Guided Reading

This year I am going to try run Guided Reading as a carousel with:

• one group reading with myself
• one group doing a pre-reading activity with a TA (lots of talk and imagination)
• one group doing a post-reading activity either independently or with a TA
• one group playing comprehension, phonics or SPaG games
• one group on technology (iPads, laptops, IWB)

I have made myself a lovely Guided Reading folder and in it I have various forms to fill in during or following the reading session or activity.

  
you can find them here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-bits-and-bobs-2033277

I uploaded a zip file as some have quirky fonts that I know some people love and some people won’t want… so there are both editable word files and pdfs in there.

I also use my favourite technique for my groupings where each name is laminated, cut and stuck onto the matching group colour so if they move up or down a group, it is easy to see where they have moved from and therefore what progress they have made.

  
My groups are named after some of our focus authors for the year:

Oliver Jeffers
Jan Oke
Roald Dahl
Julia Donaldson
Dr Seuss

but I may actually change these as I keep changing my mind what authors to use!! May swap JD and DS for Anthony Browne and Jan Fearnley….

anywayyyyyys, I hope some of you find this stuff useful. I shall update this post once I have actually put it all into action!

RAG rated readers

I have decided to RAG rate my readers this year and see how it goes.

RED – children who need intervention (pupil premium, no home-input, didn’t pass phonics screening etc) and these children will be heard 1:1 THREE times a week

AMBER – children who may just need an extra push (only just passed phonics screening, confidence-lacking, hardly any home input etc) – these children will read TWO times a week

GREEN – children who do not require additonal support with their reading – these children will read 1:1 ONCE a week but have the opportunity to change books more frequently.

To track these I have made a laminated group grid (similar to my hero groups) where each child name matches their RAG rating so if they movve up or down we can see where they’ve come from.  

I then also have a weekly tick list that lists all the red children first, then the amber then the green (so they all get heard once) then the red again and the amber again (2 groups have read twice) then the red group AGAIN so they’re all on the grid three times.

obviously some weeks will be crazy busy and we won’t get through the whole list but I do hope we manage it most weeks! I have allocated many little time slots that reading can take place in, such as morning challenge time, lunch, assembly, PE and during certain afternoon activities!

Fingers crossed we see results from it!

 

getting the children to track their own data

So this is another idea i am going to trial. There is a statistic somewhere that says how much impact this can have on a child’s learning journey and it sounded impressive so i thought, ‘why not eh?’

So each child will have some kind of file (not a proper binder, but something sturdy enough to last the year!) and in that file will be a number of tracking sheets for the child to fill in either daily, weekly, monthly or half-termly. Some are to be done independently and some are trickier and will be done with a teacher.

So…

1. blue/silver days tracker (that goes with our traffic light reward system in class. blue means great and silver means outstanding, and a prize) i thought it would be nice to track this and maybe do certificates once they reach a certain amount.   
2. Tricky Word tracking – so each half term they will read the words in the boxes at the top and the teacher will keep track then together they will mark that amount on the graph and make it into a line or bar chart. 
3. Reading Log – to be filled in independently by the child whenever they read a book in class so, for example, one from my collection during continuous provision.  
4. spelling quiz scores – to be filled in weekly after each spelling quiz!  
5. SPaG ‘I Can’ Goals tracker. So each month the child and teacher will discuss how many they have achieved and which target they should work towards in the following month. 
6. Rising Stars Assessment Data – we use Rising Stars tests at the end of each half term. I’ve not fully looked into them yet but i will use a linegraph format similar to this to help each child track their scores  
7. phonic sound line graphs – children will read the graphemes at the top and then mark off the amount they know each half term with the teacher. 
8. DOJO Points Tracker – I like the idea of having a ‘clean slate’ each morning but also keeping track of how many points each child has and rewarding them for 50/100/150/200 etc so we will colour this in every day at home time  (a different colour for each day so I can spot mistakes and we can see if we accidently forget a day or something)  
9. a laminated coloured piece of paper for the children to ‘save’ their stickers on 

And that’s it for now. I will prob end up doing more rising stars ones as there are more than just maths tests!

If you want them, they should be FREE here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/student-tracking-2023329

😀 xx

star struck!!

I get star struck, perhaps slightly too easily! But last night’s example was worthy of my excitement!

I love Jan Oke! She only has 2 books but they are both absolutely fantastic. I love the stories, the fonts/writing styles, the images.. And I love reading them with my class, who also love them! My EYFS class especially loved The Naughty Bus but it’s never really linked into our topics easily.

        

Our first 2 topics in Year 2 will be:

• ‘We Are Reporters’ (where we will learn about London, the Royal Family and The Great Fire of London)
• ‘We are Time Travellers’ (where we will learn about toys throughout history and link this to Christmas)

(I appear to be having word press/bullet point issues!?!?!?!?

blogging novice!!)

ANYWAY!!! ….. obviously Jan Oke’s 2 stories are PEFECT!!! Both based on toys and set in London!!!

