Writing observation in J8

I observed writing in J8 - they were working on using commas correctly.  

Sandhya started by talking about punctuation - she gave the example of  a full stop being a kind of punctuation.  The children clapped their hands with a fist to demonstrate a full stop.  

Then Sandhya modelled a sentence with commas.  She said "I like apples, bananas and pears."  She got the children to repeat it after her, to hear how the comma would make you say the words.

She then role played a sentence with commas by getting some children to stand up.  She said "I like Esita, Jacob and Hamid."  pointing to each child as she said their name. 

She then wrote the sentence on the board without the commas and chose children to write the commas in a different colour.  

The children's writing task was to choose three to five words from their red dictionary and to use them in a sentence.  They then had a follow-up worksheet.

Takeaway:  I liked the way Sandyha used role playing to visually represent the sentence - it made it come alive for the children.  Another good tip I picked up while observing was that if Sandhya wanted a child to come back later she would wave her hand around her face like the hands of a clock.  This was a great non-verbal signal to come back later.  

PTC 4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills