Reflection on 9y1 lesson

At the moment year 9s are preparing for their exams. They are learning about non-fiction texts. I was observed by my mentor on 27-04-12 and we are now finely tuning my teaching. In terms of the LO I need to think about sharing it through a discussion rather than getting the students to get the students to write the LO down. I said to her that the reason why I have started getting my students to write the LO down is because I have been criticised for not communicating the LO with the students. Also, in order to quieten down the students this is a technique that I have seen used. In terms of behaviour management I need to make sure the students are in complete silence and set time limits to help them with preparation with their exams. Also, I need to make sure the students are receiving immediate feedback. Therefore, when we are sharing are work, we must comment on the WWW and EBI. I could also start a discussion as a plenary about whether or not we have fulfilled our LO. Thinking back to when I was first observing, one of the teachers that I observed used a skill based objective as well as a knowledge based objective. I could try doing this and also this could be a good discussion point.

In terms of time saving I could have produced a copy of the table and attached the LO to the sheet. My ultimate aim is too discourage passive listening and strongly encourage active listening. Also, bearing in mind that I have got a HI student in my classroom who also becoming a VI student, I need to think about making my PPT more colourful.

Year 7 parent's evening

Overall, I think the evening went very well. I had one situation that I don't know if I dealt with it in the best way possible. A parent asked me if about the consistency of teachers, as her daughter has had five different English teachers. I said that I can ensure consistency between now and the end of the year as I am teaching them full time between now and then. This student also has confidence issues and I have ensured her parent's that I will aid her encouragement. I also had a parent express concerns that that her daughter has an issue with hearing as she suffers with regular ear infections. I will keep an eye on her.

10y4 Thursday period 5 and Friday period 2

I am particularly nervous about teaching this group, so I need to observe the class teachers carefully.

Thursday period five - there had obviously been an altercation before the lesson had began. One of the students was not in the room and a student that had not been present on Thursdays was present today. The class teacher realised that this was happening/had happened and made allowances for it. She had prepared a PPT for the lesson and they were focusing on the longer writing task of the English GCSE exam (it is worth 24 marks). Students need to focus on form, language and purpose in order to answer the question. She also emphasised that you need to use 3 different types of punctuation in order to get a C (? . , - !) She is encouraging all of the students to strive for that C. It is clear that a lot of differentiation is necessary in order for these lessons to be successful. She actually said that her differentiation was not simplified enough and that if it was it would have probably engaged a student that eventually had to be removed. The main task was to improve a D grade answer into a C grade answer. She asked questions like how can it be improved in terms of the opening paragraph, complex sentences, spelling, rhetorical questions and final paragraph.

The students were asked to re-write the opening and they then shared their work with the rest of the class. Two students are now no longer to sit next to each other (CD and H). This is the first time I have been in a lesson where a student had been removed.

Friday period two - the girls were much much much better behaved. The first task that NG gave them was a simple task. When the students were reading they were silent and engaged. NG praised them by saying things like "all of you are capable of doing this", "this is a four mark question that all of you can can get full marks on". NG gave them an article about Peppa Pig, she said that this probably wasn't the best idea for M as she's her sister has just had a miscarriage. NG constantly repeats her instructions  and is using anecdotes to keep the students engaged. It is obvious to me that is CD is going to remain in a lesson it is essential that she receive4s encouragement all of the time, and I think when I take over this class, I will ask LH, SO or NG to work closely with her. The students were all engaged on the easier tasks and when NG asked them to complete a more difficult task on language devices they were more reluctant to do it. NG read the second article about Peppa Pig for them as she felt they were getting tired and it would help them to understand the article as it contained a lot of sarcasm. To end the lesson NG left them on a high by giving them another easy task of skimming and scanning.

I think having the students at the end of the day is going to require a lot more planning and the task are going to be shorter and hopefully more engaging.

Catching up with paperwork

For this week I am off timetable, so I am making the most of my time by keeping up to date with paperwork. I have now got four out of the six pieces of evidence for my 33 standards. I have to order them so that the standard with all of the signatures is at the front and the pieces of evidences are behind. I can see it spilling over into two a4 lever arch files. My NGS folders are up to date, as is my DMS folder. My Professional Development Portfolio is nearly there and that is the task that I have for today. As well as this I am creating medium term plans for all of the subjects I am teaching.

INSET DAY 16-04-12

Today was my first day back at NGS after spending term 4 at DMS. I felt like I was back in my induction period as the amount of information we received was phenomenal! There is a huge concern that we are going to get visited by Ofsted this term so our first session was all about that. We spoke about what they are looking for in terms of a good/outstanding department, and I have a lot of work to do. Therefore, for this term I need to focus on pace, student focused lessons/independent learning, progress, questioning, and effective use of TAs.

Out HOD gave us some very useful sheets from Osiris training on: a suggested model of learning to guide planning, criteria for the judging the quality of teaching, Socratic questioning (which was suggested that we not only use ourselves but give to the students to use), and features of Outstanding English Departments.

My mentor and I also met to discuss the plan for this term. I will be teaching year seven (but I'm not sure what I am going to be teaching them yet!), year eight about Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' for a reading assessment on AF5, 6 & 7; speaking and listening for AF1; creative writing covering all AFs; and morphographs, year nine exam prep for a reading exam; multi cultural poetry for a reading assessment testing AF5 and AF7, and year ten Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' focusing on relationships for a CA. Year 12 have four weeks to prepare for their exams and understandably teacher's are reluctant to give up their lessons. So after the exams have been completed and the students return I will take over the teaching. I am especially excited about teaching year 12 media as I will be teaching the conventions of a music video :)

For this week I will be observing and reintegrating myself back into school life and my focus from my mentor is to apply what I have learnt over the past four terms. Therefore, it is my responsibility to keep up with marking, folders, reports and parents evenings. The observations I receive will focus on small targets that I need to meet the following lessons.