Dawn Finlayson's Weblog

Two weeks into the new term, 13 children the same (my new P2s and 3s) and 6 new P1s this year. The new P1s are settling in well, no tears at all! And the P2s and 3s seem to have grown up a little over the summer (I wasn't sure that they would!) so that is a good thing. :)

The last two weeks in writing we have written personal reports, which is something we did a lot of last term. When I started the lesson with my flip chart and list of talking partners at the ready (with P2 and3), asking for the success criteria we would need to make a good personal report, I worried for a moment as I seemed to have a sea of blank faces in front of me. But after talking to their partners for a few moments, it all seemed to come flooding back, and interestingly, the children I suspected wouldn't remember most of it were the the ones who were desperate to answer. Anyway, that had gone well, and the work they produced, while not as prolific as the pages they were coming up with before the holidays, seemed to be of a better quality, with a few more full stops and a distinct lack of the 'and...and...and...and' syndrome we were still seeing before. The next thing was to tackle the content...

In week two I told them that half way through their writing time I would be stopping them and asking them to look for something in their work they thought was very good, and something they thought they could improve. I gave an example of this sentence " I went to the park" and asked how they thought I could improve it, and, while there were several ideas given, the one we settled on was "I cycled quickly along the road to the park". They all seemed to get the idea that by using different, or extra, words, they could make their story more interesting for the reader. (Interesting and exciting is always in our success criteria, but most of them have no idea how to achieve this, I'm sure they think everything they write about is interesting and exciting no matter how they say it! - well, up till now :) )

So we stopped half way through and read our own work. I chose a sentence from someones work to write on the board, and we changed that to make it more interesting. Some of the P3s were able to find something to change with minimal help, and some needed a lot of help. Some children, because they had been thinking about what we had discussed as they wrote, felt they couldn't really make any of those sorts of changes, but were able to make technical changes to full stops and capital letters, or spelling.

I was concerned that it would be too much for the new P2s to deal with this self assessment aspect of their work, however, after discussion with the auxiliary who was sitting with them (she's new this year, and absolutely great :) ) decided that they were able to do it as long as they continue to have support. At the moment we have a setting system in school, with groups for those working towards level A, B, C and D, and within those working towards A, our classroom assistant works with the new P1s under my direction, as they are obviously at a different stage than anyone else, and the Auxiliary sits with P2, who need a little extra support than P3 who are 'my group'. So hopefully we can maintain that, so that everyone gets the support they can benefit most from.

Next week, when we do the self assessment, I'll include peer assessment, where they read their work to a partner at their table, and find something to improve in each others work together. I have found since we began the formative assessment (and in fact generally) that it seems to work better if it's 'drip-fed' to them - so the self assessment last week was quite a challenge, coming up with the improvement ideas themselves, so next week, when they are allowed to have help from a friend, they will likely to a lot better. We'll see.

As for formative assessment in other areas of the curriculum - we are working on the Enterprising Infants box at the moment, in preparation for next terms technology/enterprise topic on 'toys', and the talking partners, envoying, and questioning techniques have worked very well for that. Quite often when we do a lesson which involves no sitting at your table not talking to anyone and writing something down, I'm asked 'when are we going to do some work'. But an hour and a half into the first enterprise lesson, no one had asked that, and no one seemed to be bored. (Mind you, P1 had been to the toilet about 42 times and some of them were looking a bit droopy - but it was 12.15 on Friday morning on only their second week of school! Heaven knows what they will be like next week after a week of full days...)

In ES our topic is Myself, My family, My school. At the beginning I shared the unit coverage with P2 and 3, and they remembered how we had looked at that before and liked to know what was coming up. We did it out in the sunshine though with the flip chart, and I'm sure some of them would rather have been sunbathing. But we'll refer to it throughout as we did last time and that is when we will see the benefit of it. Because the topic is about themselves, the talking partners have been great, especially pairing up the new children (P1s and a new girl in P2) with people who don't know them. In our school, everyone knows each other inside out, there aren't many opportunities to get together with someone you don't know very well!

Next week, we are getting together with Anne to make some decisions about the Day 3 with Shirley, and the exhibition, or whatever it's called, which happens in a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see how other people are getting on - especially those that have brand new classes, obviously it's very different for me, as I'm continuing with mostly the same children, and the new ones are just following their lead.

