Walk through, Term 1

Kathy, our principal, observed me teaching literacy last week. A typical literacy lesson starts with a five minute quick write where I set the timer on the TV for all the students to see, and the class writes for five minutes about anything of their choice. We then transition into a read-to, our book this term bring Refugee by Alan Gratz. After which, we move into the lesson for the day.

This lesson was focused on sentence structure as it was highlighted as a whole-class need from our recent assessment. During the lesson, Kathy spoke to two of my students and gathered some student voice. This was incredible. Both students were year 8's, one male and one female. 

The first student Kathy spoke to, told her that we are learning about compound sentences and then complex sentences because it's something the whole class needs to improve on. Kathy then asked him what his learning goals were. He asks me where my keys are, grabs them off my desk and moves to corner of the room to unlock the cabinet. He pulls out the box that contains each students academic folders. He selects his folder and sits back down next to Kathy. He opens his folder to his recent writing assessment and proceeds to explain to Kathy that his goals are ideas and structure & language. He tells her that he needs to be working at level four for a year 8, but he's not quite there yet. He tells her that he needs to improve in these two areas in particular, to be working at his expected level. The same thing happens when Kathy speaks to the female year 8.

Kathy writes that there is a clear learning focus in our class. She writes that the students are data literate and can explain where they are currently working and where they need to be. She writes that they are able to articulate their learning goals and identify where they need to improve.