Help, 'english' Lesson Observation.

[Guest]

Hi guys . On Monday my head is carrying out literacy observations with a focus on how we extend the more able (particulary in writing). I have a very child initiated reception class which works very well and at the moment our theme is pirates! I was thinking of bringing in a treasure chest and discussing what treasure is with the class. After generating the obvious ideas of jewels and gold, my treasure basket would contain photo's of my family and thigs that are precious to me. I could then help children generate a number of ideas of what might be special treasure to them/what they would take away to sea with them. I thougt then maybee the less able (Hate that word!) writers could write a list whilst the more developed writers could write simple sentences such as 'I will take my teddy and my mum....etc as an adult led activity. Don't know wether that sunds good but would realy apreciate any advice. Thanks

 

Sorry for spelling mistakes, it's late, i'm tired and getting moderated tomorrow!!!

Edited June 17, 2009 by Guest

[kittycat1279]

The introduction to the writing sounds great - really inspiring. The writing activity sounds okay but doesn't sound very exciting after such a great start. Could you have a letter from someone asking for what they would take to sea with them (not sure of the exact scenario) but having an audience is really important. You can then genrate the ideas but it is really important to talk about why. Modelling sentences such as I will take my teddy because I like to cuddle it. I will take a photo of my mum because I love her ....

We had a training on writing a month or so a go and putting in the connectives in verbal language is key. your more able writers should then be encouraged to explain why they would take different things with them as this will obviously increase the level of the sentence.

 

I hope this helps - I may try and do something like this as it seems like a great idea, just got to get them interested in pirates!

[emmajess]

The Magic Box by Kit Wright is a poem that springs to mind - could you read this the day before? Maybe then when you've shown your lovely chest full of treasure and talked about theirs, you could remember the poem and they could all be pirate poets - maybe Pirate Pete or whoever wanted a poem for him to read in his pirate ship?

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies guys. Had another idea. I'm thining of instruction writing and so turning up to school and finding our class bear Benny has gone missing. There is a letter from pirate Pete saying that Benny has gone to sea with him, however he does not know how he should look after him. Taking your ideas on board we could verbalise some sentences and instruction writing then the MA writers could write 'He will need some sun cream....etc. and the LA writers could write a simple list of thngs that Benny will need i.e.

Suncream

hat

honey etc. What do you think?

[Knoksk]

Let the LA writers do the list but then also challenge them by asking them why they would need that particular item? Maybe even encourage any early LA finishers to write a small sentence? It could be a mass of intial sound letters but it also shows that you are trying to move them on? I hope thats good advice.