Formative Information through Observations

Formative Information

One of the really useful parts of RPI has been having my mentor, Toni Nua, come in to observe my literacy and guided reading sessions. It’s given us a chance to have some great conversations about what’s going well and where I can keep growing to make my literacy program even better. Recently, Toni watched a lesson I did on "Suspenseful Beginnings." In this activity, I gave students a suspenseful start to a story, and they had to add their own powerful vocabulary to create an opening the grabbed the attention of the audience. 

From this observation, a couple of things really stood out. One big takeaway was making sure to set clear expectations at the start so the students know what the session will look like and what they’ll be doing. I also realised I need to give them more space to share their ideas. Adding a bit more "wait time" in discussions lets them think things through and contribute more, rather than me jumping in with answers or prompts too quickly.

I've also started recording some of my sessions with groups so I can look back and reflect on my practice. My aim is to have at least two recorded lessons each term to track my progress and spot areas that could use some tweaking. Watching these back will help me see what’s working well and what might need a different approach. It also means I can share these recordings with Toni to get more feedback on specific areas, especially within guided reading, to keep improving.

I’ve added a few examples of our suspenseful beginnings creations to this blog post. After the students wrote their suspenseful openings, I decided to use CrayonAI to generate images based on what they’d written. This was a really fun activity, and the students loved seeing their words come to life visually.