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

Wallwisher/Padlet - An Oldie But A Good One

This is one of my favourite apps to use in the classroom! It is an old faithful from way back in the early days of hooking children and parents into sharing the learning that happens in the classroom with home. Luckily it has updated itself. It is simple, versatile, iPad friendly, free and can be used by individuals or be used as a collaborative class project. 

Created with Padlet

2014 - Using The Blogger iPad App

Student voice and all that - the children will be rostered on to take a daily photo of classroom learning and be responsible for writing the caption. Hopefully this will take the blog into more homes and will mean more parents will use the blog and maybe leave comments and feed back for the children - an authentic audience for their writing. The Blogger app for the iPad has made posting photos and captions so easy that all I need to do is check and edit the writing before publishing.

The Early Days - The Digital Camera

Getting started:

Using technology in the classroom started earnestly in 2006 thanks to the Jacqui Sharp courses and the purchase of a digital camera.

Using the digital camera I took lots of photos with the children and showed them how to use the camera – we were forever finding opportunities to take photos.

It was a major, time consuming  task down loading them to the computers in those days – especially as I was new to the game of finding my way around a computer – there was really no-one else in the school who could help – a lonely pioneer!

 

Our first slideshow telling the story of the space shuttle - we shared it at a school assembly
Click this link to The Space Shuttle's Journey
 

I found that Power Point was a great way to share the photos and to use them in the classroom. We made all sorts of slide shows. The children loved writing captions and stories about themselves to go with the photos.