Inquiry Focus - T3 (update)

During the past three weeks the children have reached the letter X on their Word Tree. Throughout this term all children have been able to make a contribution to our weekly brainstorming session. This includes a total of 10 new words to add to their vocabulary and the visual Word Tree. I have noticed an increase in their vocabulary, although the four priority children still need support with writing stories independently. I wonder what this disconnect is?

At writing recount I have begun using a prompt using a website called Pobble 360 which uses different images to provide thought provoking ideas and hopefully an increase in language.

As the children are asked the following question: “What can you see in this picture”?  A number of higher ability readers are able to read the written text at the bottom of the picture and then call out their answer; which spoils it for the other children (particularly the Priority Learners). So I have asked the children to put up their quiet hands so I can then choose a range of children first to have an opportunity to share their ideas within the group. This has helped with varying degrees of confidence levels as some children are fearful of giving the “wrong” answer and others simply do not have anything to contribute.

In hindsight, using this technique has promoted collaborative thinking/sharing opportunities which involves a snowball effect of learning. For example if one child says: “Dinosaurs” and another child names the dinosaur “Triceratops” this helps and supports other students in the class in addition to the Priority Learners.

All children are encouraged to then write a story independently which includes at least 3 of the following; “who, what, where, when and why”. I noticed how many adjectives the children use when describing what they can see, and observe an increase of overall language since the start of the year until now (nearing the end of Term 3).

Although the grammar or pronounciation may not be correct, their ideas are acknowledged with a positive comment from Mrs Carter to encourage future participation and verbal praise is also given, sometimes with a sticker as a reward for incentives.

The children have continued to add the words starting with “T, U, V, W, X” to our Word Tree. It has been interesting to note that one out of 4 Priority Learners still needs 1:1 support with this as he does not recognise alphabet letter formations.

Photo of Writing samples:

PL: 1

PL: 2

PL 3:

PL 4:

As you can see from the samples above, there is no-one able to complete an independent story about the Dinosaur picture. One child (PL: 3) has started to write backwards. One child (PL:4) does not use finger spaces. One child (PL: 1) has not written sentences and copies “gifted” words straight from the whiteboard. One child (PL 2:) Needed highlighted words as he asked for more support saying he was too tired to write (MORNING SESSION).

Next steps:

• I aim to “test” the Priority Learners on words from the Word Tree at the end of this term to identify which words they have retained and added to their own vocab bank.
• I will also do another Writing recount to see which words are used in their sentence structures. 
• The children have been using to nouns (naming words), adjectives (describing words) and in Term 4 will be introduced to verbs (doing words) and ….. to help support them in their story writing.

Inquiry Focus - T3

Year 2 Inquiry focus

Inquiry presentation follow up review (Term 2)

What worked well?

I changed my classroom environment around so that the children can see and hear well.

(2 children with hearing aids/ 2 children who are on the cusp).

Brainstorm of weekly letter with words beginning with that letter e.g. Oo.

Children are starting to use words from the Word Tree that they can recognise in their story writing.

An improvement in their story writing with use of sight words and new words added to their vocabulary.

They are beginning to identify words that begin with the letter is at the start of the word e.g. first letter.

Children are starting to read familiar words from their environment such as rugby, supermarket, shops, movies, pools, cousins, airport, car, house etc…

They have learnt new words such as Bugglegum, hip- hop, Fia fia etc…

Children are using the butterfly cards (yellow/ blue).

Introduce: who, what, where, when in their story writing.


What can I continue to work on?

New autumn leaf with an alphabet letter on it, so far...(A - O)

Getting children to name and recognise new words.

Implement more writing recounts that identify progress.

Recording 4 children’s tracking record in an ongoing...


Where to next term?

• Encourage children to use the Word Tree independently for their story writing.

• Use a scanning code system?

• 4/4 minimal, 2/4 expected writing report comment.

• Consolidate Magenta sight words in a small group. Move onto Red asap.

Inquiry T2, Rm 24.

Bollywood Fever!

Inquiry Presentation

PART 2: During the past 3 weeks I have been looking at my 4 priority learners closely finding out what they are capable of and what they need support with? I introduced an EE activity on their iPads starting with alphabet letters (one a week) Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee; to write words beginning with that letter and then draw a picture of that word to connect with the meaning.

I have identified that their vocabulary has accumulated due to their participation in the Word Tree and weekly story writing.I have devised a tracking document which shows evidence of vocabulary accumulation over the 10 week period, and will review this every 5 weeks throughout the term.

 However, there is a current flaw and disconnect with my theoretical research as a colleague pointed out to me. As the priority children who are learning and writing these new words have no relevant context for them to make the “connect” with the content. I need to ask the children to use their newly accumulated vocabulary into their weekly story writing to show me that they have meaning of the word.

So in order to rectify this problem over the next 3 weeks I plan to ask each child to go to the Word Tree and find/ use words they know and tell me the meaning of them to create their own story writing for purpose. Hopefully this will help each priority learner to embed the knowledge and understanding of the word further into a concrete learning experience?

My long term goal: By the end of this year (Term 4), I would like to see each child to be able to write their own story independently by using a combination of their accumulated vocabulary and increased learnt sight words into a short paragraph (3 sentences or more) as expected by the end of Year 2.

The following document represents the tracking sheet used to highlight my priority learners accumulation of new words to their vocabulary.