All Boys Class Observation

Huia range (all boys class) – Observation – 15/08/2012

Observations:

•            Uses activboard frequently
•            Roll is done by sight – not by calling out
•            Students call out answers – how the heck does that work?
•            Wall display on ‘knots’ and examples. Looks pretty cool.
•            Students stay seated for the whole time – why do my students wander so much? Does it matter?
•            Uses 2 writing books – one for a continued piece of writing, eg it might be a story or something. The second book is a grammar book used to teach the mechanics of writing, such as sentence work, cloze activities etc.
•            Students have buddies that they work with to share their ideas. Buddies change every 2 weeks along with desk seating.
•            A lot of the kids looked tired.
•            “Tyson your out of your seat”
•            Students write about subjects that they are interested in. Quick hit on topic. All subjects directed at it.
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Writing:

•            head up date (grammar book)
•            re-cap on yesterday  - “talk to a buddy about the 4 types of sentences there are). Devon what was one that shared with you.
•            “How Is a command different from a statement?”
•            why did we say we should use the different types of sentences in our writing? – keep the readers interested.
•            When would you use a command sentence mostly? What type of writing. – Recipe – why
•            What type of speech starts a sentence off? – a verb – telling you to do something
•            Today we are going to look at conclusions – probably the hardest part of writing.
•            Im not worried where you are up to with your writing – we are going to have a go at writing a sentence.
•            Went through what a conclusion looks like. “share with your buddy what that sentence means.” Topic is the Olympic torch
•            Gave students stating sentences to help students, e.g – as you can see, as mentioned, maybe one day, decades have made sure, if money was no object. Lots of scaffolding before writing begins. “There is 6 – you must use 4.” 12mins.
•            Teacher roamed and provided support.
•            Time has expired, but they are still going…
•            Times up! What I want you to do is pick your best sentence and share with your buddy.
•            Selected students then shared with the rest of the class.
•            Students then got out there writing books and where asked to look at the explanation brainstorm and find the conclusion one that is at their level and this a their writing goal. Ref attached.
•            Students then wrote a conclusion (didn’t matter where they where up to) using the sentences that they generated earlier as inspiration. Students where required to put these in a logical order and make sure that the first  sentence of the conclusion links with the last sentence of the last paragraph.

NB – I need to do something different for my science explanations as they will be shorter that other explanations so the structural things wont be as pronounced. Check arbs doc for help with next steps. Use students first PEOE attempts.

Student voice:

Brainstorm created by teacher using (poplit) showing the different success criteria for the type of writing – e.g explanation

What have I taken from this observation?

•            I like the idea of a buddy system where students use thier buddy to discuss ideas. Students rotate buddies every 2 weeks. Teacher noticed that when this was implemented, students help more empowered/confident to share their ideas with the rest of the class. Could be worth a try in term 4
•            Struggling writers need a large degree of scaffolding before beginning the writing process. I need to have this in the forefront of my mind when teaching writing explanations. Helping student plan will be a focus.
•            Boys like to write/read about things that interest them. Engaging students through topic selection is paramount to writing success.

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