Friday, February 09, 2007

Not dead yet.
Assignment, Christmas, Bronchitis, University, return of assignment ( I got merits in every category -hurrah), placement. Haven't had time for much self reflection and not just on my teaching skills - my eyebrows are in a shocking state. I noticed them today when I had to wash whiteboard marker off my face.
Have finished second week of my second placement. This time I'm at Verylocalacademyindeed. This is the school the Boy Wonder will attend as of August. I dont't know whether to feel sorry for the school or for my eccentric , chaotic, butterfly-brained progeny. I'm worried how he will fit in in this particular educational environment.

Its assessment,assessment,assessment at the moment. I am learning about the dangers of assessment - difficult to do reliably for at least nine different reasons. I'm not listing them, go and read your Cohen and Manion. I'm learning that research shows that formative assessment (comments showing how your pupils could improve their performance) raises grades by 30% and that if you are going to give a pupil a grade or mark you are wasting your time if you
At the same time make any comments, the pupil gains no benefit.
Interestingly at the same time the university is returning our essays with a grade in 6 different boxes,an overall grade and comments.(?!)
The department are marking higher prelims, chasing folios for standard grade assessment and having meetings about whether we should give second years a prelim as they will be sitting standard grade in S3 instead of S4.
I wish we were having meetings about the wisdom of SG at this stage.
Based on my experience so far I think we definately need to do something about what we teach them in S1 & 2. Its just drift,the able ones do stuff they have done to death in primary6/7 and in all honesty i think we teach it less well than they do there. In the mean time the ones who have arrived without a secure grip of the basic skills learn to act tough and disrupt the class to hide their inability to do the work.
I don't think that getting them onto the exam treadmill so young is going to help, particularly in English where you need a certain amount of emotional maturity to write beautifully about Shakespeare. I think we could be setting them up for a horrible fail.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Am half way through assignment one. Don't know how i'm going to condense what i've learned in principles and contexts since August and my experiences in School over the last six weeks into only 3500 words. Am at 2436 already. How on earth are you supposed to analyse your effectiveness showing wide reading around the subject make suggestions of how you could improve and explain why this will work in 3500 words. The question you're answering uses more words than that!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The healing power of poetry,