Met with Heather last night after school for a few hours to talk over what we've been doing with this and discuss what we think we can feedback about at day 2. We've found it practically impossible to meet during the last two terms to discuss this- with Heather being part time and there not really being any cover for me (Heather does my PT time so that's not an option) it's just not really been possible. We really felt last night that we would have benefited from having time to discuss what we'd done, and what we could each work a bit more on. Maybe after the summer before day three we can try and arrange something a bit better. We wondered, did Anne or ELC contact headteachers and suggest that 1 morning a month that was recommended for people to meet with their partner/team.

Anyway, we went through each of the points we were supposed to work on for Day 2 and thought about what we had done and how it had benefited the children. Shirley' words were "what did you do" "what impact did it have" and "how did you know". So...

1. Separate the learning objective from the context in plans.
We were already doing this in writing which was the subject that we chose to pursue formative assessment with first. I also began to do it with some of our ES topics.
Impact: focuses the teacher on what you want the children to learn - which made me ensure the children were clear about the objective.
The impact wasn't that great because we felt we were already doing this.

2. Planning for success criteria.
Again we were already doing this in writing, and began to do it in ES. I don't think putting it in the plans had a noticeable impact on the children - after all, the plans don't, it's what you do with them that counts. Also, we were unable to plan with someone as there is only Heather and I, both teaching different stages.

3. Sharing the learning objective (separate from the context) with the children.
The learning objective was written up as part of the forward plans, which were written as the LO for each week in ES. In writing the objective was the same for the whole term eg 'Imaginative writing' and this was written up with the success criteria.
The children were very clear about what I wanted them to know and achieve. I know this because the feedback from talking partners showed that they retained knowledge of the previous weeks' learning showed that they could recall what they had learned - and knew that was what they were supposed to know.

We felt there was a lot of overlap between elements 1, 3 and 6, and 2,4 and 5. It's hard to separate the impact of one from the others.

4. Success criteria was written up during the teacher part of the lesson - partly by recall of criteria previously worked on and partly taken from a model produced by the teacher. (in writing) In ES I didn't put up the success criteria so much but intend to as we go on. Sometimes I've found it hard to do this for the whole class as the success criteria can be different for everyone dependent on both age and ability. For example in reading, we have 8 groups, 3 in P3, 3 in P2 and 2 in P1, so obviously this affects the success criteria in a range of subjects depending on the context. The children get confused when every group is given different success criteria, because we have to talk about it all together and they forget which bits apply to them as they overlap a lot.
However in writing, using the success criteria has been successful, there has been a great improvement in the children's writing, particularly in P2. They have been very focused on the success criteria, and this has increased their confidence when writing. Within a couple of weeks of using the talking partners and writing up the success criteria, the P2's were producing much longer, more coherent pieces of imaginative writing. This has also crossed over to their other writing - this term, when we have been reviewing a variety of genres the development in their writing can be seen. They are also able to say which success criteria apply to more than one genre.

5. Remind children to focus on success criteria throughout the working time. Impact: reminds the teacher to focus on the specific success criteria, rather than being distracted by other aspects of the work. For children the impact is much as the last element and also it encouraged self correction - they are finishing their piece of writing and then looking over the success criteria and realising there are aspects that they need to work on some more and going back and correcting their own work or asking advice on how to 'fix it'.

6. Involving children in the termly plan:
I tried to work with the children on identifying what we should learn in advance of the topic, but the things they wanted to learn were not the things ELC wanted them to learn, so that didn't work out too well. For example, for the transport topic, they thought important things to learn would be how a motorbike engine worked, and how camels survive in the desert, which, while worthy enough questions, did not relate at all to the learning objectives provided to me by the council - and with a 5 week topic, I'm afraid extras just don't fit into the timetable! However, I did share the term plan for our ES topics with the class in advance - with a list on the flip chart of the LO for each week (written during discussion with the children). This had a positive effect in that it stopped the usual "are we doing X ", "when will be doing Y" and "what are we doing next" questions, as they knew exactly what was to be covered. (Although it did concern me that it didn't leave so much room for flexibility as the children are more particular than most Headteachers about covering everything within the plan in order and at the right slot in the timetable!) However, i felt it had a positive impact on their learning as they were able to make connections between the various aspects of the topic, which I could see during discussions (eg talking partners) as they would refer to previous knowledge when discussing a new aspect of the topic. They also showed this knowledge of how it all linked together when discussing the topic with visitors and my PT supply teacher.

