Primary Teacher Education Programmes

Primary Teacher Education Programmes

(BA PET and PGCE)

Good Practice in School Experience:

Support and Assessment

2013-2014

for Mentors and Link Tutors

Contents

Section / Page reference
Foreword / 3
Introduction to School-based tasks / 4
The teaching of early reading and phonics
Learning journeys and ‘placemat’ guidance for the core curriculum
· English
· Maths
· Science / 5
6
7
15
21
Completing University placement documentation
· Exemplar comment sheets for English, Maths and Science
· Weekly Mentor Meeting Log
· Final Assessment Review
Grading Descriptors/Case Studies / 29
30
37
40
43
Signalling concerns
· Notification of concern sheets
· Action plan / 50
51
53
Development Profile
· Exemplar Training Plan
· Standards Tracking document / 54
55
61

Foreword

This Primary School Experience Good Practice Guide has been compiled to give all concerned with early years and primary teacher education at the University of Chichester the opportunity to draw on models of best practice in planning, delivering and assessing training and in monitoring, evaluating and recording student teacher progress whilst on placement.

The guide draws on the work of a number of university tutors, partnership colleagues and student teachers, for which many thanks.

The sections in the guide are:

1. Monitoring and supporting school based training tasks

2. Supporting student teachers in the teaching of early reading and phonics, maths and science

3. Completing university placement documentation:

School experience comment sheets (examples for the core curriculum)

Weekly mentor meeting logs

Final assessment reviews

4. Grading the Descriptors

5. Signalling concerns

Notification of concern sheets

Action plans

6. The student teacher Development Profile

We will be reviewing this booklet on an annual basis and adding additional guidance as it becomes available and would be very happy to receive your feedback about other examples of good practice that it would be useful to provide.

Please contact Wayne Stallard, Coordinator for School Partnership at ; Carole Bignell. Coordinator for BA PET at ; or Christopher Shelton, Coordinator for Primary PGCE at .

PRIMARY PROGRAMMES: School-based Tasks

This section of the good practice guide is designed to provide mentors with an overview of the university central training programme and the school-based tasks in all primary programmes.

Training takes place in school and in university in equal measure. Schools are in a unique position in being able to set student teachers’ learning in an immediate and meaningful context and to show how the theory is applied in practice. They can help student teachers to recognise the impact of their planning, teaching and assessment on pupils’ learning in a way that university sessions cannot do.

The guidance in this section was compiled with the help of the core curriculum leaders in the primary team. Please contact these colleagues with any queries about the subject:

Rebecca Webb Primary English

Caroline Rickard Primary Maths

Debs Wilkinson Primary Science

The guidance is compiled of:

Ø A copy of the learning journey for each course (Primary PGCE and BA PET), in each subject. This outlines what the student will be learning in university and in school and the outcomes each student teacher should achieve at the end of a period of SE

Ø A ‘placemat’, which gives guidance on what to look for when observing teaching in each subject.

The learning journey details the tasks that each cohort of student teachers is required to carry out in school whilst on SE. We ask that link tutors and mentors ensure student teachers have opportunities to carry out these tasks in the placement school. Progress should be monitored in weekly mentor meetings. Student teacher subject knowledge has been an area of national concern and these tasks help student teachers to understand the importance of good subject knowledge in teaching young children. Mentors and link tutors should feel able to offer constructive criticism that enables the student teacher to develop better practice.

It is hoped to develop additional ‘placemats’ in collaboration with partnership colleagues, to focus on different subjects or phases of education, as the year progresses. Many thanks to all colleagues in the university and schools who have contributed to their development so far!

