R.I.S.E Term 1, 2018 Evaluation

The self reflection involved in R.I.S.E week was beneficial, as it allowed me to focus on my own teaching pedagogy and curriculum knowledge. Additionally, I learned strategies from Tiffany’s Video of Practice that I am interested in incorporating into my own lessons. We engaged in dialogue regarding English, having similar areas that we wish to learn more about.

My Video of Practice was on my ‘Weekend Writing’ lesson on Monday morning. I have identified English as an area that I require development in and used this opportunity to learn more about my own pedagogy when teaching writing. Tiffany and I discussed that I was very explicit, particularly when discussing the conventions of writing and modelling a sentence. I effectively used oral language opportunities to assist students in developing their own sentences. Tiffany also commented on how I used the language of consonants and vowels when students were segmenting words.

Although I was explicit in my teaching, together we both noticed that I was incorporating a lot of strategies to teach students. Tiffany suggested that I select a couple of areas at a time to ensure students are not overwhelmed. Additionally, she agreed that although I am explicitly modelling the sentence, there is opportunity for me to increase student involvement in sounding out words. We discussed this further and Tiffany suggested that I have students writing some of the words on the whiteboard, writing entire sight words in the sentence, rereading the modelled sentence after me as a class and increasing the use of the soundwaves chart when encoding. This feedback has created pathway for me with many strategies to assist me in developing my teaching of writing.

Throughout the process of R.I.S.E, I developed the following goal:

To incorporate strategies to improve student involvement in modelled, shared and independent writing, regularly referring to the phoneme and grapheme knowledge of students.

We discussed and noted strategies that could be used to assist me in obtaining my goal, which involves the feedback previously stated.

This process enabled me to reflect on my own teaching, learn from Tiffany’s teaching and to engage in professional dialogue with a common goal to improve pedagogy and curriculum knowledge. The goal I have formed has given me direction in my teaching and planning. I am looking forward to working towards achieving this goal and introducing new strategies throughout my writing lessons in English.