7. Wait Time:
I feel I was doing this before anyway to a large extent - it has a positive effect on the younger children as without something like this they always feel that the older ones will answer for them, so there is no point in thinking. When given time to think, they are much more likely to contribute to a whole class discussion. I have found that wait time for everyone has worked well in this way - it also is better use of time, because you're not going round the class asking people to answer who actually have nothing useful to say - if given time to think, most children have something pertinent to contribute. (although some p1's will spend the wait time thinking about something completely different and proceed to tell me about it as soon as they get a chance. Maybe they'll stop doing that in P2... ) However, wait time for an individual, where others are not thinking, and are just waiting for someone to come up with an answer while they do nothing, does not go down well, as the other got very restless and this just ruins the lesson. Heather however has found that with the older ones, they have become much more patient with each other and don't mind waiting for up to a minute for an individual to formulate their answer.

8. No hands up: We always use this after talking partners, as I usually ask all the pairs for a contribution, and we sometimes use it during class discussions, although after wait time I usually allow hands up and they nearly all go up! I think it's true that they don't switch off as much as they do when they see the hands of others shooting up and think that they won't have to give any contribution.

9. Talking partners: I've chosen my talking partners randomly every time (although I have a bit of a sneaky system which the kids haven't worked out so that I don't end up with 2 p1's together as that wasn't as successful. I think they would protest a lot if I suggested doing it in a way that wasn't random. Next session, I'm thinking about having talking partners with someone in their own group, as I think that might work out well in a different way (but it depends what the new P1's are like I guess! ) I think the impact of talking partners has been great on the class - the children all get a chance to contribute - I have seen evidence of children that might never have opened their mouths otherwise showing a good knowledge of various subjects. I think the talking partners have also reinforced the children's knowledge as well, as, rather than me asking questions about the aspect we are covering to one or two people, they are all giving their answers at once (even though I don't hear them all!) There is also an effect on behaviour, as they are not all sitting listening for such a long time, but are having little 'breaks' to talk to their partner, hence they do not get so restless. We haven't used many of the other ways of doing talking partners (envoying etc) but plan to do some of these in the future.

10. Questioning techniques: I already make an effort to ask lots of open ended questions however I haven't focused on this specifically so that will be my next step.

Just noticed, reading through this for the first time properly (have I really been that busy?? ) that it refers to tickled pink and green for growth, and also WALT and WILF. Thought I understood from Shirley that, while these were used a lot in the early days of formative assessment, now they're not considered so good. I havent used any of them, partly on that basis, so I think it would only confuse parents to issue this leaflet.

Maybe we should make an alternative - although I must say at parents night last week everyone seemed pretty happy with their child's progress, and didn't seem to have any problem with or questions about the teaching method. (thank goodness!)
*note - remember to ask Anne about the leaflet at next drop in*

so..

what things do I need to focus on next term.

1. Writing up the learning intention and the context with the success criteria, as well as including them all in the plans. And only focus on the SC when marking!

2. Include the children in unit planning for transport topic (hmm, this week maybe, before I do my planning in the hols?) and then sharing the unit with them after it's planned before we start.

3. Being more prescriptive with 'wait time' and 'no hands up'.

4. Say 'if it's making you think it means you're learning something new'.

5. More self evaluation, particularly with the writing.

What do I actually need to do?

In the planning - include learning intention, context and SC for everything, and plan with the children for ES

In the timetable - try to do more introductions to things in a whole class format, then grade the SC according to groups - make sure CA knows SC for her group
(should be possible with everything apart from maths and individual reading books)

It doesn't seem that much in some ways - but in others it seems an awful lot ...

