I said in my last post that I’d display a couple of photos of how I’ve set up our learning spaces in the classroom. Space is tight, but it works.
This area is where we work on our reading and writing skills. Everything I need or the children need is in this space. They are learning quickly that where I sit, they sit in front of me. This allows the children to refocus for new learning experiences. It also gives them the opportunity to move and stretch. My space is limited, but I’ve been able to create these specific learning areas. I highly recommend teachers to try and organise different learnings spaces for the children. There is also a computer hub.
This is our Big Book, oral language and numeracy area. The white board is fantastic. The rest of the classroom has tables in groups. There aren’t many displays up as yet because we have only been back at school for a short time.
Our first Student Led Interactive Writing Session.
As a group the children have a collective knowledge of letters, we’ve looked at sentences, know they tell us something, have a capital letter, full stop and can be read. They capably wrote their names in a colored texta down the side (removed from photo) of their large poster sheet. We had talked about our experiences at school and as a group we came up with some class sentences for every group to ‘have a go’ at writing. Each child writes a word in the order of their names. Our sentences were, ‘I am at school’ and ‘I am in PD.’ I could hear them discussing the words, stretching them out, looking at the letter chart, working out how to write them and then ‘having a go’.
The photo above shows the work of one group of students that I watched compose and write the two sentences. Their attempt at writing ‘school’ is amazing. It will be wonderful watching their journey this year.
I’m using this strategy weekly, as I believe that this strategy combined with explicit teaching accelerates writing development. These children want to be writers!
I haven’t written many posts recently because I’ve been so busy setting up the grade, getting to know children and assessing.
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for commenting and for your feedback. I keep the posters as a record of progress. One thing not displayed in the photos, is that the children record their name down the side. Each child has their own colour so I can identify which child has written each part of the text. As the children are taught to prompt each other not ‘do’, each child’s attempt is their own.
Posters are displayed in the classroom to show writing progress and to inform parents. When I need space to hang up other work I always leave examples which represents our journey. Later on in the year the children will start editing their texts using student formed criteria based editing. (Previous post)
The children’s writing is also made into little books (Publisher) that are used to support their reading program. Student Led and Teacher Led Interactive Writing are major strategies used in the Language Experience Approach. I also keep samples for presentations. Once teachers see how this strategy develops writing they are hooked. I’m always looking for the transfer of taught skills into their independent writing. This collaborative approach supports the less able, capable student and highly able. Hope this answers your question. Keep visiting and once again thank you for taking the time to comment.
Cheers Nina
Hi Nina,
I find your blog to be a great resource. Can you tell me what you do with the large poster sheets after the writing session? Is there a follow up, or are they ephemeral?
Cheers,
Jennifer