OBSERVATION SHEET for 21st September

Individual Observation:   21/9/2016   Week 9 Term 3 2016

1. Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

One student - Anika

2. The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

To conference to promote further learning

Features of an factual report - the facts are recorded without the personal opinion

IALT write facts in my own words.

After conferencing last week, Anika realised that she had more personal content than factual content in her information report.   Her next learning step was to take out the personal content, see what she had left and then add facts as needed.   She found this a challenge to do, so had scribbled out her work and was starting again.

I have photocopied her writing. Today’s one to one conference with her will be to cut up the writing with her and organise the parts that are factual and the parts that are personal content.  

We will then look at her next steps - which will be to organise under subheadings and to add more factual information.   Anika also confuses number of lines written with number of sentences.  

Why this learning for these students?

Anika loves to write fictional stories, specifically fantasy and creative retelling of books she has read. She has found it a challenge to move into factual writing where she is required to write facts in her own words but not to write in a less formal way with personal comment.

3. How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

Remember to records facts in your own words.  

Facts that are about the same topic go together under a sub heading.

4. What will it look like when the students understand it?

A factual information report organised under headings with facts and no personal comments.

5. What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation?

Promoting further learning - recognising what is needed to move students forward in their learning. This could be one to one conferencing, buddy conferencing,  group writing conference.

6. What will this look like in practice?

Regular writing conferences based on one of the above.

7. How will you know you have been successful?

Evidence of conferencing in books and writing process.

Observation and PAC 2 June 2016

Observation and PAC 2 June 2016

PAC 2

My goal for this observation was to promote further learning by responding as a reader and using prompts.  The piece of writing was a poem and gave the students opportunity to use expressive and descriptive language.  A model had been used as the motivation, and 'remember to" drawn from this model.

Prompts I used for Reminder to draw attention back to the remember to's and : 
What am I listening for?
Show me where...
Tell me more about .....
I'm not sure this part makes sense ... listen as I read it to you .....

Reflection:  There was much improved student to student dialogue and less teacher voice. I was prompting the students to look deeper into their writing and to question each other more directly as readers. 

Next Steps:   (CR) Promoting further learning through effective classroom talk.  

Next Steps:  (Romy) To explore the I in PIE - to look at nonfiction writing and the genre he can choose from. (This goal needs to be tightened up)

Key Strategies involved in formative assessment

1.            Creating a classroom culture in which all involved see ability as incremental rather than fixed.

2.            Involving pupils in planning both appropriately pitched content and meaningful contexts.

3.            Clarifying learning intentions and establishing pupil-generated and therefore pupil-owned success criteria.

4.            Sharing multiple models and examples so pupils can see what the learning looks like and what quality looks like.

5.            Enabling and planning effective classroom dialogic talk and worthwhile questioning. (Dialogic talk  - give pupils a voice, a chance to discuss their learning, listen in a supportive environment, build on their own and others ideas, purposeful talk).

6.             Involving pupils in analysis and discussion about what excellence consists of – not just the meeting of success criteria, but how to best meet them.

7.            Establishing continual opportunities for timely review and feedback from teachers and pupils, focusing on recognition of success and improvement needs, and the provision of time to act on that feedback.

Pre Ob Sheet 2

Pre-Observation Conversation  Week 6 Term 2 2016

Group Observation:

1.       Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

Romy – radar student for writing. Work with him in a writers group.

2. The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

• Specific choice of words and phrases to put into writing to enhance a mood or an overall feeling in his writing
• Build vocab so words become more specific

- Why this learning for these students?

Moving the students away from the use of general describing words to words that portray a mood or capture a feeling – this is more in line with writing expected at Year 7 and 8 – deliberate selection of vocab

3. How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

Descriptions that activate the nouns – make the nouns say something

Teacher will respond as a reader – To promote further learning by responding as a reader, and using prompts.

4. What will it look like when the students understand it?

Student is able to identify sentences or phrases in their writing that portrayed the mood.

And what part of the writing could be strengthened to create more of a mood.  Students may use the phrase show not tell.  

5. What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation?

To promote further learning by responding as a reader and using prompts.

Responding to writing and using prompts has been introduced to the class.  However they are needing further work on how to give a response as feedback and how to use a prompt in order to promote further learning.

6. What will this look like in practice?

Selection of the students work from the chrome book writing will be printed out so we are working from a printed copy rather than from the computer

7. How will you know you have been successful?

When the student has been able to respond to a prompt by improving / strengthening / editing their writing.

When the teacher modelling of responses and prompts becomes the learning conversation in the classroom.

