Literacy Observation and reflection: Writing sentences

Ashleigh’s 2017 LITERACY OBSERVATION

In the role as teacher

Aims:

1. To embark on peer observations as a tool for professional development and improving teaching practices and student performance.
2. To support each other achieve pedagogical goal(s) by opening up our practice and sharing instructional techniques and beliefs between and among teachers

Rationale:

An observed lesson is a shared resource where both teacher and coach take something of value from it

Prior to observation decide on observation focus and the way that the data will be collected.

Rules for the observation:

1. Describe what is seen or heard (the teacher will advise observers on what to focus on)
2. Report specifically and concretely on your focus area(s) only

Rules for feedback/discussion:

1. Comment on strengths
2. Talk specifically and concretely on your focus area(s) only
3. Ask clarifying questions if necessary (to gain more understanding of what was observed)
4. Have ONE probing question ready to ask the teacher

Pre-Observation Questions based on your reflections of your own teaching ...

2   What literacy teaching practice/s do you want me to look for/at specifically?       Developing clear success criteria for how to write better sentences and then using the criteria for students to check they’re on track. What process will the observer use?  Running record of what she observed. 3.    What should I know already about this (context)? We spent about 25 minutes on this yesterday so I’m following on from there. 5.    What are your expectations for the lesson?       Full participation. Should get the criteria together without too much difficulty as we started experimenting with writing good sentences the day before.

9.30am - Observation begins

The class has been introduced to the lesson using the trains and carriages for sentence construction example from staff PD and the class have been introduced terminology (adverbs, precise nouns etc)

They have co-constructed success criteria for a well written sentence.

The teacher is working with students on possible vocabulary for their sentences. Students are using a simple sentence to make more interesting. This is written on a template and has a couple of examples to work through in pairs or small groups. Students in pairs or small groups discussing the exercise. The teacher is roaming the room and working with students, checking in with each group. Students asking for clarification of some of the terminology -  for example verbs and adverbs. As students finish they share with teacher their constructed sentence and she redirects to the success criteria and asks them to consider if they have covered this and to proofread their work. The teacher gives a 1 minute alert before they buddy swap their work. This make students focus in on their work around the room as they know they will be sharing soon. The teacher continues to roam the room and asks for  what specific success criteria has been used - student replies - “I used an adverb and I used more detail and description by adding adjectives and then I added a new precise noun”. A fantastic answer - showing the students are coming to terms with the terminology and can identify and use this in their writing. The sentences are all more developed in the groups I can see around me.

After 7 minutes, the teacher counts down in te reo for attention. The whole class focuses up to the front of class. The teacher gives next step and asks “Have you successfully created one sentence according to the SC?” She tells the class that in a moment groups will  swap with a another group. They must read the sentence the group has been working on and identify which success criteria have they used. Teacher gives some framing questions to make it clear. “Have they used a precise noun?” and allows 3mins to do this. The group in front of me identifies the adjectives that have added detail and interest and the adverb and commas. The teacher roams the room the see how groups are going. She answers any questions students have and sits with groups if they need more assistance. She uses proximity for slightly off-task student. She does not answer the questions directly - she often starts by asking them a question to see if they can answer for themselves. The students obviously feel comfortable to ask questions and give their opinions or thoughts. Groups are returning the sheets back to the group who wrote it. They have written some recommendations on the sheets for the creating group. Creating groups are reading the feedback and then looking at their work to see if the agree. Good discussion are held between the groups about the recommendations.

Teacher calls for attention to close the activity. Praising “those who are managing themselves” instead of focussing on negative as class is ready to move on.

9.45pm Observation ends

A nice lesson to observe. The tone in your room is one of engagement, safety, learning and friendship. A wonderful mix and one that takes teacher craft and skill to create.

The structure and flow allowed student to learn co-operatively and with some noise. I could see students were engaged in their work and it was clear that the new terminology was being used and students were enjoying creating well written sentences.

It will be interesting to see if this transfers to written work during class time. As you have already recognised, sometimes students have to be exposed to the same teaching more than once. This lesson is similar to one you did at the start of the year and you have chosen to revisit this learning through this lesson.

Thank you for having me in your class.

Tanya August

28/11/2017

My reflection: I was quite happy with what the students were able to come up with in terms of success criteria. It was clear that most could see what changes had been made in the improved sentences but not all knew the correct term, i.e 'adverb'. We didn't go into the nitty gritty about subject, verb, object etc but we did talk about how a complex sentence has a main clause and one or more dependent clauses. They were able to see how a dependent clause doesn't make sense on its own as it was missing a subject.

I agree with Tanya that it will be interesting to see how this now translates into their independent writing. I intend to make a more permanent copy of the success criteria they created that we can refer back to. As far as I observed, even my below writers were able to tell when a sentence didn't make sense and needed a slight change of tense to a verb to make it work.

One thing that may need a bit more work is using commas correctly in these sentences. They seem to know when I ask but many leave them out when writing their own unless reminded.

P.D - PB4L Restorative circles

Writing P.D 21/11/2017

"Great readers make great writers like good eaters make good chefs." Good readers often have a wider vocabulary.

What are some of the issues with students writing?
My response: When I think about my students' writing, I find that many of them have highly creative imaginations and are able to come up with interesting ideas to write about, however they struggle to put those ideas down in grammatically correct, coherent sentences. Sometimes they are lacking knowledge of how a sentence is supposed to be structured, i.e. subject, verb, object. Other times I believe students write in more of a stream-of-consciousness, and lack the revising and editing skills necessary to ensure it makes sense at the end. 

On the other hand, I also come across students who are highly capable of writing sophisticated, grammatically correct sentences, yet struggle to simply come up with enough things to say. I find these students require a lot more support in the early stages of writing, with brainstorming and planning their ideas. Supports such as a picture prompt or a story-starter can also make a huge difference for these students who struggle to get started. 

SSW - sustained silent writing - 10-15 minutes a day on any topic they want. (Quick writes)
Good writing includes:
Precision (it is to the point)
Clarity (not cleverness)
Focus (doesn't wander)
Fluency (easy to read)
Coherence (I can understand what the author is saying)

We need to be teaching students how to structure sentences. Different sentence styles video: Ian
'Writing a sentence is like a train...'
The bird.. Sat in a tree... Watching a delicious worm
How many ways can you organise the engine and the carriages.
Teach the skill on its own - content does not need to be linked to inquiry etc. Just use basic language, that won't confuse them.

20 words or less: GOOD SENTENCE.

How might I use these sentence ideas in my classroom?

• Have a play around with different orders for sentences (train and carriages)
• Give students opportunity to revisit a piece of writing and change some sentences - choose one type at a time, or focus on a range.
• Give excerpts from stories or journals for students to look for cool sentences.

Important: Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and success criteria:

Pick samples of writing apart: 'What makes this writing great?' 'What do you notice?'

What shouldn't we do? 

Co-constructing SC with students. 

Maths observation - TAI

Last week my team leader came in during maths time for an observation. The learning intention of the lesson was to order decimals to two d.p, and be able to put them on a numberline, knowing the difference between a tenth and a hundredth. The focus for my observation was around reflection at the end of the lesson. It is important to me that my class are reflecting on their learning, making links to the learning intention/goal. I also expect them to be able to identify if they're struggling and specifically what part of the learning they need to work on. I am using the resource given by the maths advisors and find that it works really well. 

What is not going so well is the written reflection. We often forget, so the interval bell will ring and we would have missed our reflecting time completely. Also, written reflections are still often about task completion, rather than actual learning. I think the next step in remedying this would be to get the kids to use the same reflection prompts that we use for verbal reflection, in their written reflections. Also need to set a timer each day! 

I've noticed in Riley and Ben, a real sense of ownership over their learning and they are spending their independent time on RELEVANT activities. They have even been bringing their evidence to me without my asking. The real proof if this is working will be when I see this learning demonstrated in a different context, totally independently. 

So overall, happy with the things I'm trying. I just need to be really consistent and ensure reflection is done well.

Lesson observation sheet from T.A.

Reflection on maths teaching video

How we can use Trello as a digital tool in the classroom.

Keeping the small things small - PB4l

Keeping The Small Things Small

May 2017 - PB4L, Module 6

Reflect for a few minutes on your top 4-5 strategies for keeping the small things small. What is the least intrusive techniques you use to de-escalate situations and turn the heat down.

Pair up and share again/add to your list.

Ignore, use humour, reminder of expectations/consequences

Find your team and add any other strategies.

Buddy up with another person

Whole staff discussion - what are the common themes with approaches? Each person is to identify 2-3 strategies that are new to them and commit to trying them out over the next fortnight.  