Ok, 5 weeks of school placement. 2 weeks of manic excitement when I couldn't get the grin off my face and teachers kept commenting on the spring in my step. Half way through week 3 reality began to seep in.
If you spend every waking hour working at teaching, thinking about your classes,your porfolio and your first assignment then pass your few hours of sleep dreaming about same and occasionally waking up to write down your ideas about Grammar Bingo, your brain will melt and run out of your ears. You will loose the ability to punctuate. You will become so tired and confused by lesson planning that you won't be able to see the wood for the trees, creating just one learning objective will become as hard as scaling Everest in a Bikini and flippers with an armful of porcupines.
If you are a trainee teacher don't do this. If you are researching new ways of punishing miscreants give it a try, you will probably find something you can use.
Reality began seeping in then engulfed me in a torrent when my other life as a human being insisted on intruding on my teaching. All of this just in time for my crit. Learned my lesson and paced myself better week 4 to be more mentally alert for second crit. Didn't make any difference still got 3Ss' and one U.
Cross tutor lived up to name and ignored all my wonderful formative assessment, demanding summative assessment instead. He marked me down for not achieving a lesson objective I didn't have and said my lesson dragged because I had various children teaching the class ( 6 of whom had missed the last weeks lessons and 3 of whom have specific learning difficulties and no learning support) what we had done last week. I had intended to do more including an exciting group task that went very well the following day but thought it more important, bearing in mind who turned up on the day, to make sure they all had a fair chance to write the best poem they could.I had differentiated , i had already marked and returned several first attempts and the new teaching that was done was geared to the needs of those who had grasped the previous learning.
Cross tutor was right I shouldn't go at the pace of the slowest learner. I think he wants me to gear pace to the ones who are at the top of the average spectrum. I also think he wants me to be shorter than him, 20 years younger and just a bit more deferential but these thoughts definately originate in my pique at his reasons for giving me a U. I did deserve a U but I don't agree with his reasons for giving me one.
Now at end of week 5, both cits over with reassurance from Hugelyimportant and other Jordanhill tutor that i am not the worst student teacher in history am back in as sane a state as it is likely i can achieve without the kind of salary that buys Paul Smith skirts. Poetry and first years have cured me.
I'm glad i did the recap lesson on Monday even if it cost me a U in professional skills. The submissions for the poetry competition are due tomorrow and I have 25 finished and redrafted poems. Two are exceptional and i've made sure by getting them to do them in class that they are not by the poet Google. All the rest are better than we could have hoped. Only two need to be redrafted for submission during tomorrow's lesson. For the last 3 lessons there have been cries of dismay when i've brought the lesson to a close. One has told me that mine are her favourite lessons and she "never even liked English before" even though i have disciplined her several times.
Today's lesson wouldn't have passed a crit either. There were 27 pupils all engaged and interested in producing the best poem they could.One very able pupil waited the whole lesson for my attention,bad,bad,bad but I will learn to manage this without them mobbing me, waving various bits of paper and arguing about who's turn it is to talk to me about their work. Last period of the day, a whole lesson tomorrow before we have to submit the poem. I had to shoo most of them out or they would have missed their busses home.
Perhaps every lesson, every day doesn't have to achive a Satisfactory grade on all 4 Jordanhill criteria to make you what Brian Boyd told us to aim to be ie "a good enough teacher who is a self reflective practitioner, always trying to improve," because nobody will ever be the perfect teacher.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

and still I rise...
Thank you for the comforting posts. It's taken a few days but i'm beginning to get some perspective on things. I went over the rules with my S1 and behaviour today was exemplary! Because I got so tired I made myself work less and it's actually helped my lesson plans, I think my objectives are getting better. On the negative side I'm still underestimating how much time things will take and getting so engrossed that I don't realise the bell is about to ring and give myself time for a summary and nice close. I really need a giant clock on the classroom wall.

Saturday, November 25, 2006



Lovely Lucy died today

Had first crit,

3x S (satisfactory)

1x U ( not achieved yet) i.e. unsatisfactory

Very fair - U on classroom management. ( quite frankly so miserable about dying dog would have had to be killing each other to raise me from stupor enough to invoke school's disciplinary procedure.) If I wanted to use system would have to find form . I have no idea where it is and teachers working in the school for last 3 years get a row from admin because they have submitted wrong part of form . Have to fill in for every individual's details including tutorial group ( how do I find this out? )and second name .I have taught them 3 times and only 3 of them have sat in the same place twice) I'm very proud I can remember their first names especially if they do not present a behavioural or learning difficulty. How many of the tear off sheets go to the office? What do I do with the the remainder?

Worried about about Cait .....Possibly Gifted& talented if this is the case mustbe bored out of her mind esp when I don't really know how to differentiate between her and I. A. and C working at level b/c reading & writing( Have asked for help from learning support- recommended using Comic Sans font on resources I am creating ,agreed green paper might help. C). Accessibility sheet in staff base says use true font like Arial 12 no mention of comic sans. I need much more than colour and font if I am going to differentiate succesfully.If was real teacher would ask ...

I,B,C,D,S ( Yr 1 & 3)to come for extra lunchtime lessons and involve learning support if they would agree. Don't have any 2s at this point .How many would this involve? Would I ever have lunch again? Positives = weight loss. Negatives = I might be rubbish with any class in the afternoon . Used to work many more hours but brain involved only 50% of time.

On positive side S (satisfactory)for lesson planning, professional knowledge and understanding, skills and abilities

However...

Am nearly 41. Used to be top dog at what I did. Now use spell check on lesson plans and don't notice when puts apostrophe on possessive determiners resulting in "hugelyimportant" having to correct it's in today's lesson plan.

