Professional engagement with an early years teaching program.
The literacy block observed took place in the two hour block between recess and lunchtime with a prep/grade one class. The first hour was devoted to reading and the second hour to writing.
The first 15 minutes of the class was dedicated to modelled reading with a big book: Goldilocks & the Three Bears. The teacher’s focus was on full stops and capital letters. She had students point out these things and asked them what they meant. She also pointed to the words as she read and asked the children about what was happening in the story to gain insight into their understanding of the text.
The students were then split into 3 groups by the teacher and 3 different activities were explained. One group completed a cut ‘n’ paste sentence from the big book and drew a picture corresponding to that sentence. Another did a sequencing activity, where the students had to cut and paste 6 pictures from the big book in order. The third was a small group who worked with the teacher in a guided reading session with the book, ‘My Toys.’ Teacher discussed what was happening in the pictures. Questioned the students on what they knew about toys. Teacher got them to point to words that were repeated on each page and modelled one-to-one correspondence. Teacher listened to each student read a couple of pages and praised or corrected them on their reading. This took roughly 15 minutes.
Once students had completed those activities they proceeded to other learning centres such as reading in the library corner, reading from book box, word games and magnetic letters. These activities were familiar to the children and didn’t require much instruction. The teacher worked again with a small guided reading group focussing on fluency with the book, ‘Baby Bear goes fishing.’ Teacher again, discussed what was happening in the pictures and asked students to predict what would happen in the story. Teacher told students they were focusing on reading fluently and asked them to remind her what that meant. Students said, “Reading like talking.” Teacher listened to each student read a couple of pages and praised or corrected them on their reading. This went on for another 15 minutes.
For the next 15 minutes, the teacher took a ‘whole class share’ which the teacher explained to me was a daily occurrence where there was a different sharer for each small group. Teacher asked them to tell the class what they had learned. Next term, teacher intends to introduce reflection starters to help children ie. Today I learned that..., I am improving in.... I didn’t know that...
For the writing segment, a reading recovery teacher came in to take the prep students while the teacher took the grade ones.
The teacher explained to students that they were focusing on using capital letters, full stops and spaces in our writing’. The teacher then proceeded to write a couple of sentences on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). As she wrote, she asked students to tell her if she needed a capital letter or not, e.g. writing Geelong – why does it need a capital (because it’s the name of a place). She asked students to come up and circle full stops, capitals and tick a good space. This activity took 15 minutes.
The teacher then broke students up to work on independent writing using their thrass and handwriting charts for half an hour. The teacher sat with a couple of students who wrote everything in capital letters. She reminded these students to use lower case letters where required and drew their attention to the handwriting chart to help them with forming the letters. After this, she walked around the class, checking students work and praising correct use of capitals and full stops and reminded students about spacing when required.
The teacher then gathered all the grade ones for share time in the final 15 minutes. The selected students read their writing and gave feedback to the class about whether they achieved the focus and what they would work on next time.
Professional engagement with an early years teaching program.
The literacy block observed took place in the two hour block between recess and lunchtime with a prep/grade one class. The first hour was devoted to reading and the second hour to writing.
The first 15 minutes of the class was dedicated to modelled reading with a big book: Goldilocks & the Three Bears. The teacher’s focus was on full stops and capital letters. She had students point out these things and asked them what they meant. She also pointed to the words as she read and asked the children about what was happening in the story to gain insight into their understanding of the text.
The students were then split into 3 groups by the teacher and 3 different activities were explained. One group completed a cut ‘n’ paste sentence from the big book and drew a picture corresponding to that sentence. Another did a sequencing activity, where the students had to cut and paste 6 pictures from the big book in order. The third was a small group who worked with the teacher in a guided reading session with the book, ‘My Toys.’ Teacher discussed what was happening in the pictures. Questioned the students on what they knew about toys. Teacher got them to point to words that were repeated on each page and modelled one-to-one correspondence. Teacher listened to each student read a couple of pages and praised or corrected them on their reading. This took roughly 15 minutes.
Once students had completed those activities they proceeded to other learning centres such as reading in the library corner, reading from book box, word games and magnetic letters. These activities were familiar to the children and didn’t require much instruction. The teacher worked again with a small guided reading group focussing on fluency with the book, ‘Baby Bear goes fishing.’ Teacher again, discussed what was happening in the pictures and asked students to predict what would happen in the story. Teacher told students they were focusing on reading fluently and asked them to remind her what that meant. Students said, “Reading like talking.” Teacher listened to each student read a couple of pages and praised or corrected them on their reading. This went on for another 15 minutes.
For the next 15 minutes, the teacher took a ‘whole class share’ which the teacher explained to me was a daily occurrence where there was a different sharer for each small group. Teacher asked them to tell the class what they had learned. Next term, teacher intends to introduce reflection starters to help children ie. Today I learned that..., I am improving in.... I didn’t know that...
For the writing segment, a reading recovery teacher came in to take the prep students while the teacher took the grade ones.
The teacher explained to students that they were focusing on using capital letters, full stops and spaces in our writing’. The teacher then proceeded to write a couple of sentences on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). As she wrote, she asked students to tell her if she needed a capital letter or not, e.g. writing Geelong – why does it need a capital (because it’s the name of a place). She asked students to come up and circle full stops, capitals and tick a good space. This activity took 15 minutes.
The teacher then broke students up to work on independent writing using their thrass and handwriting charts for half an hour. The teacher sat with a couple of students who wrote everything in capital letters. She reminded these students to use lower case letters where required and drew their attention to the handwriting chart to help them with forming the letters. After this, she walked around the class, checking students work and praising correct use of capitals and full stops and reminded students about spacing when required.
The teacher then gathered all the grade ones for share time in the final 15 minutes. The selected students read their writing and gave feedback to the class about whether they achieved the focus and what they would work on next time.
PREVIOUS ----- HOME ----- NEXT