Staff Meeting - 29/03/17
Virginia shared her experience and knowledge on a workshop she attended about Improving Boys' Literacy Skills at our staff meeting last night.
Writing, Writing, Writing!! I love teaching it and I believe I give many opportunities for not only boys but the whole class to take pride in their work. Sharing their Writing to the class, sharing their Writing with their buddy class, the office, uploading their Writing to Seesaw, sharing their Writing at assembly.....the list goes on. I praise students often and I have noticed the difference in boys when I praise the positive work they do during a Writing session and how that helps them to want to keep Writing and produce Writing that is quality. Finding out what the boys want to be when they get older and using pictures of this and explaining how those people take pride in their work may work as a good reminder and visual for the boys in the class. I thought it was interesting when Virginia mentioned using stickers to motivate boys as I could relate. Some people would think stickers would never motivate a boy or excite a boy about their work. The boys love stickers in my class and I even use them when children are on-task at the jelly bean table etc and it works a treat.
Having attended the Sharp Reading workshop, I feel my Reading lessons are now tightly structured and well focused.
Buddy Reading - happens on a Wednesday afternoon and it is fabulous to see the older boys reading to the younger boys in my class.
Ideas for teaching boys Writing/Reading in my class.
Choosing topics that interests them.
Having a boys Writing session on Friday. Boys can bring something from home to write about in their session. Discussion about what their toy is and what it does at the beginning of the lesson.
Experience on a Monday - having a few that are crazy, boy related activities that the girls will still enjoy.
Use more graphics, pictures and storyboards.
Link I loved and would use that Virginia mentioned at the meeting.
pobble365.com – photo of the day
This is an amazing resource that I will keep in the back of my head for a time where I could use it. Maybe not with my Yr1 class but def a fantastic resource to use with a senior class.
Last year I did a lot of work around my Yr3 children having a growth mindset and I used class Dojo as a resource to help children understand the brain and the neural pathways etc. I believe my Yr1 class would benefit from this again this year and I see the importance of squeezing it into my timetable. Virginia sparked my memory to pencil this into my planning and teach my children about having a growth mindset.
