Observation

Today I had the opportunity to go to another school and observe another (more experienced) teacher for the day.

It was great to see how different other classes run.  I picked up some great ideas that I can use to boost the current routines I already have.

Important take home ideas from today:

• remember that most classes are bigger that my 11 students so routines need to reflect that. The size of my class means that routines etc are more manageable.
• the structure of my writing programme - how to break up explicit teaching
• class wide reading literacy ideas (literacy bingo) - a selection of activities that must be completed by the end of the week. 
• using the same basic facts sheet in class and for home learning
• bigger inquiry based buddy project with digital class.
• how different the relationships between students are when there are so many more of them.

Sharp Reading - Term 2 2016

Last term I completed a day long sharp reading course presented by Hilton Ayrey focusing on improving outcomes for struggling readers. During the course I had one student in mind who I thought may benefit from this. Over the last 8 school weeks I have used this programme with P a year 4 student in my class and found:

• when we began the program P was reading at level 19, he was making many self corrections and was repeating sentences numerous times even when there were no errors. It is important to note that his comprehension level was higher than his decoding. His post program running record at level 22 came out as him being independent at that level. He made a lot fewer self-corrections and did not need to repeat as often. His decoding level matched his comprehension level.
• His confidence and enjoyment of reading has grown. 
• He has told me he uses the strategy at home when reading with his parents or independently.
• Based on where he is now I would predict that he will be reading at age by the end of the year.
• His parents were happy as they had been worried about his reading.

To ensure he is able to maintain the strategy I am going to show the TA how to do the strategy and have her read with him every now and again and practicing the strategy when they come to more challenging words.