Struggling and succeeding: Learning with a growth mindset.

Parent Information Session Year 2 September 2016 St. Ives Infant School

Guided Reading Guided Reading happens most day 9-9.30 It is reading as part of a group; they read with children who are reading similar level books Often they read round the group, each taking a turn to read a page – with a focus on listening as others read Sometimes they read a sentence each (Good tip for home as this makes them look for full stops and helps them to understand sentence structure) Sometimes they all read together or in silence It involves lots of discussion and answering questions Unlike last year, the adult leading the group does not write a comment in the reading records as we have our own folders in school in which we do this, however, we mark GR and our initials next to the day so that you can see when they have read in school We would love to have some volunteers to help with some guided reading sessions! (9-9.30)

Reading Books Thanks for all your support with reading Reading books are graded in terms of difficulty and these levels are known as book bands. The children progress through these during their time at the school. By the end of year 2 we are aiming for the majority of children to be reading (and fully understanding) gold/white books. Different children progress through the levels at different rates, please do not worry about this. A child might be on a level for a long time then suddenly go through several levels in a few weeks. A child does need to read all the books on a level to move on. To check a child is ready to move on the teacher will listen to the child read and ask them questions about what they have read. Reading should be challenging but fun and racing through the levels does not always help! The children are prompted to change their own book each day and they get to choose a book from their book band. Please remember to fill in the reading record every time your child reads. Thanks for all your support with reading at home so far-it makes such a difference!

Tips for home Read little and often - a couple of pages a night is better than a whole book once a week Get comfy and cosy-it should be relaxed, perhaps with a snack and a drink Find a time to suit you and your child- You could try in the morning, as soon as you arrive home, just after tea, just before bed… Encourage your child to sound out unknown words Look out for those tricky words that cannot be sounded out e.g. they Remember reading should be about fostering a love of books- reading to your child is one of the most powerful and effective things you can do. Don’t stop reading to them just because they can read!

Literacy Lessons Phonic sessions take place most days to support reading and writing Talking the text approach - we often learn stories off by heart, retell them, innovate them and then go on to invent our own stories Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar are key focuses We focus on writing in sentences that are grammatically correct and punctuated We encourage the children to think of a sentence, say it (count the words), write it, then CHECK IT by reading it We link lots of our writing to our topics, real books and special experiences JUST WRITE- this is a time when we get them to work totally independent and it happens about once a fortnight Handwriting- letter formation is key, children need to write with ascenders and descenders-use of sky, grass, soil to give a visual prompt Capital letters- they need to know when to use them e.g. start of a sentence, names of people, names of places, places, days of the week, months of the year Also need to know when not to use capital letters e.g. in the middle of words Weekly spelling test to support the spelling work in school

Maths Daily maths lessons Starts with some mental maths Then we teach a new concept or skill The children practise the skill and apply their learning At the end of the lesson we check the children’s understanding and go through any misconceptions We use a mastery approach We place importance on deep level learning-understanding why We emphasise knowing number facts off by heart to help fluency We are introducing Maths Passports to support assessment

Resources Numicon Tens frame Base 10 Part part whole 100 squares Arrow cards Number lines Blank number lines Beadstrings 100s, 10s, 1s Tens frame Part part whole Bar model Money Loose parts Clocks

Growth Mindset “Not I can’t do it but I can’t do it yet…”

Who? -Michael Jordan- Olympic basketball player -He didn’t make the school basketball team. He stayed after school and practised on his own until he made the team.

Michael Jordan

Who is this? - Children may know that is JKRowling author of Harry Potter - What they may not know is JKRowling’s manuscript for Harry Potter was rejected from 12 publishers.

JKRowling

Who? Thomas Edison designer of the modern electric light bulb -Reportedly redesigned the light bulb hundreds of times but it didn’t work properly- he just kept going until he got it right.

Thomas Edison

Fixed mindset vs Growth mindset

How mindsets affect motivation & learning “In many cases, students with less raw potential, but with greater stamina, perseverance and capacity for hard work are more likely to succeed than those who are talented but have little capacity to set ambitious goals for themselves” PISA in Focus, March 2014

Importance of praising the process and effort not intelligence “That’s great you have worked really hard on that” rather than “That’s great work you must be really clever” Reassure children it is ok to make mistakes that’s how we learn

Useful phrases