Collaborative Teaching Updates

20 June 2017

Since our last post we have made a few changes to our collaborative Reading Programme. These have included refining the number of rooms students move between within the Reading session and adding a couple of different activities to some of the hubs.

The Year 2 team has also begun to make more visible for the students the connections between shared, guided and independent reading activities. This has included making and using the same SOLO Rubrics across the classes for students to check their progress and identify their next learning step. If you are interested in learning about any of these rubrics please talk to your child about them or their class teacher. We have begun with a Predict SOLO Rubric. Our next rubric will be for retelling a story.

Here are some photos of students in Room 15 within the first 20 minutes of a reading session as they complete 'reading mileage' or the Daily Three. Some students have chosen to read to a 'puppet' or 'toy friend'.

Students can choose where they would like to read. One group is on the desktops doing Reading Eggs or 'listening to reading' on StoryOnline. Students around the table are also completing 'reading mileage' before their Guided Reading session begins.

And in Room 16 . . .

5 June 2017

Over the last few weeks of Term Two we have continued to use our Collaborative Planning time to question how we could improve our Reading Programme whilst utilising our three classroom spaces collaboratively.

This term we have started using our classrooms as ‘hubs’. For the first few weeks the students moved between the hubs in a rotation of 3 during one reading session and engaged with texts both independently and collaboratively under the headings - Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading.

Following this trial we found that there were too many changes and students now complete reading mileage - Read to Self and Read to Someone - for 20 minutes with a ‘good-fit text’ in their own classroom before moving to one of the hubs for the remaining 40 minutes of the reading session.

Students can now engage in an Art and Craft based activity related to our Concept in the Creative Hub. Here students have been learning about different paper manipulation techniques and using these to make pollinators found in the orchard. Inquire Like a Researcher has been added to the Quiet Hub where students have also been learning about insects and pollinators, and in the Collaborative Hub students have been engaging with Puppet Pals and the Scratch apps. Over the coming weeks they will engage with plays in this hub. Simple puppets are currently being made in the Creative Hub to be used. Students are timetabled on Reading Eggs once a week and also Listen to Reading during this session.

We have continued to offer a wide range of texts from the School Library, School Readers, Poems and Big Books in each classroom. If your child has a chapter book that they are enjoying as independent reading we continue to encourage them to bring these texts in. They can be kept in your child’s Book Bag to keep them from getting lost.

Alongside this independent programme students have continued to receive lessons in guided groups with classroom teachers still stationed in their own rooms.  

We ask that you continue to talk with your child about the changes and their experiences. We will regularly update our journey throughout the term.

We look forward to your comments and feedback.

8 May 2017

Today we started our Collaborate Reading Programme where the students moved between rooms to complete Reading activities. The students were excited to be experiencing the different hubs - Quiet Hub, Creative Hub and Collaborative Hub. We will share some photos over the term.

5 May 2017

Over the last few weeks of Term One we used our Collaborative Planning time to question how we could improve our Reading Programmes whilst utilising our three classroom spaces collaboratively. As you will appreciate, we face the challenge of single cell classrooms.

After much discussion we thought it would be useful to start by looking at the idea of turning our classrooms into ‘spaces’ or ‘hubs’ which the students move between for different types of ‘learning experiences’, during one reading session.

The premise behind the creation of hubs was that we wanted the students to be able to talk about what learning ‘looks like’ and ‘sounds like’ in each hub. The hub names we are beginning with are  -

The Creative Hub

The Quiet Hub

The Collaborative Hub

Across the ‘hubs’ students will engage with texts both independently and collaboratively under the headings - Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading.

In the The Quiet Hub students will Read to Self meaning that they are reading on their own for a period of up to 20 minutes with a ‘good-fit text’. This type of text is one that they can read on their own.

In the The Creative Hub students will Read to Someone meaning that they are reading with a buddy for a period of up to 20 minutes, again with a ‘good-fit text’. In this room students will experience working with plays / scripts and ‘perform’ plays using puppets and dress ups (characterisation).

In the The Collaborative Hub students will Listen to Reading meaning that they are listening to reading for a period of up to 20 minutes.

Other activities incorporated into the Reading Programme will include Reading Games and an Art and Craft based activity related to our Concept, Creativity. Later on we plan to add another activity - Inquire Like a Researcher.

We will continue to offer a wide range of texts from the School Library, School Readers, online reading (Reading Eggs and Story Online), Poems and Big Books in each classroom. If your child has a chapter book that they are enjoying as independent reading we encourage them to bring these texts in. They can be kept in your child’s Book Bag to keep them from getting lost.

Alongside this independent programme students will continue to receive lessons in guided groups with students at a similar reading level. For some students this has meant joining a new group with a different teacher; perhaps a different teacher to their homeroom teacher. Classroom teachers will continue to be stationed in their own rooms to teach their guided groups, whilst supporting the independent reading activities.  

Next week as we embark on this journey, we ask that you talk with your child about the changes and their experiences. We will regularly update our journey throughout the term.

We look forward to your comments and feedback.

22 March 2016

This term Rooms 14, 15 and 16 have been looking at different ways in which we can work together to support our students on their learning journey. The first part of the term has focused on settling students into their classrooms and routines. As a collaborative team we also began by aligning our timetables and considering the varying ways we can work together to meet the needs of our students throughout the year.

To date we have ability grouped students for Phonics and for Shared Reading. All sessions for Phonics and Shared Reading are approximately 15 minutes and run Monday to Thursday between 9.00 to 9.30. For each of these subjects the students move across the 3 rooms. Each week we review students’ learning needs and discuss possible next steps.

This term we have also provided workshops for Statistics in Maths. Students chose from one of three workshops. Within these workshop contexts all students learnt about collecting, displaying and analysing data.

Last week we set up our Year Two Collaborative Practice goals for our Reading Programme and today we learnt more about using Digital Technologies within our Literacy Programme. We look forward to sharing our journey of these goals with you throughout the year and showcasing students’ learning.