Term 4- Collaborative Inquiry

In this afternoons session our Inquiry Group discussed :

How to introduce a book when reading in a  small group and how much information do teachers need to scaffold to make text meaningful and purposeful?

Various behaviour management strategies during mat time. Children sit in a group on the mat so they are more focussed, positive praise for good behaviour, use Incredible Years strategies, point system, rewards for acceptable behaviour, children seated in a specific arrangement.

We looked at how teachers can extend vocabulary so that its relevant in multiple contexts. Encouraging children to use these words in their writing to create rich text. Quality instead of quantity.

Developing more independence in writing in Year 1. Children learning to write a simple sentence. Children say their sentence to the teacher then to a friend to help them retain the words in the sentence and then  they attempt to write some known words( high frequency words) with some support from the teacher. Teacher continue to conference with children and work in small groups.

Creating Explain Everything activities for reading levels 15 and up for Year 1 children. Looking at the progressions when creating these activities for children at this level.  Teachers in Year 2 have created some amazing resources- How can Year One teachers use these activities and change, add to it, so that it is appropriate  for our young learners.

Overall we had interesting conversations and it was good to have a  mixture of teachers from different areas of the school. Teachers were very supportive and their suggestions and comments were much appreciated. I will take on board what they have suggested and give it a go during the course of the term.

Term 3 Writing focus

This term my focus was on writing and creating rich word groups which were created around stories during our classroom brainstorm sessions. The children can access these word charts through their class site which made it much easier for children who had difficulty retaining the letters in a word.  I have also displayed them around the classroom.