ITrack Assessment Programme

Whilst on my final Professional Practice I had the opportunity to explore different methods of assessment sue to there now being no levels which the children can be marked against. This led me to being able to explore the methods of assessment used in my placement class and how it enabled the class teacher to see how each child was progressing.

This programme was very helpful when looking at how the progress children make can be monitored and logged to prove progression within different subjects and curriculum areas. It was easy to use and used colour coding to show a visual representation of how children were meeting their learning outcomes or targets, and how they could improve further.

I have found it useful to look at after not being able to use levels to monitor progress children may make, and would be a programme I may use in the future to track the progress of future classes.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: Part B of standard 1 is met in this piece of evidence because different methods of assessment enable teachers and support staff to set goals that stretch and challenge  all pupils of backgrounds, abilities and dispositions within a classroom. This programme is easy to use and enables you to see a very visual colour-coded table relating to each individual child’s performance.
• TS2: I feel as though I can show working towards part A of this standard because teachers need to be accountable for pupils’ attainment, progress and outcomes, which this programme allows.
• TS6: I feel that this piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards parts A, B and C of standard 6 because I understand how to assess relevant subject areas, including statutory assessment requirements for each year group. It also demonstrates an understanding of how formative and summative assessment can be used to secure pupils’ progress and how the use relevant data can be used to monitor progress, set targets, and plan subsequent lessons to target individual children’s needs.

 

Seed Investigation – Continuous Provision

As I was in a mixed year group class on my final Professional Practice, I had to think about the classroom environment which I taught in, and how it could be enhanced for the younger Reception children in the class. The younger children required a continuous provision of activities for them to take a lead in their own learning, however with an aim for the activity. The continuous provision activity which I decided to put into the investigation area of the classroom was the one pictured above. The aim of the activity was for the children to feel the different seeds which were in the basket, and to sort them into the surrounding pots. The seeds which I incorporated into the basket were:

Sunflower Seed

Yellow Split Pea

Pinto Bean

Pumpkin Seed

The children enjoyed feeling the different textures of the seeds, and telling me what they think they were called. Each of the children who worked in the main learning classroom in the morning (Reception and Year 1) wrote in a speech bubble about the seeds, saying what they felt and looked like. These can be seen on the all behind the activity.

The children told me about what they thought the seeds would grow into if we planted them and engaged with the activity well, sorting them into the flower pots and using them in their role play in the other learning areas.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: This piece of evidence meets parts A and B of this standard, as I had to think about the safety elements of putting this activity into the learning environment and make sure it was safe to run with. I had to talk to all of the children before putting the activity to make sure that all children were aware the seeds should not be eaten. I also challenged the children daily to see how many of the seeds they could separate and sort before the end of the day.
• TS2: I think that the sub sections A and D are met as I had to understand the concept and running of continuous provision before implementing this activity into the classroom. The children used topic appropriate language when engaging in this activity which was developed over the 5 week term.
• TS4: This piece of evidence meets section E of this standard as I had to consider if the activity would be engaging enough for the children in the continuous provision environment.
• TS5: Sections B and C of this were met with this piece of evidence because I had to understand how the activity would engage the minds of the youngest children in my class, and how it would aid their physical, mental and emotional growth.
• TS8: This display shows that I am working towards section A of this standard because I have thought about the learning environment for the mixed Reception and Kew Stage 1 children, and how it can link into the topic work for the term.

 

 

Telling the Time – Visual Aid

Whilst on a recent Professional Practice I had the challenge of helping my children to start to tell the time. At first I thought it would be an easy task as telling the time is something I now don’t even need to think about, however I was very wrong. It proved to be quite a problem as I also struggled to think of a creative way to teach it.

As our class topic was on plants, I decided to try this approach, by adding a petal to each of the 5 minute intervals with their amount of minutes. I decided to put this up when the children were out of the classroom for their PE lesson with the sports coach and when they returned, all they could talk about was the clock. This proved to be positive for the children and myself as I could see that the children were observant with the changes I had made and they were engaged, wanting to know the purpose of the giant flower.

During the afternoon I explained to the children that the flower was to help them to tell the time, so that they could independently learn. I explained how we would be starting to look at the time and how each of the petals tell us how many minutes past the hour each of the big numbers stand for.

Original image from Pinterest

I also took the opportunity to teach the children that the larger hand is for the minutes, so when it is pointing to one of the petals, that is how many minutes past the hour it is, and that the smaller hand points to the hour which it is. The aim for the starter of the afternoon was to help children to learn how to use the visual aid which I had made and put up in the classroom, and to teach them what they should know about telling the time, passing on my subject knowledge of the time.

