Now I finally know all my students (bar the few that have never turned up to my lessons), life is so much easier. There is so much power in learning a name – particularly when there is a ready to learn behaviour system!
7C – Tutor
Firstly, I thought I would update you on my lovely tutor group. Unfortunately, I have had to have a lot of chats about kindness with them. The transition to secondary proved hard for a lot of them, especially the ones who struggled in primary. I have decided to make this a priority in the next term, where I will have a focus on emotional literacy. Other than that, they have been a complete delight! My head of department (also my NQT mentor) has very kindly offered to take the tutor group on a Friday, giving me a chance to catch up with various different tasks. Even though it’s only 15 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon… it does make a big difference to my day!
7A3 – Introduction to Poetry
Differentiation has been the biggest challenge with this group. I have got two lovely students with a reading age of around 5 – they only got 2/20 on a KS1 reading test. They have a teaching assistant with them and I had made them various worksheets to do instead of the main lesson. However, they still found these sheets inaccessible. I had a think and a chat to their TA to come up with something that they could access, that would promote the use of different words and could potentially build up their vocabulary. As seen in the picture below, this is the kind of sheet I do for them in each lesson now. The picture is loosely related to whatever we are studying (for example, the birds are for Hope is a Thing with Feathers) and then they have to complete the tasks.
So far, this seems to work really well. The colouring really helps them to settle and the repetitiveness of these activities mean they know exactly what they are doing in my lessons. I am also able to give them praise points if they go above and beyond what I expect of them, which is completely fantastic!
One of my highlights of this group this term has been the relationship I have built up with one particular student. At the beginning of term he didn’t contribute much and, in his notes from primary, it said that he was very shy. I will never forget we had on O’ Captain, My Captain’ where I witnessed a confidence shift in front of my eyes. He has a ridiculously detailed knowledge about American presidents (he knows more than me!!) so I referred to him as the class expert throughout that lesson. At the end of the lesson, he stayed behind to thank me. He said he has never felt that confident in a lesson before. Since that lesson, I have watched him blossom into the kind of student who will answer any question I throw at him. He has also showed me some poetry he had written in his spare time. I made sure to ring home to tell his parents about how fantastically he is doing this term, and his father sounded like he was crying with joy! Honestly, I can’t get over how amazing this job can be.
8A2 and 8C – Ballads
I see 8A2 a bit more than 8C they work harder and stay on task more so they are an easier group to manage – they are also a much smaller group which helps! On the other hand, 8C are an extremely lively class, but we have had some incredibly interesting debates about the various topics that come up. I do not do the spacing tasks with 8C, which is a shame because they love creative writing.
I have found that with both groups, but especially 8C, the lessons we have in period 5 are extremely challenging. I have tried a few different strategies with both groups – 8A2 respond well to having a 15 minute quiet task to start off with, before moving on to the main lesson, but 8C would still remain off task for the majority of the lesson. Then only thing I have found that works with them, is watching a video and then doing creative writing based on it. (An example being watching a video on the jobs children had in the industrial revolution, then writing a diary entry about a day that went wrong at work).
Whilst this has been great, because anytime I tried to do a normal lesson, I would end up having to redo it the next lesson anyway, I am concerned that I am not following the scheme properly, and we have missed out a few bits. At this point, however, the students seem to be enjoying English and I had my first period 5 lesson with 8C in week 8 where I did not want to cry from exhaustion at the end of it!
10F1 – Macbeth
I LOVE TEACHING MACBETH. There, I said it. I did not think I would enjoy teaching GCSE English literature in a year – it is a lot of work, but so far I am thoroughly enjoying it and, I am ecstatic to say, we have finished reading the play! We’ve got a week and a half left on the play, and I have left out a few important scenes I want to go back over before their end of unit assessment, but I am feeling, on the whole, confident with these students. I have got such a delightful class – I always look forward to teaching them!
11S – English Language Paper One
Year 11s have proven to be my most challenging group. Their behaviour is technically good, they follow all the school rules and get the work done well. However, they just don’t engage with me or each other! It is actually painful at times. I’ve only had three hands up over the term, to answer a question I have asked, and two of them were from the same person! Hands down questioning has definitely been my best friend in this class.
Luckily, the HLTA in our department has been allocated to this class in a week 1, so I am not alone in my misery! Don’t get me wrong, they’re a lovely bunch, I just find myself getting bored or doing a LOT of teacher talk. They have their mocks on the first day back, so we will see how they go before I comment further!
Currently reading
Knife Edge – Malorie Blackman (currently on hold as I’ve lent it to a student over half term – I knew she would read it quicker than me!)
Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Edgar Allen Poe
Wise Children – Angela Carter
Othello – William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Teaching 