WRITING

Writing Observation Year 1 2017

Curriculum Area: Writing	Date: 4th April 2017
Observer: Dani Clarke	Role: Beginning Teacher
Lesson Focus: Introduction: Mrs H introduces writing by saying they can have another writing lesson where they can write about whatever they like. On two pieces of different coloured paper one titled ‘Looking word’ and the other titled ‘listening word’, words that are quite hard are written on the ‘looking word’ page and words that the class can sound out go on the ‘listening word’ page where they can sound out the words. Mrs H is writing about the ‘super flyers’ they made for her modelling to the class. Room 4 use the Bubble gum technique to sound out the word “super flyer” word. The bubble gum technique is a strategy to help students to learn to write words they need to spell in their writing. In this lesson Mrs H is modelling the writing by making some mistakes that the class are to look for and fix using a pink vivid. Students are to come up, identify and fix the mistakes themselves. One of Room 4’s goals are working on using capital letters for names. They are also learning to add more detail to their writing. Mrs H is having students come up to talk in front of the class about what they did with their super flyer, how did they feel when they flew them. Mrs H is using this technique as it is always her doing the talking. More capable writers are working on more detail. So parents can see their improvement.  Adding more detail is then modelled so students understand what is meant by this. Before they go off independently and do their own writing, Mrs H goes over with the students their individual writing goals, reminding them what they need to remember when doing this piece of writing. When handing out the books Mrs H reminds students of their goals that they need to work on. Students then go away and work independently on their picture and writing. Mrs H has a Teacher Aid in her room to help with writing and this gives Mrs H the opportunity to work with some children that are less capable at the jellybean table. When finished writing students to read their piece of writing with a buddy, their buddy then signs the bottom of the page. This is so students don’t all come up to get their work checked at once and are waiting. It fills in more time and gives students a chance to see if their work makes sense and if it is finished. They have a bubble word from their writing that they write on whiteboards at least 5 times. They do this when they have finished writing in their books. Conclusion of the lesson: Students have their fruit break then Mrs H chooses 2 children to share their work and they go onto the quality work table.

WRITING GOALS AND FEEDBACK VISUALS

Observation of Writing: Year 1 2016

Curriculum Area: Writing	Date: 13th October 2016
Observer: Dani Clarke	Role: Beginning Teacher
Writing topic: Writing about your dream. A dream that you would like to come true. Mrs A introduces topic and discusses examples. She then introduces a book called “My dream”. Shares examples from the story with the students. Room 5 close their eyes to think about an idea that is their dream. Students have writing placemats sitting on their desks to help with their writing these include high frequency words, days of the week etc. Goals for today’s lesson include: Capital letters, explanation mark, contractions, Modelling: Mrs A writes down the goals on paper so students are aware of these. She then thinks about what to write about explaining to children they really need to think about what to write so they don’t make mistakes. Mrs A draws picture and explains what her picture is.Mrs A tells then explains to students her dream and asks the students to come up with how to write it on paper. Students sound out words by using “bubble gum it out” technique. She then asks students to spell certain words, as well as ending of words. Read what is written down all together and she encourages students to add on to make it longer. Students then reads Mrs A’s writing to themselves. Checklist with class about goals: Effective questioning Have we go these things? Where could we put an explanation mark? What have I added? Next is editing, ask a student if this word is spelt correctly. Mrs A explains before students leave the mat they need to know what their dream is.  The use of Think pair share is used here with a buddy. First two words of you story will be “My dream….” (These are written on the board for students to begin with. Some students begin with pictures as a plan some prefer to write their story first and then do their picture afterwards. Mrs A roams the room asks students for their ideas and uses lots of positive reinforcement to encourage students to do the right thing. Room 5 work very independently. After 5-10 minutes’ students put their pens down and go over their writing remembering capital letters, writing on the line etc. Mrs A does Individual conferencing with students, talking about their writing where they can go next etc. She ticks the right words and sounds they can hear and corrects where needed. Students read their writing to the person sitting next to you. Put their pens down and students share with the rest of the class.

