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PM Writing English Language Reference Book by Debbie Croft: Review

I’m often asked for a list of reference books I value and use regularly. The PM Writing English Language Reference Book is excellent. This reference book was created for students and as a teacher I have found it an excellent reference and teaching resource for myself. I was introduced to this by Christine Manns christinemanns.nelsonsales@cengage.com at Nelson Cengage’s Melbourne office.

The ready reference pages for each genre are user friendly for teachers and older students. This book covers all areas of English and I recommend schools to purchase a copy for review.

Cheers Nina

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Young Beginning Writers: Final Week Semester 2 – Victoria, Australia ( 5 & 6 Year Olds / Prep )

The final weeks of term two and semester one for 2012 were busy. Reports, Three Way Conferences and portfolios added to teaching and other responsibilities made the run to the holidays a marathon.  Time to post here has been rare so it’s great to be able to share some student writing completed in the the final week of term two by my Prep grade.

Herbert and Harry by Pamela Allen: Independent Book Response

Above Text: Herbert and Harry found treasure and they were brothers.

Above Text: Herbert and Harry are brothers. One day they found treasure.

Above Text: Herbert and Harry  found treasure and they were brothers.

Final Recount: Term 2 for inclusion in student portfolios.

 

These are random samples of independent writing. It’s great to see my students using a title, content and final personal comment without prompting. Using PM Writing Exemplars provides the scaffold my young writers require.

Cheers Nina

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Guest Blogger: Celebrate Book Week with a super-special video conference with Taronga Western Plains Zoo & Aleesah Darlison

Book Week is celebrated each year to acknowledge the wonderful role that books and stories play in our lives. It showcases new and exciting Australian books and authors and highlights how important reading is. This year, Taronga Western Plains Zoo has joined forces with popular children’s author, Aleesah Darlison, to bring you exciting, educational workshops.

Each session includes talks by Aleesah Darlison and Senior Education Officer at the Zoo, Kristy Robberts. PLUS some very special live animal guests!

Aleesah and Kristy will talk about books and animals. Two sessions are being offered: ‘Echidnas and Aussie Animals’ and ‘Bats and Nocturnal Animals’. Aleesah will read her books, Puggle’s Problem (NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge) and Warambi (2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book, Eve Pownall Award, and 2012 Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children’s Literature – Shortlist). Kristy will introduce some amazing live animals, many of which appear in Aleesah’s books. Students will have time to interact and ask questions throughout. These workshops foster education and a love of animals and books. What better way to celebrate Book Week!

The sessions also include BAT PACKS or PUGGLE PACKS, depending on which session you book.

For more information contact Aleesah Darlison at: aleesah@bigpond.net.au. Or visit the DART Connections website to make your booking: http://dartconnections.org.au/upcoming/litlive.html#8-2012 by clicking on the session date and time you want to book into.

Nina’s Arena is pleased to support Australian authors and Book Week.

Cheers Nina

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Hand over the control! PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing: June 2012 – (5&6 Year Olds)

PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing sessions enable me to roam, listen to conversations and question my student’s understanding of concepts and skills. I’m able to question individuals and groups about the strategies they are using to compose their text. Their feedback is enlightening and I’m always surprised by how well they articulate what they are doing, the strategies they are using and their collective knowledge of punctuation and composition is evident. I’m always looking for the transfer of explicit teaching foci.

Recently my students took their parents on a Student Led Tour of their learning and we decided to write about the tour.

I’ve written about this strategy numerous times in my blog. To read more simply type PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing in the search box. I firmly believe this strategy scaffolds, supports and accelerates my student’s writing.

Cheers Nina

 

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nina davis's avatarNina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia

I’ve decided to map the writing development of one child in my class for a year. It’s interesting to look back and see the learning leaps made throughout the year.  What moved this child forward? What made this child’s writing accelerate or slow down? Take a look and see if you agree with my comments. The children have been looking through their books and are amazed at what they now know. I’ve said many times in my blog- Language Experience, Interactive Writing: teacher and student led combined with a clear explicit planned teaching focus have made the difference.

I’ve briefly annotated this child’s journey below.

Below: This is the first piece of writing and what a great place to for this student to start. This child has begun to draw some  shapes and was able to talk about the picture. This is imitating writing. There are what looks like some strings of letters and a picture which isn’t shown…

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nina davis's avatarNina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia

Love this explanation of leadership and think all educators should view it. What does  ‘we’re all leaders’ mean? How does a leader bring about change?

This gives us all something to think about. What do you think?

Cheers Nina

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Our Prep Student Led Tour: 5&6 Year Olds sharing their learning authentically…

Today we had our first Prep Student Led Tour. My students were very excited and were prepared to talk about their learning with their special invited people. The room was buzzing and it was lovely to hear the children explaining their school day.

