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Huge thanks to you both, Elaine and Fiona. It’s been so informative and so practical. For me as a class teacher I love the practical approach – use these, try this out, here’s another option. So much food for thought. The resources on the Padlet are superb. All downloaded and filed safely as I know they will be my go-to in September.
5 Aha moments
1. Morning Meetings.
I saw Trassa Bowe and Dee O Toole recommending these. But to have a teacher go through them in a practical/how to do manner was just excellent. While I normally did circle time on a Monday, it became a bit of a chore. While the children loved it, I often was watching the clock, looking to push on. This morning meeting it more structured with a better focus both for myself and the children. I love the idea of setting the tone and building that sense of community within the classroom as I feel it’s the cornerstone of successful learning. I feel there is a huge value to it, but I lacked the confidence to try it out. I’m already certain it will earn a spot on my overcrowded timetable.
2. Using the resources that are already there.
Ye spoke about using Wordwall and it was something I had tried. But I found 2 obstacles. Firstly, I was trying to create specific activities that were relevant to the learning at that time. It was slow and time consuming. Secondly it went looking for a subscription after you created 3 activities. A lightbulb moment was that I just needed to refine my own search and look for ‘UFLI lesson 18 Wordwall activity’. The activities are already there, created and only a click away and free. Seems obvious now! I love to use IT and with 4 levels in 1 classroom, I need to be able to access to IT activities with ease to ensure children are actively engaged in tasks that are suitable to their learning.
3. UFLI
I had dipped my toe in UFLI this year and was using certain elements in my room. (I took the class over in January). But I just didn’t have the knowledge. Often when I looked at the resources I just felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. I felt confused by it all and overloaded. By going through it in such a systematic way, I have developed a great understanding of what it is and how it works. Going through the scope and sequence, which levels apply to which class, where and how to access the assessments, even putting all the resources in one place- just so helpful to me. While I don’t feel I will be able to do it with all 4 levels, I do intend to implement it in my Junior and Senior Infants. Even to acknowledge that, takes the pressure off. As class teacher I am in the best position to know what’s best for my class.
4. Assessments in Heggerty
I have been using Heggerty since January and have to say I felt it was really excellent for all the pieces that I felt were missing in the phonic programmes. However I never did the assessments. I will be doing these going forward. I had assessed the children with the MIST and Drumcondra Early Literacy but felt neither really informed my teaching. I knew beforehand which children hadn’t mastered which phonics sounds, or reversals etc. I never broke it down to decoding or encoding or segmentation or isolation. I could see the problems transfer over especially in their writing. In that they knew the sounds but still mis-spelt it because they couldn’t segment the word. By having this assessment, I feel that I will be so much better able to target proactively the issues with UDL.
5. AI
I have been reluctant to try out AI as I had no idea how to use it and how I could make it work for me. But I have looked at the 7 AI websites that were mentioned and tried them out I’ve been blown away! I feel that it is something I can use in my teaching to help with my own planning but also as an IT resource for the children. I tried out Twinpics.ai with my own children yesterday. It was a hit!
I like the phrase ‘Teachers are not only anticipating ‘what’ the children will be learning, but ‘how’ they will learn.’ In the past my own teaching was perhaps too focused on the ‘what’. Something similar to the Kahoot Quiz – I’m teaching JI-2nd and I used the Book Creator app this year. We had done lots of work on capital, full stops, punctation etc. While the children were excellent at completing the exercises in books I felt that the knowledge wasn’t transferring over to their writing. I allowed them to create simple stories on the app that they had to edit and could present to the class. We printed off these books and used them for World Book Day to present to the older classes. The children were so invested and engaged and were learning to self correct and the level of pride was really lovely to see.
What is your understanding of the main differences between Differentiation and UDL approach?
Differentiation refers to catering for individual children’s needs. As a teacher you identify an area that a child is not achieving the expected level of attainment. This happens after the explicit teaching and is reactive in nature. As the teacher you then adjust your teaching to address that specific need. This is very individual and can be very time consuming to create these variations on your teaching depending of the number of children, the variety of needs and the various lessons. It’s not possible. It may also in avertedly draw focus on a child’s particular need and reinforce low self-esteem.
The UDL approach focuses on supporting multiple learners all at the same time. It’s a proactive approach where the teacher provides as many and as wide a variety of teaching approaches and methodologies that appeal to the various styles of learners. It is more efficient for teachers to plan in advance like this. No one child’s needs are singled out, rather children will be able to learn through a multisensory approach and excel in which every style appeals to them. All children benefit from this and depending on the child’s learning style, there will be something that everyone can achieve success in.
I like the idea of station teaching especially in a multigrade class. The reality for me is that I have 4 levels in 1 room and I will have SET 3 times a week next year. Glance grids to access the different levels would be really practical. I like the sound of Alpaca but these would only apply to 1 of those 4 levels.
What are the benefits and challenges to assessment in the Early Years? How can we overcome challenges?
Assessment is a fundamental step as part of the learning process especially in the early years. It allows you as teacher to understand what the child has learned and more importantly what the child has found difficult or failed to grasp (partially or fully). Being inform with this knowledge allows you to adapt your teaching, see if more explicit teaching is necessary and for what child in particular. Differentiation is key because we know that no 2 children learn the same. For years, I would do lots of teacher designed tasks and use teacher observation to inform my own practices. However these I found to be very 1 dimensional in that they told you if a child knew all 42 phonic sounds but didn’t identify was it segmenting, decoding or encoding were the issues. We used MIST and Drumcondra Early Literacy, both of which I felt were very poor assessments. The other issue with these assessments were the time they took. I am currently teaching in a 2 teacher school with 4 classes in my room. I did not have access to any SET this year and found these assessments difficult to administer. I would be interested in Alpaca, however the issue here for me would be time again.
