples that we discussed and have set up included letter writing, labelling, writing / copying environmental print, scaffolded sentences and mini-books * Engaging tasks, relating to their interests * Qu...

Readers interpret and decipher a message.  Writers construct a message for an audience.  Letters and words (and picture!) are used to represent these messages.  Children who practise writing will be stronger in reading, and vice versa. Children who read more often generally have stronger writing vocabulary and greater syntactic control in writing   than those who read less.  Reading and writing = needs to be taught separately during Years 1-3, but can be integrated through concepts/topics/inquiry in upper years. Task: Read Voices in the Park by Anthony Brown...how would you describe the characters? e.g. Mother = snobbish; affluent; judgemental, rigid.... How does Brown convey this impression?  * Through word choice - e.g. 'I shooed it off';         'That horrible dog...';        '"Sit," I said to Charles.'  * Pictures  e.g. the background of the second page         * Differ...

I worked with a small group of writers, with Murray and Rowena Barker (level leader) observing.  The group includes lower - middle ability NE writers. All students are identifying the first sound of each word, and can say their story with support. They are working on using middle and end sounds in words; using knowing / looking words; re-reading their work; adding details & letter formation. We were revisiting descriptive pieces about our families.  I was interested in Murray's feedback on: * My use of feedback for each child * How I might help the students develop more independence in their writing * How can I support those with high needs (specifically fine motor and phonics skills)  Feedback from Murray Strengths (keep doing this): * One to one conversations and questions to help children add details * Noticing what students are doing well * Giving feedback to each child Next Steps Suggested by Murray:  * Use think alouds and modelling in every ...

Appraisal/TAI Observation Record This is an observation that is primarily for the benefit of the teacher being observed – who sets up the observation with a particular area of interest and development of their own in mind. It is important that the person doing the observation knows what specific area of their practice the teacher is wanting feedback on. The teacher completes the parts in green prior to the observation , the observer collects the data,  notes any questions they have, Then at a feedback discussion, the observer and teacher discuss and complete the final sections.   Appraiser Observing Sandy Hastings Observation Date 27.7.16 Teacher Charlotte Verity Observation Time 11;00 - 11:40am Topic being taught Writing (Teacher to complete): The specific area of my practice / a specific strategy I am trying to implement, that I would like data about or feedback in from the observation (in relation to an ‘on top’ issue or to an appraisal/...

W1  What is helping students engage? What should I keep doing? *Talk partners (Sheena Cameron workshop) *Think time *Asking all children to be ready with an answer, allowing think time/pair share and then calling on children (reducing the hands up; more children are participating) *Asking children to repeat what the last person said = improved listening across both hubs *Idea sharing and planning with hub colleague = agreed trial of flipped timetable; writing motivations and record system for self-directed reading activities W2 My next steps * Using growth mindset statements - i.e. stating behaviour rather than using well done, fantastic, great etc....I am noticing more when I do this, and getting better at stating behaviour *Challenge of noise - talking table signs; noise monitor actively used; bells to signal that I need students' attention *Reading - Feeding back / sharing great work at the end of reading - children to lead this. I am interested to see if this will inc...

Focus: To open up communication across the whole school in regards to collaboration between staff members and establishing goals for moving forward. What is going well and what do we need to move away from? Time Agenda Item Minutes Actions 10 mins Activity: What does an effective meeting look like? Question will be written up on the door as staff enter along with instructions on how to answer it. Staff will write their answers on post-it-notes and organise them in categories on a piece paper placed on the wall. We will then select the majority and make this our focus for our meeting. There were three main trends identified: Time management and keeping to the agenda Everyone having a voice Having a system in place to work through important conversations Time management was our focus for this meeting. 5 mins Explain the Grid to Understanding Communication and Behaviour (give examples) are our two foci in regards to staff relationships, rather th...