Getting Frustrated-planning Assessments Long Obs Aaaaahhh

[Guest]

Ahhh I'm getting so mad with myself....theres so much to do and its taking forever. I have done my planning for next week which has taken two days and its driving me crazy and its still not spot on. MAy sisters have gone out for as wakl with friends that have come down to visit us, asnd im still sat infront of the computer, getting nwhere fast.

 

1ST of all, ive got some brill video evidence of chn sorting, den making etc done in child initiated play, i am now thinkng ....it needs some sort of written description of whast they did....possible next steps etc.......What an absolute nitemare. I have about 17 videos of chn. to write all of them up will take forever. How do you guys do it. Is there a quick way f doing it?

 

please please help me, im getting so cross with myself

 

xxxx

[Cait]

Firstly I think you need to take a big breath and refresh your smile muscles.

 

Now, planning - most of mine is done retrospectively these days as I look at what the children have done and achieved from their various activities. From this I 'plan', but that's a loose term. SO I may think, Hmm, Ben could do with some mark-making, he's keen to write his name, so what can I think of? So I note that, and as the day goes on I may find an opportunity to write on the path with chalks or water, or use a stick and write in mud, or perhaps spell it out with his cheesy wotsits at lunch time.... (bleugh!)

 

So my holidays are reasonably planning free and I can get up and go with the flow.

 

Evidence - wise. Just write it up like an ordinary observation and take your next steps from it as you would usually. I have an observation I've put onto a CD that can't really be written up, as it's a girl's struggle/persistence with some stacking cups and it would lose the essence of it if I tried to write it up. So It's on a CD of its own, It's in a CD pocket and it's stuck onto an observation sheet with a brief description of the activity and next steps.

 

Oh - and 17!!! How come you have them all to do at once? Are they all your key children? If not, share them out to their respective key persons so that they can make the most of them, they may just be needing some of the evidence the videos contain!

 

Don't get cross with yourself - nothing gets done that way! (speaking from experience)

[trekker]

Hi ...I saw so many similarities with how I used to plan in your message...I used to spend practically all the holidays doing planning but no more! (though that's not to say I dont spend it doing work stuff but thats another story! )

 

Now, like cait, I too do most of it retrospectively and very loosely - and its so much more relaxed...much of what I used to plan didnt get done anyway so now I record what I / children DID instead and that informs the next day / week etc..ongoing. Much more inspiring to see what we do rather than what we didnt get around to!

 

1ST of all, ive got some brill video evidence of chn sorting, den making etc done in child initiated play, i am now thinkng ....it needs some sort of written description of whast they did....possible next steps etc.......What an absolute nitemare. I have about 17 videos of chn. to write all of them up will take forever. How do you guys do it. Is there a quick way f doing it?

 

I'd agree with Cait - don't even try to write it all up...if you need something on paper just pick out what was significant for each child...and planning next steps could be as simple as 'provide resources for den making', 'provide a challenge to make a den' e.g. for a specifc purpose / fit a certain no of children... that sort of thing...but again don't get stressed if children dont do it...just write what they do - no doubt it'll provide evidence you need.

 

Good Luck!

[Guest]

A thanks loads for that Cait, Sometimes it all seems to be so so time consuming. When you have video evidence that basically shows you what the child can do and needs to develop. Surely that should be enough rather than typing up. I think what you said, was a very good idea. I think i willl develop a folder for all chn and video evidence can go into each one.

 

Cait you have certainly put it more into perspective for me.

 

thankyou very much. Enjoy your hols

 

 

xxx

[Guest]

Hi trekker, thankyou aswell for that, feeling heaps better now.

 

So do you think it is fine to go in on monday morning with no planning done (except the basics of course-like keyworker time etc) and by seeing what the chn do on monday....plan to extend on tuesday. So basically on monday, tuesday will be a blank canvas, untill monday evening when you have jotted observations in which have informed you to do for tuesday?