I really want to encourage my class to have favourite authors and be able to link stories that are written by the same author. (I will be having an “Authors of the month” display which will introduce 2 authors and have a voting area where each child can pick their favourite!)

So I decided to research Jan a bit as she will not only be one of my first focus authors but ALSO the name of one of my Guided Reading groups! IWhilst researching I came across some info about Jan where she explained how they made the flying food image by threading beans onto wire, and how they had to scrap the rabbit idea as the rabbit kept trying to eat the Naughty Bus… then i found an email address. I assumed it was a waste of time but I set about emailing her anyway. I thanked her for her amazing books and explained how she will be a focus author/GR group in my new class….and that was the end of that!

Or so I thought!!!! the following day I had a reply!! She thanked me for my ‘kind words’ and offered to send me some freebies (posters) through the post! WAHOOO! She has also said that if my class write to her she will happily reply and answer any questions they have! What a wonderful lady! She has made my week 😀

So where to start?

I have just seen a post on the twinkl KS1 page from a girl in a similar position to me. Wondering where to start in her preparations for KS1. So I thought I’d make a little list of things I have done that have helped me feel less boggled about the whole thing!

• buy a pretty/handsome notebook and make lots of lists
• get in touch with the staff you’ll be teaching with. So if you are a multi-form entry school get in touch with the other teachers in your year group and ask for planning, offer your help wherever possible or even arrange a coffee. If it is a single-form entry (like me!) get in touch with the y1 teacher to find out what has been covered, where they are at, what their main concerns would be if they had the class again.
• get onto twinkl and go crazy! look in the ks1 (if you ARE ks1 that is!!) area and grab loads of stuff. Even if you don’t need it straight away, it will come in handy eventually. things like: activities to get to know new class; visual timetables; New Curriculum documents; display lettering; working wall banners; and so on… then whack them all in a folder on your laptop (sub-catagorise them if you’re a geek like me)
• get your head around the new curriculum. Whether this is just downloading the free app, reading it online or, like me, printing it ALL off, getting rid of the bits that don’t affect you and reading/highlighting/making notes
• begin creating binders – I shall do a separate post about my MEGA BINDER that I am creating! But also ones like for guided reading, maths, RE, assessments etc – then you can make lists in your pretty/handsome notebook of what you might need to put in there! (my mega binder page can be found here: https://sparklystarkles.wordpress.com/mega-binder/)
• get yourself on Pinterest!!! I’m a pinterest-addict at the moment and have loads of boards full of inspiring ideas! Some of my fav Pinterest ideas are: using augmented reality in the classroom; the mega binder!; interactive notebooks… this is me….
• ****** https://www.pinterest.com/emilyisapoo/ *****
• planning – now this may or may not be possible depending on your circumstance but if you have an idea of topics start finding ideas, resources linked to them and making notes of how you’d like to teach it, what learning hooks you might use, what authors you may link in, and so on!……. if you DON’T have a clue yet about topics there is still stuff you can do! start planning ideas of how you would teach areas that are set, like maths and science. So how might you teach place value/times tables/3d shape?(cough *pinterest*!!) or what poetry might you like to try incorporate? or science – how would you teach about animals and habitats or human etc. again look on pinterest and twinkl for inspiration and free resources!
• timetable – again may or may not be possible. I try do a draft but leave a few blank spaces for PE slots which will be allocated in Sept
• Classroom management – (new starters:the school COULD have stuff already in place but there is no harm in finding your own ideas!!)… I think I will do a separate page on these bits too as I have lots of freebies and links. But find/make things like behaviour charts, reward systems, noise controls, class jobs, targets etc.

That is all I can actually think of for now but I’m sure I will keep adding to this list as I remember more bits! So keep checking back 🙂

Hello world!

So this summer seems to be a summer of spontaneous decisions for me! I spontaneously decided to fork out for a new iPad Air, despite never in my life thinking I would need or use one! Yesterday I spontaneously decided to dye my hair brown and now today I have decided to make a blog!

I am hoping this blog will generally be an area I can upload teaching ideas, photos and free resources that I have made and wish to share.

So just a bit of background knowledge.. I have been a teacher for about three and a half years and have spent all that time in the lovely EYFS teaching a Reception Class of 30. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and will really miss my fab team but it’s time to move onto pastures new… Key Stage 1! So in September I shall be teaching Year 2, who will obviously be  the class I taught, not this year just gone, but the year before that, which is great as I know (most of) them really well!

I am very eager and excited to get started and have already prepped loads of resources, displays and other bits ready to ‘beautify’ my new classroom! The y2 class are meant to be known as the owls but the whole ‘animal’ theme is kinda fading. I still wish to subtly carry this on though. I also have an obsession with Marvel which you may notice creeping into various resources.. oh and table groupings 😀

Anyway, I hope you find this blog useful, even if it’s just for the free resources!

xxx