Adaptive Teaching

Comment from my mentor regarding how pupils learn, classroom practice and adaptive teaching on my developmental placement:

Rachel uses a range of strategies in her practice to engage the pupils. She uses talk partners well and takes responses from children in a variety of ways to ensure that they stay focused. She plans carefully to address children’s misconceptions and there are clear steps of progress during her lessons – particularly in English. She has worked hard on her use of modelling to ensure children fully understand the task and she refers back to prior learning throughout her lessons. Rachel has planned a series of successful lessons which she has shared across the year group. During this she adapted her teaching to meet the needs of all learners. She showed an awareness of how she could improve her practice based on previous lessons and changed the tasks for subsequent lessons. Pupils are challenged at many stages of Rachel’s lessons through her questioning, discussions and independent tasks. Her lessons are well paced and she is always aware of when she needs to move children on.

Comment from my mentor regarding how pupils learn, classroom practice and adaptive teaching on my consolidation placement:

During Rachel’s lessons, pupils effectively consolidate prior learning and progress to the next step. This has been evident in successful lesson observations throughout placement and in workbooks. Rachel is very reflective on her teaching practice and will ask for help and support when she needs to. Rachel has worked with other adults in class and has maintained a very professional manner throughout. Rachel has used of modelling and scaffolding during her lessons, allowing pupils to progress confidently.

Creation of a 'pupil profile' to gain an understanding of a pupil's holistic education and the factors that can affect it:

During my developmental placement, I created a working document that I added to each week after making observations upon a child within my class. Observations took place in a variety of contexts, such as when the child arrives at/leaves school; lesson time during whole class, group or independent work; and as the child move around the school environment. I was supported by the class teacher who provided background information about the pupil as showcased in the table. This enabled me to take extra consideration for the pupil when it came to planning and teaching, for example, working one-to-one with them in subjects like Maths in which they particularly struggled.

Child profile final RB.docx

Adapting my teaching during lessons to ensure the lesson is well-paced:

Timing was an aspect of lesson planning that took some getting used to. After my first few initial taught lessons, I realised that adding timings to my lesson plans would be helpful in ensuring both myself and the pupils stay on task. Sometimes, the lesson strayed away from the original plans and this was often due to reflections on how long the pupils would take to complete certain tasks and whether the hour allowed for the original set tasks. An example of this was when I directed the pupils to read an extract of the text rather than the whole chapter, as I realised upon teaching that it would take too long to read the entire thing.

Liaising with the class teacher and inclusion team to understand the needs of a pupil with medical needs:

To best support a pupil in the class who had delayed growth development, I worked with the class teacher and inclusion team to understand the adaptations made for said pupil as well as incorporating these adaptations into my own planning and practice. Adaptations such as adjustments to the classroom layout and seating plan were made to ensure that the learning environment was safe and comfortable for the pupil in order for effective learning to take place. We made the mutual decision to move the pupil to the back of the classroom to allow her enough room to navigate around the class with her new equipment (wheelchair). This was also done to remove any additional attention the new equipment may have drawn, as it was a new apparatus in the classroom which the children were naturally curious about.

Having an understanding of and eliciting the pupils' prior knowledge:

It was important for me to make time to recap on the pupils' prior knowledge at the beginning of every lesson in order to help them access the new content more easily. I took inspiration from Piaget's theory of cognitive development where he maintained that new knowledge is constructed from what children already know. For the most effective learning to take place, I dedicated a small portion at the beginning of each lesson to recap what the pupils had previously looked at. This often took the form of getting the children to review their previous learning through questioning and reflection.

Using questioning in the classroom to extend children's understanding:

Using questioning techniques enabled me to know how and when to differentiate appropriately as the pupils' responses served to gauge my understanding of where their understanding was at throughout the lesson. Through discussions, I was able to facilitate learning through active participation, empowering pupils to feel confident about their ideas and helping them to clarify their understanding.

Knowledge and application of up-to-date teaching pedagogies:

After carrying out lots of research and writing about visual literacy for my PED2012 assignment, it was clear to me that films can offer endless opportunities for teachers to adopt when looking at language, interpretation and meaning. Therefore, whilst on my developmental placement, I decided to use footage from 'The Secret Garden' film to aid the children in their learning. This was noted during an observation where my mentor acknowledged that by using a combination of approaches (including film) I had strengthened the pupils' understanding of the overall story.

PED2012 English Specialism 1B Visual literacy.docx

Meeting with the headteacher to support pupils with a range of additional needs, working with the SENCo and DSL on how to use the SEND Code of practice:

I organised a meeting with the SENCo to look at an EHCP together to discuss how this works in the classroom. We discussed the various roles and responsibilities of the outside agencies, such as the LEA, that work with the school and families to support this. We discussed the role of the class teacher within SEN and the SENCo in identifying, liaising and delivering quality first teaching through intervention to support pupils’ needs. I understand how reasonable adjustments are made for children with and without an EHCP, including adaptive teaching to remove any barriers to learning. We also looked at other support plans (IEPs and IBPs) that are currently in place for children at a lesser level than an EHCP and how they are monitored to support progress and development. I feel as though I understand how local area SEND reports are used to inform the school’s focus. I also worked 1:1 with pupils with suspected SEN, supporting the intervention timetable put in place by the class teacher. This has enabled me to understand the needs of the pupils in my class in greater depth and I've identified effective strategies (in both teaching and behaviour management) to provide support. Through discussions with the SENCo and class teacher, I've developed an awareness of how EHCPS, IEPs and IBPs support the needs of pupils within the class. I now understand that IEPs are reviewed and rewritten on a term basis using the data collected through various assessments. This information is then shared at parents’ evening and parents/carers are invited to meet with the SENCo each term to discuss the targets set for their child. We also discussed how the children may be involved in these meetings if suitable, dependent on factors such as age and maturity.

SEND meeting with Phil notes.docx

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse