Literacy Session Observation 2/3/4

Reading cause and effect

What happened?
To whom did it happen?
Why did it happen?
What happened next?
What happened before?
Talk about what the focus has been for the week.
Do some examples as a class using poems as the mentor texts.
Talk about what each group is working on this week.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6

Session 1
Teacher
focus group
Literacy
centre
e-learning
Teacher
focus group
Literacy
centre
e-learning

Session 2
Mentor text
response
Teacher
focus group
Literacy
centre
Mentor text
response
Teacher
focus group
Literacy
centre

Session 3
e-learning
Mentor text
response
Teacher
focus group
e-learning
Mentor text
response
Teacher
focus group

Session 4
Literacy
centre
e-learning
Mentor text
response
Literacy
centre
e-learning
Mentor text
response

Sends the groups off two at a time. All very structured activities with clear
instructions and clear success criteria.
Literacy centre tongue twisters, reading and writing tongue twisters
e-learning reading eggs
mentor text response reading poems and answering questions about
them (this was what was demonstrated as a whole class before breaking
into groups)
teacher focus group an appropriate level text is chosen that they
students read through and answer comprehension questions about.
Checks in with the other groups to ensure they are still on task. Teacher
focus group are left to work through their comprehension questions. Gives
guidance to the students in the other groups that are stuck.

Allow the groups who have been writing tongue twisters to share their
work (only selected students)

Writing onomatopoeia
Asks what is onomatopoeia? Writes a few examples on the board without
giving the definition.
Asks again what it is, students are able to answer now having seen
examples.
Explains exactly what it is and gets the students to say the words to assist
them in understanding exactly how it works.
Reads an example of a poem containing onomatopoeia (printed out on an
A3 piece of paper). Gets the students to name some examples of the
onomatopoeia words in the poem.
Puts the students into groups and gives them a poem. Students have to
underline the words with onomatopoeia, students will then have to come
back and share the onomatopoeia words that will be added to the class
list.
Groups are differentiated to ensure that the focus is on the onomatopoeia
and not the reading (top students with bottom students). Teachers wander
around and assist groups where needed.
Brings all the students back to the floor where one person from each
group shares the words they found.
Choose an event and brainstorm as many sounds that happen during that
event. Working towards a sound poem. Gets the students to name what
event they are doing before they leave to go brainstorm a list.
Rick writes in his writers notebook whilst Bron walks around the room
making sure all students understand the task