Daily 5 Reading Rotation

The end of Term 1 so time to reflect on my Reading programme and think about any changes that are needed.

What went well: 

• the class love Daily 5 and the structure of the rotation where they know where they are going and what is happening next
• they enjoy the variety of activities - the iPad-Padlet photo & caption, Steps, Listening Post, Handwriting/ Publishing or spelling and guided reading with T
• activities are independent and children are encouraged to problem solve or ask a friend to help 
• my planning is much more in depth and follows the Reading progressions made by the Curriculum taem last year
• I am coming to terms with teaching children reading at the lower colour levels after usually starting at Orange or Turquoise most years previously
• the children are learning that it's okay to revisit a text and to discuss and interpret the story so that a book can last a few days
• I am keeping up with Running Records for children who are 6 for 6 year netts and for those due for National Standards anniversary reports (ie turning 7)

Changes/Next Steps:

• I need to try to fit in at least 4 reading groups or rotations most days as time goes so quickly and distractions happen so that some days I only get through 3 groups
• it took a while to establish routines! how to Listen on the listening post, how to EEKK and silent read/Read to self, setting up Steps, and showing how to use Padlet
• L&A observations/feedback and suggestions from Toni in the last week before the end of term mean that I will trial having the children read a text before they come to a guided reading session - I will need to show them how to record their attempts at "tricky" words
• this will hopefully make more productive use of Teacher time
• I will use the Gerald Duffy skill/strategy checklist that Toni gave us as a basis for my planning
• I will make sure that the children who have not been "producing the goods" on their Padlet page are monitored more closely and are made more accountable - having a buddy peer assess their work
• I will change the Padlet writing activity in a couple of weeks to recording fluency reading using Audioboo - reading a text or poem - then listening to it and giving feedback to themselves or a buddy

Blogger - Our Class Blog

So simple! Using the iPad Blogger app has made it easy for the children to write a new post each day on our class blog. I was determined that by the end of Term One they would take responsibility for choosing the learning of the day that they wanted to share and be able to publish the post themselves. 
To achieve this I had to:

• set aside time each day to show 2 children how to take/choose a photo, write a title, write the caption, write their names as the labels
• suggest the photo/learning to share
• suggest an appropriate title, they could usually think of a sentence to write on the topic
• be available to edit their writing before publishing
• make sure that the task was shared around ans that everyone had a turn
• make sure that there were 4 children that were shown 

Padlet - Term 1 2014

This has turned out to be the most successful app for the beginning of the year for my Year 2 class. It is so versatile and has enthused and motivated the children into taking photos, videos and writing and then sharing their learning with their parents.

As an introduction to Padlet we had class pages where we all wrote on the same page.
Now:

everyone in the class has their own Padlet page 

each page is uploaded to the class blog -  http://www.chelseabachelors.blogspot.co.nz/

it is then able to be accessed from home as well - several children have taken off with this and have added photos and captions of themselves at home

writing on their Padlet page has become part of the Daily 5 reading rotation 

writing on their Padlet page has become part of the writing rotation

children choose what they want to write about - choose or take their own photo, write their own title and write their own sentence/caption

Embedding Slideshows

Then early this year I became really clever and taught myself how to embed a slide show into my blog - so easy really. I then discovered how to change the size of embedded fotobabbles and Storybirds - more by good luck than good management!



 Click this link to watch a video slide show of the Trip to the Zoo in March 2012 and sing along to the zoo song
or
Zoo Trip March 2012 - watch a slide show of photos

 

Click this link to watch a video slide show of the Trip to the Zoo in March 2012 and sing along to the zoo song or

Zoo Trip March 2012 - watch a slide show of photos

Twitter in the Classroom

Follow me - @jennielesueur

I have already written a post about the benefits of teachers using Twitter to keep up to date with new information. This post will deal with the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom.

WHY and WHO benefits? - Mainly the parents at present.
This is where my iPhone becomes another useful tool in the classroom. I take a photo of a learning moment and tweet it with a caption. I have a number of parents who follow me on Twitter so they get an instant update on what is happening with their child in the class.


 My aims for the future use of Twitter in the classroom:

- to tweet a photo/ caption each day, sometimes more
- to tweet a photo with a child of one of the parents who follows me
- to tweet information about what is happening daily in the classroom/ syndicate/ school
- to tweet information about what is going to happen in the classroom/ syndicate/ school - eg sports events, spelling tests, reminders
- to get the children involved so they are able to choose the "tweetable" moment

A sample - view these tweets -
Carnivore or Herbivore
Stars of the Week 
Kelly Sports on the Field