3. Sharing/writing up learning intentions. Explicitly separate it from the context.

I haven't done this for the kids, only in my plans. Was discussing this with Heather last week (in assembly time, which is when we get an opportunity - on the weeks that she's in! - there really isn't that much time available, and to be honest there just isn't any to be found anywhere!) - she felt she hadn't really done this either - we were saying how, if the children have come up with the success criteria, then surely they must know what it is they are trying to learn. How much difference can writing it up make! However, I was sceptical about some of the other things in this which I've now tried and they made a huge difference, so I will make an effort to do this next term - I was thinking, perhaps as a heading to the success criteria, e.g: ''write a good imaginative story' - success criteria: good beginning, correct spelling etc...- then there can be no doubt about the connection between the SC and the Learning intention, and the context.

4. Asking children for success criteria just before they start to work and write it up.

Well, obviously we've been doing that, from all I've already said...although perhaps not 'just before'. I don't think that would have worked, not for the writing, or the wind chimes. Maybe it will work for other things...

5. At beginning of units of work, introducing the elements to be covered, involving children in some way.

Did this for the windchimes. The children came up with all the things we would have to do (look at windchimes, draw a design, practice skills, etc) with a little bit of guidance, so that they tied in with my plans! At any rate, they thought it was all their ideas! (Perhaps a couple of the P3's noticed I was leading the way slightly, they always notice everything like that!)
I don't think this would have worked for the writing so much, I mean, there weren't really elements, it was more a case of working through the success criteria, and improving each one. It wouldn't have helped, I don't think, to take one particular success criteria each week to work on, as every child started from a different place!

6. Extending 'wait time' to 5 seconds or more after asking children a question. Experimenting with hands up at the end of the 5 seconds or no hands up at all so that anyone can be asked for a response.

I think I've pretty much always done this (remember being told it in the PGCE at good old UEA when we did the 'black box' lecture!). I might try and do it in a slightly more structured way though, explaining to the children that I'm giving them thinking time - I don't often (although I do sometimes) do that. We've used talking partners a lot during 'thinking time' and that has worked pretty well, although for the P1's it doesn't seem that helpful at times, some older children encourage them to contribute and some don't - but then as the partners change often, I guess it's ok. I think the random choosing of partners has worked well for us, if the kids suspected I was choosing their partners we'd have tears instead of talking if they didn't like my choice!

7. Using normal voice for feedback about the learning intention and whispering other things.

You can't whisper in my class unless P4-7 are at gym/music, no one would hear you. (P4-7 are of course in the same position, they are no noisier than we are!) I tend not to feedback on other things anyway, unless it is behaviour related. Which it often is...

8. Saying that 'if it's making you think' it means that you are learning something new-making this a good thing!

I haven't tried saying this. I tend to be in the habit anyway of saying 'if it's too easy, you're not learning anything!' which I suppose is the same thing - although perhaps I ought to take the more positive slant on it!

9. Dabbling with self-evaluation.

We did this with the windchimes, as described before, and most children were pretty happy with their efforts, although all of P2 and 3 were able to say what they would do differently another time, which is obviously part of self evaluation. Also, as a class we were able to evaluate the skills we had learned/used, and say where else they might be useful. P3 have also been evaluating their own writing, which was particularly useful in the lead up to their level A writing tests, as they were able to make clear in their own minds the things they had to stay focussed on during the test in order to do well.

tbc

Felt it was time to take a look at the things we are supposed to do before day 2 of the learning team meeting, and work out what needs to be incorporated into next terms planning. (Already did this to an extent but lost all the work through an error in the blog so have been putting off doing it again since then! :( )

Shirley's list of things to do:

1. Separating the learning intention from the context of the learning (e.g. to be able to write an account/context: an underwater world...;rather than 'to be able to write an account of an underwater world')
2. Planning process success criteria (what children will need to do in order to achieve the learning intention). Start with one subject only and plan with someone if possible
3. Sharing/writing up learning intentions. Explicitly separate it from the context.
4. Asking children for success criteria just before they start to work and write it up.
5. At beginning of units of work, introducing the elements to be covered, involving children in some way.
6. Extending 'wait time' to 5 seconds or more after asking children a question. Experimenting with hands up at the end of the 5 seconds or no hands up at all so that anyone can be asked for a response.
7. Using normal voice for feedback about the learning intention and whispering other things.
8. Saying that 'if it's making you think' it means that you are learning something new-making this a good thing!
9. Dabbling with self-evaluation.

I think she said we could just focus on points 1-6, but looking over it, it seems like we haven't been doing only those ones! And it doesn't really mention talking partners...

