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I was asked by a regular visitor to my blog if I would post weekly writing samples and it’s amazing how a student’s writing can show growth in one week. That’s one of the exciting rewards of teaching very young students.

Another week has passed and the end of the first term for my Preps has arrived. I spent last week reviewing their writing and listening to reading. These young readers and writers are great ‘risk takers’. They need to be ‘risk takers’ with their learning and also need to know that this is  a valued behaviour. Listening to Sir Ken Robinson has once again stressed how important this is.  Visit our Teacher Professional Leave  ‘ning’ – we’ve uploaded some great videos, join the ‘ning’ and share with us or just learn what we are learning. 

Next term, I intend to post more about reading and the different strategies that I’m going to trial and build upon. I’ve been able to access some new ideas and have had some great resources shared with me. I’m a learner here and a ‘risk taker’.

I’ve included samples displaying the range of growth in my class. This is independent writing.  Student Led Interactive Writing, Journal Writing and Inquiry Reflections are planned weekly. Guided Writing and Teacher Led Interactive Writing will be introduced early next term. We also have free writing time. My students  love making little books and are trying to write stories. It’s  a natural process for these children. Their understanding of ‘book language’ is developing and they are using this knowledge to support their writing. My tips- I read to my students everyday, we read our Language Experience Wall, we write everyday, we share reading big books and we share our learning.

Cheers Nina

This week was the Prep’s first full week at school in their first formal year of education. Every now and again, I’ve got to ‘step back’ and remember their age. I have very high expectations and need to let them ‘smell the flowers’ sometimes. Today they spent part of the day just doing that. They are really creative little people and love drawing, making and decorating paper planes, using the construction materials and dancing. I love seeing the children play families with the doll’s house and listening to their conversations. They need more of this… I sometimes need to slow down and let them give their ‘brains a rest’. When a child tells you ‘their head is full’, you need to change plans.

I’ve decided to post a weekly snapshot of writing in response to a request, which displays the range of writing and development for both Interactive Writing and Independent Writing. The first samples are pieces of writing from their new Inquiry Reflection Journals. We’ve just finished our first inquiry and have been discussing what we have discovered. I’ve explained to them that they need to draw a border each time they record their reflections in this journal. The notion of a border was introduced to our staff by Lane Clark. She explained that when children design and write within a border they have a greater chance of remembering what they have written. The children now have a Journal and an Inquiry Reflection Journal. Our first inquiry is outlined below:

WHO WE ARE

Central Idea: Personal awareness and perspective of others helps develop self-identity

The children have discovered that we’re all different, our families are different, we look different and we like different things. We have been celebrating the fact that we are all different because as one child said, ‘it would be a very boring if we were the same’. The children recorded some of the things they like and we’ll be sharing these next week.

Inquiry Journal – Week 7

Interactive Writing – Week 7

The sentences these children are brainstorming as a class are challenging and this has been a bit tricky. All groups are composing the same class sentence at present which is related to shared experience.  Some of the words they are trying to spell are difficult, however, I’m always impressed by their attempts. Their sentence is, ‘When people are hurt we go to a teacher.’

Next week is the last week of term 1. I can’t believe that it’s holidays already, but I won’t complain!

Cheers Nina

I had a few teachers visit this week and as I tend to plan Student Led Interactive Writing on a Thursday, I thought it would be great for our visitors to see this teaching strategy in action. The children came up with the sentence – When the bell goes don’t be late. Quite an ambitious sentence to compose, but it was their sentence and that’s important. They have a number of strategies to help them with their writing now, but it is the collaborative nature of this strategy which makes it powerful. They are learning to prompt each other at present. When the children are confidently leading this strategy, I will start taking a group for Teacher Led Interactive Writing while the other groups are writing. The teacher led group will target students with similar learning needs.

As we only have two weeks of this term left,  I’m hoping to be able to start this next term. We have four terms in Australia and I can’t believe term one is nearly over. This group of children have been at school for 38 days. I’m very pleased with their progress.

On Friday the children wrote journal entries for their independent writing. I’m always  looking for the transfer of teaching and learning into their independent writing. All my students are moving forward with their reading and writing. Language Experience is the approach of choice – ‘give it a go’ if you’re not already using this approach.

Photo 1 Text: I love doing puzzles at school.

Photo 2 Text: You do school work on a DS.

Photo 3 Text: My friend came to my house.

 Just a quick post! This week our Preps will attend school for 5 days. It will be their first full week at school.

Cheers Nina  ‘Whoops’ – only 24 days!