27 year olds are so much better than me at this.They hold up their hand and the class fall silent.I didn't even have to hold my hand up week one and now I'm almost pleading for attention from kids only a year older than the boy wonder.

What went wrong? How do I fix it?

Am being paid nothing to be average. What If I'm always average at this?

Used to be paid well and was successful. In fact used to be well paid even when I was cr*p.Didn't like self much as a result. When was successful used to make extra money.Got to drive an AstonMartin DB5 ( and other sports cars - I can't even remember their names) round Silverstone,I stayed at Skibo castle where Madonna got married. I slept in fresh linen sheets every night for 5 nights in the Interalpen Hotel Austria, 700 count cotton in Gleneagles and the Old Course Hotel St.Andrews and in the top hotel in Barbados ( cant even remember name but great air conditioning), the Savoy in London (dirty), the Juan Carlos in Marbella (eurotrash) . The Lowry in Manchester (interesting art, bad carpets, turquoise fake leather chaise-longues in room)Somewhere posh in Prague ( luggage lost in Brussels) ditto Nice,Cannes, Fuertaventura, the Yak and Yeti Khatmandu ( gold taps pour muddy brown water after a 23 hour journey in a plane with a bright orange interior,Rogan Josh for breakfast and the most astonishingly beautiful air-hostesses you have ever seen.)Your luggage stays in Frankfort before going to Brussels for no apparent reason. You see a tiger and Everest and wash an elephant.You wear the same clothes every day for 5 days. Every where you go women and very thin children are building roads out of bricks while men watch and drink coke. There are adverts for cigarettes featuring children smoking with a strap line that your interpreter says translates as "smoke Malborough now, it's cool" He's a Benson and Hedges man himself .

You come home with aeomebic dysentery and campylobactar. You arrive in Heathrow at 06.45. Your boss who also has dysentery tells you she will be at her desk at 07.45 you have to get to Glasgow so she'll expect your business plan and last years ROI to be in by by 12.00 that day.

When was doing badly v.s target was there in black and white for the whole company to see every month. When did well target got raised.

Realised that luxury hotels charge companies a fortune for their staff to sleep in beds that are as almost as comfortable as their own.

Why am I talking about this? It was irrelevant until now. I thought it was embarrassing and worthless. I'm telling you this because I feel bad about myself. I'm trying to impress you. Is this why B,A and the others & brag about how much alcohol and hash they consume between Friday & Mondays ?

Cried after crit.

Not because of crit.

Crit very fair.

Cried because hadn't seen lovely Lucy last night or The Boy Wonder for 2 nights previous to crit because wonderful "justified and ancients "were taking care of his chickenpox while I got through mad week of "How can this possibly be my real life? -get me out of here" and was irresponsible parent of type I have learned to despise in last 10 weeks.

"Hugelyimportant " my tutor didn't think my lesson planning was awful. His comments have helped me decide to keep going. He was really encouraging. I believe that if I go back next week at least I'm not actually doing harm to these kids. The Localacademy regent who watched me yesterday was inspirational too. I will never forget that she said that a lesson can be more than a sum of its parts , it can be a work of art.

I said I was painting by numbers. She said it was great that I realised that.

She also told me that she's doing Headship training and had failed her first essay in 30 years. If she can learn new tricks so can I. It's only 20 years since I failed an essay and it was on the filioque and the schism between the Byzantine and Roman church and all the sources were in Greek ,Latin or medieval French. I rewrote it and got my first First. (I must need reassurance to even consider telling you this- it was never that important to me before now)

learning point - push them. They think they have done their absolute best- there is always more.

I've noticed that most of the teachers I admire are very self-critical. Every day the Hod criticises himself, every time i've seen Belladonacurls or the completegentleman teach they point out what they should have done better.

They keep coming in.