Teaching of Early Reading Phonics

The following extract from Standard 3 of the Teachers’ Standards (Department for Education, 2012), requires that:

A teacher must demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge - if teaching early reading, demonstrate a clear understanding of systematic synthetic phonics (DfE, 2012)

It is unusual for a standard to specify a particular aspect of a subject but for primary student teachers there is now an acceptance that they need explicit knowledge about teaching early reading. This is something they cover in university courses (for details see English Learning Journey) and need opportunities to practice in school. In order that student teachers can achieve Standard 3 of the Teachers’ Standards we would ask you to do the following:

1. Identify the classes in the school in which high quality teaching of phonics takes place and set up focused observations for the student teachers. Where possible allow student teachers to observe a range of teaching from Phase One of Letters and Sounds (or an equivalent scheme) to Phase 6. In a KS2 setting, this work may occur in the younger age groups or in a special needs, nurture or support group. Students should make observational notes in the relevant page of their ‘Becoming a Teacher of Early Reading’ booklet.

2. Observe the student teachers teaching phonics/early reading and give feedback on strengths and areas for development. The ‘Becoming a Teacher of Early Reading’ booklet is also the place where formal observations should be recorded (see Observation of Trainee’s Phonics Lessons page).

3. Discuss with the student teachers how the school has responded to the Rose Review and implemented its recommendations regarding high quality phonics teaching.

4. Identify where high quality teaching of early reading occurs in the school and set up focused observations of shared and guided reading activities. Again, where possible allow student teachers to observe a range of levels within the school. Again, in a KS2 setting this may be with individuals or small groups who have low attainment in reading.

5. Discuss with the student teachers how the school has responded to the Rose Review and implemented its recommendations regarding the teaching of early reading through word recognition and language comprehension.

The learning journey and English school-based tasks give details of how and when to do this in school and when student teachers will have the opportunity to visit our Leading Literacy Schools (LLS). Since 2011/12 all Y2 students had opportunities to watch exemplar lessons alongside a lead teacher, who then debriefed them following the lesson.

If you know practice in your school is exemplary and you would like to be considered for any further additional LLS places, please talk with your link tutor in the first instance who will pass your interest on to Rebecca Webb. We do not know what funding will be for future years. However, we are keen to develop our knowledge of the bank of expertise in the partnership and would welcome your involvement.

English/Literacy

Learning journeys and placemat

English Learning Journey BA PET: the teaching of early reading and writing University curriculum

