Matt Payne

Week 16

The week started with a bit of a difference, instead of the standard classroom lesson we went for a field trip on Dartmoor. It was rubbish weather and when we got on the moors it was incredibly foggy, so we went into the visitor centre and had a look around then came back.
The next day we were suppose to have another field trip to the moors, this time with Pete for geography, but due to hazardous weather conditions we decided to postpone, so we still had our I.C.T lecture in the morning and our field trip was replaced with a session, we then had our afternoon I.C.T lesson as usual.
In the I.C.T lecture we mainly focused on the assignment and what is needed to be done.
In the geography lesson we were each given a mp with 3 separate points, we each had to pick a point of where to settle and think of an argument to debate why it would have been better, after this great debate was over (with minimal fighting talk) we worked in pairs to design our own maps, to use as a resource.
The I.C.T lesson in the afternoon involved us using spreadsheets to make a game that children can learn from and write how we would use it in class and with what age group we would do it with.
The Wednesday was just of one event, the school experience lecture. We talked about what was expected of us and how we will go about things during our time there. We all took a pack of booklets and handouts to look through and read.
Unfortunately I missed Fridays lesson due to a hospital appointment, and as it is Friday now I have yet to read through the notes from a class mate of look up the lecture on the portal. So I shall do that and include it in next weeks reflective diary.

Week 15

The week started slightly different than usual as we had a guest for history. A man came in for a Roman role play. This was a really useful activity as he used the class to demonstrate certain aspects of the Roman lifestyles, such as how they would stand in a cohort or how they would stand for battle. This was a really good learning technique, I certainly learnt from it and I think children will enjoy some practical learning.
Geography was all about the assignment as well as the upcoming field trip. The first point Pete made was that there are still mysteries in humanities and it is important to remember this, as children enjoy stories and mystery. We then went on to look at risk assessments, how to fill out the hazards, who could be harmed from the dangers and what can be done to avoid these risks.
We then went on to make ‘I spy’ booklets, these are really good for fieldtrips as it keeps the children engaged and using geographical language. The booklets have a picture on each page of something that needs to be seen with a brief description, the children can tick them off when they see them and learn from the description. If children were to make their own booklets in class we should keep an eye out for if they go wrong to help them adapt their designs.
I.C.T in subject… featuring maths – The Robot Invasion! This was the I.T lecture that included the use of robots in the classroom. We can learn from robots as these robots can be used to teach about shapes, angles, lengths, units as well as many other things. The good thing about the robots is it keeps interest whilst learning as they are fun. There are different types of robots to use too, such as bee-bot, which is designed like a bee.
This lesson got me thinking which robots might make good teachers, I immediately ruled out terminator, wall-e is probably rubbish too. I do, however, think that Robocop, C3P0 and that maid from the Jetsons will all be good candidates.
The follow up lecture was us playing with the robots and getting ourselves familiar with the way they work. We then each thought up an activity to use them with in the classroom.
In English this week we had a practise audit, this went ok but I do need to learn a bit about morphemes, that was my downfall!
Next we compared some spoken and written examples of a girl, and saw how much more detailed the written version of an events was a lot more descriptive than when the girl was just saying them. Also when speaking there were lots of pauses and modification to the story.
Before school children know very little about how to write, so they do all their learning with school. Before they start school they may be able to write letters and their names, but that will probably be about it, they come to school to learn the meaning of the language and what the symbols they are writing down are worth.
In the next part of the lesson we looked at the process of writing, there are 5 steps, the first is the characters, then setting, then drama, then what happens in between and finally resolution.
The last part of the lesson Tatti showed us something helpful, if you draw a hand, write on the palm how, then on each finger, who, what, where, when and why.
The last day of the week had primary education in context. We started by looking at reflective thinking and the stages of the reflective process, focus, awareness and critical analysis.
We then looked at planning a lesson, a good lesson should have:
• Good teachers knowledge and understanding
• Effective planning
• Effective behaviour management
• Effective teaching of basic skills
• Good use of time, support staff and resources
• Effective range of teaching methods
• High expectations mapped well to activities
• Effective use of ongoing assessment
• Effective use of homework
• Good supportive learning environment

We went on to show the lesson plans we went through in groups. This went well as our group made a smart board presentation; we then got feedback from another group and heard theirs.
When planning a lesson we have to keep certain things in mind, for example, it is important to know the children, we need to be ready to adapt, in case a lesson doesn’t go exactly to plan, the lessons will start to fit together, rather than individual classes they will all be like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, timing and pace of the lesson, so the lesson and generally whole day will flow nicely and finally C.C.A.

Week 14

With the start of the week we looked at the ancient Greeks in history. The first little interesting fact I learnt was that the columns were not invented by the Greeks, but instead the Egyptians. After we learnt different Greek words and the English equivalents, such as logos means word, dunamics means power, sophos means wisdom and graphos means write or draw. We learnt a good game to start lessons with, by writing one of these Greek words and getting the children to write all the words they can think of that has the Greek word in them.
We then went on to look at how it was the ancient Greeks who started asking the questions of the word, such as why do good and bad things happen? Or what happens when we die. We also looked at how Greek belief can be compared to an ocean liner, where people are the passengers and the Gods are the officers, with Zeus being captain.
The next lesson was Geography, we spent a lot of time looking at our up-coming field trip and also our assignment. This is to include objectives, activities and an end of lesson line up.
On Tuesday we had another ICT day. The morning gave us a lecture, featuring maths…
Why use ICT for maths?
• Learning from feedback
• Observing patterns
• Exploring data
• Teaching the computer
• Developing visual imagery

