Medium Term and Weekly Planning From these frameworks, which are set out in Key Stages and year groups, we produce our Medium Term Planning for each subject area which set out large objectives which need to be met by each child. Each teacher then prepares their weekly plans and breaks these down into more detailed objectives. From here we need to devise learning activities to ensure they cover the objectives set as well as being engaging and fun for the children.
It is vital that these activities are carefully thought through as they need to include the correct use of resources including support staff adequate planning and differentiation to provide the vital learning provision or development in all areas of literacy. The teacher is then able to check the progression of skills from week to week to ensure the children are on track to achieve the overall objective and aims in literacy development which are reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and speaking and listening.
Personal Reflection and Evaluation The performance of support staff is Just as important as teacher assessment as this an have an impact on the learning activities and the progress made by the children. Although we may have pre-conceived ideas or different opinions or values about a certain subject, we need to ensure that we can put these to one side to support the learning of the children effectively and without steering them to a particular point of view.
Constantly reflecting and evaluating our own practices ensures that we are able to offer effective opportunities for the children we work with to develop their own ideas and points of view, Literacy Based Interventions I Deliver: Writing support The writing support intervention is an informal programmer that we have started to focus on several Year 2 children who have very poor writing skills. The intervention is highly adaptable and its delivery varies widely depending on each child’s individual needs.
This intervention is directly driven by the class teacher’s ongoing assessments, evidence from the child’s work books and observations by both the class teacher and myself. Each week I have detailed discussions with the class teacher to discuss the child’s progress and to define the direction Page 1 of 2 an straggles I need to plan Tort ten Tooling week. Can session Is very s o structured and precisely targeted, which helps to focus the child’s attention on the expected aims.
There is a big emphasis on positive marking, so even if a child has not quite met a target, all elements that are correct are identified and discussed with the child. The children are expected to constantly evaluate their work and to identify areas they are achieving in and also to recognize areas where they are weak. While this is initially difficult for the children to grasp, with daily modeling, discussion and erect feedback to the teacher with the child present (and often invited to share in the feedback) this skill is often picked up quickly.
The strategies I use within this intervention help to overcome self esteem issues which can often be a barrier to learning in itself. When we have two or more children attending a session, we encourage them to evaluate each others work, giving compliments where they have achieved targets or to supply constructive advice or guidance based on their own achievements. This sharing of learning and objectives amongst peers helps them to accurately communicate their needs and to recognize and set personal goals.
Catch Up Reading Programmer This programmer follows a strict routine where the child reads a leveled book for five minutes, which is then followed by a focused activity on reading miscues, phonics or spelling targets. We use the Vernon Graded Spelling Test and the Sailors Sentence Reading Test to give a starting benchmark of the child’s abilities as well as a mid term reassessment followed by a final end of programmer assumptive assessment.
We use the Catch Up assessments included in the programmer to provide an ongoing aromatic assessment to help evaluate learning objectives to ensure we are maximizing the opportunities for the child’s development and progress. Talk Time/Social Use of Language Programmer (GULP) While these are social skills interventions, they also offer opportunities to encourage children to interact more effectively in discussions and in speaking and listening situations. Children attending these group sessions are taught skills such as turn taking and cooperative play as well as taking part in confidence and self esteem alluding activities.
As in the writing intervention, we actively encourage the children to recognize and celebrate each other’s contributions and achievements. We will often use role reversal within these groups where the children have to teach the adult how to interact successfully in specific situation. Using the children as the teacher can be very effective, but in some cases where a child’s confidence may be very low, we will encourage the child to teach puppets or similar characters to make the activity less intimidating. Page 2 of 2