University curriculum / In school the student should / By the end of this SE most students will be able to:
Y1 T1 / 1. Address the actions on English action plan (which arise from the student’s English subject knowledge audit). / 1. Take the class for a story.
2. Teach a reading/phonics and writing session to small groups using the teacher’s planning and under teacher guidance.
Y1
T2 / English half module: Multimodal texts, digital literacies, reading and writing narrative, and introduction to phonics and the Simple View of Reading
Y1
T3 / Subject knowledge audit 1 Phonics, grammar and spelling top-up sessions. / Directed tasks
1. Address the actions on English action plan (which arise from the student’s English subject knowledge audit).
2. Observe at least 2 lessons on the teaching of early reading, making notes.
3. Trial his/her multimodal resource with a guided group. / 1. Take the class for a story.
2. Teach a reading/phonics and writing session to small groups at least once a week using the teacher’s planning and under teacher guidance.
3. Model for pupils how phonically regular words can be read as a four part process as follows:
a. Scan the word left to right
b. Identify the graphemes
c. Match each grapheme to a phoneme
d. Blend phonemes to read the word
4. Have observed a number of phonics lessons in school and be able to identify good practice in the teaching of phonics.
Y2 T1 / 1. Teaching of early reading and phonics week, including a visit to a Lead Literacy Schools to observe teaching of early reading.
2. Formal phonics/early reading assessment.
Y2 T2 / Subject Knowledge audit 2 Assessment of the linguistic and structural features of texts.
English full module: Phonics 2; Primary Framework strands 7, 8 and 9; English with children with SEN, for whom EAL and who are G&T; formative and summative assessment of English (and APP); The genre model of reading and writing; shared, guided and modelled work; effective teaching strategies (modelling, scaffolding, questioning, explaining).
Y2 T3 / Directed tasks
1. Address the actions on English action plan (which arise from the student’s English subject knowledge audit).
1. Observe at least 3 lessons on the teaching of early reading/phonics (or with lower ability pupils in KS2), making notes in their Becoming a Teacher of Reading Booklet.
2. Observe at least 2 lessons on the teaching of writing.
3. Meet with the English Subject Manager to discuss how the school has responded to the recommendations of the Rose Review (of early reading). / demonstrate Y1 success criteria and:
1. Take the class for a story on a regular basis.
2. Teach a weekly guided reading session to small groups using their own planning and the 5-part guided reading structure and a weekly 4-part phonics lesson to pupils using their own planning.
3. Articulate pure phonemes; to model blending and segmenting as an aid to reading; teach strategies for reading tricky words; teach other strategies for word recognition as appropriate.
4. Use NC objectives and, from these, identify clear success criteria for the teaching of reading and writing.
5. Teach shared reading and writing with support for planning and assessment.
6. Use modelled and shared writing confidently, making good use of talk partners for oral rehearsal and peer-assessment.
7. Explain how formative assessment and summative assessment of reading and writing are used in school.
8. Mark children’s writing giving clear feedback with reference to the success criteria and identifying next steps.
9. Keep detailed reading records for their focus guided reading group to inform summative assessments (students may make use of APP).
Y3 T1 / Subject knowledge audit 3 Improving sentences and L4/5 punctuation.
English half module: The characteristics of effective teachers of English. This module will draw on all 4 strands of English with a focus on writing.
Y3 T2 / Directed Tasks
1. Address the actions on English action plan.
2. Observe at least 3 lessons on the teaching of reading making notes in their Becoming a Teacher of Reading Booklet as appropriate.
3. Teach a sequence of phonics lessons using their own planning for a 4-part phonics lesson.
4. Observe at least 2 lessons on the teaching of writing.
5. Meet with the Subject Manager to discuss how school internal and external data is used to inform curricular targets (for reading and writing).
6. Use APP to create summative assessment records for reading and writing for focus group of pupils. / demonstrate Y1 & Y2 success criteria and:
1. Independently plan for, teach, assess and evaluate teaching across the range of the curriculum within shared and guided reading and writing at least weekly.
2. Keep detailed reading and writing records for focus pupils and demonstrate how these are used alongside APP to inform to planning and pupil target setting.
3. Have a secure understanding of the key features of the full range of NC genres which underpins effective explanations and modelling of writing.
4. Independently plan for and teach a series of phonics lessons, planning for and providing targeted / differentiated support for reading and spelling within phonics lessons.

Learning Journey PGCE

University curriculum / In school the student should / By the end of this SE most students will be able to:
T1 / First half of English module
· Introduction to the curriculum and documentation.
· Strategies for teaching English.
· A wider view of reading.
· Planning for the teaching of reading and phonics/assessment of phonics.
· Speaking and listening / talk for learning.
PG Subject knowledge audit
· Phonics; The SVoR; linguistic and structural features of texts; grammar; poetry types and language. / School-based tasks
1. Address the actions on English action plan.
2. Observe at least 2 lessons on the teaching of phonics/early reading (or with lower ability pupils in KS2) and writing, making notes in your ‘Becoming a Teacher of Early Reading’ booklet.
3. Meet with the English Subject Manager to discuss how the school has responded to the government’s sustained focus on the teaching systematic synthetic phonics e.g. decodable texts, Y1 phonics screening check etc. Make notes to share with your mentor.
4. ‘Finding out about Talk for Learning’ activity. Make notes to share with your mentor.
5. Be observed teaching phonics/early reading with your link tutor making notes in your ‘Becoming a Teacher of Early Reading’ booklet. / By the end of your School Experience A you should be able to demonstrate the following success criteria:
· Take the class for a story on a regular basis.
· Teach a weekly 4-part phonics lesson to pupils using their own planning.
· In KS1/lower KS2: articulate pure phonemes; model blending and segmenting as an aid to reading; teach strategies for reading tricky words; teach other strategies for word recognition as appropriate.