Toni Trent, a beginning teacher at our school, asked if she could come and watch my Reading lesson on the 26th of August which she did. I asked her if she could provide me with some feedback and this is what she gave me:
Observation of Cath Bone's Reading session.
Class began with silent reading. When they
finished they remained quietly at their table while Cath chose a child to tell
the class the title of their book, re-tell the story in their own words and say
if it was fiction or non-fiction.
That child then chose another person to do the
same.
This was a great opportunity for the children to
practise their comprehension skills.
Next, a child was selected to choose ‘the best’
table. This table was allowed to quietly return their SSR books.
Each table was selected on merit by the child until they were all done.
An awesome classroom management technique as
suddenly the class was quiet, organised and doing their best to be selected
next.
Children were then returned to the mat where 6
children were able to share their ‘published’ stories. They stood in a
line and each read their story to the children and showed them the
picture. They were very proud.
The children loved the opportunity to present their
work - boosting their self-confidence as well as giving them an opportunity to
practise presenting in front of an audience.
The children then stood up and had a VERY quiet
game of Simon Says. As children got out they sat quietly.
A good strategy to allow the children to move about
and have a little fun in between learning tasks.
The children sat down and read the Big Book.
They were told what they were learning about in the book today, (Wow words),
then all read the book together. As they read, they kept an eye out of
Wow words to put on their wall. They found ‘growled’ and all practised
using a growly voice to say the sentence. Cath then wrote the letter on a
coloured strip of paper to put on her ‘Wow’ words wall. Usually choose
TWO wow words to put on the wall.
This was a super way to ensure the children understood
the wow words they had selected and a great idea on how to extend the wow word
wall.
Big Book focus: Monday - predicting
Tuesday - punctuation Wednesday - Wow words Thursday - Act it
out.
The children now told Cath what day it was and what
they were up to on their Task Board. RAINBOW WORDS!
Cath is very clear to the children and obviously
includes the task board in her daily routine as the children were knew exactly
where they were at.
Follow-up activities:
Word Practise - they need to write their words 5
times each. (Their words off their word cards). They wrote these on
the ipad.
Letter Board - making the word 5 times and at least
4 other words.
Word Wheels
Big Books - Read at least 5.
Clay - Make your word.
Children all settled. Cath now moves to her
first reading group.
The children know to get their reading diaries out
and get their reading pouch on the floor.
This is a great time-saver and something the
children can easily do without the teacher needing to tell them. A
classroom organiser that I will take back to my class.
They instantly talk about what their goal is.
The children both knew it was to sound the first letter. The modelling
book is already written up with the interest words from the book. The
children look at each word and say the sound of the
first letter
of the words. They are told all these words are in the book.
This strategy allows the children to become
familiar with new words in the book before they have to read them on their
own. Another strategy I will take back to my classroom.
The children then say what their special word is.
‘Little.’ They have a go at predicting what the story is about by
looking at the front cover as Cath holds the book up. They are asked what
they know about hippos. The children tell Cath what they know. Cath holds
the book while she shows the children the first page. She asks the
children what they think is happening in the picture. She asks them what
they thought the first sound of r-river would be. They looked at it and
had a go. They went through the book and Cath asked the children to find
‘which word is lion do you think?’ They would point to the word starting
with ‘l’. They talked about what was happening in the book as they went through
looking at the pictures. ‘What would you expect to see at the beginning
of s-s-safe?’ The children had to guess, then point to the word on the
page they thought it was.
The importance of presenting a really thorough
introduction to a new book was shown here. The children were able to
practise their prediction skills and work on some strategies they need to learn
to decode words in the book.
Now the children were given their own books.
They read together. The children got stuck on a word ‘they.’ They
were asked if they could see a word in there that they knew. They found
‘the.’ Then they were asked if they knew a word that looks like
the? They came up with they.
This was an awesome example of scaffolding the
learning for the children, without having to tell them the word. They
children could come up with the word all by themselves, boosting their
confidence in their own ability to read and work words out for themselves.
They said ‘swim’ instead of ‘walk.’ Cath told
them they had made a mistake on the page. Could they find where.
The found the word and worked it out together by finding the sound
of the first letter. They said ‘awake’ for ‘hungry.’ Again they
were asked to find the place they made the mistake. ‘What letter does it
start with? What does it sound like? What could the word be?’
The children said ‘ran’ for ‘run’. Cath made
them robot the word like in phonics. R-U-N-run. They got it.
I was very impressed with the scaffolding
here. Cath ensured the children were given the opportunity to work out
the problems on their own. It was clearly evident the children were able
to do this as they continued to find their problems and work them out on their
own.
When they finish they are given their rainbow word
and read through their poem together.
GROUP TWO.
Ready to move onto Red 3. How do you know
when they are ready to move on? They need to know about 15-20 words.
Cath brought out the magnetic letters. The
children were asked what they were. LETTERS!! She make their special
word with the magnetic letters. They told Cath that ‘like’ is a
word. There are ‘four letters’ in like. Now she gave them a picture
(from a blown up word card) with the upper and lowercase letters on them.
They worked through the picture, the letter, the sound. Whoever got it
first got given the letter. The person with the most letters wins!
(They are not allowed to shout, or their letters get taken off
them). The children have to count their own letters to find the winner.
This was an awesome game as it provides a
competitive edge to learning, encouraging fast thinking from the
children. Also, the children get to hear the letters/sounds/words they
don’t know, and therefore learn as they go, through fun. I will
definitely be taking this game back to my classroom.
(Another game is to have the pink/yellow/ word
cards. The kids go through these trying to be the first to win.
They get the card, if they are first to say it. They need to look at the
first letter to work it out if they don’t know it.
The children now look at letters in their modelling
book. (Pre-written). They say the sound of all the letters as they are
focussing on saying the first sound. They now have to say what their
special word is again. Like. Their Walt is to ‘learn all their
letter sounds.’
They look at the front cover. They look
through the pictures together and talk about the story to see what the mouse
likes. They talk about sounds like ‘f-feathers’. They find ‘f’ on
the word-card. The children have to find the word that will say feathers
in the book. At the end of the story the children are asked what they like
about the story.
I loved the fact that the children are clear about
what they are learning and that is only ONE concept.
REFLECTION
Once again, I have been very inspired by watching
Cath work. I like the way she has incorporated learning letters and HFW
into her reading session. This is something I will try. I need to
choose one thing to work on, because I have discovered that when I try
to do too much in my guided reading session, the teaching actually doesn’t go
so well. I feel nervous that I will forget what I have seen if I don’t
put it into action straight away, however, I have now realised, that I need to
slow down. I can always go back to Cath.
Cath is very clear with the learning expectations
and goals for the children. While Cath was taking a group, the rest of
the class knew exactly what they had to do and were engaged and busy.
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