LLP

·         selecting vocabulary that is appropriate to the topic, register, and purpose (e.g., academic and subject-specific c vocabulary appropriate for specific c learning areas or precise and descriptive words to create a mental image);    (end of Year 6)

·         create content that is concise and relevant to the curriculum task, often including carefully selected detail and/or comment that supports or elaborates on the main points;  9Year 7 / 8)

To move Romy

·         In years 7 and 8, students create texts choosing content, language, and a clear and logical text structure to meet the requirements of the curriculum task (for example, when writing personal narratives, poems, arguments, feature articles, character profiles, research reports, essays, responses to literature, and short answers). By the end of year 8, students need to be confidently and deliberately choosing the most appropriate processes and strategies for writing in different learning areas.

·         understand their purposes for writing and how to achieve those purposes (e.g., by using different ways to examine and present their own thinking and knowledge);

Reflection Observation 1

PAC 10th March 2016
Romy, Rebecca, Angela and Christine

What do you do when you get stuck in your writing?

• Reread and see if it is making sense
• Go to the teacher and read it out loud to her to see if it makes sense
• Wait for a time to work with a buddy and ask them to give me feedback     

Do you get stuck?

• I sometimes get stuck in the planning part.

What do you do then?

• Try to work it out
• Think of a time when something like what I'm thinking of happened and try to write that down
• Think of a story I have read and think how the author might have planned it.

Romy Next Steps:

• Specific choice of words and phrases to put into his writing to enhance a mood or a overall feeling in his writing
• Build vocab so words become more specific 
• Part 4 journals to explore more complex ideas

Christine Next Steps:

• Clarity around Level 4 of the curriculum as this is where Romy will be moving to
• Sourcing relevant models and exemplars at Level 3 and 4

Reflection

It is interesting that Romy came to me as just at expectation. I have not found him here at all. He does prefer to write fiction to non fiction and has a good understanding of different genre within fiction writing.  From what Romy talked about in answer to the questions during the PAC, I would like to strengthen the peer feedback that the students give each other. Much of it is surface level using the cue cards we developed as a class. The writers circle could be used more effectively than what it is being at the moment. Also Readers Literacy Circle may be a way to engage the students in deeper thinking about what they are reading and work on transferring this to their writing. 

For Term 2 I would like to explore Sophisticated Picture Books with the class and think this will extend Romy to the thinking and vocab levels that he would benefit from working within.  This is detailed in the write up under My Inquiry.   

Pre observation Conversation Term 1

Pre Observation CONVERSATION ONE

The focus of this observation was Individual Conferencing. 

Date:  Term One 2016

Student:  Romy Nimmo Johnston

Curriculum Area:  Writing

Pre-Observation Conversation

Group Observation:

1.      1.  Which students/group are you working with for this lesson?

Romy – radar student for writing

2. The learning goals/learning intention for the students during the observation will be:

To reflect on the remember to in his writing with a view to how the writing is for the reader.

WALHT paint a picture in the readers mind.

Remember to:

Start the poem with “ The ….was usual enough.  Share the place in the first sentence.

Choose 5 nouns.  The last noun will be in the sentence “And it even had …… “

Include the sentence that says who you were with “My brother and I did what boys (girls) do”

Choose 5 verbs – action words – that show what you were doing

Finish the poem with “doing nothing important at all”

- Why this learning for these students?

The importance of the remember to as a guide to the successful completion of a piece of writing.

3. How will we know that these students are learning what you are intending them to learn?  i.e., what is the success criteria?

WALHT paint a picture in the readers mind.

Remember to:

Start the poem with “ The ….was usual enough.  Share the place in the first sentence.

Choose 5 nouns.  The last noun will be in the sentence “And it even had …… “

Include the sentence that says who you were with “My brother and I did what boys (girls) do”

Choose 5 verbs – action words – that show what you were doing

Finish the poem with “doing nothing important at all”

Teacher will respond as a reader – To promote further learning by responding as a reader, and using prompts.

4. What will it look like when the students understand it?

Student is able to identify what part of the writing gave the reader (teacher) a picture in their head

And what part of the writing could be strengthened to create more of a picture.

5. What is the professional goal you are focussing on during this observation? (last goal set with Toni, Enid or Anna)

To promote further learning by responding as a reader and using prompts.

Responding to writing and using prompts has been introduced to the class.  However they are needing further work on how to give a response as feedback and how to use a prompt in order to promote further learning.

6. What will this look like in practice?

The teacher will model this with each student /small group of student / writers group using their own writing to show how further learning can be promoted.

7. How will you know you have been successful?

When the student has been able to respond to a prompt by improving / strengthening / editing their writing.

When the teacher modelling of responses and prompts becomes the learning conversation in the classroom.