TS6 report form

Taken from my PP2 final report form, this extract shows my mentor’s feedback in regards to my assessment methods. Throughout this placement I used the Lancashire KLIPS to assess children and monitor their progress. From this, I was able to effectively implement interventions for reading, writing and maths in the run-up to SATs to directly impact on lower attaining children’s progression. Monitoring each child’s progress closely also enabled me to accurately plan each of my lessons to positively build on the current level of understanding and knowledge held by each child.

TS5 report form

This extract, taken from my end of PP2 report form, highlights the progress made towards TS5 during my final placement. My headteacher recognised my ability to appropriately differentiate learning experiences and objectives to suit the individual children within my class. He also commented on my ability to adapt my teaching approaches to suit the learning styles present within the class, be that incorporating further collaborative activities, planning visual aids during lessons or implementing practical tasks. Understanding the attainment and needs of all children within the class enabled me to plan effectively and ensure progression.

My target was decided upon through the recognition of limited opportunities to observe colleagues during this placement, consequently reducing the observation of varied teaching approaches designed to impact on learning. Through engaging in the observation of various practitioners, my understanding of the impact that different teaching approaches can have on learning will be considerably improved.

TS4 report form

This extract from my PP2 report form highlights the progress noted by my mentor, and headteacher, in regards to TS4. He often commented on my effective questioning and counter-questioning to encourage an in-depth understanding from all children during my lessons. I also found that this use of questioning during lessons enabled me to effectively identify and resolve misconceptions that had been formed.

The implementation of feedback and targets given from observations allowed me to greatly improve my teaching and effectively enhanced the children’s learning that took place during my time at this school. My target for this standard of contributing to curriculum planning was decided upon due to the limited opportunities for this to happen in this particular setting due to the use of schemes. However, as commented on by the headteacher, I ensured that I delivered the curriculum content in a creative and effective way to enable the children to enjoy their learning whilst making clear progress in their understanding. This is an element of teaching that will contribute to allowing me to achieve this target in my future practice.

TS3 report form

The extract above was taken from my professional practice 2 end report form. My mentor states that in regards to TS3 I consistently demonstrated a good subject knowledge and used the appropriate vocabulary for the ability of the children within the class; this was not only in my specialism subject of English, but throughout my teaching. The headteacher identified my engagement in staff meetings and CPD INSETs as well as my clear implementation of whole school policies throughout my practice.

Following the school’s marking policy enabled me to provide children with a celebratory comment in regards to how they met, or almost met the learning objective for that lesson and a target or a challenge for them to either include in their work next time or for them to complete or amend before the next lesson. I found that this system worked well and that all children were keen to make the amendments identified in order to improve their own knowledge and understanding. I also tried to provide children with verbal feedback in regards to the lesson content during the session as I found this often had a greater impact on the children’s learning.

My target of developing my knowledge and understanding of the principles and practices of teaching PE was identified as I was unable to teach PE during professional practice 2 due to the school having bought in  a specialised PE coach. However, I did have multiple opportunities to assist the coaches in their lessons, become familiar with their tracking and assessment system and engage with their planning system. This has allowed me to gain a range of ideas in regards to teaching and assessing progress in PE.

TS2 report form

This extract was taken from my end of professional practice report form for PP2. My mentor states that I am acutely aware of all children’s attainment within the class which enables me to effectively plan learning activities to help the children make good progress in their knowledge and understanding. My own personal reflection throughout practice enabled me to consider the methods of teaching which were most beneficial to each individual child and consequently provided me with the means to adapt my own teaching to meet the strengths and needs of all.

I strongly believe that collaborative activities can enable children to progress in their learning more effectively than being limited to their own personal views and ideas. My target of continuing to regularly create opportunities for independent and autonomous learning arose through the identification of the level of scaffolding provided to some children perhaps unnecessarily in some instances. However, I do still believe that a good combination of both collaborative and independent learning opportunities need to be provided to all children.

Differentiating through provision

25.02.16 – properties of 3D shapes

The lesson plan that I have attached shows a clear understanding of the children’s prior experiences and current stage of learning and how this impacts on the current lesson, with some children completing work for the higher ability group and others being closely monitored and supported throughout the completion of the task.

It also shows a clear differentiation between the ability groups for mathematics, with the Trapeziums receiving more guidance, easier practical provision and fewer complex vocabulary and the Parallelograms being supported in independently naming complex shapes and completing the activity with less scaffolding.

My deployment of the TA during this lesson shows my understanding of the impact they can have on lower attaining children’s learning. I identified children who would need extra guidance during different stages of the lesson, be that with the understanding of key vocabulary or with the main practical component of the activity, who my TA would be able to effectively support to enable them to achieve the learning objective.

The differentiated use of practical provision enabled the higher attaining children within the class to demonstrate their knowledge of both 2D and 3D shapes as they were required to create both using the materials provided. The lower attaining children however were provided with 2D Clixi shapes which they could identify and then use to create the 3D shapes. This ensured that all children within the class were able to demonstrate their understanding of 3D shapes without their knowledge of the properties of 2D shapes presenting a barrier to their learning.

 

Maths parents’ booklet

Parents Booklet

I created this guidance booklet for parents and carers as one of my portfolio tasks. Despite not having used the booklet in a school, I created it based on the maths policy from my Professional Practice 1b school and on my interpretations of how parents viewed their children’s mathematics abilities whilst on that placement. It is something which I would be happy to share with parents as I feel it would help with their children’s progress.

