Susan Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 How do you organise your day and your individual lessons? Early finishers? Marking? What routines work really well for you? Do you have TA support and if not how do you make sure everyone is moving forward, on task etc and work with a group yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Late reponse to your thread but wasn't in year 2 when you posted this but am now and thought I'd add how I've gone about bringing some of the principles of the EYFS into year 2. I basically have a literacy morning on a mon and wednesday, where I begin the day with phonics (15 mins) and then a literacy carpet session. Then two groups (half the class) work with me and the TA on a guided writing or adult led literacy activity. The other half of the class choose their own learning and work on challenges that need to be completed by the end of the week. After playtime I do a maths carpet session for 15 mins and then the other half of the class do the literacy adult led activity with me and TA. So by the end of the morning they have all completed an adult led activity and had an opportunity to do challenges or child initiated learning. On Tues and thurs morning, its the same but with a maths adult led activity. On Friday morning I do guided reading in groups throughout the morning. There are 6 challenges a week, one is always to work on their individual maths target (takes time to implement but they love it once its embedded) and others are generally maths, literacy or topic related tasks to do which are linked to the adult led learning that week. It a change for children to develop their independent learning and most children are very good at it, some need more prompting! I am lucky I have a little boy with one to one support so the low ability children often get help from her with challenges. The afternoons are made up of PE sessions, ICT, topic based learning. Again I usually have half the class work with an adult and half chooses their learning. I still need to develop my continuous provision, especially outside but this year has been a big change and I've had to realise that I can't do everything at once! That is next years challenge! Our data is looking good, children are making expected progress (which is much better than our last few years in KS1). I have a general TA every morning and a one-to-one TA in the mornings. In the afternoon I have a TA 3 afternoons a week. I do find it hard to ensure all children are on task all the time when not working with an adult, but I think spending time fostering a love of learning and an excitement for completing challenges has meant most children are motiavted enough to stay on task.I feel like its been a good balance from what they get in Reception and both year 1 and 2 are working in this way. Hope that makes sense - be interested to hear others views/thoughts on this and their structure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Thanks KST, hopefully that will help someone else now. I didn't have any support at all and the the task became too onerous and I have now moved on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I think working in this way would be impossible without TA support! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Thank you for this - I don't teach Y2 at the moment (although who knows when I'll be there again!) but think this approach would be helpful with my mixed Y1/2 class. Do you have any issues from parents/head with having maths/literacy mornings? This is what my reception children do but my Y1s have a full lesson of each every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 No I don't have any issues with parents as we spent time informing parents of the benefits of child initiated learning in reception and parents could see its value so it has just been a gradual step they have moved up the school. The parents and head can see they are making good progress so they have no problems. And they are still accessing as much literacy and numeracy a week, just that some are presented to them as a challenge. x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 KST that sounds really great. I'd love to move towards working more this way with my year twos, but I always find it difficult to think up maths and literacy challenges that they can do independently that are actually worthwhile. Would you mind showing me some examples of what you do? Also I'm interested in what you mean when you say they do a challenges related to their maths target. How do you organise this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Each child has an individual maths target card. It has their individual target on it in child speak. Children have to work on their target each week as one of their challenges. It takes a while to embed, I work with each child so they know what their target is and what they can use to help them work towards it. I update them every half term or more often if a particular child has shown they have met their target. Targets are usually things we have done in class before but things they need to practise more on. The HAPs can be seen as experts which can also help others. I do sometimes find it difficult to think up challenges but as I plan my weekly maths or literacy plan, I think what really needs adult input and what could the children do more independently. So in the same way that when you work a more structured maths lesson, there will be some groups of children working independently so these type of activities can be made into challenges. Good examples are: place a bucket in a hoop, number the bucket 5 and hoop 2 and children throw three bean bags into the bucket and add up their scores, if they miss the bucket but get the hoop they get 2 points etc. Or have a list of items and children measure how long they are, set up a shop roleplay, ask them to buy items and work out prices and pay with money (in pairs),a set of maths problems to complete or number sentences to do. I have 3 colourful boxes and I tend to differentiate the challenges 3 ways for maths and children know which colour box to get their maths problems or number sentencs from. For literacy, it might be to design a front cover for their story we are working on in class, or to complete their plan for their story, write a description for a character, act out the story we are learning that week etc. I introduce a challenge after a carpet session so they aren't bombarded with them all at once. Hope that makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Sorry it's taken so long to reply KST I've been a bit snowed under with work and haven't really been on the forum in a while. I appreciate you taking the time to answer though and I'm going to see if I can start this after half term with my class so that I can embed it with my year ones ready for next year. That way I'll have some 'experts' who can show the reception children that are coming up how to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 This is my second year with Y2 working in such a way. The first year had a terrible start, no transition time in year one and a massive focus on writing throughout the school meant that the idea of 'free learning' was just insane to them and I worked hard to ensure everyone was completeing their 'jobs' and being sanctioned if they didnt. I split the lit and num groups into 2 and try to alternate who I and the TA work with so we dont see the same children over and over again. I tend to start with either a lit/num starter before I take groups OR I model a job they have to do independently. This year I am working the same way but the children seem to have no / little curiosity or independence when it comes to 'free learning' and I have a hardcore group who prefer not to do their 'jobs' Im considering calling them challenges and seeing if it gets them on board. I did put some activities out and give them the opportuinity to explore and use our well stocked areas however they seem more interested in holding a toy and making it fly about!! So now im trying (for thefirst half term anyway) putting out the available resources daily,modelling something I might choose to learn in an area (writing letters for example) and asking the adults in the room to routinely ask 'what are you learning?' I tried asking them what things linked to their topic that they would like to do but bar one child they just look at me sort of 'your asking us???'kind of way, so im modelling that too. Does anyone have any ideas about 'busy' and immature boys who want to play rough and find it difficult to work with others and do the right thing without adult guidance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Oh and I have the full support of the head to do it however I fancy as last year our levels went significantly up. I find though when observed I get 'good with outstanding' as they cant say that all children made progress in the snapshot they see - although the lesson effectively would have all children worked with making good progress....any thoughts?I asked how I could get the coveted outstanding and was told to put activities out that just fit the objective at hand..which ill do for an observation but not every session as it goes against the ethos of independent learning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts