Early+Years+Literacy+Observation+-+Writing

10:30 – Independent Writing / Individual
Mrs E began this session at approximately 10am and she began by talking about what she had done with her family over the holidays. She also showed and discussed the pictures the children had done the day before about what they had done on their holidays. It was very interesting to see how Mrs E was drawing on her experiences and sharing with her class. By doing this she was gaining the trust of her students and developing a relationship with them, this aids in the well being of all her students.

Using her experiences she begins a sentence on the board, during this modelled writing she spoke each word as she wrote it on the board. She also spoke about each sentence and part of the writing, orintation, events and conclusion. Modelled writing “showshow a writer uses words, sentences and text types to record ideas” (Hill 2008, 87). Mrs E, writes clearly on the board and explains many things whilst writing.

The children appear to be very familular with this format, Mrs E continues and explains that this is only the “first draft’ of her writing so it did not matter if mistakes were made with spelling. She also called on the children to contribute to the writing, asking them to draw on references from around the class room. For example, a poster is on the wall “10 ways to start a sentence”, the children used this to give Mrs E ways to start a new sentence. It is clear to see that this session of modelled writing “builds confidence within the group and is the starting point for guided writing” (Hill 2008, p88).

Drawing on their pictures for inspiration, the children are instructed to go back to their own desks to work on their own piece of writing. Mrs E guides them by reminding where they can find words they are unable to spell and how to use punctuation. “The purpose of independent writing is to build fluency and motivation and is a time to express ideas and experiment” (Hill 2008, p88).

During independent writing, Mrs E and myself helped the children write their pieces by offering assistance with ideas and strategies that could be use to help spell words. These strategies included, using the classrooms word wall, most common word book and writing down the letter sounds they can hear in a word. These writing strategies are core components to developing independent writing skills.

I really enjoyed the observation time in the classroom. I was amazed by how much theoretical knowledge is transferred and used in the practical side. Mrs E used many of the teaching techniques and practices outlined in Hills and the effectiveness of these techniques are evident in the positive learning outcomes of the children. I also observed her developing the children’s literacy skills in keeping with VELS. This includes emphasising high frequency words, using a range of texts inc fiction and non fiction and experimenting with a ranges of writing types like letters, recounts and procedures.