I'm on my PGCE and it's not going well - anyone willing to help me plan a lesson?

[Alambil]

I've got my uni tutor coming in on Tuesday

It needs to be the lesson of my life

The info I've got from the teacher is:

Narrative unit 4 - Stories about Fantasy Worlds - Jack and the Beanstalk

Drama: explore familiar themes and characters through improvisation and role play

Unerstanding and interpreting texts: use syntax and context when reading for meaning. Recognise the main elements that shape different texts.

Creating and shaping texts: use key features of narrative in their own writing. Create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images (and sounds)

Sentence structure and punctuation: compose and write simple sentences independently to comminucate meaning. Use capital letters and full stops when punctuating simple sentences

Presentation: Use the space bar and keyboard to type their name and simple texts.

That's it.

For a student that's struggling with getting the lessons right - NO other information has been offered and if I'm not wrong, I could have just grabbed the info I have got on the internet anyway cos it's just the curriculum
stuff

I'm pissed off and can't think what to do.... I've got 4 lessons to teach it.

hmmm teacher said "well this is the best opportunity to show your creative teaching...." (a pointed remark, one may say!)

charades perhaps not a good idea - simon says though would be ok

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good ideas clockface - only got one TA with me, but two groups could work independently I guess... or we do it as a big group on the carpet?

Hi Lewisfan
A fellow PGCE student here working with YR and Y1 mixed class.
I did Jack and the Beanstalk a couple of weeks ago -some of the activities I did were:

1. Read story and talk about it. Ask what a fairy tale is & what we find in fairy stories that we don't find in other sorts of books. Read another fairy story to see common features.

2. Look at an alternative version - maybe Jim and the Beanstalk.
   Think about different points of view - a couple of others have mentioned this sort of thing - hotseating - how would you feel if you were the giant and someone stole your harp? how would you feel if you were Jack's mum and had no food and your son came home with no food and some magic beans?

3. Writing Jack's diary. Give the children a starting point:
   Monday: I am so sad that mum is so upset with me for selling Daisy for some beans. She threw them out of the window!
   Tuesday: You'll never guess what happened today! I woke up and looked outside my window and...
   I got the TA to scribe for the less able & my independent writers did their own.
   This could also be adapted to be the giant's diary, mum's diary.

4)Act out story - I did cutouts of the characters and the children took it in turns to be the characters - this is very good for reinforcing the story structure.

5. Write an alternative version (guided writing). Based on the story but with someone else going up the beanstalk/monster not giant etc etc.

There are loads of printable resources on sparklebox - big beanstalk to printout etc (we have a huge beanstalk in the classroom now!)
I think there was a whole week's worth of planning on the TES resources site that may be a good starting point.

I assume you have downloaded the teaching sequence from the PNS site?

Sorry this is a bit string of consciousness-y but I am in the middle of planning for next week myself (have been since 7am this morning ).

PGCE, it's no fun.....

no - it's definitely not fun. Especially when you're failing like me

eek - looking again my activities don't really fit with your objectives.
Maybe have a group at a time using textease and using an image from from the story and writing a caption/ few sentences?. These could then be put together and used to retell the story on the IWB.

re: your tutor's visit - I would say do something similar to what you have done before. K.I.S.S.!

And good luck!

textease?

Lots of really good ideas on here, i would suggest many of the same things.

Tips on the day :

*Don't have the children sitting too long with you talking to them

*Get the children involved as much as possible

*Ensure your planning mentions (tutors often like to see it highlighted ) How you have planned for your children with SEN, EAL AND G&T. - Make sure what you have planned for those children is very evident for tutor to see

• Use support staff to assess the children and ensure they write down/ observe and feedback to you at the end of the lesson

• Ensure you share the Learning objectives/intentions with the children at the beginning of the lesson

*Ensure you leave enough time for the plenary as students often get marked down for missing this/running out of time

*Tutors often like to see some form of whole class mini assessment at the end e.g. thumbs up/down on how they felt they did etc

Just a few things i learned along the way and wish someone had told me while on placement

Oh LewisFan, sorry to hear you are not happy. Make sure you get the support you need from your tutor - they are there to help you pass and give you what support you need.
I did something I'd not done before on my tutor's first visit and it went disastrously badly - I'd pitched it wrong, the children disengaged and by the end were rolling around on the carpet. I was . Had she not been there I would have stopped the lesson and done something else but I was like a rabbit in the headlights.
I'm lucky that I have an amazing teacher who is supportive and encouraging and is extremely generous with her time and ideas. I know this is not the case in all schools.

You will get there - and not long to go till half!

textease - simple wordprocessing program - use whatever you have on your machines instead

ok I think I'm going to have to keep it simple

she's coming on tuesday so the kids will still be orienting (orientating?!) themselves with the story etc... what about a simple text (on paper) about an aspect of the story or a character...

