Plan Do Review

[Guest]

Hi

I am thinking about next year and I would like to fit in do plan do review sessions in my reception class. Does anyone else do this in reception and if so how do you organise it when you have 30 children and only 2 adults? do you select certain children each day? do you organise it in friendship groups or random groups? do you do it with the whole class in paired talk????

 

I understand the process but would appreciate some ideas on how to organise it so it is successful and becomes part of the daily routine.

thanks x

[Freefaller]

Hello,

I've got 30 children and just 2 of us as well. We've been doing plan-do-review for a few years now. It works very well. We start with planning where the children would like to work (plan). We do it in 2 groups: focused plus the rest of the class. There are a variety of ways to do this. You can talk with the children about the activities; use telephones, numbers to choose a certain person to share their plan with the group; children can draw/write their plans on big pieces of paper/sticky labels, use counters on planning board(board with available areas). It can be done in groups of 2 or 3 (once the children are familiar with the concept) with the teacher overhearing the discussions on the carpet. If possible children make 2 plans(first, next). During work-time(child-initiated) children are reminded about their plans - sometimes their plans change and they are supported in the newly chosen activity. After work-time the class regroups to review their activities. 2 groups as in the planning session. Depending on the ability of children the focused group either recalls verbally or writes/draws about the outcomes of their session. The rest of the class talk about selected plans, asking questions, making suggestions. These are then used for the afternoon planning session as a reminder of how to improve their activities(make them more challenging). Hope this helped. Good luck!

[Guest]

Thanks freefaller.

Can I ask a couple of questions -

1. 
    
   

the two groups are one group focus children (how many) and 2nd group rest of class?

1. 
    
   

do children become more purposeful in their play after they have planned?

 

how do you monitor where children are playing - do you work with focus children to encourage them to stick a bit to their plan?

 

when do you fit in your adult led focus activities?

 

thanks again - I really want to get it right and have tried bits this year but havent managed to fit it into the timetable so it becomes embedded practice.

[Freefaller]

The focussed group size depends on their thinking/talking abilities. If you have many EAL children you'd group them together and it will be a very small group(2-4), children with more understanding could be in higher numbers (up to 10). The children are reminded about their plans if they choose to do something compeletely unproductive, e.g. running from side of the playground to the other. Sometimes new plans are more interesting then the ones they thought about prior to the worktime (they might see someone doing something they haven't thought about). As you've got 30 between 2 of you it's hard to monitor the focussed group, especially with free flow in place. The recall(review) helps to work out whether the plan worked or not what's been achieved, etc. I use planning diaries to reinforce children's self-evaluation skills.

My adult-led and adult-initiated activities take place after worktime and snack. Different schools will do this differently. You'll need to experiment to see what will work for you.

There's a very good document from DCSF - Learning, Playing and Interacting - it's about how adult-led activities should fit in with children's independent learning.

Hope it helps.