	Team Strategies
1.Two students are having a noisy row in the school grounds.	Distraction - give them something else to do Get one to come with you for a walk and a chat Get rid of the observers
2. You hear a student swearing in the cloak-bay.	“We don’t talk like that at HNI” “I wouldn’t expect that from you” Exaggerated gasp
3. While on duty you come across a student who is clearly breaking the school uniform code.	“Come and talk about your socks” “Can I see your uniform pass?”
4. A student is continually distracting a student in your class.	Proximity, moving a student, changing the subject to about the learning, change what we’re doing/the task, give ‘the look’ Is that the best place to sit for your learning?
5. You see a student casually drop litter in the school grounds.	Did you notice that you dropped that litter back there?

Notes from the Bobbie Hunter Maths video 28/2/17

Notes from the Bobbie Hunter Maths video 28/2/17

When coming up with a question for maths
Anticipate the possible misconceptions and possible mistakes students might make

Should lead to the big idea or concept

Active listening - revoice, ask questions to try to understand their thinking,
Be a driver for your learning. Point to the person who's in charge. Point to the person who's going to help you get there.

Use drama to act out a problem to help unpack it (milk bottles)

The best student in the group is to make sure the others understand

Teacher focus on dynamics - not your role to give clues. May prompt with carefully crafted questions

Argumentation is encouraged - explicit mentioning of the talk moves
Give students an opportunity to share their ideas, justification etc, then ask the others if there are any questions. We don't interrupt until they have finished sharing.

Questioning tips for maths:

LEVELS OF THINKING	GUIDE QUESTIONS
Memory: recalls or memorises information	What have we been working on that might help with this problem?
Translation: changes information into another form	How could you write/draw what you are doing? Is there a way to record what you've found that might help us see more patterns?
Interpretation: discovers relationships	What's the same? What's different? Can you group these in some way? Can you see a pattern?
Application: solves a problem - use of appropriate generalisations and skills	How can this pattern help you find an answer? What do think comes next? Why?
Analysis: solves a problem - conscious knowledge of the thinking	What have you discovered? How did you find that out? Why do you think that? What made you decide to do it that way?
Synthesis: solves a problem that requires original, creative thinking	Who has a different solution? Are everybody's results the same? Why/why not? What would happen if....?
Evaluation: makes a value judgement	Have we found all the possibilities? How do we know? Have you thought of another way this could be done? Do you think we have found the best solution?

How restorative am I? Reflection - Term 1

How Restorative Am I?

Take a moment to reflect on how, in your role, you deal with students when an incident or issue has arisen. Answer the questions below, shading the boxes according to this scale:

1 = not often

2= usually

3 = always

1. Do I remain calm during the conversation? 1 2 3

2. Do I really listen, without interrupting? 1 2 3

3. Does the student understand why they are having this conversation? 1 2 3

4. Would the student feel I am a good listener? 1 2 3

5. Do we explore how the school values apply to the issue? 1 2 3

6. Does the student understand the harm they’ve caused, who has been affected, and how? 1 2 3

7. Do I talk about how the incident affects me? 1 2 3

8. Do I take responsibility for any part I might have played when things went wrong, acknowledge it, and apologise? 1 2 3

9. If the student apologises to me, do I accept the apology respectfully? 1 2 3

10. Do I collaborate with the student to formulate a plan? 1 2 3

11. Have I, at any stage, asked someone I trust to observe my practice and give me honest feedback? 1 2 3

12. Do I try to handle most issues or incidents myself? 1 2 3

13. Do I seek support when issues get tricky for me? 1 2 3

14. Do I follow the school’s systems when looking for more support? 1 2 3

15. Is the relationship with the student repaired? 1 2 3

Look through your results and use them to identify where you could further strengthen your communication skills and restorative approach.

My RP goal/s moving forward could be;

1) Refer back to the school values more when dealing with behaviour/learning issues

2) Make a point to discuss WHO is affected by an issue (including me) and how to restore those relationships.

Maths TAI 2016

Reflecting on my Maths Video

Working with target maths group

Here are some short video clips of me working with my target group in maths. We were placing different representations of fractions along a numberline. Fractions were a mix of simple, improper and mixed. I had been working on using the 5 talk moves to get more mathematical discourse happening. I think I'm using them pretty well, however I need to make sure I'm using all five, not just re-using the same two or three. Another next step for me will be to move towards the students initiating the discussion, rather than it being so teacher led.

   

Classroom walk through