Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Completed by Amanda McLean and Charlotte Verity re: Hub 1-2 New Entrant Link Collaboration What worked? Shared spaces - change of programmes according to student needs, and going back to basics to teach where resources are in each class. Being consistent with self-management and tidy up expectations was important. Having shared systems worked - ,we borrowed items and ideas from each other and just incorporated e.g. using the 'tahi rua toru wha' call for attention or having children bring their reading folders to the floor. We have an open, honest rapport and have checked in with each other daily (and sometimes hourly!) to ensure we are on the same page. We have discussed potential issues openly and without taking offense e.g. behaviour management; dealing with specific parents. Backing each other up in front of the children was important too. Next steps If we were to continue to work together, we'd look to do more observation and modelling of each other, and perh...

Andrea started with a shared big book. She set the whole class up for success by outlining expectations while students weren't with the teacher  - she had a number of activity trays set up for children to get if they grew tired of activities on tables. I observed her with one guided group and noticed the following, which I will aim to use in my own future reading sessions: * Pre-chat prior to each page, Andrea talked the students through the pictures and story so far, prompting and questioning all the way. Sometimes this involved noticing text, e.g. "Here the teacher is called Mrs Smith. Can you find her name on the page?" which prepared the children for new, challenging words. * Lots of praise of what the students did e.g. "You got the 'st' blend at the start...great!" * She stopped the children to demonstrate reading for meaning, e.g. " it says...'when the children got to school...'what would make sense?" * She showed enjoyment ...

I was interested to learn from Rowena's expertise in reading instruction for shared reading (whole class) and a guided session with a level 18 reading group. The group’s current focuses: read-on and re-read; prediction; chunking/blending unfamiliar words. I asked Rowena to give feedback on how I could improve my use of prompting, modelling and questioning in the guided session. Notes from Rowena: * I linked to students' prior knowledge by scanning pictures and discussing the story with the group before reading. * We discussed the text features, and made predictions through-out reading. * Factual and inferential questions were asked. * Reading on and re-reading was modelled as a strategy for unfamiliar words. Full notes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxdNc5F9bYO1ek1CeG1DR19BUXc Suggestions (my next steps): * Use a modelling board / book with cloze exercises to help children choose the best word, e.g. Dad picked up a brush/broom/bucket. Dr...

We began by discussing and deciding definitions for key terms, including: Dialogue: share ideas Discuss: debate ideas Pause: wait, without talking Inquirer: questioner, explorer Advocacy: support or represent ideas (persuasive) Paraphrase: briefly recap and most important for me, listening set aside s: the things to stop doing when listening/talking! * Judgement * To do lists * Autobiographical stories * Solution finding * Unrelated information We practised having 'challenging conversations' with colleagues, using the process below (e.g. challenging conversations may be sharing an issue with a parent; discussing differences with a colleague): 1. Prepare and plan  your words 2. Converse Name the issues  Focus on evidence Clarify importance: impact and consequence Identify your contribution 3. Invite and listen to others' response and perspective 4. Open the conversation for mutual negotiation and resolution: decide action 5. Follow ...

Progress to date One student may achieve the standard for After One Year at school. The other children are working at a 1B level. However, the group have made huge personal steps: * All students now plan and start their stories independently. * 2 of the students include initial and end sounds in words. 3 children consistently use initial, middle and end sounds * 4 students write and re-read their stories independently. 3 make corrections as they re-read.  * 3 of the children include conjunctions, and consistently write 3 or more sentences.  What remains challenging? Letter formation causes 2 students to work very slowly (and they see writing as physically taxing). Developing letter formation causes two other children to have problems when re-reading their work. The group would benefit from correct high frequency word spelling, and could add more details to their responses.  My next steps as a teacher * Continue to offer writing experience activities in rea...

Feedback and Next Step Planning for Writing Instruction WHAT TEACHERS AT BECKENHAM ARE GENERALLY DOING WELL WHERE AM I AT WITH THIS TEACHING STRATEGY? Analysing students’ writing and identifying teaching points Continue to do, especially for more advanced writers. For these students, we could look at using varied sentence starts; using speech; wow words; adding details; using varied sentence structures. Being clear about what you want students to do (task) and achieve (goal) within the lesson Picture success criteria, suggested by Murray, has been brilliant for this. Give strong and explicit direct instruction through active modelling Continue to be clear on the goal, task and success criteria Taught or reinforcing skills in context (i.e. using students’ work and ideas) Using students work in modelling book is highly engaging and purposeful Using questioning and prompt...

Background: observing colleague with 4 students, who have been at school for two terms. Modelling focused on using sound words (roar, crash etc) and the picture book, Demolition , as stimulus. My colleague was interested in helping the children add detail to stories and use think alouds . Students all used sound words, used finger spaces, were actively re-reading and sounding out words. Some children also added detail. There was a positive climate; colleague praising students' effort throughout; writing was truly  co-constructed  between students and teacher ( kids encouraged to have a go!). There was explicit teaching, repeated throughout modelling e.g. stretching out words 'like chewing gum' and modelling knowing/looking words. Strengths colleague demonstrated / Next steps for me: * Clear reading-writing links made by teacher, often using questions, 'What would our readers want to know?' 'How should we read it?' * Model varied starts for sent...