Any year 4 teachers that I could chat to? Some help needed please!

[Pinkflipflop]

Hi, I just wondered if there are any year 4 teachers on here that I could have a chat to? I'm a year 2 teacher and I'll be moving to year 4 in September and I really want to think about planning and organising now.

Please reply if you are willing to answer some questions I have and share your good practice!

Have done a year in year 4 but am year 3 now. What are you wondering about in particular?

Thanks for replying. Basically I'm wondering how you structure your day and literacy in particular. In year 2 I work with a weekly big book and all literacy activities kind of follow from that or are connected some how. How is this done in year 4? I know there are lots of text books in ks2 but not big books so I'm wondering how this will work. To be honest I'm dreading the thought of working out of a text book for literacy, I love being able to choose big books and new stories in ks1, so this will be a change.

In addition to guided reading sessions, do year 4 have a half termly novel which they study?

First of all, I'd really recommend reading the tes website as there are loads of teachers there.

Each school has a different approach, although big books are fairly rare in ks2. This year (in year 3) we have been focussing on novels quite a bit; mainly Power of Reading texts. Sometimes we use shorter books (like Anthony Browne) or sometimes we follow ideas from the (now impossible to use) standards website.

I know my school does Varjak Paw in year 4, and we did Edward Tulane which was really good but possibly a bit much for year 3. A little girl dies of pneumonia :-/

I think textbooks are an unusual addition to schools nowadays. We had one Collins textbook in my year 4 class, but most of their scheme was based on the interactive whiteboard. I photocopied the pages on rare occasions, but normally only used it for ideas.

We follow the national strategy still for literacy topics- things like 3 weeks of narrative, 2 weeks of poetry, 3 weeks of information texts etc. depending on the head/ co-ordinator, you can mix things up as long as you meet the learning objectives. Have you got a chance to meet the other teachers in the school before september, and find out if they're using a scheme?

As for the day to day timetable, mine is usually guided reading, maths, playtime, literacy, topic or PSHE, lunch then topic. There are lot of good guided reading activities on the tes website- really worth looking at!

I think you need to find out how your Y4 teacher works and how your head/literacy coordinator want you to work.

We don't use lots of text books or the national strategy and work is normally based around a class novel even in KS1 (I read Varjak Paw with Y2 last term) and no big books

I have always used the PNS (because the schools I have worked in used that rather than personal choice). Its basically broken down into text types so there no reason why you cant have a novel or big book which you base them on in some way.

I've never used text books as in exercises and questions in a book so I'm not really sure what you mean there.

Thanks so much for this really useful information. I'll definitely have a look on TES and see what additional help there is.

Just another question to clarify, do you have a text whether function or non fiction for each week as the basis of your lessons? If you are studiying a novel, do you use it on particular days each week or keep going until its finished?

A novel is normally studied for half a term at my school (sometimes it is covered more quickly and a short book would be used for the basis of literacy that week)

I teach yr 3. We follow a 3(sometimes longer) week cycle in Literacy, as do all KS2 classes.
Week 1- immersion in text, using drama, text mapping, hot seating characters etc
Week 2- Recognise features of text and learn skills requried- lots of modelling of writing, children may write own version of text or continue a part of the text-
week 3- Independent application- Using skills learnt to write own version of set text type- generally ends in a Big write ( ind writing )

But, as already said, your school lit co-ordinator will be able to tell you much more about your schools way of doing things.

Have fun, I like Year4, its a good year to teach!!

Ok, starting to make sense now. Thanks for your patient responses. I can't seak to the current year 4 teacher as she is leaving in difficult circumstances and I'm being drafted in as a 'seamless' replacement because pinkflipflop can do it no problem I don't want to make myself look incapable by seeming unsure in school!!

The person who is leaving is the literacy coordinator!! A tangled web indeed...

Check for previous planning within the school, look at the medium term plans. Work with the Y3 teacher.

Does your school use pie corbett? He has a fab book on non-fiction writing that has been my bible this year- lots of great ideas on structuring your weeks

Haven't heard if pie Corbett, will google!!

Pie Corbett is fab. He has lots of great ideas. His big thing is talk for writing. So basically lots of talking first!

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0335240887/ref=asc_df_03352408878186401?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=0335240887&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14506615621051915038&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=
www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=games%20for%20writing%20pie%20corbett&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CGgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fourfields.cambs.sch.uk%2Flinks%2Fwriting-resources%2Fpie-corbett-writing-ideas.doc&ei=cWLOT8fAOsXOsgaOtOTOCg&usg=AFQjCNHU0XTUjiqEjHRrOfCOuJQ4jVboEg&cad=rja
www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=games%20for%20writing%20pie%20corbett&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CHIQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hvlc.org.uk%2Fhlp%2Fdocs%2Fwriting%2FWriting%2520Games.doc&ei=cWLOT8fAOsXOsgaOtOTOCg&usg=AFQjCNHXIPsvjwezStqf2nfMzzTH2N49tA&cad=rja

www.piecorbett.org.uk/
czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/sites/gtp/library/core/english/Documents/writing/Storytelling.pdf

Death by website!

actually 3 of them are downloads for lessons and activities but they have long long links

If you get the chance to attend any of Pie's training jump at it

Seconded, Pie is an amazing speaker and well worth listening to. Unlike many other educational advisors.

There is a poster on TES called Pinkflipflop.

There is also one called EcoLady. TES EcoLady is not me.

Pie is an amazing speaker .... or he was when I saw him several years ago. I was totally inspired. I introduced masses of talk for writing, learning stories by rote with reception to give them a language bank, etc. I saw him last year and he was rather to smug for my liking. Far too much 'well, if teachers don't do exactly as I say, it's their own fault if results aren't rising exponentially'. As if there are no ideas other than his.

Year 4 is great. At last they can reason and understand your jokes.