They don't get signed off sick with stress

They deal with disruption themselves without referring it to the HOD until it gets to level 4 or 5. Therefore not disturbing his lesson.

If you are out there and you teach, tell me ...

How do you balance self- critical with self destruction?

Can't sleep. When I close my eyes see lovely Lucy dead and cold.

I'm going to keep on learning.This is hard.I think a lot of the difficulty comes from my belief that teaching is important. For me selling medicine, even really good medicine isn't.

Blogging is wierd. Therapeutic... you type in your innermost thoughts. So much easier than writing, much less personal than the movement of soft lead over paper. Funny that it's easier than a diary , those keys separate it from you in a way that can't be achieved by handwriting. Freudian analysists will be made obsolete by this technology. We can write in our neuroses then look them up on wikipedia and save a fortune.If we burn cheap tobacco on a saucer and drape a shirt smelling of stale male sweat over our chair and record someone saying "our time is up That will be £75 , we accept visa "we will have a placebo controlled trial. I bet bloggers do better by a p value of 0.5% even with a Wilkoxian twin tailed test.

May stop blogging.

Am turning into tragic looser with wierd coincedences creating dramatic storyline. Also unnerved by kindness and occasional harshness of strangers. Blog this week was not constructive re teaching though must admit is great excuse right now not to do bedtime routine creating opportunity to get upset by Lucy's absence.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Low Point
Crit on Friday,
Have to change lesson plans and develop new resources and differentiation for next 2 days and crit because of sudden announcement today of cross curricular work with Biology dept to be done by next week.
My lesson plans are cack.
The Boy Wonder has chickenpox.
I haven't relaxed properly since August.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Lesson plans for 1f3 introduction to writing poetry block.

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE
Faculty of Education Jordanhill Campus

LESSON PLANNER
……………………


1. Year/Class
F1

2. Lesson Title

Introduction to Writing Poetry for Pleasure

Lesson 1 Smart as Simile

3. Curricular Areas to be Addressed

Writing level D/E – imaginative writing

Appropriate organisation and vocabulary/appropriate literary conventions

Talking level B/C - talking in groups

Discussing how to deal with tasks, taking turns, valuing other’s contribution, express reasons, preferences, opinions

Reading level D/E – Awareness of Genre. Knowledge about language

4. Links with Pupils’ Previous Learning/Knowledge/Experience

· All will have experienced Poetry at varying levels in primary school.
Most have some knowledge of simile. Some are skilled in this area.
Many are confused about the difference between simile and metaphor.
I need to find out more about their level of awareness of poetry at the beginning of the lesson





5. Aims of this Lesson/Series of Lessons

To introduce a range of different language skills including simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification.
To build pupils confidence in producing their own poetry
To improve the skills of the class in talking in groups
To allow pupils to experience satisfaction in creating first a class poem then an individual poem to give to someone for Christmas and to enter the Scholastic Books winter poetry competition



Objectives for this Lesson

We are learning more about similes
We will be able to create our own similes
We will have learned how to write a poem using similes








7. Differentiation
Christopher is working at level A/B for reading and writing. He uses green acetate to help him with reading. Check he has this with him. Resources for the whole class will be printed clearly in Arial 14 with no background pattern or distracting graphics to help him without drawing attention to his difficulties. Sometimes learning support attend to help him if so ask them to help in the group he is to work with otherwise I will be involved in supporting this group in “Talking in Group tasks.” Annelise, Dylan and possibly also Robin appear to be struggling with work aimed at level D/E and this may be why they are frequently off task and sometimes disrupt the learning of the other pupils. Differentiate by question and response Daniel has ADHD and also struggles with written work although he performs well in verbal tasks. I will change activities every 10 mins rather than aiming for the 14 I would expect for a class of this age group. He and C define themselves regularly as “thick” and need opportunities to be successful in front of the class as well as to move around. Involve D in behaviour management; make sure he gets a turn at ringing the bell for silence after group talk and chances to answer correctly in front of class. Arrange groups so that the more able are partnered with those who are struggling to allow for peer support.







