There are a few things which have shifted in our classroom. The first has been a need for students to slow down and go deeper in their discussions, allowing them more time to react, respond and further question what they are studying at the time. Initially getting the students to offer their thoughts or explain their thinking involved far too much teacher input/questioning. That is, until I decided to let one Guided Reading group work on their own (Students 8A & B are in this group). Giving the other groups more wait time and guiding only when needed has paid off with all students happier to discuss and pull apart the texts.
The second development has been a pleasing move from students responding to media (music videos, songs, poetry etc) in a basic, almost universaly dismissive manner. It has been pleasing to see their attitudes in particular change to where they are now comfortable to give their opinions. Thier language has moved from "I hate it, cos I don't like it" to "I didn't understand _____, but _______ was a nice way to end the story" or "because they use repetition I can hear how the author feels about _____".
The third shift has been a slow and less dramatic one. Although we had great progress initially with using Maths language and Financial Literacy jargon there appears to be a great disconnect almost as soon as the learners move to another strand. I have also noticed this trend in using strategies as well as basic facts . As one third of our weekly programme involves completing independent tasks to maintain this I am having to fold right back and re-teach a lot of concepts.
I have discussed my thoughts around basic facts drills and keeping their new skills practiced with a few colleagues, but (at least this term) there hasn't been much progress above what was already happening.
