Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Help! My head handed me today a lesson observation format based on guided writing for my performance management . She did kindly (!) say she realised the children had only been in school a few weeks but would still like to see a lesson based on writing. The lesson obs format is being used for the rest of the school and includes intro - 5 mins- Beginning which is to include text/ word sentence work and middle which includes individual work. Now she did say she recognised this format wasn't maybe that applicable and may use something more foundation based (!) plus we have to alter our timetable to fit it in - so now i'm in a bit of a flap. Most of the children presently are on the mark making stage and I don't want to end up all formal! - we're going to be either doing goldilocks or some work on our family - any ideas or advice would be most welcome!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Could the children playwrite a sorry letter from goldilocks maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tinkerbell Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Do what you would normally do is the answer but I realise you are over a barrel so to speak. You can do the format,the intro and the story telling 'Goldilocks' could you do it with a refrain where the children will join in the rhthym?'whose been eating my porridge'etc Could you have the children role play the story?(1 group) make masks to be used in plenary story re telling (1 group) Could your group writing be initial letters for mummy bear,daddy bear, baby bear and Goldilocks,and you could get them to talk together and think of a sentence ,write a sentence for them to read with them? Some sort of drawing the three bears and labelling mummy,daddy baby. These are just a few ideas of what may work???? Tinkerbellx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 First of all dont panic, although I am sure that would be my reaction too! I am sure you are aware of these but having a look at this may give you some ideas or at least the confidence to do what you know is right in an appropriate way early writing guidance You can also access the whole document at the Standards site. After a quick browse I can only see reference to shared writing though! I remember when we trained to use this, we were shown a speech bubble for the Golidilocks story that the children had scribed in. Could be that Goldilocks has some featured plans!? Or you could draw and write name captions/labels for family members? Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Is your head familiar with the "Foundation Stage Profile" as an assessment tool or are you talking about a yr 1 class. The shove fom above is scary sometimes. I like the idea of shared writing with the goldilocks story and speech bubbles as suggested earlier. Best of luck I'm sure you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 mj-led, My headteacher was the same when I taught reception. It's an all-to-familar story isn't it? Suebee, I'd just suggest doing what you would do anyway. Anyway, just wanted to say that I hope it goes well Sparkle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Hi Suebee I agree with sparklebox, stick to what you know is right for your group, that gut feeling, you can then justify what you do beacause you know the children. How about labelling the role-play area, perhaps the house of the three bears, this could even be done using ICT too if you have the facility for this. The children could then have chosen what is in the house and tell you what they want to write etc. the other thing that i have seen done which was lovely, was an adult coming in as a 'shoe shop Inspector', all dressed up with clip board etc, the role-play area was set up as a shoe shop (obviously) and the children and adult all made an audit of what was in the shop, all with clip boards - which they loved - and all writing together. This could be adapted to suit any situation, but may not be formal enough for your head. Good luck anyway - let us know how it goes! Kellsa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 thanks guys - especially for all those ideas and reassuring words! How come I never find being observed any easier I'll never know despite being through 3 Ofsteds!- I always seem to fall apart when someone's watching me and end up feeling disappointed with how it went - goodness knows how I ever got this job! Anyway I now feel at least I've got plenty to work on! So thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 thanks guys - especially for all those ideas and reassuring words! How come I never find being observed any easier I'll never know despite being through 3 Ofsteds!- I always seem to fall apart when someone's watching me and end up feeling disappointed with how it went - goodness knows how I ever got this job! Anyway I now feel at least I've got plenty to work on! So thanks! Suebee you are not alone! I don't know anyone who finds being observed easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 No, I hate it and being the observer! But you need to be confident that you are doing a good job and try and pretend there is no observer! When is this observation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Next Tuesday - so plenty of time to prepare ( and think too hard about it!) just out of interest how do others teach guided wrinting - when discussing how we were going to do this it became apparent that people have different ways of teaching guided writing- some suggestions were that the whole group wrote the same sentence after everybody had suggested one and then all wrote each word at the same time and others did it where each individual child came up with their own sentence and wrote this with support - how about you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Both, depending on the situation. First after a shared experience otherwise second! I think!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Hi there Does your ht realise that speaking and listening should be the the two major thrusts for Reception ? If not, ask the Inset leader to send him/her on a course about FS!!!!! An ex-head! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 (edited) second version for me but Im not doing guided writing at this stage in the year. Edited October 4, 2006 by Marion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 So glad to read that reply from Marion - we haven't even given guided writing a thought yet - maybe Feb/March next year? depending on the children. We are trying to follow Foundations of Literacy (I think that's what it is called - so we are doing loads of listening, stories, speaking etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 To be fair to the head she is a little concerned about this observation as it's so early in the year - perhaps I can convince her tomorrow she should be focussing on something else ! There does seem quite a lot of pressure to get them started on writing - whereas I think their speaking and listening skills should be coming first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 (edited) Our children 'write' but dont do guided writing yet! Today in response to a story one of the children drew a picture of Little Red Riding hood and added a speech bubble (all done independently). She showed her picture to one of the staff saying 'look Ive written help in the speech bubble' Our writing at this stage is emergent and mainly child initiated and hopefully for a purpose that is meaningful to the child (lots happening in role play). Ive posted in the Maths display discussion how the maths activity was hi jacked by emergent writers Just to add in our recent OFSTED the inspectors said they were looking for emergent writing across the whole age range. Edited October 4, 2006 by Marion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 (edited) wow - can she join my class - our writing so far has been generally emergent and some child intiated - the role play is currently a house with a party theme and lots have been doing cards and invites! So maybe we're on the right track to some extent ! i'm in the process of trying to convince everyone we need to make it purposeful too! Edited October 4, 2006 by suebee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 I do think its important that children see that writing has a purpose (is useful) rather than just another task to please the teacher. All my classes have loved invitations shopping lists (for party food maybe) etc. even better if we take the list to the shop and buy the food :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Can you do a guided task from your role experiences then? An invitation or a shopping list!!? Or get the focus changed ----it could still be writing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Well some success in changing the focus - we're still going to be doing some writing as a focused activity but the Head has now decided maybe she should look at how the children access the other activities and their learning and independence from these -! so we at least have an observation format that reflects foundation! Now that just leaves me with the timetable to juggle, the planning to be less formal and those assemblies !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Good luck! Im sure it will go well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Thanks - you've all been great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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