So how did the plan go?
The biggest thing I didn't plan well enough for was how big the difference in curriculum was from the previous one. I suppose that comes from not having a good grip on the curriculum earlier in the year. Now I can say I have learned a lot about it during this journey. One way I suppose!
It seemed simple just reading the curriculum, but to deploy it was another matter. I have only ever worked under one curriculum so this change is my first. But once you start deploying different "clauses" of the curriculum you start to uncover a lot of prior learning is missing. This isn't due to any fault of previous teachers, it entirely rests on the fact that the changes are larger than they first appear and that no one was required, in so much detail, to teach what they are now expected to know at each year level.
Scratching the surface of each requirement I managed to uncover the knowledge the tamariki didn't have and then started to teach it.
It made me revisit a lot of the plan. I had to revisit parts of speech, we had to revisit what a sentence was in some cases too. Some things involving what a clause is, what a run on sentence is etc and types of sentences seem to be foreign for them. Some of my slides from the previous page have since been changed! They may not make much sense now as they appear to be at the beginning and not where I originally started. I didn't think to save a set of slides for my PGC. That's a learning point.
So I did have to change things to meet the needs of the tamariki I had before me.
Things I think have worked is having the tamariki focus on one small goal at a time. Having them focus on checking as they go has been hard, but they are getting there. It would be good if this was done at every level though so they start day one writing checking. I can't wait though until everyone has the new curriculum deployed and the tamariki come through to the seniors near where the new requirements are.
They really enjoyed using hand movements with their writing when doing planning orally (Walls & Braid) and it was fun for all of us to do. They still struggle with planning though and it seems they have no care for it whatsoever. Very frustrating.