Anyway, one thing at a time:

1. Separating the learning intention from the context
   Did this with the ES and writing planning. It was a lot easier to explain to the children seperately with the writing than it was with the ES. With the writing, they are all pretty clear that they have been learning to write (or continue) a good imaginative story, whereas they really seemed to think they were only learning how to make windchimes in the technology project. We talked about the skills we needed to use a lot, but of course, just like in life, they related them directly to the project in hand, rather than generalising them. And that seems to me to have been the best way, after all, you want them to be able to draw on the specific skills needed and recognise what those are, rather than treat it as though they could be making anything at all using the same skills. So in this series of lessons, I'm quite happy that I didn't choose to try and make the context of windchimes too seperate from the skills, as in a way, the skill of designing and making a windchime was the main crux of the whole thing, and it would have been silly to try and pretend it wasn't.
   In some ways I think I came away from day one under the impression that skills were often meant to be the main learning intention of lessons, and the actual activity was just the context. But the more I'm using formative assessment I think this isn't always, or even usually, the case, sometimes the actual content of the lesson is the most important. (for instance 'draw a picture of the seashore' can be the learning intention, rather than the context where the learning intention might be to do with the skills used for the drawing - I'm still getting this clear in my head so please excuse the waffling!)
   Next terms first topic is transport, as a social topic. Will need to look at the learning objectives in the East Lothian folder before deciding which way to separate those!
   
2. Planning process success criteria (what children will need to do in order to achieve the learning intention). Start with one subject only and plan with someone if possible.
   Unfortunately it's impossible to plan with someone, as there is no one else teaching infants in Stenton. We have used the success criteria with a lot of success in our writing - I had an email from someone asking for some more feedback about how I went about getting the children to come up with the success criteria, so rather than re-typing it, it seems sensible to quote my reply here...
   

Our Success Criteria are sort of based on what P3 are doing (as I have p1-3), and then brought down a bit for P1 and 2. The children came up with them and gradually refined them over a period of weeks - based on the model stories I was reading/telling. They started off by saying what was good about the model story - what made it a good imaginative story. Initially they came up with things like 'it had a fairy in it', 'it had magic in it', 'it was funny', 'it was exciting', 'it was made up', 'it had a good ending'. So we made a list on the flip chart of all the things 'that make a good imaginative story'. I didn't refer to them as success criteria at all. The next week, we read a story that wasn't fantasy, to get away from the fact that imaginative stories have to have fairies and magic in! We added to the 'things that make a good imaginative story' list as we went along. Then, we sorted the list into things that the story MUST be (it must have a good ending, must be made up) and things it COULD be (happy, funny, have magic etc). Eventually, we agreed that all of the COULD list was just 'things that make it interesting' - and that it must be interesting in one way or another, so we added 'interesting' to our success criteria. I was a bit concerned that the children were having lots of great ideas, but that they weren't getting down to the writing in sentences with finger spaces between the words! So I modelled a story on the board with no finger spaces or sentences, and they told me what was wrong with it. Then they decided (with a little prompting!) that those needed to be part of 'what makes a good story' too, so we added those. So in the end, our list has - good beginning- good ending- made-up- interesting- full stops and capital letters- finger spacesWe've also worked a little on the writers craft task, and for that we have added 'continues the same story'. I introduced the term success criteria, we talked about what it means to succeed, and how a successful story means one that is good. To make a successful story we have to include all of the success criteria in our story. I think they've got it - and they seem to understand what the SC are for. Certainly their writing has improved! P1 of course are just writing a little - 1 or 2 'sentences' with a lot of support, but they do try hard to think of something interesting to say, and to remember their finger spaces. We've recently decided that on each writing day, we (the CA and I) will pick a particular success criteria for them to focus on (or maybe 2), rather than trying to do them all. So it's all been a long process but I feel like they worked them all out themselves and that had probably made the difference. It has taken till now for their SC to match the ones that were in my plans - and we're more than half way through the term. But we're getting there.