Throughout the course of the rest of the teaching placement I frequently asked the children in Year 1 and Year 2 what the time was, and although some were a little hesitant, most were able to tell me the time. This showed me that the children had made great progress in their ability to tell the time, even though I had not planned any specific lessons on the subject area.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: I feel that this piece of evidence shows that I am working towards parts A and B because it enhances the environment where the children are learning and on a daily basis I challenged the children to tell me what time it is. The use of the resource allowed me to stretch the children who were developing the understanding of how to tell the time.
• TS2: This piece of evidence show that I am working towards parts A and B because it helped me to extend the childrens learning and teach them a subject area which can be used throughout the curriculum. Also, I was aware that the children in reception only needed to know the time hourly so set them the challenge to tell me when it was at an hour so they could tell me.
• TS3: I am working towards sub sections A and E because I knew a visual resource would be the key to engaging the children in a topic which could be boring to teach, such as telling the time. Also, I had be aware that not all strategies would work for the Reception children as they were only at the start of their mathematical learning in school.

Phonics Garden – Continuous Provision

Being in a mixed age group class on my most recent Professional Practice proved to be a challenge, especially being in a mixed Key Stage class. The class of mixed Reception/ Year 1/ Year 2 required the older children to be focussing on their upcoming SAT’s whilst the youngest were to be taught a completely different curriculum, encouraged to explore the enhanced learning areas and take a lead in their own learning. Because of the different styles of learning happening in the same classroom it was essential to enhance as many areas as possible to aid the younger children. I decided that due to the nature of our topic ‘Plants’, to enhance the Phonics area by making a garden, where the children could plant their phonics sounds and words if they could say them out loud. The area which I created looked like this:

The area was in the middle of the classroom with access from all angles. I decided to get a tuff spot tray and put it onto one of the stands, to make it elevated with easier access for the children. I filled it with compost and small planting pots. On each of the corners of the tray there was a  plastic pouch containing some flowers on lollipop sticks, each with a different sound or word from the Read Write Inc. programme which the children were familiar with. The sounds were on different template flowers to the green words, as were the red words. I also placed some grass along one of the edges with some other words along it. Above the tray I hung a watering can with water droplets ‘pouring’ from the spout which the children had previously completed, with everything they knew about plants on them.

The children found the area engaging and went to it frequently, and even though I was teaching another group in the classroom, I could clearly hear them pronouncing the sounds and words which I had made for the area. They became fond of the area and the new activity very quickly, engaged with their own personal learning.

The different words which I included were also appropriate for all of the children in the classroom, promoting reading and blending skills for all. As we introduced a new set of green words for the children, I made their corresponding flowers and inserted them into the pouches to encourage children to continue their phonics development.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: This piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards parts A and B of this standard because it promotes a safe learning environment and it challenges children to enhance their own learning by reading the words which they know or are working towards in their phonics lessons.
• TS2: For this standard I have been working towards parts A and B because I had an understanding of where the children were in their phonic learning after teaching many lessons, and throughout about how the children could be progressed in this area of the continuous provision. They could be extended with new words and alien words as they become more familiar through the programme.
• TS3: Parts A, B and D are all shown in this piece of evidence as my knowledge of phonics and early reading had to be strong in order to teach the lessons and create this resource for the classroom.
• TS4: This evidence supports that I am working towards part E of standard 4 as I have contributed to the design and provision of an engaging curriculum which emphasises the importance of phonics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 areas of the Primary Curriculum.
• TS5: Sub sections B, C and D have all been worked on and are displayed in this evidence because I understand how children develop in the earlier years of their development through schooling and that the activity had to be suitable for children of all backgrounds and abilities. Through the final weeks of my practice, a child who spoke little English was able to engage with this activity and develop her own English by using the activity put into place and the other children were able to help the child with this.
• TS8: Part A of this standard is being developed in this piece of evidence as it impacted not only the children in my class, but other children in the school who had difficulties in their English could access the activity to develop their communication skills.

Book Art

Whilst on Professional Practice 1B, I taught a series of English lessons leading up to the creation of a 3D book. The children did lots of writing based on the book Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. They created letters, postcards, recipes and instructional texts based on the story. I challenged the children to create informative pieces of writing which could be put into their books later. Attached below are a couple of examples of the example booklet which I created, using examples of the children’s work.

The children, who were in Year 6, found it to be enjoyable, engaging and rewarding to work towards a final outcome. This was a nice way for the children to complete work which lead to a final outcome, especially after their difficult time completing their SAT’s.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: I think that this piece of evidence meets part B of this standard because I set the children an end goal to work towards which challenged pupils of all backgrounds and abilities as the children I was working with on this placement were from many cultural backgrounds, all working at different ability levels.
• TS2: This piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards sections A and C of this standard as I was accountable for pupils’ progress and outcomes throughout this activity, planning lessons which addressed all of the elements of the 3D book which the children produced. I also let the children reflect on the progress they had made in their work before it was able to be put into their books, re-drafting and editing their work if necessary to make sure it met the target audience.
• TS3: I feel I have met the sub sections A and C because I had to have the knowledge of how to teach Year 6 English and the different topics which can be covered throughout the year in order to teach age and curriculum appropriate content for the children. Also, I feel throughout all of my lessons in this particular teaching practice I promoted a high standard of Standard English, and high standards of literacy throughout the curriculum.
• TS5: I feel that throughout the series of lessons taught on the lead up to the  production of their 3D book, I had to consider differentiating the lessons to cater for all of the children in the class. This addresses sub section A and due to working with children from many different backgrounds, it shows I am working towards meeting section D.