Vesper's Voice

I attended a Sharp reading workshop run by Hilton Avery and found a lot of his approach interesting and in-line with my own thinking. I think the main learning I took from the session was that the teacher does too much of the 'work' during a standard reading session and that we need to avoid the 'teachable moment' when a great discussion starts which is interesting but is not keeping the focus on reading. In Sharp reading, there is a specific routine to follow. The aim of this is to habitualise this routine in the students' minds in order to raise their reading ability. Here is a useful summary of some key considerations when running this programme: Introduce your students to this new way of processing information by providing clear explanations for all the pieces.  Get comfortable with the routine, put in the mileage so that it doesn’t feel clunky any more.  Focus on students “Having a Go” and getting your responses sharp for “Clearing the Roadblocks” and ...

This blog has been born out of a number of conversations had with colleagues both at school and in my online teacher network - The NZ Teachers (Primary) group on Facebook. I was looking for a way to document my own professional learning while making it easy to show evidence for the PTC (soon to be standards). I started off with a concept of a digital portfolio using Google Sites and this is my first version that I posted to the group (link to go to a live version): Many people commented how helpful this template was but it was pointed out to me that the new standards were coming in that would replace the PTCs.   I think RTCs changed to PTCs years ago?? But we're not on to STPs yet, so if you've got ERO coming I think they will expect to see PTCs, not RTCs or STPs. These TLAs are beginning to sound like gibberish... Like Show More Reactions  ·  Reply  ·  2  ·  21 April at 00:12  ·  Edited ...