How To Organise Cll In Reception

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering if anyone can help me. I will be teaching Reception (20 children) in sept after teaching in key stage two for 5 years. How do you organise your Literacy activities? Do all your chn take part in an adult led Literacy activity each day or do you have different groups of children completing adult led activities on different days so by the end of the week each child has had an adult led activity? I'm just unsure of the best way to orgainse literacy sessions.

 

Can anyone recommend any websites that have literacy planning for Reception as I am completely new after being in key stage 2 for so long. I am really looking forward to teaching Reception and I want to ensure I get the correct balance of adult led an child initiated activities throughout the day.

 

I hope I have explained myself well

[Susan]

Hi and welcome.

Reception is a great place to be and Im sure you will enjoy the change!

 

You should have a direct phonics teaching session each day and follow your schools chosen phonic programme. Letters and Sounds has some excellent ideas too but is not a resourced scheme. There are lots of websites that will support this and indicate that they support the order in which the sounds are introduced.

 

Other elements of CLL can be delivered across the day/ week.

Have a look at "Literacy matters" and "hamilton trust" for some planning ideas although they do tend to be very generic and will need adapting for you and your class. Some of the LEA gfl sites also have resources that may give you a start.

 

Good luck.

[Guest]

Hey

 

As the reply states above it is important to have a set phonic session daily but also have lots of listening activities as children are still 'tuning' their ears and needs lots of games etc to help them with their phonics in the future.

 

I think the second important thing is to set your room/area up so children can use and develop their skills without adults when alot can feel more comfortable. A good resourced literacy area is a must with lots of writing opportunities aswell as reading opportunities. I also have sand trays for formationa and brushes with water outside etc etc.

 

I personally have 2 whole mornings set on my timetable where I carry out focused literacy tasks, depending on the tasks the children tend to get atleast 1 focused CLL task a week and sometimes 2. The main problem I also find is getting them to experiment and allow them to realise their writing is never 'wrong' it amazes me how many children are scared of writing and don't enjoy it until they feel confident with their skills!!

 

Good luck, you will love it once you get into the swing of things

 

x

[Guest]

Here is how I organise my CLL throughout a normal week:

 

* daily session of phonics

 

* 4 sessions of 'literacy'- whole class input, adult directed activities for 1 or 2 groups plus independent activities for other groups. Groups rotate through out the week so in therory they all complete all activities throughout the week.

 

* guided reading- 1 afternoon a week.

 

* opportunities to apply phonics, reading and writing across all areas throughout the week both inside and outside.

 

hope that makes sense! Sometimes I do things differently depending on what we are doing and the children's interests etc. We are very flexible! x

[Guest]

Thank you for all your replies.

 

I have set up a writing area with a variety of writing pens and pencils, lots of different paper, envelopes etc... looking forward to seeing what the children think of it. We follow RML phonics and RML activities will take place daily followed by a Literacy session.

 

Is it possible to have a look at your Literacy/CLL planning just so I can see how you organise groups of children during the Literacy session?

 

Thanks

[Susan]

My CLL in reception would be a focus time / whole group teaching time and then a group working with me or my TA to follow up in some way with a game or formal activity and the rest involved in CI activities. I would then rotate the children working with me/TA allowing for differentiation to complete the task.

 

So NO formal CLL time other than the initial teaching focus.

[kittycat1279]

My CLL in reception would be a focus time / whole group teaching time and then a group working with me or my TA to follow up in some way with a game or formal activity and the rest involved in CI activities. I would then rotate the children working with me/TA allowing for differentiation to complete the task.

 

So NO formal CLL time other than the initial teaching focus.

 

I do a similar thing to Susan except the finer details organisation. We work as a year r unit, we do the RWI or RML programme so they get a literacy/english input everyday through that. Along with that they also have a writing activity and some other game or small group big book time. When it comes to writing, it is usually done throughout the day so we would have 2 adults focussed on that, and then the other adults would be observing, outside or playing. The children not involved in writing would be involved in CI activities as Susan said. The game or big book would tend to be one adult at a time but this would rotate between members of staff. We like the writing for each class to be done by the same person as much as possible as it gives a good assessment/moderation of where all the children are at.

[meles]

The way i teach CLL is to have a whole class session each day lasting approx 20mins - usually linked to a big book. and we do 1 CLL focus group per week, as i cover a different area each day. so on a wed all chn will take part in a CLL focus task- this helps me to differentiate as some might work 1-1 with me, but other chn might do the activity in a small group. when they have completed the task they have the rest of the day for CI activities. Hope it helps

[meles]

i love this forum, it always makes me think! i posted thinking i was doing alright with CLL but after reading your post Susan, i am really interested in what you do! just read your post more carefully and i would be very interested to see an example of your planning as it sounds less formal than they way i am currently running CLL, but i am struggling to visualise it in my head and wondering how you set it out. really hope you can put soemting up. Thanks meles x

[Susan]

I'm sure youre doing alright, meles!

My interpretation of your post does not suggest that we are thinking differently!

 

I always planned flexibly and I used to like to complete an activity on the same day as I delivered a teaching focus otherwise I felt that the children were not responding to the same stimulus, much in the same way as SP6 describes. However the flexible planning allowed an activity to continue if need be and for me to move or adapt my ideas as the week progressed.

 

I did not plan for literacy or maths separately as I found that too restrictive and indeed is what I still struggle with now I have moved into year1. But links were not always drawn as we planned for our main learning intention.

 

I have attached a sample plan but this would be my initial plan not the working result as that was hand written!

Hope that helps a bit.

2.6Weekly_and_Daily_Plans.doc

16.6Weekly_and_Daily_Plans.doc

[SmileyPR]

Hi Susan,

 

I see you also work with handwritting. We were using the Nelson Handwriting for Reception (blue workbooks). I have felt 'bad' to have to use workbooks, but how would they be able to reach the corresponding ELG unless that formal handwriting lessons are given

[Susan]

We are just about to return to Nelson! We also have a new HT so not sure about handwriting books for reception but I definitely think handwriting is a skill which needs to be taught as well as all those other opportunities and experiences that facilitate it.

 

I have always found that children enjoy the slightly more formal aspects of taught handwriting too so am not adverse to some formality if appropriate.

[Marion]

Not sure if these will be useful to anyone using Jolly Phonics but I've just made these for introducing the sound and the formation ...I'm also using those old fashioned lined handwriting books

jolly_phonics_rainbow_letters.pdf

rainbow_diagraphs.pdf

[SmileyPR]

I use Letters and Sounds order together with Jolly Phonics (big & small books, Jolly Songs) but Nelson Handwriting order... although, I did start with book #2 instead of #1 because I found the patterns easier to develop.

 

The previous year I used the JP workbooks, but found the tracing exercises were too small to start from the beginning (= in size to the ones in book #4, last one, of Nelson) and did not have enough to practice, so we changed to Nelson's and it was a huge success with the children. For the younger ones it was a bit difficult at the beginning, but they got it after a while. It helped them to gain confidence at the hour of applying the knowledge when writing in adult led or child initiated activities.

[meles]

Thanks susan for putting those plans on, it makes it clearer.

also just had a look at the jolly phonics sheets Marion has made they are fantastic!! i will be using them - so thank you very much for sharing!

[Susan]

thanks Marion, those will be really useful for the reception class as we're just changing our handwriting style.