Good old Leslee Allen

 Number Agents blog

It is no secret I am a bit of a fan of Leslee Allen. There is so much PD out there but it is hard to find professional development geared to New Entrants. It is normally tailored for Year 3 upwards - for the tamariki who all ready have foundation skills done and dusted and are cognitively ready for further learning.

You can feel alone and very misunderstood in New Entrants because most of what it looks like is happening is chaos or pure neglect - why are those kids always on the playground???

The questions I have from my observation are many when it comes to extending out.

A lot of my tamariki have come a long way with phonics and gaining automaticity with writing down sounds - and this is extending out to blends like "ck".

We took some time with the writing process this year until we had sounds and formation fairly well underway, and then we could start on the formal writing process which can be complex and cognitively overloading.

I have a few ideas of where to head laid out within my observation. I have been looking at Leslee Allen's work with writing in her Year 1-2 class for a while now, but haven't had the time to really kick back and absorb what she is saying. This blog piece below is something I have been looking at to establish where I will head to for the rest of term 4. Before I start back at square one at the beginning of next year!!

Number Agents on writing

I also need to look at this site which states:

1. Students need explicit instruction in writing, beginning in the early elementary grades.

2. Sentences are the building blocks of all writing.

3. When embedded in the content of the curriculum, writing instruction is a powerful teaching tool.

The Writing Revolution