8. Resources: (Please state to what extent these resources have been developed completely by yourself, whether they have been partially or totally developed by the department or whether they are commercial or web based resources.)

25 copies of “A Classroom” by Jason Lester, aged 12 in Arial 14.
12 coloured pencils (2 per group. 1 to underline similes, 1 to circle words or ideas the group don’t understand
6 flipchart sheets, 6 markers.

The poem is from Succeed in English from The Learning Library.

Other Factors to be Considered: e.g. background to class, including organisation/risk assessment/safety

Last period – Thursday. Children may be tired. This will be the first lesson their usual class teacher will not be with me and they are not expecting it so some may need reassurance that he hasn’t disappeared for good. I am changing their seating to allow for peer group support in group task this will unsettle some of the pupils. They will need reassured that they can return to their usual seating arrangements after this class.


10. Strategies for the Assessment of the Achievement of Objectives
Formative and informal;
By questioning
By response
Peer assessment of the quality of similes offered.
Summative
Returned resource – how many/ well have they identified simile










11. Outline of Lesson/Teaching Strategies/Timing

Settle and register –Allow extra time as regrouping and not prepared for teacher change (approx 10 mins)

Personal reading – Stipulated in departmental plan (5 mins)

Transition to task – Puzzle on board 24 SDUC – try to work out what it means as they put their books away and get ready to work.
When they have worked out “ 24 school days until Christmas” tell them I’ve put this on the board because what we are going to do in this lesson is start a unit of work which will lead to them all having written a poem to be entered in the Scholastic Winter Poetry competition and that as well as going forward to the competition they will decorate and laminate a copy of their poem to give to a loved one as a present. To practice this we will write a poem together about the Classroom at Christmas. (3-5 mins)

Paired discussion. Why is a poem a good gift?
Get them thinking about what makes poetry more special than for example a Book Report or copy of a formal letter they have written.

Whole class teaching. Teach little bell as their signal to stop talking in pairs/groups and listen to the teacher. Ring until they stop talking then teach then practice by asking them to continue their paired discussion until it rings again. Give bell to Daniel to ring to provide new stimulus – practice little bell response.

Formative assessment – questioning to reveal what class in general know about poetry as they give their explanations of why poems make good gifts. Ask for examples of their favourite poems. Open questions aimed at uncovering experience of poetry and awareness of different poetic forms. (5 mins)
Summative assessment – returned resources will help identify extent of individual understanding.

Transition Danielle and Robyn to hand out poems. Daniel and Christopher to hand out 2 coloured pencils to each group.
Practice little bell response choose pupil who has made best contribution to ring this time. (2mins)
Whole class teaching – explain simile. Explain how they are used to make poems more interesting. Write objectives for lesson on board. Check for understanding by questioning.

Individually underline the similes in the poem.
As a group circle any words you don’t understand or anything that confuses you. Everyone pick his or her favourite simile from the poem. Circulate groups with flipchart paper and pens checking progress and helping with group discussion skills, helped by support assistant) (7 mins).

Transition – use bell (Christopher)
As a group write similes on your flipchart sheet which describe a classroom at Christmas. Some similes should describe the classroom on the last day of term before the bell rings when it is full of children who are excited about the holiday, some similes should describe the classroom after the bell has rung and the children leave. (7 mins) Support as previously

Transition - use bell (Dylan)

Ask one member from each group to feedback group similes to the class. Allow peer assessment, which are our favourites and will be included in our class poem. (5 mins)

Summary -relate to objectives – what we learned today. (3 mins)

Dismiss in orderly fashion –rewarding good behaviour and effort with prompt dismissal.


12. Next Steps: homework/follow-up/future lessons

Appoint “teachers for 2 mins” to summarise what we learned yesterday about similes. Quick clarification simile vs. metaphor, Blackboard tally exercise. Reminder of the similes we chose for our poem. Next lesson to examine alliteration in poetry and come up with examples for our class poem.

