Instructional Practice Review

This afternoon provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect a little bit on our year and allowed us to take some time to think about our own commitment to our instructional model. There were lots of things for us to consider. The question was posed, in the context of Inquiry, Literacy, and Mathematics

The last six weeks of 2017- How can we make a difference?

We know that Literacy is foundational to everything we do at Bourchier Primary School.  We know that being able to read, write , view, design, speak and listen in a way that allows us to communicate effectively and to make sense of the world is essential to a happy life.  The first thing we were reflecting on was how much time the

first being trying to articulate exactly how much time we are dedicating to the explicit instruction of reading. As Dianne Snowball We want all teachers at our school to be teachers of reading. We want to ensure that our learning program is modeled around at least an hour of reading, writing, and numeracy every day. Here is something that we have previously created at our school about Independent Reading;

Download it here

Here is another supporting document that outlines some essential information about independent reading.

We also talked about the different teaching approaches that we can apply in our own classrooms. We all made a commitment for our last six weeks that will help raise the learning for every one of our learners. We discussed Spelling, when and how we address it our classrooms and how it fits into our home learning schedule. We also started the first of many discussions about reading. This afternoon was about the mechanics of guided reading.  A basic process of guided reading was laid out. We always start with a discussion about the book and any interests the students might have. and then we can follow the process below.

1. LI & SC explained and developed

2. Vocabulary – words that will be encountered in the text

3. Book Walk – using the vocab words

4. Students read the text independently.  Teacher works “one on one” with each student. (Guiding them through the text)

5. Discuss “the learning” with the group (LI & SC)

Please see the entire presentation that was used below and write any comments you have about what you liked and found interesting below in the comments sections