I'm quite pleased that I let them take their time throughout the term to find out the 'important' success criteria. I'll probably do it the same way next term, although it may be a bit more clear cut for functional writing. In the end, we let the P2's and 3's choose the success criteria for P1 - they chose the ones which they thought were the most important but also achievable, which was great as it meant they showed more appreciation of the younger children's work. I haven't really used success criteria in other areas of the curriculum, although we did, as referred to before, use it with the windchimes (where it worked well also). But I feel it would also be beneficial in group tasks such as maths and comprehension, but just don't seem to be able to adjust my day enough to fit it in, although I'd love to! I feel that really, when you have such a range of abilities and groups, (for instance for reading we have 8 groups, ranging from P1 non-readers who still need some help to point to individual words, to P3 confident readers who easily read short novels, plays and poems) that it is hard to find the time to introduce SC with every group when you are teaching them all seperately. In subjects such as ES and writing, where the introduction is done as a class, it is much easier. I feel in a lot of ways the children would benefit from more whole class teaching with follow up work in groups, with support or independantly, and that would also make it a lot easier to use the SC in these areas. We'll see...

to be continued...

Carrying on from last weeks writing lesson, I tried to bring in, as planned, a way of showing that you MUST carry on the same story that is there in the beginning.

I didn't however, reckon with P3, who seemed to be out to sabotage every lesson for most of this week! :( I think if I was actually wrong as many times as they tried to prove I was, I must be in the wrong job.

So, I started of with a story starter. We discussed it. What was happening, what did we think was going to happen next - what was most likely to happen next?

Then I read and displayed 3 different ways of continuing the story. One was obviously a continuation of the story that we had begun. The other two were obviously not. The talking partners discussed which one would be the best ending, according to the criteria we had talked about.

Most of P1 and 2 who were partnered together all came up with the same answer - the one with the obvious continuation of the story was the best. It also fulfilled our success criteria. But P3 chose another one - the one that they liked the best! And no matter how much I (and some other children!) pointed out how it didn't fit the criteria, and almost turned into another story entirely unrelated to the first, they refused to see it. (well, in my opinion, they refused to admit that they saw it!). Serves me right for including a holiday to the sun in one of the 'wrong' versions' - one of the P3 girls is just back from Bermuda and they are all obsessed with holidays at the moment!

Interestingly, none of P3, when they came to do their own writer's craft task afterwards, chose to write a story which changed the plot and ideas completely - they all continued the story reasonably well. (Seems like maybe they agreed with myself and the other children after all! - or at least learned that to achieve the success criteria, you have to stick to them, even if you don't like it!).

Using the success criteria is still having a very positive effect on their writing, although I'd say the pace of improvement has maybe slowed slightly after the initial burst. The writer's craft has proved much more tricky than the personal imaginative story - and that was harder than the functional writing from last term (although I really wished I'd been using formative assessment strategies for that - they did well as it was, I think this would have made them do even better!). Can't wait to use it in the summer term when we go back to functional and do a few more letters, instructions and posters!

So, the Technology topic started in January is now over.

I shared the unit coverage with the children from the beginning, but was a little concerned that they just didn't get it and were bored by it ('when are we going to get on with some work?') so i didn't harp on about it too much. But then gradually, as we progressed through the topic, I found some of P2 and 3 were referring back to it often, working out where were were going with the topic next - and they had a clearer understanding as to why we didn't just jump in and make the final product straight away, but were first making plans, and learning/practicing skills etc. So we started to look at it at the start of most ES lessons - at least once each week, and it certainly seemed to help keep everyone (including me!) a little more focused.

The outcome of the topic was great - the children made wind chimes, from bits and pieces mostly picked up from the B&Q sale, and the learned, or became better at, so many skills along the way. They were a great success, and are currently hanging from the enormous branch (almost a tree really!) stuck in my classroom window (brought in from the country park by my wonderful CA, and previously used to hang the red 'money' envelopes we made when we were learning about Chinese New Year). The children are very pleased with them.

The children all evaluated their own wind chimes (with a little prompting from me!) - did it come out as you intended; is it the same as your plan; would you do anything different if you were starting again; will you be able to use it as you intended?

They also evaluated to an extent against our success criteria, which we made up together at the start of the topic, when we were looking at existing wind chimes and deciding what made a good wind chime. Everyone seems happy that they did a good job (including me!) :)

Tuesday is writing day - so another lesson using the success criteria the children chose themselves over the last few weeks.

