I’ve had some requests from teachers who would like to see some samples of my student’s INDEPENDENT writing. Some are trying to follow my posts to plan their teaching and learning experiences. What a compliment. This is also an opportunity to thank the people who are sharing with me or writing blogs that I visit to inform my teaching and learning. There are so many great blogs to visit and I’m so thankful that these teachers are ‘risk takers’ and take the time to share their practice. I’ve been managing a post a week because this year has been so busy. I can’t remember a year like it! I wonder if others are feeling the same.
My students have now had 24 days of formal education and I’m so proud of their achievements. They are settling well, confident, developing a sense of belonging and fun. It’s a long weekend in Melbourne and these young children will enjoy their break. It’s full time from next week and I’m looking forward to having five days each week with the children.
My students have been immersed in the alphabet (Phonemic Awareness), Concepts of Print, stories, recounts, letter formation, rhyme, Language Experience, collaborative sentence construction, Independent Writing, Talk, Oral Language building and Student Led Interactive Writing. I define my approach as ‘The Interwoven Approach’. It’s like a weave – building on connections. Language Experience is the over arching philosophy in my classroom. Concepts are not introduced separately, there always needs to be a link/connection to prior knowledge. These are the foundation years and I want these students to have a strong foundation to build their future learning on.
When looking closely at each of these writing samples, I can see their understanding of writing growing. Each sample of writing is a recount of an experience. The concept of a sentence is developing, spaces are evident to define words. Full stops are present in some of the samples along with a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. Good attempts at spelling unknown words is evident. Within my Interwoven Approach/ Language Experience clear foci are planned in response to student writing needs. My students are well on their way to becoming competent young writers. They are ‘risk takers’, proud of their work and confident enough to ‘have a go’.
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 