 

i hope i have explained that ok.

 

a few of my chn in reception stil arent counting (instead they will be saying 1, 4. 2, 6) etc. That really needs adrressing with about 5chn. So monday will have some basic counting activities with these chn, while others need shape recognition, and then there is another group who are bright sparks and can order numbers to ten. Out of 26 chn, its so difficult to plan for every group different activities....how do you do it? i promise not to bother you anymore asfter this.

 

it is half term after all ha ha

 

xxxx

[Guest]

Firstly I think you need to take a big breath and refresh your smile muscles.

What a lovely thing to say! Made me smile when I read it

 

Now, planning - most of mine is done retrospectively these days as I look at what the children have done and achieved from their various activities. From this I 'plan', but that's a loose term. SO I may think, Hmm, Ben could do with some mark-making, he's keen to write his name, so what can I think of? So I note that, and as the day goes on I may find an opportunity to write on the path with chalks or water, or use a stick and write in mud, or perhaps spell it out with his cheesy wotsits at lunch time.... (bleugh!)

 

So my holidays are reasonably planning free and I can get up and go with the flow.

That sounds ideal! I'm currently doing some planning for next week around the theme of bonfire night (we have to follow a curriculum map at school and our topic for next half-term is 'Celebrations'). How do you incorporate festivals/special events? Do you plan for these in advance and let the rest of your planning be retrospective?

 

What type of setting are you in? I teach in a school-based nursery. We have 28 children in our morning sessions and 22 in our afternoons. To plan for the next steps of each individual child would surely be a mammoth task! Do you plan for individual children's needs or do you try to identify common needs within the group?

 

 

(popcorn, sorry to hijack your thread slightly! )

Edited October 27, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Ah its no problem....every little bit of advice is greatly received. I'm new to rec, so still trying to get my head around it all. I'm planning for bonfire theme aswell. and trying to think of some psrn activitiexs that would adress all chn, otherwise yioure right it does turn out to be a mammoth task of catering for each child. But thwey are all on such different levels mathematically. So t seems only right to cater three different activities to support each ability group

 

xxx

[Guest]

We do more or less as cait has said, but each of my members of staff do there own planning i just colate it all and do a weekly provision sheet based on the plans that my staff have said and what the children have planned and want out,

 

takes me 1 and bit hours and this includes L&S planning too

 

have a rethink on what you do, are you writing for the sake of writing?? If so no point do not write and rewrite stuff

[trekker]

So do you think it is fine to go in on monday morning with no planning done (except the basics of course-like keyworker time etc) and by seeing what the chn do on monday....plan to extend on tuesday. So basically on monday, tuesday will be a blank canvas, untill monday evening when you have jotted observations in which have informed you to do for tuesday?

 

i hope i have explained that ok.

 

a few of my chn in reception stil arent counting (instead they will be saying 1, 4. 2, 6) etc. That really needs adrressing with about 5chn. So monday will have some basic counting activities with these chn, while others need shape recognition, and then there is another group who are bright sparks and can order numbers to ten. Out of 26 chn, its so difficult to plan for every group different activities....how do you do it? i promise not to bother you anymore asfter this.

 

Well I'm in preschool so I guess we can be more flexible than reception but yes I do feel that its okay to go in with no planning as such...and we do work pretty much as you describe.

However this flexible planning is underpinned by a simple long term plan (we focus on two areas of learning each week which just helps us to ensure we cover everything) and we set out some resources geared at the specific areas. A medium term plan is also in place - just describing what skills children are likely to encounter or initiate based on the time of year.

There may be a very simple 'what, why, who for' plan for a specific activity some weeks...but in the main we do plan to respond to what the children are doing spontaneously to provide the input they need - so the planning is more about what skills / knowledge we hope to support rather than the activites we will do to achieve this.

Leaving it open means you can be much more flexible and fit it in wherever the children are playing.