Had two agendas with todays lesson, one to try and get some of the P2's who never write in sentences and run their words together without a finger space in sight to write with spaces and in sentences and the other to work on a 'writer's craft' style task, mainly for the P3's who will be doing their level A writing later in the term.

I started of with the beginning of a story on the board, written with no finger spaces and no sentences or capital letters. First thing the children had 1 minute to discuss with their talking partner what was wrong with it. Almost every child had their hand up at the end of the minute - they are getting the hang of how it works! They easily came up with the reasons it wasn't a good piece of writing. Then we put in all the spaces, full stops, and capital letters for sentences and names, and added these 'good things' to our list of success criteria. 1 more minute to discuss with talking partners what was good about the story (did it follow any of our success criteria from previous weeks?) Again the children were easily able to identify all the 'good' features of the story. (some children when partnered with a primary one seem to be showing a reluctance to use the time to discuss the question - as if they think they just aren't capable. This fortnights random partners haven't been as good as last time!).

All the children were desperate by now to know what happened next in the story...most of P1 and 2 hadn't realised at all that they were going to finish it! But they were all desperate to get on with it as soon as I told them, and were all buzzing with different ideas, obviously brought on through the discussions we had had, although we hadn't directly discussed what would happen next.

I worked directly with P2 this week, and again I was so pleased at the progress they have made. One child in particular, who at the beginning of this term (only 5 weeks ago) was still running all her words together, with shocking spelling and no sentences, suddenly, with the clear guidelines on what is expected of her, (and having helped make those guidelines herself, she understands them all!) is now writing interesting stories, clearly, with good spelling and trying her very best to use her dictionary without help, and beginning to put in full stops and capitals. Today she was correcting herself all the way though ("oops, that should have been a capital"!) - hearing her I couldn't help smiling, she wanted to know what was wrong with me. (So I told her - she might as well know she is making me happy!). Other children are all making similar progress, which I certainly didn't expect in 5 weeks - sharing the learning intentions and success criteria - and in fact giving them ownership of them, really seems to have made such a difference.

P3, whose books I marked later, have shown similar improvements in their writing - it's more imaginative - they are really making an effort to use the success criteria like a check list, and include the features we've discussed. However a couple of them today had had problems with the Writer's craft task - not really continuing the story, but launching off into something completely different, albeit with the same characters. So, next lesson, I will start of by telling a couple of stories which start with one things, and then leave you hanging and start talking about something else, and get the talking partners to discuss what might be good and bad about them. Then maybe use another 'beginning' on the board with a middle and ending which don't quite go with it, to encourage them to notice that it doesn't really work if you don't continue what is there. Depending how that goes, I might have to make arrangements to have just P3 for a writing task one day while the P1's and 2's are doing EI with the CA so that I can reinforce that point to them.

Anyway, all in all a very good lesson again - the amount of improvement shown in 5 weeks has been great, hopefully after half term I will be able to include similar ideas into more of my ES and other lessons, not just writing. (The intention was to use formative assessment strategies in ES as well this term, but, while we've used some ideas, a lot seems to have fallen by the wayside. Maybe I jumped in with both feet too soon....)

Enjoyed the drop-in with Anne last Thursday. I was disappointed that Heather wasn't able to make it this time, as she was in Dunbar High all day doing the transition thing. It's always nice to be able to chat over things afterwords, different when you are just relaying them to people.

It was interesting to hear the different ways people are approaching it. I had never really thought about how much time reading was taking up, ( I have 7 reading groups just now, hear them all twice a week) but hearing other people discuss the situation with their reading that they are struggling with made me think about it a bit more. Have decided with Elizabeth to keep things pretty much as they are with the reading for now, with the possibility of changing it later on. But it gave food for thought...

Mentioned to Anne about the possibility of having a group of teachers who have composite classes, rather than just in year groups, as Heather and I feel that would be very useful, both for us and when we do the presentation at the end, for other teachers in small schools. Seems like it is a possibility. Also spoke with a teacher from Humbie (I think!) who seemed quite keen on that idea.

Writing tomorrow...planning to use a 'badly' written piece as a model and use talking partners to find out what is wrong with it, (grammar wise really, we need to work on our finger spaces and sentences!) and then use the corrected version as a writers craft piece to be continued. I'm hoping it will point out to the kids that they need to think about their capital letters and full stops as well as all their great ideas!