Observation Of My Teaching in Writing 2016

Curriculum Area: Writing	Date: Tuesday 30th August 2016
Observer: Cameron Anderson	Role: Tutor Teacher
Lesson Focus:I like the way you started with talking about giving 5. Cara was great at sharing the five parts of listening. Introduced writing to the children by showing a picture and asking the children to talk about the picture. Great to see you giving all the children a chance to discuss it with a partner. Asked some children to give their ideas. Got some good responses. Children really excited about the picture of tap with lollies. Discuss your story with the children. Children involved with the modelled writing. Enya coming up to writing the first word. Good reminder about capital letter. Got the children to tell you that a finger space was needed. Children involved in helping to sound out the words. I liked the finger space fairy that you have to show the children they need a space between the words. I liked that you picked out Ollie and Mikayla to contribute to the discussion seeing they were consistent willing contributors. Lots of child input throughout the lesson and good use of your voice. A lot of involvement from children. Asked the children 3 things they need to remember in their stories today. Recorded them at the bottom of the page. Full stops, Capital letters and finger spaces. Modelled how to glue the picture for the writing prompt into their books. An important skill to model. I liked how you looked at their writing from the previous day when you gave them their books. It was good to hear positives about their previous writing and gave them reminders on their next steps for today’s independent writing. Children left mat and were very calm and settled as they went off to glue in their pictures and start their writing. Roamed the room to help children glue in their pictures and date children’s work and drawing in stars for each line. I really like the quiet critters for this age group they were so captivate by them and as soon as you got them from your desk the noise in the classroom dropped to all of the children working silently. Children knew where to collect resources from to help them. The finger space characters were helpful to remind the children. Good roaming to help children especially the new ones to school. Children were working well and I like how you positively reinforced the good behaviour of children when most were distracted by the truck outside. You kept encouraging children to attempt to write more and directed them back to their seats so they didn’t constantly come to you for help. You reminded children to check over their work to see if they had the writing features you had discussed on the mat. Positive reinforcement given to children who had gone to write independently after wanting teacher and being directed back to her seat. Continued to help children around the room. Marking their stories once you got to them. Children who had completed their writing went on to read a book from the Library Corner. Looking in the children’s books it is good to see the regular amount of pink and green feedback. Children went for a run around the playground and then returned to class to share their stories. Children sat in a circle and share their story with a partner and you encouraged the children to give some positive feedback about their partner’s story. A good overall lesson where the children were engaged and excited about the picture of the tap with gummy bears pouring out. Your time on the mat was not too long for the children and a majority of the children were engaged in the lesson. The children worked well independently and all were focussed on their writing. The Quiet Critters were great to bring down the noise level after the children had got settled and sorted. You roamed well around the room and help the children and redirect some back to working independently until you were able to help. Children then had the opportunity to share their stories at the end of the lesson.
Environment:Your class is looking great. It is colourful and vibrant. You have got children’s work displayed and the layout makes moving and activities easy for the children whether it is small groups or whole class. Your topic wall for the Olympics looks busy and your writing wall clearly displays children’s new published work. The areas on the walls are well defined and show current work. Resources around the room are well placed for the children and they are all aware of where they are. Keep filling it up with more children’s work but it is a great start and it always takes time have quality work to show. It will also be easier when you have the full 20 students in your class.
Ideas for next time:–        Give a little bit more time for thought and discussion for the children. –        Ask other children on the mat that don’t have their hands up for their ideas. (Named sticks can be great for this). –        Try using a vivid pen for you modelled writing. It can be easier for the children to see on the mat. –        Ask the class a question or to sound out a word then give them time to share or process. –        Try asking about what a good writer needs to remember at the beginning and then recap and discuss with the children again at the end. –        When the children do their picture you can do your picture and have a discussion around their ideas before sending them off to do their picture plan. Then bring them back to the mat for the modelling and then they can go back to write. –        Have you thought about sitting all the new children and ones who require extra assistance at one lot of desks so you can monitor them all at the same time? –        Remember to roam the entire room when the children are working independently. After helping 1-2 children walk around just to check how everyone is going then back to assist someone. –        Give the children a range of options after completing their writing. They could write words on their whiteboards or have cards to practise their names and letters. –        Remember you can use the pictures for feedback. It doesn’t always need to be written however at times it is the only way. –        Try to do some whole class sharing and you could even try sending 1-2 off to another class to share with them. You could try to do this once a week as with time it is not always possible.
Reflection: I thought this lesson went really well, students were all engaged with the subject. Great feedback and will definitely use all this advice in my writing lessons to improve them.

Writing Observation Year 0 2016

Curriculum Area: Writing	Date: 23rd August 2016
Observer: Dani Clarke	Role: Beginning Teacher
Lesson Focus: Writing topic: Olympics Usain Bolt and Lisa Carrington.The lesson began with students sitting on mat asking if anyone knows who these athletes are. After discussions students watched you tube clips of the two athletes. In between each clip students used think, pair share to talk about what was happening in the clip, what were they doing. Then there was discussion about what would they do to be successful e.g what would they eat, how much they would train etc. This was the idea of the students writing today. This lesson began in room 3 and room 2 joined them to work collaboratively. After classroom discussions students then went back to their own classrooms where teachers would model writing. Modelled Writing: First step drawing the picture about their writing, making sure it is relevant to what they are going to write. Students then help with writing the story by telling Mrs B what sounds they can hear in the words. She then writes the words as the students would spell it. Not necessary the correct way. Students then Think, pair share about what the will write about, then as they are talking Mrs B puts her teachers hat on and with a different coloured pen corrects the spelling underneath. After student’s discussions Mrs B goes over student’s goals e.g. finger spacing, missing a line, including wonder words, capital letters. Students know what they should be working on and are reminded of this. Students are then given their books and they find a seat and begin to draw their picture, Mrs B sets a timer (great idea!) for 5-7 minutes and that is how long they have to draw their picture. Then when the timer goes off they ned to get straight onto their writing. Mrs B roams room helping those that aren’t as confident or that struggle. Students then go to her when they have finished and get their work checked. Advice from Mrs F-C at the end of the lesson “Don’t have the students wait in a line to see you when they have finished their writing, send them back to write more until you go and see them, this encourages them to get more on their paper”.