 

I think having the long and medium term plan in place enables me to justify the apparent lack of actual planning becasue I do go back at the end of each half term and evaluate whether we covered what we aimed to and we definitely do.

We don't get bogged down with too many written plans and actually we manage to record loads of evidence doing it retrospectively and its ALWAYS something that has happened - you can plan a great activity in advance but if it doesnt happen its nothing more than a peice of paper.

 

As for your maths activities that'd translate in my setting as tentatively planning to sing firework themed number songs (counting up and down)....with props that can be put in order and probably providing shaped collage peices and blocks for children to make rockets... input from staff will encourage naming, describing them etc....BUT I'd be planning to introduce the same skills / vocab wherever I ended up that session.

 

Hope that helps.

[Guest]

Ah thankyou so very very much for all your replies, it really was very much appreciated in a time of need. I'm feeling loads better. Will defo plan more daily, it makes more sense and i also like the idea of your med term plan Trekker. Will look into that further aswell

 

Thankyou again

 

xxx

[Froglet]

Popcorn - just wanted to say thank you for posting this and thanks to everyone else for their replies. It's reassuring to know that other people go through/have gone through exactly the same thing as me. I understand what people say about 'planning' retrospectively and would love to do it but I have Year 1s in my class too so am expected to do more structured planning for them (while not ignoring the needs of the reception children)!

 

I get round it like this - whole class inputs for maths and English. 1 day a week focusing on letter/number formation (in sand, cornflour, water etc). 2 mornings a week for a maths activity, 2 for an English one. Then I plan enhancements for my continous provision areas which tie into a topic/theme. The children do not have to do these planned activities but often do. I use my knowledge of the children when interacting with them to adapt the activity to meet their needs e.g. encouraging mark making, counting, sharing, expressing opinions etc.

 

The topic links are because after our last Ofsted it was suggested that there weren't clear enough links between the children's activities and the main topic - now I'm doing my utmost to make any links so obvious you'd have to be asleep to miss them.

 

It's not an ideal in terms of following interests but I think it probably works as a compromise (if anyone has any better ideas I'd love to hear them)!

 

The downside - I feel like I'm taking even longer to plan - especially on a weekly basis when I end up with guided reading, L&S, maths, English, 'enhancements' and any work that needs to be done for the NC subjects the Y1s are doing. Trust me though if I didn't have the Y1s I'd be doing it a lot more like the other suggestions on here.

[Guest]

Oh my golly, Helen. That sounds boggling. You would think there would be a quick easy answer o all this. I know a few teachers who have been in arly years foever and still get completely confused. Thankyou for the reassurance Helen. its nice to think that others have the same issues.

 

xxxx

[KST]

Hi guys,

 

I just love this forum for all the help and advise! I just wanted to add that I am in reception and I do a very rough over view of the week, I tend to plan a CLL activity on mondays and a PSRN one tuesdays, I plan these in advance based on next steps from the week before. It gives me confidence going in on a monday that it is planned, and it also allows me to pass on the activity plan to my TA to carry out sometimes so I can spend time observing. We both sctibble all over the plans which I then plan for the rest of the week based on these two days. I plan my continuous provision for monday and then enhance it as the week goes on based on obs and often do that retrospectively.

 

I plan letters and sounds in advance but tend to dip in and out of my planning as the week goes depending on how they are finding it etc. I think its about finding a system that works for you, but I am always changing things!

 

Def don't write up your video evidence, its all there, just reference it to the scale points and then write a next step to it which could just be written in their learning story.

 

Good luck and try to enjoy the rest of yoiur half term. Profiles for my baseline assessment are top of my list for tomorrow (not planning).

 

x

[Froglet]

I just love this forum for all the help and advise!

 

I wanted to second this - I always think people are so helpful (and polite!) on here - I never worry about asking a 'silly question' or saying how I do something for fear of someone else 'shouting' at me to tell me just how completely wrong I am.

 

Thank you.