November/December 2024
Reading Recovery
I am so proud of how hard my Reading Recovery students have worked this term. Most of them started reading at Level 1/2 of the PM Benchmark readers and now they are all reading so fluently and with lovely expression! Some of them are reading at Level 8, some at Level 10 and some and Level 12!
I have also really enjoyed their news during our sessions, particularly about their elves, their Christmas shows and endless stories about wobbly teeth and the tooth fairy!
It is through their hard work and motivation that they have come on so much and it is so heartening to see it.
I have also really enjoyed their news during our sessions, particularly about their elves, their Christmas shows and endless stories about wobbly teeth and the tooth fairy!
It is through their hard work and motivation that they have come on so much and it is so heartening to see it.
Literacy Group 4th, 5th & 6th
The literacy group have been getting to grips with word attack skills, capital letters, magic e words and cloze procedures this term. We have also been working on hearing and recording sounds in words in dictation and vocabulary games. They are such a hard working group and I have really enjoyed working with them this term!
In-Class Support, Senior Infants
Senior Infants in-class support has been going really well this term. Myself, Ms. Mullaney and Kayleigh have been doing stations with the children this term. Our main areas of focus have been: letter formation, reading, writing and tricky words. The children have really enjoyed tracing their letters on the whiteboard in the classroom, on the ground outside using chunky chalk and tracing them in sand. I have really enjoyed getting to know the senior infants better this year!
In-Class Support, 4th & 5th
The children have been working well on their maths in 4th and 5th this term. I have been supporting them primarily in-class three times a week alongside their teacher, Ms. Johnston. Above is a practical example of using concrete materials to show multiplication to a small group of children who were finding the concept quite abstract. We have been going over tables each day with the children in-class and we have been working on long and short multiplication, division, fractions and 2D shapes.
Assistive Technology 2nd - 6th
The Assistive Technology Group come out three times a week to participate in Keyboarding Without Tears and activities centred around Google Docs.
The children are all working at different levels in Keyboarding Without Tears, with some of the children learning the basics of finger placement on the keyboard and some of the children typing paragraphs.
We have been doing some work on using Google Docs too, such as: copying and pasting images, aligning titles and text, making the font bigger/smaller and highlighting words to look them up.
The children have really enjoyed their assistive technology time and they are all progressing so well with their typing skills.
The children are all working at different levels in Keyboarding Without Tears, with some of the children learning the basics of finger placement on the keyboard and some of the children typing paragraphs.
We have been doing some work on using Google Docs too, such as: copying and pasting images, aligning titles and text, making the font bigger/smaller and highlighting words to look them up.
The children have really enjoyed their assistive technology time and they are all progressing so well with their typing skills.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024
TEAM TEACHING
The SET Team have been very busy throughout September doing lots of Team Teaching. We have been working on letter formation, sounds and tricky words with senior infants, SWST with the senior classes and in-class maths support and Literacy Lift Off with second class. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all the children; they were all so positive and enthusiastic!
READING RECOVERY
Reading Recovery is an intensive, short-term literacy intervention. It is aimed at helping struggling or emergent readers between the ages of 5 years, 9 months and 6 years, 6 months.
A typical Reading Recovery lesson consists of:
Familiar Reading: the child reads one or two books at the beginning of the lesson which they know very well
Running Record: an analysis/record is then taken as the child reads the new book which was introduced in the previous session
Letter Work and Word Work: the child matches letter pairs and engages in word work, i.e. building words using magnetic letters and breaking them, listening to the sounds in words and using magnetic counters to represent the sounds, etc.
Writing: the child writes a sentence or two about their news and they sequence a cut-up story based on their sentence
New Book: the child is introduced to a new book at the end of the lesson
I am really enjoying working with my new cohort of Reading Recovery children and I am amazed at how well they have progressed since September!
A typical Reading Recovery lesson consists of:
Familiar Reading: the child reads one or two books at the beginning of the lesson which they know very well
Running Record: an analysis/record is then taken as the child reads the new book which was introduced in the previous session
Letter Work and Word Work: the child matches letter pairs and engages in word work, i.e. building words using magnetic letters and breaking them, listening to the sounds in words and using magnetic counters to represent the sounds, etc.
Writing: the child writes a sentence or two about their news and they sequence a cut-up story based on their sentence
New Book: the child is introduced to a new book at the end of the lesson
I am really enjoying working with my new cohort of Reading Recovery children and I am amazed at how well they have progressed since September!