Student Sucess

This term one of my focus students, Conner, has excelled since starting school. Next term he will be attending one of our satellite classes. It is a good opportunity for him to be able to integrate with his mainstream peers.

In the two terms since he has started school he has learnt to;
- join group activities in the classroom
- complete his morning routine
- write his name
- use his individual timetable so that he understands what he is meant to be doing
- attend to learning activities for an extended period of time (from 5 minutes to 30 minutes). This was a goal for him in the classroom as part of my inquiry.
- reading skills: turning the page, pointing to the words, recognising high frequency words, retelling the story line, identifying the title, answering comprehension questions.
- he has moved from a Level 1 Magenta reader to Level 3 Red reader.
- his high frequency word recognition has increased (see graph).

I look forward to hearing how he progresses in his new classroom. I have two new students starting next term so i will choose another student to add to my focus group.

Progress update - Term 2

Term 2 has been a successful one for my students, especially the ones i have outlined in my focus group. When reflecting on this term and what made it successful it has been a combination of building relationships, having high expectations, building predictable routines and implementing a sensory curriculum including opportunities for movement breaks.

Oliver: I have the behavior team on board to assist with his behavior in the classroom, mainly around compliance for non-prefurred tasks. With a behavior plan put in place, Oliver is now more settled. He can complete tasks in a familiar routine such as unpacking his bag and writing his name. He will now sit and attend to his individual reader for short periods of time. I have not been able to assess his alphabet knowledge as of yet however i am hoping that next term i will be able to test him.

Conner: Conner has made the most progress this term. He joins all class group activities and has gone up two reading levels! He is now reading at red level 3 with excellent comprehension. He understands that he needs to complete all work tasks before he is allowed to play and has stopped leaving the table in the middle of a work block.

Benjamin: We have seen a huge increase of functional language being used throughout the day. Benjamin is like a sponge and just soaks up any learning, even when it appears he is not attending to the lesson he is able to show us that he understands the task. Benjamin still continues to run multiple times in circle time but during work tasks he is on task for the duration of the lesson. This term i was able to identify how many high frequency words he can recognise, this is a big breakthrough!

Next term i am keeping my programme relativly similar with a focus on comprehension during reading tasks using visuals to aide understanding of the text.

Implementing a sensory curriculum

As my students are new to school and routines, I am working on extending the time they will engage in seated activities. As part of my writing, handwriting and math's programme i implement sensory based learning activities as well as seated work tasks so that students who are unable to focus for long periods of time get a "sensory break".
There are heaps of ideas on Pinterest for "sensory tubs". This week i put the "letter of the week" in a tub with jelly balls (can be found at most $2 shops), and words we are learning from our word wall in shredded paper (purchased from looksharp). Other sensory tubs i have used in the past are:
-shaving foam
-flour
-colored rice
-sand
-sago
-kinetic sand