What's working for me?

It has been an amazing start to the term in P2.  After 2 terms we are finally able to work independently, which means I am able to work with small groups using the rotation idea I had always planned to use.

Writing in P2 this term looks like:

Spelling Programme - I have introduced a spelling programme to my homework each week that will work on the essential spelling lists and target words that students use in their writing.  As vocab is one of my goals this term we are also introducing a word of the day.

Sentence Structure - During the "Teacher Time" Rotation.  Students work in small groups with me on Sentence structure.  We have begun following the Sheena Cameron Writing Book as a guide and will also chuck other useful resources and activities in to complement those ideas that I have found from other teachers and through  my own research.

Other rotations - Handwriting is a rotation, Independent writing, Practise of skills learnt with the teacher, Blogging, StoryBird and Literacy Shed are a few options we are using.

Current Events - I have added a group activity for students to report for our class Current Events book on a recent event in the news.  They need to present it to a set criteria.

Fun - Class challenges like, Group shared stories, the dictionary game and boggle are a few games I have introduced to help students enjoy their writing and learn new vocab and skills as they go.

An extra little goal I have set for myself is to try to present everything to my class in a digital way.  I send my students a plan each week for the rotations that tells them what to do etc.

  I also am trialing digital modelling books.  I am loving them!  A tidy, instant way to record students work and present new ideas to them.

I am really enjoying working with the smaller groups, rather than the whole class all at once as I was forced to do in the last two terms due to my students being unable to work independently.

This term is exciting!  I look forward to seeing my students progress this term.

What do you do - when a parent doesn't seem to believe in their child's ability.

A few times this term, I have felt like I have had to stand up for a child to one or both of their parents.  It seems like they fail to see any progress the child has made over the year so far, it is all about their child not being where they believe they should be.  Parents questioning their child learning abilities and getting them tested, as there must be something wrong.  I find this incredibly sad.  In my opinion the children I know who have parents like this are actually in need of a huge boost of confidence and in giving them that at school, I am fighting a battle with what they face at home.

One child who is in my group for ALL has made amazing progress since the beginning of the year.  On the first day when I asked him to independently write about his holiday, he cried.  It was just too hard for him.  He couldn't think of ideas, and anything he came up with wasn't good enough.  His Mum actually came in that day knowing that this would have occurred.  I reasurred her that I have some ideas for building his confidence etc.  She said he has always been terrible at writing and other teachers have tried but he never improves.  I personally believe he has improved- massively!  He can sit down everyday and confidently write.  He writes independently and co-operatively.  He uses paragraphs, he describes things in details.  However, Mum is still not happy.  She met with me a month ago to say she is going to have him tested and wanted to hear how I thought he was doing.  I told her how much progress he had made and showed her his writing.  She absolutely picked it to bits.  "Why would he use a capital letter there!"  "Oh my goodness, look how he spelt that!"  I was gutted for him.  Instead of seeing the bigger picture, she picked his work to pieces.  Why?  I can tell you, there is no way I am giving up on this child.  I am so proud of him and I tell him all the time.

Term 2 Assessment

I was really disappointed when I marked my students Term 2 assessment.  I was so proud that their levels had improved in areas we had been working on, but then in areas that had not been our focus some of them went down!
So overall most of the marks have either stayed the same or have gone down and it is just heart breaking to see.  When I spoke to other teachers, they had noticed the same pattern.

My next focus with my group now we have mastered paragraphs is to focus on sentence structure and introduce a little vocab through a new routine of "Word of the Day".  I have found a website which introduces students to a new word each day and gives a definition, an example and synonyms.  http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/junior/index.shtml

I am going to ask students to write this out as their handwriting practice each day when they come in from fitness.  I will also challenge them to use the word correctly in a sentence during the day.  If they can, they will get house points.  My class love a challenge.

In our LCN cluster group we have all decided to focus on Sentence Structure as it is an area we have all noticed is lacking in students  from year 1 through to year 13.  I have begun collecting resources for next term and once I have tried various strategies in my class I will report back to the group on my findings.