Early Years people, could I please get some advice about the structure of my interview lesson

[saadia]

I have a Reception interview coming up - 20 minutes, whole class, in the morning.

I want to show my understanding of teaching in Reception so, have planned to have intro on the carpet (5-7minutes) and then have children doing different activities that have been set up inside and outside (with TA). I will work with a group. This will be for about 10 minutes and then I will have a quick plenary asking the children to say what we have been learning.

On my plan I will show what I would have as a proper plenary back on the carpet later in the day.

Not sure if I should do this, or else have an intro, whole class activity and then plenary, as 20mins is not the length of a typical lesson.

Would really appreciate any guidance.

What are you actually going to teach them?

We would be learning about positional language, based on Rosie's Walk so all the activities would be linked to that.

I'm not sure about the set up activities personally, as I would only have 1-2 adult led and let the others go for free play to allow child initiated to take place. Tricky tho for interview

That's the thing, as it is such a short lesson. Might be best to have a self-contained mini-lesson with an activity that the whole class does and then bring them back to the carpet for the plenary and then to show in the plans how CIL links in.

Are you going to read the book in the intro? That won't give you enough time to do the intro if it's just 5-7 minutes long. You might have to re-think your timings. If it was me, I would do the same activity for teacher led bit as for the intro so you are reinforcing it. I also wouldn't bring them back for mini plenary as in many reception classes once they go to choose, that's it for the whole session and if they are used to that, you are going to have a tricky time trying to get them back in the short time frame that you have and you will only get stressed. Instead, I would show it in my planning, as you suggested. I would have 1 adult led activity that the TA would actually do, show what the other adult would do if you had been allowed to stay (that would be the teacher led activity), the rest would be child initiated. In the planning, I would also indicate how I would build on the learning over the week eg adult led activities and child initiated activities over the week.

My own personal feeling is that the SLT want to see how well you engage, relate to and teach the children. 20 minutes will give you just enough time to read the story, talk about positional lang. and explain activities/the child initiated stuff, with maybe just a few minutes to spare. With the few minutes to spare, I would get the children settled into their play. When you are doing the main teaching, make sure that you are very clear about what they are learning, keep repeating/asking, otherwise they may think that they are "just" reading a story.

Oh, if you are doing partner talk and you want to make sure that they are all talking to each other, I usually get them to stand up quietly at the beginning of the lesson, find a friend and sit down with them so they all know who they are supposed to talk to! Children really like this and at least no child will be left out.

These are my own views, others are sure to disagree. Hope I haven't confused you or stressed you more.

Thank you so much for your help AshieFan, I really appreciate it.

I have been overthinking and it has become too complicated in my head logistically but hopefully it will be enough to show all possibilities on the plan and keep the actual session simple.

Ashiefan-I agree! 20 mins is not long at all and everything will take much longer than you think. By the time you've read and briefly discussed the story and they've done their talking partners activity the time will be nearly up. I would keep them on the carpet and maybe get them to do something on little whiteboards or a similar type of activity. In the feedback you can say this is the very longest you would keep the children on the carpet for. You also don't always have TA support in an interview. I always show on the lesson plan how the session would continue if were a full lesson so Teacher and TA led activities and independent activities and plenary and assessment opportunities. Good luck!

Ashiefan and GW297 just wanted to thank you for your advice. Had the interview and I got the job. They really liked the lesson plan and and the intro was good, activities part was a bit shambolic but they said that could happen to anyone, so I'm really pleased and excited (and a tad nervous).

Super well done :) I'm glad you got the job and I'm sure you will be brilliant.

Fantastic! Well done! That is brilliant news. Best wishes for your new job!