13. Post Lesson Analysis/Evaluation
Success factors
Have they learned little-bell classroom management technique?
Have they produced similes in groups?
How well can they summarise and recount the key learning points from the lesson the next day.

Could be better:


Changing the group structure was a mistake. My carefully worked out gender and ability mixed groups had them all unsettled. It was made worse by several pupils having to leave class to attend pupil council as I had not been warned of this in advance also they were all in different seats and I didn't know their names as well as i thought and hence management of the initial chaos was more difficult.

Simile exercise may have been to simple for some pupils and I should have provided more scaffolding for others.

Timings were out, they were working on task when the bell rang. I didn't have time for them to analyse their group work results or methods or do a summary vs objectives.

In particular they did not have time which they should have had to analyse the process of talking in groups and how they could improve. This was a real lost opportunity.

What went well:

Regained control after initial chaos. Established and maintained safe,disciplined working atmosphere.

Achieved behaviour objective re bell.

Achieved clearer awareness of class' previous knowledge

Most identified all similies in task 1. Three identified at least 2 similes.

All groups created their own similes. one group did this very well. 3 groups well, 2 groups poorly.

Took positive steps towards aim of building confidence re writing their own poems with a number of pupils who were originally dismissive of the whole idea of poetry.




1. Year/Class
F13

2. Lesson Title

Astounding Alliteration



3. Curricular Areas to be Addressed

Writing level D/E – imaginative writing

Appropriate organisation and vocabulary/appropriate literary conventions


Reading level D/E – reading for enjoyment. Awareness of Genre. Knowledge about language

4. Links with Pupils’ Previous Learning/Knowledge/Experience

· Some have experienced different types of poetry at primary. All are aware of rhyme some are aware that a poem does not have to rhyme
· Some have written a poem before.
Some have knowledge of alliteration.
None have used alliteration in a poem

5. Aims of this Lesson/Series of Lessons

To introduce a range of different types of poetry
To build pupils confidence in producing their own poetry
To improve the skills of the class in talking in groups
To allow pupils to experience satisfaction in creating first a class poem then an individual poem to give to someone for Christmas and in participating in the Scholastic Books winter poetry competition



Objectives for this Lesson

We are learning about alliteration
We will be able list the examples of alliteration in a poem
We will have practiced writing our own lines for a poem using alliteration.
Behaviour objective –reinforce Little bell response and exit by behaviour/effort reward








7. Differentiation
Christopher is working at level A/B for reading and writing. He uses green acetate to help him with reading. Check he has this with him. Resources for the whole class will be printed clearly in Arial 14 with no background pattern or distracting graphics to help him without drawing attention to his difficulties. Resources for Christopher, Annelese, Ian and Dylan will use simpler language and give more examples.
Differentiate by question and response
Daniel has ADHD and also struggles with written work although he performs well in verbal tasks. I will change activities every 10 mins rather than aiming for the 14 I would expect for a class of this age group. He and C define themselves regularly as “thick” and need opportunities to be successful in front of the class as well as to move around. Involve both in behaviour management; make sure they get a turn at ringing the bell for silence after paired discussion and chances to answer correctly in front of class.


8. Resources: (Please state to what extent these resources have been developed completely by yourself, whether they have been partially or totally developed by the department or whether they are commercial or web based resources.)

25 copies of Sea Nymph by Anna Hopkins aged 13 in Arial 16.
21 copies of alliteration resource
5 copies of alliteration resource with additional scaffolding marked with an unobtrusive nick in the corner

The poem is from Succeed in English from The Learning Library.

Other Factors to be Considered: e.g. background to class, including organisation/risk assessment/safety
Period after morning interval. Pupils may be wound up and/or full of fizzy drink. Changing the groups for yesterdays lesson was not entirely successful with some pupils achieving less well than might be expected. Several pupils missed the previous lesson due to their attendance at the School Council and are unaware of our goal of producing a class poem and individual poems as Christmas gifts.

