Last year I wrote
about my experience of my first full year job sharing http://mrshalford.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/challenges-of-job.html
Here we are a year on.
So, how did it go?
Teaching children for two consecutive years certainly has
its advantages. I knew those children very well- knew exactly what they needed
to work on to make good progress and make good progress they certainly did.
Whilst analysing the data it soon became clear that the year
five children had made excellent progress, but the year four children slightly
less so. Interestingly some of the more able children had made less than
expected progress. Why should this be?
One reason could be that I focussed a lot of my guided
teaching time on my most able children (as laid out in our SDP). Sure, they got
good results but this has made me think carefully about how much time I devote
with each group. With another large class next year (33 year 4/5 ) it will be a
challenge! Ideally I would spend the same amount of time with each group but as
any teacher knows that is easier said than done. Yes of course my weekly
overview would structure who I would work with and when, but when using AFL and
changing plans to best meet the needs of the children the groups themselves are
changing .
Could the fact that the younger children in a mixed age
class can feel eclipsed by the older ones and does this inhibit their progress?
Certainly the majority of year five children
I taught this year made a lot more progress than they had the previous
year when I had taught them as year fours.
Was this all down to the fact that I knew their skills so well? That
they were so confident in the class set up that they were able to flourish?
That being the older ones in the class gave them a heightened sense of
responsibility which in turn improved their capacity for learning?
This September I will again have a y4/5 class and be carrying on with 14 children from the
12/13 academic year. It will be a
challenging year with a large class, a lot of children on school action and
school action plus (just like any other class) along with the fact that my job
share partner has moved on and a new appointment will be made.
So, what are my priorities?
First of all consistency is key so should my temporary job
share partner not continue, it will be all about making a new partnership work
effectively. Although new to job sharing I feel that it has been a very
successful partnership ; I will blog about it over the summer.
Secondly grouping the children in mixed ability groups most
of the time. I use working partners (thanks to all the brilliant AFL resources
by the wonderful Shirley Clarke http://shirleyclarke-education.org/)
and have groups of children needing interventions as appropriate. I am thinking
of having discrete groups of more able in maths/english (still focus on the
SDP) but the rest of the groups to be mixed.
I have always used a variety of grouping methods but gone back to
traditional ability groups for the majority of maths and english lessons. Will it work? That’s the challenge.
So I would really like to research a bit more about grouping
the children. All my colleagues favour ability grouping. I’ve always played it
safe with grouping in abilities for the majority of maths and english lessons.
I make good use of scaffolds, TAs, top tips, success
criteria and various other methods to enable children to access their learning.
But when the children do work in mixed ability groups (always for science and
practical subjects) there is so much more of a buzz going on.
Have you moved away from ability groups? How did you find
it? What worked well and what didn’t?
I will blog about how it goes once the term is underway.