I am already aware of the vitality of taking responsibility for and being accountable for children’s attainment, progress and outcomes. However, I also recognise that this extends to beyond the school environment and can be strongly influenced by parents, carers and other family members. As a result, the creation of this booklet allows family members to improve their own understanding of the methods and concepts covered at the stage that is relevant to their child. I know the importance of communicating with parents and carers in regards to their child’s achievements and this is one way of doing so whilst also directly impacting upon the child’s progress. Hopefully, using something similar to this in school would help to form strong collaborative links with families and also have a positive impact on children’s motivation and capabilities.

Throughout the booklet I have included the relevant teaching strategies for the appropriate curriculum areas as well as methods of applying the content the children are learning to real-life scenarios in order to foster and maintain their interest in the subject. This enables parents to feel confident in addressing any misunderstandings their child may have, implement engaging mathematical learning into their child’s everyday experiences and use suitable strategies to help progress their child’s understanding without causing confusion, which I found that a lot of parents felt would happen if they intervened.

The booklet I created covers a number of areas that are included in the National Curriculum for year 2, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, problem solving and shape. Each of these areas in the booklet included an explanation of the strategies which would be used in school, key vocabulary related to the topic, resources that could be used to support the children’s learning and real-life applications. This demonstrates my understanding of the importance of ensuring parents and carers are confident in the knowledge and understanding their children are developing and also shows my own subject knowledge in regards to teaching early mathematics.

 

Interventions

Intervention list

This reflection focuses on the interventions I planned and implemented for my year 6 children who were attaining below their age-related expectations. Despite having previously planned and implemented phonics intervention, as discussed earlier, this is the first time I have engaged in the entire process (identifying children, identifying problem areas and possible reasons for this, allocating time for interventions, preparing and planning the interventions and monitoring the impact they were having on the children’s progress).

Interventions can be extremely vital in a child’s education and can be the difference between them achieving their potential and not. Through the identification, planning and implementation of these interventions (as listed in the attached document), I was taking responsibility for the children’s attainment, progress and outcomes, stretching them to reach their potential and improve their knowledge and understanding, planning teaching and interventions to build on their current level of knowledge and capabilities, making effective use of support staff (see document) and tracking their progress through both formative and summative methods.

I identified the children using both formative assessment methods, such as progress made in work completed in lessons, listening and assessing readers one-to-one, and the feedback I was giving through marking (repeating the same targets, not achieving particular learning objectives, etc.) and summative assessment methods, such as practice SATs papers and mental math papers. These determined the intervention groups for reading comprehension, writing and maths. I then identified the types of tasks that would be beneficial to the children’s learning, based on their current capabilities; these included focused questions during guided reading, short writing tasks to be completed within the focus intervention group, and 10 minute SATs practice papers on a daily basis in order to identify and then act upon particular areas that needed further guidance.

My current understanding of interventions improved considerably through engagement in this process, as did my knowledge of age-related expectations and assessment tracking. This process also helped me with the deployment of support staff as they were invaluable throughout, helping the children to progress in the areas they really needed to. Through engaging with this process, I believe that I will be more confident in setting up appropriate interventions within my future classes in order to positively impact on the children’s learning; particularly after seeing how beneficial they were for these children in the preparation for the SATs.

 

 

 

Self and peer evaluation

Marking Ladders – letter writing

Progressing from my understanding of Two Stars and a Wish, as previously discussed, I implemented the attached form of self and peer evaluation through Professional Practice 2.

Being accountable for children’s attainment, progress and outcomes is a vital part of the teaching cycle as it allows us to monitor their current abilities and compare these to their previous achievements to show any progress made and the next steps that need to be taken. From this point we can adjust our teaching to address the new targets that are set and work towards making progress and developing improved outcomes for each individual child in the class. Children should be informed of the assessment cycle and, wherever possible, work with the teacher to be involved in the target setting process to ensure that fair and appropriate targets are set. Using formative assessment strategies within lessons can be a useful method to obtain where each child thinks they are in their learning and also where they think they need to improve.

This evidence demonstrate my current attainment in regards to the importance of self and peer assessment. I used this model for Big Write sessions, Literacy lessons and, when appropriate, for some topic lessons. The criteria included on the ladders was differentiated for each ability group within the class (from children working on Year 4 objectives, to those working on Year 6 objectives). This ensured that the children were all aware of the specific elements they were aiming to include within their work and could assess themselves continuously throughout the lesson. Children would traffic light each criteria with either green, red or orange to signify their understanding/achievement. At the end of the lesson, the children would swap work and peer mark each others in the same way; they would check whether the self-assessments were accurate and write a positive comment in relation to the overall objective. I would then complete the ‘teacher’ column using the same method for the overall assessment of that piece of work.

I understand the potential impact that carefully monitoring children’s attainment and progress can have on future learning and outcomes as identifying current abilities allows work to be suitably differentiated and therefore allows each child to achieve their maximum potential in all areas of their learning. These ladders were very effective and could be used over multiple lessons for extended pieces of work as they ensured all children knew what they were aiming for in each piece. They could also see what areas they were confident in and where they needed to improve.

Peer evaluation

During Professional Practice 1b I implemented the use of ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ as a form of peer assessment. This required the children to provide each other with two things they liked about each others work and one area in which they could improve. The comments that were written were closely related to the learning objectives and any previous targets/challenges that they had been set.

The example shown was completed in regards to a newspaper article which the child had written. His peer identified that he had discussed who, what, where and why, which had been discussed as a class and was decided to be a vital aspect of newspaper articles. His next star was that some had been written like an article, referring to the tone that had been used throughout. His wish included adding speech marks around the quotes. By completing this formative assessment activity, the children are able to consolidate their own understanding of the learning objectives whilst also recognising which areas they need to improve in their own work.