Week 7, Term 3 2013

My week 6 goals were:

• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions

Week 6 has flown by, I had Monday in the class and Tuesday out for a release day where I was able to catch up on some running records and sort through my assessment data to make it more manageable.

Maths this week has been on measurement with my students learning how to measure in m and cm. Some have got the hang of it but other still need work. I am finding that my learners are really engaged when the tasks are hands on and practical. I had my TT come and do another guided session on Thursday with my low group and came away with heaps more ideas as to how I can implement and teach easy tasks that engage the learners. On Friday I also started using my Math Journal. I have done the first one for the children as a model so they can refer to it when reflecting on their learning

Reading seems to be lagging a bit with the students knowing what is expected of them but not achieving it. I am thinking next week with a new student it will be the perfect time for a quick refresher of how the Daily 5 programme is run and what behaviours we should be displaying. Some students have had to go back to being told what they can do until they can be trusted to choose for themselves.

This week in writing the class has been focusing on adding dialogue into their stories. Each day we have done a class story and included dialogue and then they have had the opportunity to write their own. Some have got it but not as many as I would like but we will continue to build on it over the next wee while.

This week I thought I would have a go at doing a science experiment. I decided to do magic milk. I set the desk groups up with a bowl of milk and told the children what I would be adding to it and asked them to make a prediction on what would happen. A large portion of them said that it would explode or blow up….how wrong they were. It was quite a good lesson as it was easy and we got a lot of quality discussion out of it and the children are all keen to do more.

Week 7 already…..where has the term gone?

Week 7 goals:

• Incorporate more hands on learning tasks
• Use my assessment to inform my planning
• Use open ended questions.
• Focus on the positives
• Continue consistent behaviour management
• Have a greater wait time when children are answering a question
• Take notes during guided sessions