For example - I am Jack. I am in the castle; I feel, I can see, I can smell, I can hear... I am doing.... etc

Vary it for the differentiation (SEN drawing, borderline have writing frame, medium have short sentences to write and uppers have paragraph)

I'd have the SEN doing a little writing or attempting to write something, even if it's just copying what you have written for them.

yes, they can copy from TA

Is that a good idea though? not exactly creative

I wouldn't have them copy from the TA - sorry than didn't come out how i had wanted it to. What i meant was that if you do decide to do this writing activity - if they are poor at spelling/writing etc they could tell the TA what they wanted to say and she could write it for them to copy. But as you said, you want it to be creative so maybe do an activity that does not involve writing but more them getting up and moving around etc

yes, that's what I mean by copy from - we ask them what they want, we write on a mini-whiteboard and they copy it

I've just emailed the teacher to see her perspective on both options (the writing one and the drama one)

Hi, just wanted to offer you some moral support- I'm a PGCE student too, and it can be tiring! Sometimes, I'm so tired I can't think of even the simplist of lessons! Can I ask why you are failing? Is that your mentor's judgement or do you just feel like you are not doing well? Best of luck for Tuesday, and the rest of the course!

I think it's partially her judgement and being exceptionally harsh in her analysis... but part of it is me not meeting the mark all the time (most of the time I am doing good lessons, getting all the bits in, making sure I "plan for progresion" and it's silly things on paperwork she's marking me down on...)

begin with recap on stopry - big pictures and simple sentences - sequence pictureds as a class then add relevant sentences...

have a few blank speech bubbles on big sheets of paper (a3>?) and ask brighter kids to suggest what a character might be sayng at a given pioint in your seqwuence
have some facial expressions - happy sad annoyed etc
get kids to suggest who would be feeling what where and why (probably extension for y1)

god, is this really what you teachers have to do nowadays? what's wrong with just reading a story and talking about it? and then some spelling and sums?

Sparklebox has some bright attractive Jack and the Beanstalk stuff which may be useful for your SEN/EAL children.

please dont use sprklebox.
All the northern leas have blocked it
email me and I will explain and give you a contact if you/school want further info

Ok, stop panicking and concentrate on just a couple of your learning objectives:

You could think along these lines, changing them to suit your own class / personality...

LO 1: To explore familiar themes and characters through improvisation and role play

LO 2: To create short simple texts on paper and on screen that combine words with images

Use a bit of magic (a wand? fairy dust?) to turn every child into Jack.

Give them all a piece of A4 paper and pencil and take them on an imaginary journey.

Talk them through the journey;
"Goodness me! What's that? It looks like a beanstalk...but it's enormous!
Can you see how big the leaves are? I wonder how tall it is?"

Give children time to talk with talking partner about size / colours / shapes etc they can see.

"Shall we climb the beanstalk?" - A bit of OTT puffing and panting as all join in climbing the stalk.

" Oh, I can see the clouds! We're nearly there! Look! There's a castle! Tell your partner what you can see.... now draw a picture of the castle.... is there a garden?... What are the walls made of?... Can you describe the door? etc..."

Model drawing some ideas on board before asking open questions to stimulate further imaginative ideas. Include questions requiring children to use their senses.

Children complete their drawings of the giant's castle.
Give 2 minutes talking time with partner to consolidate ideas.

HA: Write a short description of Giant's castle. ( Have you done any work on VCOP, and use of ambitious vocabulary? - If so, include this as part of your SC).

MA: Annotate picture with descriptive phrases - gloomy stone castle / dark mysterious trees etc.

LA: (TA focus) Shared writing based on pictures, children compose sentences with partner, TA to scribe: children to write 1/2 sentences on their own.

Hope this helps. Observations are a pig aren't they?

LewisFan take a look at the Storytelling into writing materials here you can adapt the approach to use with the story of your choice and it works really well.

this is hideous. is this what primary education is about these days? how were we able to learn without all this stuff?

liking Veraa's lesson plan

get them to close their eyes for the guided imagining buit (real technical term is guided fantasy but I alwaus feel a little uncomfortable using that term )

right year 1... do drama first lesson - get the langauge going....

Start with a story sack - read them the story. Then act it out with the characters/puppets. Leave out for the children to use independently. You would have some key vocab to help them.

Could you plant some actual beans?

Throw some dried beans

Mime climbing up the bean stalks.
how would you feel being at the top? Would anyone be scared of heights?

Could you be the giant and all the children hide - how would they be feeling?

In pairs be mother and Jack at the end of story.

Hot seat characters.... oh you don't like this!!!

Umm what about a story telling chair - cover the chair with a cloth and get them to re-tell the story to each other.

Then plan story.....

I fold a paper up into 4 and get the children to draw pictures of the story. Weaker children could simply sequence pictures from the story.
More able could add speech bubbles.

Next lesson - write story.
I am not sure of your abilty groups...if you can find a book called developing early writing it has some good ideas that could adapt:
nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/47342

Then maybe you could go in the ICT suite and type if up....it is hard but could you find a programme with a picture of the story and they have to add a sentence?