Squiggle7

22/08/09 - A new year, a new year group

I am moving to year 6 with half my class and half the other class. So far I only have last year's assessment from the summer term based on APP but looks like my class made more progress with their writing in Y5 than the other one did. That does make me feel good as I worked really hard on writing with the children. So, the levels I am dealing with this year, and all aiming for level 4:

5c - 2 girls 4a - none 4b - 1 girl, 1 boy 4c - 2 girls, 3 boys 3a - 4 girls, 1 boy 3b - 4 girls, 1 boy 3c - 3 boys 2 - 2 boys

12 are targeted to get a level 5 (some level 3s - eeek!) I'm going to assess them within the first few weeks to see where they're really at.

05/06/09 - We are now trialling working walls for Literacy with the hope that these will help improve the children's understanding of the processes of writing. I have just finished my first topic on recounts using it and although it wasn't perfect, I think it really helped the children get to grips with the structure of recounts and through reading and analysing examples they came up with their own success criteria to write their own. I also put quite a few bits like self-assessment sheets in folders hanging from the display for the children to help themselves although they are going to need some encouragement to go and use them independently. Have now changed it over ready for our next unit on older literature and have thought really carefully about what to include and feeling really positive about this unit. I might take a photo of it at the end of the unit (if I remember!) so that I have a record.

17/05/09 - Making progress.

I have had a real emphasis on guided writing this term and have been using lots of Pie Corbett's 'Jumpstart for Literacy' ideas as starters and it seems to be having a real impact on my class. Most have made at least one sublevel progress since last year but their Y4 optionals were massively over-inflated. I'm so proud of them.

Average levels (based on several pieces of work): 5B - 1 girl 5C - 1 girl 4A - 1 girl 4B - 1 boy, 2 girl 4C - 4 girls 3A - 3 boy, 4 girls 3B - 5 boys 3C - 2 boys 2B - 2 boys

Wow - seems as though you're doing a great job! I must fish out my copy of Jumpstart because I love it...now, where did I put it? ;) Well done you! **~jog_on

Thanks :)**

22/02/09 - Current results

I currently feel like the children are going nowhere with their writing even though we work so hard on it. Their average levels from the last three pieces of writing are:

L4A - 3 girls L4B - 1 boy, 1 girl L4C - 4 girls L3A - 1 boy, 2 girls L3B - 6 boys L3C - 2 boys, 3 girls L2A - 1 boy L2C - 2 boys

So, that's the same amount of L4s, L3s and L2s as their optional SATS from y4 and many of the L3s are much weaker than they appeared. Particularly the boys. Will have to get thinking about this seriously.

__August 2008

I teach year 5 in a 2-form entry primary school. I currently have 27 in my class from September and their writing levels from their optional Y4 tests are: Level 4 - 8 girls, 1 boy Level 3A - 2 girls, 4 boys Level 3B - 2 girls, 3 boys Level 3C - 1 girl, 1 boy Level 2A - 1 boy Level 2B - 2 boys

and 2 children with unknown levels at the moment as they are joining the school in September.

I intend to focus on spelling and handwriting quite a lot this year as these are something that are appalling in our school and also try my hand at guided writing as this is not something I've done before.__

5th October 2008__ Having had the children for a month now, I've realised that one of the 2B children is actually not even anywhere close - he can't read or write! I'm really struggling with what to do with him as he really can't access the curriculum. I have my TA working with him daily on phonics etc but nothing seems to be sinking in.

Thinking about their actual levels in writing, through teacher assessment I would put 9 children at level 4, 6 children at 3A, 6 children at 3B, 2 children at 3C, 2 children at 2A, 1 child at 2B, and one that might just scrape a level 1 if you can read it.

The children's spelling is actually very good, particularly in comparison to last year but their handwriting and presentation is appalling so this is my major focus at the moment, along with a push on punctuation, as we have capital letters all over the place, and a lack of full stops even by some of the level 4 writers at times.