Cll Organisation

[Guest]

Hi everyone hoping someone can answer my queries as we are looking at improving the organisation of CLL in Reception. How do you approach guided reading and guided writing i.e. how is it timetabled? Also what other elements do you do for CLL as a focussed activities? Do you try and get through all groups in one session or do you space them over 2 days??

Sorry for so many questions - hope they make sense.

 

Thanks in advance,

Jules

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I don guided reading once a week on a monday morning. As a school we all do this, and we group together all the children in R, y1 and y2 and put them into groups dependant on their reading ability. We have about 10 groups, with between 4 and 6 children in. I have two groups in a 45 min time slot. My groups also have an extension activity to complete afterwards linked to the book. My TA takes the lower ability two groups and with one group all they are ready for is sharing a story.

As I mixed R/Y1 I do a literacy input everyday. I then have various groups completing activities throughout the week, some days all groups might be doing an activity (like guided reading, but more often than not, I make sure they are doing something alternate days. I try to do a prsn activity with the group not doing literacy, so they do have some group work - keep the parents off my back!). For example this week the more able are working towards writing their own story. The lower ability are just drawing pictures, and writing the initial sounds, and they will make their group story into a video book. We do literacy at a set time everyday - as that's easier to manage with the Y1s.

 

Emily

[KST]

In in reception and the way I currently run CLL is to do a shared reading/writing carpet session on Monday morning which is usually the big book focus for the week. I then work with groups throughout the morning so I have worked with all children by the end of the morning, the rest do CI play. But I usually find I only get through 4 of my 5 groups and have to get my TA to do a group or do them in the afternoon. I do guided reading on a friday morning - again I usually go into the afternoon as I have 7 groups as some groups only have 4 children in. Other than that I do phonics daily (phonic group activities on tuesday afternoon) and lots of reading stories and rhymes throughout the week. Would be interested to hear what others are doing. x

[Guest]

Hello

Yes we do the same as above - phonics sessions daily (generally straight after lunch), one morning dedicated to guided writing and one morning guided reading. We do a short session on the carpet for both and then focus groups. I too tend to only get 4 of my 5 groups done in that time and have to play catch up elsewhere. During those mornings the other children are ci too. We also have challenges which the children can choose to do which often have reading or writing included in them.

Hope that helps

Little Miss

[Guest]

Thanks for replies. KST and Little Miss can I just clarify do you have 2 mornings for CLL then but then have Phonics everyday? What does your timetable look like? We are trying to reorganse our timetable.

Also can I ask what sort of activities you provide on your writing table? Do boys access the area a lot?

 

Thanks

[KST]

Yes just CLL two mornings a week but phonics daily. I do the same for PSRN on two other mornings. The fifth morning I do PE and circle time. My afternoons are much freer and can vary. I usually do PE on monday afternoon, topic work the rest of the week, which is usally KUW or CD based. Friday afternoon is when I do a half hour music session.

 

I usally put paper in the writing area that has a nice coloured border that reflects the topic, e.g at the moment we are doing under the sea so the paper has mermaids and fish around the edge. We have also been doing some work on pirates so I put some blank templates for drawing treasure maps. I sometimes put in little zigzag books which children enjoy using. Outside \i put the same things on clipboards. I currently have a builders role-play outside so put some sheets which have lists for building materials. I always introduce new resources put out on the carpet and suggest ways to use it. The children always have access to nice different coloured pens and pencils, name cards, magnetic letters and boards, white boards and pens. I have finally got boys using the areas, but not all of them! And now my target is to get the boys to use their sounds in their writing which they can do in adult led activities.

 

Hope that makes sense and is useful. x

[Guest]

Hi

Our timetable doesn't always stay the same but generally we have:

2 CLL mornings - chn not involved in group are ci

Phonics everyday

Maths focus groups with teacher (1 activity over week) - chn not involved in group are ci

2 short whole class mental maths activities

An adult led activity inside (often CD or KUW) and outside (which is often maths related, or CD, KUW) during ci

1 morning - music groups (while we're on our PPA) chn not involved in group are ci

3 short whole class topic sessions - where we also introduce lots of ci activities relating to the topic for the week

1 PE session a week

2/3 circle times a week

(i think that's everything!)

 

In terms of the writing area we do similar to above and have writing opportunities in the role play areas. We have writing challenges eg can you write a shopping list for a fruit salad etc, we encourage chn to write labels for their constructions and models. One thing that has worked for the boys for me is copying superhero colouring sheets eg spiderman, ben 10, transformers etc which you can get free online onto a word document and then add speech bubbles or a couple of lines at the bottom of the page. I then say that these are one of the free choosing activities but that you need to write a caption, label or some speech in the speech bubble - because the boys love these characters so much they are often keen to do some writing and it is something you can encourage quite easily.

 

Little Miss

Edited March 7, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Thanks for the two replies KST and LittleMiss, they have been most helpful. Loved the speech bubbles superhero work.

What stage of development are your children up to in their writing, what can your higher, middle and lower ability do?

 

Thanks in advance.

[KST]

Ooh I love the superhero idea, going to do that now!!!

 

I've got a real mix of ability. My HA are writing 3 sentences in adult led, beginning to use full stops and good phonetic attempts at longer words.

Middle ability generally 1 sentence using dominant sounds

Low Ability are hearing and beginning to write initial sounds and mark making. What abut yours?

I have LA just finishing phase2 of letters and sounds, MA re-ding phase 3 and HA ding phase 4. x

[Guest]

Hey we are similar to KST in terms of writing abilities, although I do have a couple of special needs who can't hear the first sound yet. Phonics wise we teach whole class phonics, we are teaching Phase 3 at the moment. The majority of the class are secure at phase 2, apart from a few LA and and special needs. I can't say that anyone is secure at phase 3 yet.

LittleMiss

[Guest]

I like the super hero speech bubbles idea. I've done the same with dinosaur pictures from clipart and added speech bubbles to them in word.