My Inquiry - Creating a class culture of learning.

Yesterday I tried something new. I created a links on a site hoping that this would ignite excitement about learning, as well as giving the children choice in their writing topics.

What happened? 
The children struggled with technical issues such as enlarging the video clips, listening to the videos, without earphones, taking facts from the videos.  Further, there were 5 children that got angry (of which one had a total melt down) because the animals that they wanted to write about were not one of the options. Taking into consideration that we had a class discussion collecting students voice around this.

So what?
Today I reflected on it with management after my PAC observation.  What I learned was that the level of work is too high. My expectations were not on the right level for the specific children I have. This was on the right level last year, but this year, I have a whole new cattle of fish.

What we decided?
We grouped my writing into 3 groups. Pre-writers, beginner writers and capable writers. We discussed ideas on how to assist especially the pre-writers.

What I have learned?
I have to research on ideas on helping my pre-writers. I can talk to our NE and year 1 teachers to get some ideas on what could be interesting topics for them.
Reasonable Expectations:
Pre-writers - One idea. Writing every day. 2 or 3 students in a group. New topics each day. Lots of talking and support.
Beginner writers: Planning and Writing on the same day. Planning to have 2 or 3 ideas. New topics each day.
Capable writers: Complete writing process. They could work on one topic for a week.

How do I feel? 
I feel excited to have more direction with my writers. I am not use to such low writers and realise that I have not catered for their needs. Most of these learners are showing that that they are ready to learn, so having work on their level and creating situations where they can be successful, will increase the speed at which they learn.