Literacy in Reception

[Guest bell89]

Hi all,

I am an NQT in reception and am struggling with my literacy planning at the moment. We are required to do 2 guided writing sessions and 1 guided reading per week in addition to guided maths sessions. We do a daily phonics session but I am unsure whether I should be doing a discreet 'literacy' whole class input in addition to this?

We currently focus on a story book each week linked to our topic (eg. at the moment we are doing a 'winter' topic so each week we focus on a wintery themed story). I spend one carpet session reading the story and discussing the characters etc. We then do guided writing with the children during the latter part of the week, which begins with a whole class carpet session discussing ideas about what they might want to write about the story and doing a shared writing example before children complete their own writing as an adult-led activity throughout the day. My children are quite able with many being able to write a sentence almost independently.

We also do handwriting practise during the week in addition to formation activites being available in the continuous provision.

I know that there is so much more to literacy than writing and phonics but am stumped on how to approach it and ideas of what to do without being more formal than we already are.

Hope this makes some sense and someone can point me in the right direction?!

Thanks

[lulubelle]

Hi, I also have 2 writing, 2 maths on top of phonics, reading a week. I link writing to interests/topic and ensure it has purpose, my last two observations were outstanding inc ofsted! On top of this I do have Whizzy English and Whizzy maths. Whizzy English is 15 mins a day where I teach sentence structure e.g punctuation, verb, adjectives and connectives so far in a fun way. We have a mixed cohort and this has also helped with language skills as well as identifying these in reading and writing. I can send you this weeks planning for eng if you like. This sounds quite formal but only quick and the other writing sessions always have an engaging hook so the children see writing as fun and can't wait to do it e.g dino eggs, classroom elves, stolen pants and so on!

[Guest]

Hi Lulubelle

 

Please could I have a copy of your planning too?

Thanks

[Guest Anje]

That sounds great, could I look at your planning for whizzy English, or hear more ideas for it please? Thanks x

[Guest bell89]

Hi Lulubelle,

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear from someone doing something similar in terms of directed activities. I would really appreciate a copy of your planning!

Can I ask ~ do you do also do discreet inputs for UW and CD? I have recently revised my timetable and just can't manage to fit in another 2 carpet sessions so only do a weekly adult-led activity each week in both these areas.

Thanks!

[SueFinanceManager]

Hi bell89

Welcome to the forum

As a newbie you may not have spotted the search engine found on the grey bar running across the screen, this allows you to search the forum for similar threads, topics and even articles etc so can be a useful tool when ponder a situation

I did a quick search and there are a few other similar threads;

http://eyfs.info/forums/topic/38828-guided-reading-in-reception/

http://eyfs.info/forums/topic/38790-literacy-working-wall/

http://eyfs.info/forums/topic/38720-reading-for-a-purpose/

http://eyfs.info/forums/topic/38705-class-not-getting-phonics/

 

Anyway, hope some of these help

[Guest bell89]

Thanks Sue, the links are really helpful for advice and ideas. Much appreciated!

[lulubelle]

Hello,

Apologies for not replying sooner, catching up on sleep post Ofsted! I will add my planning here tomorrow in my PPA time with explanations on how it works too. Hope it will be of use :1b

[Guest]

Hello,

Apologies for not replying sooner, catching up on sleep post Ofsted! I will add my planning here tomorrow in my PPA time with explanations on how it works too. Hope it will be of use :1b

Hi Lulubelle

 

Would be great to see your planning, looking foward to reading it!

 

Thank you!

[lulubelle]

Sorry, I though I had replied last week, but was just to a private e-mail I had on same subject! Here it is copuied and pasted!

Hello,

I have attached Plans. For writing input we work on a now and next basis to ensure differentiation. I take the children in mixed groups but tell them their next step when they come to me. Most writing activities start with a hook such as a letter, video, picture, problem to engage children and then they decide what we should do from there. I found this really engages the boys in particular as gives a real purpose to the writing. Whizzy English is a quick 15mins before lunch where we look at sentence structure and grammar to support phonics learning and their writing. Again I try to keep this as active and quick as possible but I've found children love learning words like adjective and connective and then spotting them in books and their own writing. We also got rid of books this year and the children have a folder to put their writing in again keeping it really purposeful as they can use coloured paper, put their signs up, post letters before they get put in the folder. I do 2 adult directed sessions a week and ensure that resources are left out in child initiated time afterwards.

Hope this helps

Lulu

Writing.docx

Whizzy english.docx

Edited January 21, 2014 by lulubelle

[Guest]

This looks fab Lulabelle. Can we see a copy of whizzy maths please? Also any chance I could see how you approach sentence structure within whizzy english?

 

Thanks in advance

[Guest]

Hi Lulubelle

Interested to see how you do your literacy, can you send me your planning.

What is Whizzzy maths/english, is it a CD?

Thanks for your support

[Guest]

just seen your post above so don't worry, thanks

[lulubelle]

Hello, daisychain7 I will pop the planning up this weekend when have a bit of free time

Lulubelle