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Lesson Observation and Reflection Melissa Gibson

Monday 30th April 2012 Persuasive writing (10am11am) 24 children: sixteen Year 4s and eight Year 3s including J with ASD (has aide)

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Teacher uses rain stick to quiet class. If there are interruptions children must put hands down, wait until everyone is quiet before continuing. To settle, teacher asks children to put hands on shoulders. The children are quickly paying attention. Lesson uses scaffolded learning: discussion, examples, partner discussion and worksheets with prompts for title, intro, body (firstly, secondly, thirdly) and conclusion ("finally"). (work sheet sample on file). Some examples of "super sentence starters" are given for reference and for filing into Writer's Notebook (sample on file). Preparation Worksheets prepared, Electronic whiteboard resources are made ready. clear instructions given on mat. Question, before going back to desks. Is this going to be a discussion or quiet work? Does everyone understand, any questions? Lesson 1. Discussion - class group on mat Teacher explains task to children on mat. Children then get up and collect work sheets in groups ( year 3, year 4 girls, year 4 boys). J is included in group. 2. Return to desks for Independent work. (J works on separate curriculum with aide). Highlight examples of persuasive writing in the text (worksheet), including punctuation. 3. Partner work. Discuss with your partner what you highlighted and why. Teacher walks around, listens to discussions and comments if necessary. Children are asked to add reference material to their writers notebooks. 4. Lesson task "school uniform should be banned at BRPS" (scaffolded learning work sheet). Return to mat. Examples of sentence starters and persuasive writing were discussed. The teacher showed sample arguments (on electronic whiteboard) for and against uniform at BRPS written by Ian Thorpe, Guy Sebastian, Hilary Duff and Cathy Freeman. Again these were discussed with lots of enthusiasm and good responses. Teacher then showed a video excerpt from The Voice. Children discussed the different persuasive tactics each mentor used to try to persuade the singers to join their team. It was a fun way to engage the children. Discuss catchy titles. Teacher gives examples (using humour, puns, alliteration, rhymes) and asks class for examples. Ask children "do you have to agree with this?" Children are asked to return to their desks and given 20 minutes silent writing time. Tips check structure and spelling when you finish your work). NB, at the end of task children should check for spelling and punctuation. Any words left out? So "best try while writing, worry about looking up spelling at end. 5. Class returns to mat for group discussion. Teacher asks who found the structure information (on worksheet) helpful? Hands up if you used a super sentence starter. One student is asked to read his persuasive writing out to the class. The class is asked to respond by using TAG T tell something you liked about the story A ask a question G Give a suggestion
GIBSON Melissa s238545 1 ETP410 Semester 1 2012

Reflection The class worked very well because there was lots of discussion and examples given before the individual task was started. The worksheet was clarified and any questions children had are answered. There was good structure to the class, and students were clear about what to do each step of the way. Each step was divided up by moving the group to the mat or back to desks. The lesson was scaffolded by starting with group discussion and warm up tasks. The children returned to desks and completed a worksheet, which had prompts for each section of the writing task. The activities were well received and fun as they incorporated pop culture that the children were all familiar with. The feedback session using TAG was successful with lots of positive feedback and suggestions (the children are reminded beforehand to use positive not negative feedback). There is also lots of positive feedback for the children by the teacher. Good behavior and manners are emphasized and the children are clear what behavior is acceptable. The atmosphere in the classroom is pleasant and has minimal disruptions, it is a great environment for learning. The children seem to enjoy being there. Most came up with some good persuasive writing about "school uniform should be banned at BRPS" although quite a few needed help with structuring their ideas and filling in the formatted sheet. Although there are occasional interruptions by J (ASD) these are well managed by the teacher by speaking directly to him in a calm voice, telling him clearly what is expected, that is too loud, J. There is a large range of abilities in the class and three of the children race through the independent work. They are asked to complete their writers notebook covers. Two others dont really get much done at all. They really need some additional encouragement and direction but with a class of 24 it is difficult to give them that time. I found out later that these children do participate in intervention maths classes. T does not seem to focus on the task at hand. He is distracted and fiddles around with a pile of papers and his pencil case. I tried to encourage him to write a catchy title as a starting point. He wrote Carlton Blues. He was not engaged at all. Will discuss T later with Emily later if possible. NB: Pen License is used as motivation for neat writing.


Later discussion about T (with mentor teacher) T seems to have social and learning difficulties. He has been assessed as there have been many flags picked up by parent and teachers. He is an only child and parents acknowledge he has always got his own way. They are aware there are problems and are cooperative. His assessment didnt show severe enough problems to justify a learning aide. He does participate in learning intervention classes for literacy and numeracy. We took him into a separate area and Emily did a Reading Record exercise to pinpoint his level and areas he needs help with. Reading Record (usually only used for lower levels): T reads text. Teacher marks each word tick if correct, mark if not (incorrect word noted). T then is asked to retell the story (Analysis of Retelling) and questions are asked about the text. T has a very low literacy level as compared with his year level standard. Jo is concerned that he was the only one asked to read to the teacher and is doesnt understand why he doesnt have to fetch the next child. After the session he was asked to organise his homework and put it in his bag but came in the next day having not remembered to take homework home. The next day he did take it home but forgot to bring it back in.

GIBSON Melissa

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ETP410

Semester 1 2012

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