We then looked at how www.standards.dfes.gov has a maths tab with loads of really good resources. We were then reminded that little games should just be used for things like the start and end of the lesson, and not the main focus.
On the Wednesday I had a course rep meeting, not much to say about it really as we just discussed a few issues, but I just wanted to mention it.
On Thursday we started with a lecture on English, we were each given our first article for our English assignment, we need to annotate it.
We then went on to hear about phonics, they’re fun. Phonics are nothing new, they are simply the symbols and sounds made in words. Sir Jim Ross recommends direct teaching of synthetic phonics that is systematic.
Phonics teaching must be set within a broad and rich language experience. The more words children know and understand before they start, the better equipped they are succeed.
So… children should have opportunities to:
• Role play and drama
• Hearing and singing songs
• Telling stories
• Listening to fiction and non-fiction

We need to understand the relationship between graphemes and phonemes. Also, if your mouth has to move, it is a different phonic.
The next and final part of the lecture told us about how more than one letter can make up a phoneme; digraph is 2 letters, such as ‘sh,’ a trigraph is 3 letters, such as ‘igh’ and a quadgraph is 4 letters like ‘ought.’
We finally touched on schwa vowels, these are when the letter isn’t pronounced, such as the y in pyjamas.
There are a total of 44 phonemes in English language, made up of 26 letters and 140 combinations called graphemes.
After the lecture we had an English lesson, we started by learning that phonics need to be taught discretely and daily and needs to be engaging and multisensory.
We then got into groups and thought of an activity we could do with children for learning phonics, our group had an adaptation on the song we’re going on a bear hunt, using onomatopoeia and actions to help them remember. Another good activity is counting out syllables in words, or even clapping them out.
On the Friday we didn’t have primary education in context and had a maths lecture. In the maths lecture however we simply spoke about the audit and it was basically going back on information we already knew. The afternoon took us to research skills where we practised some of the skills we learnt the week before in our cohort meeting about referencing and plagiarism.

Week 13

In the first History lesson we moved on to talk about complex societies. We started talking about the ancient Egyptian society and culture. The reason the culture managed to grow and thrive was because of the Nile, this is not only a significant resource (water) but also made the land around it very fertile. This is a good society to look at for early religious background, as with the original society they only believed that Kings had an after life, but as time went on they adapted the thinking that everyone had an after life. It is also the ancient Egyptians who were famous for mummifying the dead.
This society was also interesting as we start to see science emerging, what the Egyptians could not solve through their scientific means they would simply attribute it to God. It was also these complex societies where we would see the complex development of Politics, forming hierarchy of law.
We ended the lesson with a good activity for children that was looking at hieroglyphics and write our names. This is a good C.C.A as it can involve art work as well as history.
In Geography we started by having a recap on the last lesson. We got back in our groups from the week before and looked back at the lessons we had planned out.
After we presented to the rest of the class what we had planned and how we planned to do it we went on to talk about the field trip we shall be going on in week 16.
On Wednesday we only had 2 things but they were big, the cohort meeting and the maths audit. So the cohort meeting there was lots and lots of stuff so take a deep breathe…
The first thing we talked about was handing in work, this is to be done in the Rolle building reception, and this will give us a receipt so we can prove our work was handed in. It is also electronic so must be done in time or the work will be failed and there’s no going back. This is also the place to collect work coming back.
We then talked about absence, if you are going to be sick just email the tutor of the lesson but for other extenuating circumstances we should email Miles. If we need an authorised absence, for example missing a lecture for a field trip or a hospital appointment then Miles is the person to speak to.
The next part of the lecture we talked about research skills. With this we talked about plagiarism, plagiarism is this:
• Quotes or paraphrasing without reference
• Use of data or ideas without acknowledgement
• Copying the work of another student
• Someone else writing it
• Poor use of the internet

It is also very important not to plagiarise yourself, this aint good! You also need to acknowledge group work, by naming everyone in the group.
We also learnt that we must reference everything used, this includes books, people and pictures, so any images or photographs used need to be referred too.
The next point brought up was to take responsibility for your own work, we need to review and monitor our own progress, we need to further our own knowledge, we need to write things down and research and we need to manage our time effectively. We need to also be responsible to complete the PDP and keep everything up to date and on track.
That basically sums up the main points of the meeting, after we walked into town for the audit… not much to write about that it was a maths text. Wasn’t very fun either.
The next day was an English lecture, we learnt all about reading. We started by looking at different types of text and how it may be hard to read it, for example if it is written in a different language or if its written with jumbled up letters.
We also learnt the readers draw on their knowledge of how language works by recognising words on sight as well as the contextual clause.
At the end of the lecture we learned the two separate theories of reading, the top down model and the bottom up model.

Top down model

Past experience

Selective aspects of print

Meaning

Sounding out if necessary

Print

Bottom up model
Meaning

Pronunciation

Blending

Phonemes and graphemes matched

Every letter discriminated

Print

On Friday we had a bit of a shift around, we had English and primary education on the same day. In English we started by talking about how we learnt to read. The ideas we came up with are:
• Knowing a favourite book very well
• Reading books whilst listening to an audio book
• Learning phonics based scheme
• Flash cards
• Reading schemes
• Book bands
• Story sacks

Most print is non fiction.
The last part of the lesson we looked in pairs at a picture book and thought about what kind of questions we can ask, thinking about how we can use the text and the pictures to get the children to think about the story.
The last lesson of the week was primary education in context. The first part we looked at what we needed to make an effective lesson plan:
• Good subject knowledge
• Know the children’s abilities
• Good time management
• Resources/equipment
• Learning objectives
• Meet the QTS standards
• Follow up lessons
• National curriculum
• C.C.A
• Fun

Also this week I read: [Goosebumps] Welcome to Dead House by R.L. Stine