Enjoy this Quality Time with Each Other

 This tour is a chance for you to share your child’s learning.

 Make this day into a celebration of your child’s successes.

 Please remember to have FUN during this time. Enjoy the opportunity to spend time with your child.

 Use this booklet as a guide for the session. It provides you with prompts to stimulate discussion.

 This is a student-led tour, therefore your child is responsible for sharing their learning with your support, based on the age and stage of learning.

 At the end of this time, please complete the ‘Parent Feedback Form’ at the back of this booklet and return it to school the following day. It will provide us with valuable feedback.

The children were prepared to talk about the points listed below.

Let me take you on a tour of my learning…

In this tour, I suggest you spend time in my classroom sharing my learning in each of the curriculum areas and then moving to the specialist rooms for the rest of my tour.

Units of Inquiry: ““How We Organise Ourselves” and “How We Express Ourselves”

I will:

 Explain how my classroom is organised

 Show and explain some signs and symbols in the classroom

Language:

I will:

 Share my writing book with you and explain how I write a sentence

 Show you what I have learnt about how to write (i.e. full stops and capital letters)

 Show you how my writing has changed

 Show what I read, and where I read in the classroom.

 Take you on a ‘Reading Walk”

Mathematics:

I will:

 Show you how I make a pattern

 Tell you what a pattern is

 Show you what I am learning in Maths

Cheers Nina

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Using literature to support teaching mathematics. Mem Fox – Let’s Count Goats!

My Preps loved this story by Mem Fox. At present my students are writing the numerals 1 to 10. Each student is able to identify which numeral/s is challenging for them to write and is practising each day to form the numeral/s properly. The children wrote the numerals 1 to 10 in order, circled the number of goats they had drawn, drew the correct number of goats to match their numeral and recorded the word for their chosen number. They absolutely loved the book.

I try to use quality literature to introduce a mathematical concept or skill when I can. Young children need opportunities to make, do and create woven into everyday.

The Very Hungry Caterpilla by Eric Carle is great for introducing number and amounts. The children enjoy adding pages to the original story e.g. On the 10th day the very hungry caterpillar ate 19 lolly pops and so on…  I’ll post more about this activity when we’ve finished our PD story about the very hungry caterpillar.

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100 000 Hits… that’s alot for a little blog! So what have my Preps (5 & 6 Year Olds) been doing this term?

I  haven’t posted for a while, but have finally found a spare hour to write about what we’ve been doing  in PrepD. My students are delightful, full of energy, great talkers and sharers. Learning is fun and they’re able to talk about what they know, what they are learning and what they will be learning next. I’ve provided a link below to the Optimal Learning Chart which was included in the Edmonds School District – A Balanced Literacy Program document.  The chart is explained below:

Optimal Learning Model (Gradually Releasing Responsibility): Regie Routman coined the term Optimal Learning Model in her book Reading Essentials. It refers to the gradual handover of responsibility from teacher to student as literacy is taught. Beginning with demonstration and shared demonstration, the teacher models reading/writing skills and strategies, leading and explaining to the learner. Next the learner gradually takes responsibility for his learning, practicing these skills strategies with the teacher stepping into a guiding role. The ultimate goal is for the student to independently practice the skills and strategies, to self –monitor and to apply his learning as the teacher observes. Edmonds School District 2004

Optimal Learning Chart

 PrepD Partner Writing:

Prep D Journal Writing:

Using lines for the first time… exciting! My Preps love writing and most have started using a heading/title, content and personal comment at the end of their journal. I’ve been using the PM Writing exemplars for focus minilessons. Using WALT – We are learning to… and WILF – What I’m looking for… to scaffold their writing is working well. These students are young and very new writers and are starting to develop their ideas and ‘have a go’ at writing challenging words.

 

The last sentence of the above journal says, ‘I felt excited.’ Well, I felt excited when I read that too! What a great attempt at spelling excited.

Just a quick post. Thanks for visiting, sending me emails and commenting. Next Post: Using literature to support teaching mathematics.

Cheers Nina

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ANZAC Day 2012: PrepD children (5 Year Olds) respond to the famous story Simpson and his Donkey

ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia’s most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.
The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.
Source: ANZAC Day – Australian War Memorial Website

Next week we have a public holiday for ANZAC day in Australia. Our Prep children have been learning about the significance of this day. They have read and discussed picture story books about ANZAC day. One famous story read to the children was Simpson and his donkey. The children drew a directed picture of Simpson. Basically the children copy each line I do on my paper which will form their picture. I use directional language for this task. Their pictures are very individual and stunning.

Prep (5 Year Olds) pastel pictures:

One of my students went home to teach her family how to draw Simpson. They were amazed! I love the way the student chose different colors for the background. Picture below:

Cheers Nina

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