Clip 2: Pre-observation conversation
Melanie:
Well, Glenda, you’ve asked me to come along today and observe you while you’re teaching a writing lesson, so that we can work out what is and isn't working in your teaching, and then talk about areas that you might want to strengthen in your teaching. What I need to know is, first of all what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how you’re going to do it, so that when I'm observing, you know, I can really hone in on what’s really important. OK, so shall we begin by talking about the kids? Tell me about their strengths and their needs, and what you’ve found out. I know it’s the beginning of the year, so you haven't had a lot of time to find all that out.
Glenda:
No, no, but what I did was, we looked – in fact as a school we did this – we looked at the end of year asTTle results initially, and we looked across what they scored for each thing to identify what their strengths and needs were. And this particular group that I‘m working with today, they were, they had, they were lower in the area of content than they were in some of the other areas. So, then, most of them are scoring about 2Aish, in most of the things, but slightly lower on the content one. So I spoke to their last year’s teachers about what their learning goal was for last year, and some of them actually did have the “adding detail” goal for last year. So then I went to their writing and had a look at it, and what I realised was they were adding extra sentences, but the sentences were just like a whole lot of simple sentences.
Melanie:
So let’s talk about your goal then in terms of what you’re trying to improve in your teaching.
Glenda:
My goal from the end of last year was to make sure that my modelling is really explicit. And I mean not just that it’s related to the learning intention – that too obviously – but that I’m not only showing them the words of what it looks like to be successful and adding detail, or adding phrases, but I'm showing them – I'm modelling – how a writer thinks. So I'm thinking aloud what it is that I'm doing, because that’s what I think I don’t think they get – that bit.
Melanie:
I've just jotted down while you're talking that you want it to be really explicit – it’s this modelling of how a writer thinks. OK. So this little criteria will help us, you know, after – this will help me during the lesson when I'm observing you. And then afterwards we can then use this to check.
What is it that I should be looking for, and noticing, and hearing the kids say, and seeing them do, that will tell me, and you, when we talk to them as well, that they are actually learning what you want them to learn?
Glenda:
Well, I'd be hoping that there’d be evidence in their writing, that we could actually see it physically in their writing. I’d be hoping they’d be able to articulate what it is that they’re learning and what that means, what the adding detail means. And I'd be hoping that they’d be able to show examples of where in their writing they have achieved that, and maybe even be able to explain why they chose that, or how that has helped the reader.
