Thinking Skills and

Personal Capabilities

Year One Professional Development – Day Two

9.15-9.45 Welcome, introduction and review of Day 1

9.45-10.30 Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities in the classroom

10.30-11.00 COFFEE11.00-1.00 Thinking Skills and Personal

Capabilities and Reading1.00-2.00 LUNCH2.00-3.30 Thinking Skills and Personal

Capabilities and Writing3.30 Review, looking ahead and school-

based task Plenary and evaluation

Feedback from Day One…

Comments on:

• Adrian Cooper’s article…

• ‘Living Learning Together’ activities

• Changes in learning environments

Focus on planning will be included on Day 3

Aims for Day TwoTo consider:• Thinking Skills and Personal

Capabilities in the Foundation Stage• The development of Thinking Skills in

the context of Literacy

To provide guidance on the teaching of reading and writing in Year 1

Why Thinking Skills & Personal Capabilities?

• active engagement • focus on learning• dispositions & habits• greater independence• enable transfer • deeper understanding

&

Managing Information

Thinking, Problem Solving Decision Making

Being Creative

Working with Others

Self Management

‘We thinked and we thinked and we had an idea and it didn’t work!’

‘So what did you do then?’

‘We thinked and we thinked again and then Jane had an idea and we tried it and it worked!’

(Belle Wallace: Teaching Thinking Skills across the Early Years)

Workshop

• Create a collage using a range of materials

• Create and perform a variety of sounds based on words and movement

• Programme Bee-bot to follow directions

In the Jungle

Key Messages

•Thinking is usually expressed as language in the Foundation Stage.

•It is vital that teachers listen to andrespond to what is being said.

Thinking Skills and Literacy

Aims:• to consider the development of

thinking skills in the context of literacy

• to provide guidance on the teaching of reading and writing in Year 1

Read an unfamiliar text

During the Oral Language clustersacross the five Boards teachers agreed that :

– the difficulty level of texts needs to be considered

– learning to read should involve attending closelyto print

– comprehension develops through oral language before it develops through print

– children do not need to be able to read every word before they get another book

– children need exposure to both fiction and non fiction in the Foundation Stage

Developmental framework

Match the statements to show progression

• Familiarisation

• Problem-solving

• Modelled

• Shared

• Guided

• Independent

• Sharing with an audience

Reading DVD

Emergent group/guided reading

Consider the teacher’s role and the children’s responses

• before

• during

• after reading

In your groups discuss how you might

use the sample texts

to develop comprehension.

• reading is a problem-solving activity• children need time to explore and

develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed for reading

• teachers need to plan how to scaffold learning through emergent group/ guided sessions

Key messagesKey messages

“The expectation that children will write and the value placed on their writing are key conditions in influencing their attitudes towards writing.”

Dancing with the PenMinistry of Education – NZ

Thinking Skills and WritingSort samples of writing into developmental stages.

Use the framework to identify the child’s current knowledge, skills and understanding of the writing process.

Writing DVDWriting DVD

• think of some writing opportunities based on the jungle theme

• plan the steps you would take to develop the writing of specific children

• writing is a complex process• children need to be able to take

risks and experiment with writing• teachers’ planning should reflect

the children’s developmental stages

Key messagesKey messages

What next?• Select a strand from the Thinking Skills and

Personal Capabilities progression grid and give one example of how would put it into practice.

• View the DVD along with the Guidance material. Consider how you could begin to adapt your current practice.

• Liaise with a local pre-school provider and arrange to visit the setting. Identify a specific focus for your visit.