Jog_On



//UPDATE #4: Well...I am pleased to report some progress for my class in writing! Woohoo!! I tried the Pie Corbett Talk for Writing approach and have seen most children increase their grades by 2 sub-levels (since Year 3) and sometimes more. It is definitely an approach I will use again in the future.//

// UPDATE #3: I have the poorest class in the year group for certain. Being a core subject co-ordinator, I was given the results for all classes and my value added is just the opposite as it stands - quite far backwards in fact!!! :( //

// UPDATE #2: //

// So, I've had the children for a whole term now - scary how time flies...supposedly when you're having fun, isn't it??? ;) //

// Well, I assessed their writing at the end of last term and the results weren't as pleasing as I'd hoped. I couldn't give my level 4 writer a level 4...the writing just wasn't very good. I had about half of the class move on, but that just isn't good enough. I need some more ideas and willpower to get me through the rest of the year. Feeling thoroughly depressed about these results and need to put some of these fab ideas on here into action! Any quick fixes? //

//UPDATE://

// Well...I have had the children for a whole half term so far and I have to say, they're not as bad as I thought they were going to be (some of them are worse though!!!!!!!!). //

// We have attempted Stories from other cultures and information texts so far. The biggest achievements have been through information texts and I have been offered some amazing ideas by my assistant head who came in to observe. I will take some photos and put them on here soon. //

// Next half term, I am going to push the children even further, as their presentation is crap and they are very forgetful about capital letters and full stops. I will be encouraging them to think about their sentence, say it aloud, write it down, read it back and think about whether or not it is the same as the sentence they first of all decided to write. If not, why not? //

So...I thought I would start by letting you know a few statistics for my class (starting in September) and then compare them later on in the year to see if any of our ideas from here have actually worked! Would be great if others did the same too!

I teach Y4 and will have 26 children next year. Their levels at the end of Y3 stand at:

1 x 4C (boy) 1 x 3A (girl) 1 x 3B (boy) 1 x 3C (girl) 5 x 2A (3 girls, 2 boys) 10 x 2B (6 girls, 4 boys) 4 x 2C (2 girls, 2 boys) 2 x 1A (2 boys) 1 x P level (boy)

(have now got another child who has just moved to the country, think she's around a 2C, if that! Oh, and the levels I have been given do not correspond at all to the work I have seen so far!!!)

So, as you can probably tell, I have got my work cut out for me next year - eeeek!!! However, it makes a change that the boys and girls are fairly evenly spread ability wise!!!

//Ok...so have just looked at the tracker and am unsure whether these levels are teacher assessment or what they achieved in their optionals. There appears to be a few discrepancies, so will have to check when I get back to school. If these are not the correct results, I am looking at a far poorer cohort :(//

//My class looks quite similar to yours on paper Jog_on ! - fccwidow//

Ok, so have been thinking (whilst moshing away at Leeds festival) about the whole Challenge man thing and have decided to do something similar to JT. I am going to have a letter arrive at the start of each unit which will set out the challenge (i.e. the main learning outcome) for the children right at the beginning and also form the basis of the success criteria...the challenge man will then decide who has successfully stepped up to the challenge and award them with something...maybe a sticker in their book from the challenge man...something hand-written would be great, wouldn't it?

Anyway...I'll be back soon with some other things that I'm going to do with my class! **~Jog_on**

So...I'm back! :D

Had a little think today and looked at the Challenge Wizard stuff - think I'm going to use that as a basis for the challenges. I have printed some of the stuff out and am going to write a letter from the wizard at the start of each unit. It would be great if I could find a willing male volunteer to record being the wizard and play a video message from him!!! Don't you think they'd love that? **~Jog_on**