Interview lesson - Primary - Please help!

[Tillyscoutsmum]

I am currently applying for jobs for my NQT year. I have been invited to teach a lesson to a "low ability" Year 4 class with an English focus. The children are mostly level 3's (with a couple of 2's in there). It's a 30 minute lesson.

I've got a couple of ideas but am really going around in circles tbh. This is my first interview

Does anyone have any ideas that will knock their socks off?

TIA

I think you need to go for a focus yourself based on your strengths. Are you great at making grammar fun? Can you encourage vocabulary ? Personally, i'd got for something that can show immediate progress and is fun to boot. I always plump for poetry with a voacbulary focus if I can. Failing that, I love using picture prompts or short film prompts to encourage opening paragraphs, or closong paragraphs to an imagined story. The lietracy shed is great for that.

Ultimately, I love words and so that would be my focus, but you might love uplevelling sentences. It's your call. In interview, only you can know what you shine at.

Level 3 isn't low ability for Y4.
I am a HT who is interviewing currently.Please don't use less from TES...we prefer your own ideas.
I wish you good luck.

Sorry.I meant lessons.

Thank you both. I have had a look at the literacy shed and may do something linked to setting a scene for the opening paragraph of a story. I'm just concerned about lack of time to actually do much writing in a 30 minute session.

I really enjoy incorporating some drama elements but am worried about doing that with an unknown class. The class I'm with now respond to it brilliantly but I'm worried it wouldn't work with children who don't know me and might be shy.

I also didn't think it was that low ability (hence the quotation marks). It's certainly not low in comparison to the school I'm in now I won't be copying a lesson from TES. Just wanted a few initial ideas/starting point to focus on :-)

How about a focus on descriptive writing? Adjectives and personification.

How about riddles? Always fun, they will have done them a bit in y2 but you can extend to consider how many syllables per line. Differentiation poss from recognising which words rhyme to finishing a riddle. 10 min intro modelling reading and going over main features with a PowerPoint, 10 min group work, ten mins them reading out their riddles. Good luck with whatever you go for!

The most important thing is that you actually teach them something, ie, you have an impact on their learning. As a deputy I see too many interview lessons where NQTs just discuss a picture/extract/video and the children write a paragraph. Impact to learning is nil. If you want to do something like that, think about how you will develop their writing. It could be through using eg similes or subordinate clauses etc, or using particular vocab in context. Don't accept their first answers, push them to develop their comments so that they are learning something new. Have clear success criteria too. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.
PS: Be ready to talk about what the next steps would be as that's always our first interview question after the lesson!

Thank you for all the tips Really useful.

I think I may go for something about direct speech using alternative verbs for "said" and adverbs to make writing more descriptive. Possibly something along the lines of a paired activity where they have a sentence to say and have to say it in a certain way and then their partner writes down the sentence. (I.e "I'm going shopping" grumbled Sam miserably. Or. "I'm going shopping!" squealed Sam excitedly). I may start with sharing an extract from a book with lots of direct speech and getting them to identify the strategies a writer uses to tell us how the character is feeling (and how this helps us to use intonation and expression in reading).

Does that sound like reasonable?

I think that sounds good.

That sounds fine. As an alternative, how about teaching some persuasive writing techniques? In secondary we teach AFOREST (alliteration, facts, opinions, rhetorical questions, emotive language, statistics, triplets) but you could simplify this and teach something like STAR (sad words, triplets/threes, alliteration, repetition). Teach the idea, get them spotting them on eg text then up level another piece using the new techniques.

You'd defo be teaching them something new, I reckon!

(You applying in worcestershire? We've met, years ago at a worcs meet up! Good luck!)

Thanks I've got the speech one all planned/resourced now (It's tomorrow! ) but I'm due to teach persuasion in my placement soon, so that's really useful.

I remember you from the meet up I'm applying in Dudley (Stourbridge area)

How did you get on?

I wonder how it went? dd1 has an interview at a C of E school next Thursday and she is busy preparing her lesson. She's just asked me what she should say if the interviewers ask her if she is a practicing Christian (she isnt). Should she fib or just talk about being supportive to the ethos of the school and Christian values etc?

Soz for hijack

Don't fib it would be awkward if she got hired. Just talk about how you would uphold the ethos. To be honest if having a practicing Christian is important to them they would have asked for a faith reference, if she didn't provide one on the form they will assume she is not practicing and not ask

Hi all
It went really well. The children were really engaged and I heard one say it was "the best lesson ever" (typical 9 year old. Prone to overreaction ). I got offered the job. But I turned it down because I'd had a positive interview the day before with a school I slightly prefer. They're coming to watch me teach tomorrow so I'm obviously hoping they'll offer me the job there

Thanks for all the advice.

P.s I think I'd be honest about the religion thing...

Wow well done you, that's brilliant! Hope they do sign you up there and then!

Hope dd1 gets the job too, she is brilliant in my eyes

Hope you got offered the job you wanted.

I did thank you Just glad it's all sorted and I can concentrate on getting the PGCE done!

Good luck to your daughter Awks :-)

Fabulous news??

not ??

Great news! Well done!