Writing Feedback

This year I started marking the kids writing books the way that I had seen other teachers mark in their rooms.   After a while, I found that it didn't work for me as it wasn't giving enough ownership to the children.  When conferencing with the children I found that they were waiting for me to give them all the answers. They didn't have any responsibility for the errors they had made and were not in charge of making changes.  After rereading, "The Writing Book" by Sheena Cameron, I decided to try the wish and tick system again.   This way of conferencing takes longer but instead of correcting all the mistakes for the children I instead write some things they need to check themselves.  A wish and a tick. One thing they need to fix and one thing I think they did well.  Sometimes, depending on the child, there might be more than one tick or more than one wish.  The wishes and ticks are added only after the children has had a go at correcting their surface features first (once again pushing the, "this is your writing and you're in charge of it," point).  The wishes are always related to our learning goal for the day or to the child's specific goal.  It took a while for the children to get used to this system.  Some still wait for me to fix everything but they are getting there.  For the children who at times have trouble seeing their errors or finding them, I will use a highlighter to show that there is something wrong there that they could fix.  I think the best thing about marking this way was seeing the pride in my kids after they managed to fix an error all by themselves.  Here are some pictures of books to show how I mark.  

Simple iPad Apps and writing

Yesterday some of the teachers at school presented ideas that they learned at uLearn 2014.  Being in the junior school I decided to attend the workshop that focused on creative thinking and the use of iPads in the junior school.
One idea I tried today following our workshop was using QuickVoice App (or any other voice recording app) to record children's ideas. I decided to try this idea on some of my students who have trouble with writing. Some have trouble with verbalising their ideas and others have trouble concentrating or just forget what they were writing about.
These children used the QuickVoice app to record their story after the initial planning stage. All the children went away to a quiet space (cloak room, library corner and our outdoor area) to record their story from beginning to end. Once the children recorded their story, they started to write. The benefit that I found from doing it this way was that the children could replay their story as many times as they wanted. Some of the children who frequently forget what they were writing about finished their stories in a logical sequence because their mind didn't wander. For others it was good practice verbalising their ideas prior to writing and listening to what they sound like when they talk. They saw the gaps in their ideas without my input. The best thing for me was that these kids achieved success and they were really proud of their efforts. They were proud that they stayed on task for such a long time, they were proud that they completed their work all by themselves and they were proud that they got to be creative without having to worry too much about the recording process.
A successful day I think :)

 Planning our

Blogging with Juniors

I have finally managed to set up individual blogs for my Year 2 class. As I've said before my Year 2 children seem to be so enthusiastic about everything we do. They love to show what they can do and so I thought that for some of my kiddies blogging is the way to go.
I have some children who are not particularly confident when it comes to writing but they feel more comfortable writing on the computer. The purpose of this is to start to develop an enjoyment of writing in my reluctant writers. They all know that I have to approve their writing before it goes on the web. I think this way they have the safety net of me checking their writing before it goes up online. None of these children have had an individual blog before so having the responsibility is also exciting.

We started by discussing how writing online is like publishing your work on the wall right away. It is your best work. We also discussed some rules about making comments and what to write and what not to write. I think at the moment they are being quite cautious so we will see what the future brings.

Please have a read of what they are writing so far and leave us a comment: http://kidblog.org/room9pvs/

New Year, New Beginnings

This post should have been written a few months ago.  Very excited to announce that I am now the teacher of a Junior class. After teaching Year 5s for 6 years I decided that it was time for a new challenge. I asked to be moved to a different year level to challenge myself.
I must say ... So far so good.
It has been quite a wake up call. In the days before school started I was really questioning my choice. While looking at planning of other teachers and the things that we were going to do in the beginning of the year I though, "what have I gotten my self into?!"
I have had to adjust significantly and I think I took some of the skills my 9 year olds knew for granted. I realised very quickly that my little ones have never had to write the full date on anything. It took us most of our handwriting lesson to write it at the top of our page. Some of our learning intentions consisted of learning to copy of the board. Counting on fingers is the norm for many here.
The prospect of all this was terrifying to begin with, but so far I am loving it.  There have been times when my patience has been tested of course. Mostly because what I have set for the children they just weren't ready for or the children had displayed behaviour that I haven't had to deal with in Senior classes. For majority of the time I have not had to lower my expectations. These kids have stepped up BIG TIME!
It seems to me that my little 6 year olds are so willing to please that they will do anything in their power to make that happen. There have been times when all I have had to do was mention an expectation or behaviour and it was done. It is still early days so lets just hope that I can keep this up.

Over all, my first impressions of being a junior teacher are great!