10. Strategies for the Assessment of the Achievement of Objectives
Formative and informal;
By questioning
By response
Summative
Returned resource – how many/ well have they identified alliteration











11. Outline of Lesson/Teaching Strategies/Timing (Timings are approximate)

Settle and register – greet at door and tell them to return to their normal seating not yesterdays groups (5 mins)

Personal reading – Stipulated in departmental plan (5 mins)

Transition to task – Puzzle on board 23 SDUC – people absent yesterday and usual class teacher try to work out what it means as class put their books away and get ready to work.
When they have worked out “ 23 school days until Christmas” Ask for some “Teachers for two mins” to tell the class and the usual teacher what we did yesterday and about the poetry competition/present and the class poem/what we learned about simile. If Zoë or Robyn raise hand pick them as they are showing signs of disinterest. They will be encouraged to take questions and comments from their peers to help the class remember and understand. Get them to explain little bell signal. (5 mins)

Whole class teaching simile vs. metaphor. Give examples and have individuals come to board to identify which it is by tally mark. Differentiate by question to allow Dylan and Christopher to succeed. Alert Annelese and Danielle that they will be coming to the board to answer to help them focus on task. (9 mins)
Transition Put yesterdays similes on wall to discuss favourites as we didn’t accomplish this yesterday. Whilst 2 pupils (probably Daniel and Craig/ Danielle decide by who seems to need to move most) put the flipchart sheets on the wall have the pupils who attended pupil council come to the front of the class and report what happened and answer questions from their peers (4 mins)
Transition - ask for appreciation for school council report and thank participants. Read yesterdays similes and ask them to think of any others and choose their favourites for the class poem
Transition - use bell (Dylan) have Caroline and Christopher hand out resource 1 (Poem)
Write objectives on board and share with class.
Whole class teaching – ask what alliteration is. Ask for examples. Offer examples.
Individual work – read the poem Sea Nymph to them then have them read it by themselves ask them to list the examples of alliteration from the poem on their resource. (9 mins)
Transition by bell
Individual work pupils to create their own lines for the class poem using alliteration
Group discussion- share their ideas and choose the best. One to feed back to class these lines to be added to class poem ideas bank along with the similes (10 mins)
Summary -relate to objectives – what we learned today. (3 mins)

Dismiss in orderly fashion –rewarding good behaviour and effort with prompt dismissal.


12. Next Steps: homework/follow-up/future lessons
Some are champing at the bit to start their individual poems, tell them if they want to they should go ahead with their first draft and I will read them next week. Tell them they must include at least one simile and one alliterative line. Those who are not ready to start their individual poem should think up more similes to describe the Christmas classroom and more alliterative lines
13. Post Lesson Analysis/Evaluation
Was much better at getting them in settled and ready to work. Was this due to presence of usual class teacher? He reported pupils as engaged involved and learning. Liked the manner of my delivery, the starter and recap he thought the classroom management using the bell was excellent as was the management of yesterday’s absences. We both thought the simile revisit with the flipchart pages on the wall was clumsy and didn’t achieve what it was aimed at. The differentiation was good and Zoë, Dylan, Christopher and Daniel were engaged and learning well. He cautioned that Claire asks a lot of unnecessary questions and that it is wise to ignore her sometimes as she can lead the whole class off task. Danielle was not focussed on task several times Annalese was not listening and not focussed. I had been aware of this yesterday but as as she was not disrupting others today I was not so aware of her inattention and actually thought she was on task.
Timings were out again but better than yesterday. I will again have to finish today’s task at the next lesson. I need to plan the practicalities better. I realised too late that I didn’t have enough time to do the work on the second resource but it was too soon to pack up. The Class teacher
helped by stepping in with a quick quiz. I will make sure I haves something like this as an emergency filler