Karen Reed, Room 25
Date: 31st March 2016
Name (observer) Shelly and Billinda
Focus (negotiated from goals, TAI and passed observations):
Reading – Book Introductions
What was seen:
Description of lesson:
Given a book to a child reading a different book in the group
Introduced a different book to the rest of the group ‘Presents for Jack and Billy’
What do you think this book might be about? .
Children’s responses; asked different children what they thought the book might be about.
Let’s look at the title – you read the title with the kids
Who do you think Jack and Billy are? Asked children responses. How can you tell they’re at the airport?
The teacher asked the children who’s that? That’s dad on the computer. And what’s dad’s got?
Is it a car? Have another look? Child: It’s a helicopter. T: It’s a helicopter that’s right.
Where do you have a suitcase? Child:
Prior experiences: Asked a child if they had ever been on holiday.
Who’s getting the helicopter? Child: Jjj Jack.
Do Mum and Dad look happy? Child: Yes
Why do you think they look happy?
Otto: (Dad’s ship) Asking the child to read the title.
Where is he going? What has he got? So he’s going away on the ship isn’t he.
Told the child the name of the ship.
Links prior knowledge: Where have you been on a ship?
What do you think this ship is called? Child tries to say the name of the ship but too tricky.
Some children didn’t finish reading their stories.
Student Voice:
What were you learning today?
Blake: To look at the picture to help us read.
How successful were you with your learning?
Blake: didn’t know
How do you know?
What does your teacher do to support you with your learning?
Blake: She reminds me to look at the picture to help
Is there anything else your teacher could be doing to further support you?
Blake: Say what the letters are
Strengths:
- You have a vibrant, bright and welcoming environment with children’s work displayed.
- You have a lovely manner with the children
- The rest of the class were on-task and engaged in literacy activities
- Highlighted some tricky words that the children may not be able to decode, e.g. helicopter
- Asked questions to get the children thinking about the story, connect with prior experiences
Coaching:
- How effective do you think it is to ask the children to read the title and character names with you when introducing a new book as they often contain/are tricky words? Read page 189 of Introducing Storybooks to Young Readers.
- How can you set children up for greater success when predicting what the story might be about? How can you bring to the children’s attention irregular spelling patterns or blends that they may have not encountered, e.g. ph=photo?
- Do you think the amount of questioning takes the focus away from the storyline? What way can you introduce the story without it taking too long so the storyline is not lost?
- When time is an issue for not finishing the whole book in a guided session, how can you ensure that they know the story?
Matters to reflect on: (TEACHER to respond to for follow up discussion)
Having looked at the above observation I see I still have a bit to learn regarding the introduction of new reading books to children. M. Clay in her book ‘By different paths to common outcomes’ 2014 states that “introducing new texts that young school children are going to read demands great skill” she goes on to say that we as teachers need to understand what book introductions can achieve before we become sensitive to the different needs of children.
Regarding book title, I thought it was important to go over the title of the book with the children to prepare them for the story and it’s contents, also they could maybe gain an understanding about what the story may be about. However due to the above advice given I have re-read Clay’s book and she states that too much interaction over the title and characters can distract from the focus of the story and sometimes the title may ‘contain tricks that trip up readers’.
I realise now that I need to just introduce the title,characters and the topic with minimal fuss. I need to focus more on the story, making links to other stories they have read and some experiences that they could relate too. I think I only did this once when I asked what we use a suitcase for. It’s important to give children an uninterrupted story view so they can see it’s progression through to the climax. Clay states that ‘ it makes reading the book easier when the introduction retains the meaning and intactness of the whole story.’
Reflecting on this observation I realise that I actually interrupted the flow of the story and stopped too many times to ask questions that didn’t really need to be asked, I need to just focus on the ‘actual story’ and talk through it till the end so that they are familiar with the whole story when time constraints mean the children are unable to read the whole book to the end with me. Perhaps with less questioning I may be able to hear the children read the full book. I have been trialing this in the classroom and today managed to hear two out of the 4 groups read their books to the end.
With regards to unusual spelling patterns I need to maybe repeat these a few times, maybe get the children to repeat the sentence or phrase so they become familiar with it and get used to way they say it or hear it.