This week we got to go and visit Rototuna School. What they are doing there for writing sat very well with a lot of my own beliefs and philosophies about learning to write. They have a huge focus on teaching the "how to" of writing rather than worrying about the product. Students are given a whole class motivator at the start of writing where oral language is modelled and extended. They are then sent off to write independently after sharing their idea with the teacher and class. (Giving those who aren't sure what to write about some more thinking time and ideas). They are not required or expected to write about what they talked about on the mat.
Once students are writing, the teacher calls down small groups to do short lessons on spelling or sentence structure things. e.g. 1 group was working on the short a sound. They did 5 minutes of work around this sound - writing words that have it and circling the letter writing the sound before going back to write independently.
The teacher did not work with the children on their actually piece of writing. At the end of the lesson she will roam and give "over the shoulder" conferencing before everyone comes down to share and celebrate.
Students were identifying their own successes in their books. Circling capital letters, fullstops etc.
The big focus for explicit teaching and assessment was around phonological awareness and sounds.
I am excited to make some plans that use a lot of these ideas for next year. Particularly having Tara and I in the classroom together more, I think we can really make some huge progress for our kids. We also hope to trial some of these ideas before the end of the year, especially with our students who are not yet achieving as well as we would like.
Link to notes from observation
Link to SEED website
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