Year 6 teachers- I need help!

[NedSchneebly]

Have just got new teaching job- yay!
However, new school have decided to give me year 6 to teach EVERYTHING to! I'm mostly middle school experienced, and am making the move to primary, so lacking in experience in some areas. . .

Have never taught science, ICT, French, pe or geography. Was hoping for year 3 or 4 (Am on 1year contract teaching half timetable to year 4 this year)

Is there anywhere I can look up what I need to learn to teach the children, or will it be different in each school? Should I just wait to get plans from school and see if I can figure it out?

Any websites or ideas welcome!

However, never taught science, geography

I think blowing own trumpet completely justified Mena! Sounds like you know where I'm coming from....

The thing I'm holding on to is that I reckon I'm actually a bloody good teacher, and lots of colleagues have said they're surprised I didn't make the move to primary ages ago!

I know it'll be really hard work, but can't wait! Really looking forward to new challenges

Hi Ned, congrats on your new post! You sound lovely...enthusiastic, experienced and child-oriented. All the things a primary school needs (and the music thing is a bonus!)

My DS in yr3 last year had an NQT...we were slightly concerned about her lack of experience but he had the best year ever. She is late 30s and worked in high-flying career before retraining, and all her personal/work/parenting skills shone through. The kids in that class learned all manner of new skills in addition to following the curriculum as required. The school was so impressed they gave her the yr6 class this year. The SATs results will no doubt prove her abilities.

Primary teaching, in my opinion, isnt all about having huge knowlege of each subject, but about staying a few steps ahead of the pupils, and imparting information in a clear, interesting, and uncomplicated way. As well as making learning a bit fun, of course!

Good luck

Thanks for your lovely comments Mice !

Hopefully all my experience in lots of different areas will make it an interesting year for the children! And for me too!

Ok- update from new school

I am not teaching PE, French or Technology. This Is being covered to create my ppa time. Science geography history art and music taught through IPC units, so basically planned out for me, so looks ok.

The scary bit is that I have to do guided reading (4 groups per week) guided writing (3 times a week) and guided maths (3 times a week) with small groups. I understand the principles and ideas behind it, but have never taught like this before. I've got 24 in the class with no TA, and they're not v well behaved.

So, what tips can you share? How do you set tasks that others can get on with on their own, without distracting each other and allowing me to work with the small group uninterrupted? Otherwise I can see it all going to pot and becomes a pointless exercise.

Also, it seems like an awful lot of time spent working in small groups, do you miss out whole class teaching/ discussion etc?

Anyone willing to share your guided learning tips?

Thanks

Ned,

Guided reading I do as part of a 'first thing in the morning circuit of activities'. Could be first thing in the afternoon, or after break - it's just morning is where it fits best. Basically the 4 groups cycle through 4 activities during the week - e.g. guided reading, book review / comprehension, sentence level or spelling activity, game of Boggle, independent reading and task connected with it etc. The 5th day we all do spelling.

Guided maths and guided writing I do in the 'independent work' part of the main maths and literacy lessons if that makes any sense. So I do the starter (if any) and main teaching, set other groups differentiated independent tasks, then work with my guided group while the independent tasks are going on, then do a plenary for the whole class as normal.

In maths, my guided group is usually linked to the main teaching in the lesson - it will be something that they need adult support in a guided group to master. The group I guide will vary from day to day e.g. on a Tuesday might guide my lower middle group, the next day they carry on with that type of work or the next step independently while I e.g. guide my highest ability group in an extension task.

In literacy, I sometimes do the same as for maths but more normally I get together a group of children who have shown a particular difficulty e.g. in varying the way they start sentences, or in using connectives other than 'and' or in widening the descriptive words they use or in using similes or whatever. I then teach essentially a 'mini lesson' within the guided session, and if doing that will often stick with the same group for several sessions during the week until they have definitely 'got it', then move on to a different group with a different issue the following week.

That's what I do. It's not 'what you should do', but it works well for me. I am lucky that I have a TA for maths and literacy, as just under half the class is on the SEN register, so she supports the high-needs, interesting behaviour SEN group during independent work!

Thanks 2kids!

I think I've been advised to vary reading groups for each day, but have the same group for 3 maths or writing sessions on
the trot, as you say, so they can grasp whatever concept it Is I am teaching them.

Would my guided learning session always link to whole class starter/ activity, or could it be completely different?

It seems a bit bizarre otherwise- you do an intro on, e.g. adjectives, rest of class does related writing exercise, guided group do work on sentence structure. Then the guided group might have cracked sentence structure but have missed out on adjectives....

Please correct me if I have completely missed the point!

In maths, as I explained, it almost always does link to the whole class teaching.

In Literacy, it's a bit diffferent. Say we are doing e.g. stories set in familiar settings. I might do a starter collecting imaginative adjectives, the whole class intro on describing settings to show how the characters feel about that setting, and set the independent groups off on a task related to that. For the guided group, we might focus on writing just one sentence about a setting BUT look at the effect of starting the sentence in different ways, or exploring use of connectives, or e.g. using speech punctuation when a character says something about the setting, or exchanging an adjective for a simile or vice versa. So it is connected to the main teaching but isn't the same as the independent task IYSWIM?

So they haven't missed out on setting description BUT the guided session has been very closely focused (it has to be, there isn't much time!) on a particular aspect of writing. The thing is, if some children are writing great descriptions but without proper punctuation, then it is right to focus effort on teaching punctuation rather than on asking them to do another description IYSWIM?

I don't tend to do guided sessions when doing 'sentence level' work as the main teaching, as I do find that everyone needs the sentence level work. It's the 'main part of the literacy unit' lessons where I shoehorn in some guided writing.

2Kids, you're ace

Thanks- I definitely see what you mean. I think I just need to get going on it next term and play it by ear....

The discipline bit worries me a bit, but I guess they just get used to " this is how it's going to be" mentality, if I can get them sorted from day 1....

Any other tips?

Oh and if you have to teach music, it's worth looking at the Music Express scheme. Covers everything.