The more that you read the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go-Dr Seuss

Today the lead teacher of my syndicate came into observe me take a reading lesson with a group. Now, to be watched as everyone knows can be daunting at first, but when you look at it through difference lenses and a different perspective, this was a fantastic learning opportunity for me and also a time for me to shine!

I learnt a great deal from my feedback from my syndicate leader which was very informative.
It was honestly great to get positive feedback on my group teaching session.
I choose to do my reading lesson on my highest group in reading: Mustangs. Their focus for that day was: WALT: We are learning to locate and summarise ideas by skimming and scanning.

Here is an example if my lesson plan below:

Text: What is Sleep

Mustangs:

WALT: We are learning to  locate and summarise ideas by skimming and scanning

SC: I know I can do this by:

• Identifying key words that will help me with writing my summary. 

Before reading:

1. Go through the WALT and SC with the children.
2. Explain to the children what summarising is

Teacher shows children poster on Summarising.

A summary is a shortened version of a text that contains all the main points.

Summarising is an important skill that helps us when we are researching, gathering and presenting information.

Finding key words and phrases helps us to summarise the text.

Example:: My summary is that Cheetahs are the fastest land animals in  the world and that their bodies have made adaptations to help them to go fast.

During reading:

1. Get children to read through part of the text: Why do people need sleep.
2. Get children to write down key words about why people need sleep on a post it note
3. Get children to peer share their ideas.
4. Repeat with What happens during sleep.

After reading:

Go through what children have learn today? What is something new we learn today about sleep?

What is summarising?

Follow up Activity:

Mustangs are to use the keywords that they came up with to write up a summary about what is sleep. They can choose the DLO they want to do this on: Presentation, Google drawing.

Remind children that they are to use their own words when writing their summaries.

I really thought that my reading lesson went really well, though to be honest, time is an essence. So for future lessons I need to make sure that I keep an eye on time so that I am able to fit in other reading groups during a certain time frame. As teaching, this skill grows with experience and at times, we are so engrossed in the depth of teaching that I feel the best forms of teaching happen with time and in that moment.

Feedback from my observation:

• I like the way you exposed an expert example of the meaning of summarising.
• A very good example given to students to help develop their understanding of the skill of summarising.

T gives students highlighters and asks S to highlight key words in the text - first page. Doing this with a buddy

S highlighting text with a buddy.

T gives students post it notes - S are required to write key words they have highlighted on the post it note.

• Great way to start reading - highlighting with peers as this encourages talk and critical thinking to happen - encouraging learning from each other.
• Great to see students to report back to the group and sharing their thinking with their whole group.
• It’s great to have teacher driving some of the discussion during the reading lesson and encouraging students to join in with the discussion.
• A good learning task related to sleep and the learning focus of the lesson - summarising key ideas.

Well done Kaveeta for using your group data analysis to inform the planning of this reading group. I can now see strong links between your data analysis, the learning focuses in your planning and the content of your teaching.

The structure of your lesson was done really well with a mixture of Think, Pair, Share skills and buddy reading. Students were engaged with the text and with what they were reading during the lesson.

My next steps for future group reading sessions would be:

• Develop the SC with students - Ask them how they think the WALT should be achieved (this encourages student voice and gives students ownership of learning)
• Keep referring back to the SC during the lesson - check that students are using the skills they have identified @ the beginning of the lesson (use as a check list to reiterate the learning focus)-This step I have done with my instructional writing lessons, but I need to make sure that I also do this with my reading and mathematics groups as well.