A Magic Moment!

A Magic Moment! Herbal Soap Making For Christmas Gifts.
One of my girls who is not mathematically inclined, worked out how we could work out how much soap to melt, to fill one soap mould! Although she didn't know 1ml=1g of water, we soon had a really great discussion about how to work out the capacity of the mould. The next step was to work out how much soap to melt to fill the 6 shapes and how many bars we could make from a 1kg block of melt and pour soap. (I really hoped I had ordered enough!)Then we needed to know how many bars each person could make from the soap we have. Nothing like problem solving in a real context!
The classroom has been filled with aroma of lavender as two boys are using the microwave to gently complete drying the lavender heads we will be using in the soap. We are all feeling very calm.
We also had an interesting conversation about using food colouring in the soap! The resulting PMI showed good thinking and yes we are using blue food colouring in our lavender soap.
Here is a movie two of the girls made about soap making:

This is a great example of the value of using ICTs in classrooms. There has been a huge amount of planning and decsion making involved in producing it. The process of creating a visual text has involved brainstorming, using a storyboard, taking and selecting photographs, proof reading and editing text. The girls also had to be succinct in presenting their ideas. The key competencies have all been covered in this cameo. 

Shirley Clark Stuff

http://www.shirleyclarke-education.org/
Some good reminders of being specific and precise

• Asking why do we need to know...
• Quality success criteria brief, succinct and visible written just before work starts.
• Base these on PROCESS not PRODUCT
• Oral feedback is still the best
• 5 second WAIT TIME before starting is necessary -non interrupted thinking time (no questions)

Effective feedback:

• Formative dialogue -delving and questioning
• shared whole-class or group marking with teacher leading

Learning buddies working together:

• Aim to identify successes and improvement against learning intention
• Present paired marking decisions to the class or group

Teacher feedback:

• Highlighting success and improvement -not for every piece of writing -children also to do this with their buddies.
• Children to discuss their personal writing target (tracking) by tallying each time they meet it in their piece of writing. Have now included this in the goal sheet.

“Some suggestions for children marking with a response partner”

1 Both partners should be roughly the same ability, or just one jump ahead or behind, rather than a wide gap.

2 The children need time to reflect on and check their writing before a response partner sees it.

3 The response partner should begin with a positive comment about the work.

4 The roles of both parties need to be clearly defined.

5 The response partner needs time to take in the child’s work, so it is best for the author to read the work out first. This establishes ownership of the piece.
6 Children need to be trained in the success and improvement process, or whatever is being used, so that they are confident with the steps involved.

7 Children should both agree the part to be changed.

8 The author should make the marks on his or her work, as a result of the paired discussion.

9 Children need to be reminded that the focus of their task is the learning intention.

10 The response partner should ask for clarification rather than jump to conclusions.

11 The improvement suggestions can be verbal or written.

12 It would be useful to role-play response partners in front of the class, perhaps showing them the wrong way and the right way over a piece of work.

13 It could be useful to do this two-thirds of the way through a lesson, so that children can make the improvement, and continue writing with a better understanding of the quality.

Introduction

I have decided to try a blog as a means of a reflective journal and also as a way of keeping things I think about as a good idea, more visible and to act as a reminder of my 'gunna things' list!

Thinking about 2012 I really want to keep a few things on top  and hopefully I will be able to tick the box as I complete, achieve or miss the step completely!
By end of November:
 #1 Set up a more specific learning goal sheet for my class -keep  in profile book and review as each goal/learning step is achieved.
Here it is! Mark 3 version

Ideas for the targets:

Organisation -self management-getting ready for school day -stationery, tidy desk, Homework in class

Basic Facts:  using information from Stage Based Basic Facts put e.g.s  into table

Spelling:

Set up spelling targets then:

1. Copy Essential words to be learnt
2. Copy Schonell word group lists
3. Grouping of spellers

Writing: inserting features from the 'Hands" that need to be worked on

Reading: incorporate strategies, reading mileage targets, text types, expressing opinions.

#2 Complete Professional Reading: Continuing to refresh my understanding of  Enriching Feedback -Shirley Clarke, think about any changes/implicatons/strategies for next year.

#3 Set my teaching goal: (apart from school P.D.)

Implement  feedback techniques from 'Enriching Feedback' reading

Using tally marks as a means of pupils assessing their own progress against their writing  target.