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**Early Years Teaching Practices- **
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 * **Approaches observed- ** || **Evidence from teacher interviews- ** || **Similarities to Theoretical Readings- ** || **Differences to Theoretical Readings- ** ||
 * **Modelled Reading-**This involves the teacher demonstrating to the students as a whole group, how the selected text or a variety of selected texts should be read. || A new book was introduced to the class with discussion about the front cover, text type and pictures following. The teacher then read the book to the students demonstarting how the text should be read. || The text which the teacher chose to read to the students was at a level which was above the standard at which most students could read which is similar to Hill (2006, p. 73) " The purpose is for children to engage with texts pitched at a more complex level than they can read". || The teacher chose to emphasise the words which she believed her students would not have heard before whilst reading and upon completing the text, wrote them on the borad and asked the students to repeat them as a group to try and help them to remember and learn these words. ||
 * **Guided Reading-**This involves a teacher working with a small focus group of students who each have individual copies of the text. The teacher then listens to each student reading their book individually and provides assistance and guidance when neccessary. || The teacher gathered a small group of children and talked about the selected text referring to the pictures and words within the text. The students then read the text to themselves and the teacher listened and provided assistance when necessary. || The teacher used prompts throughout the reading to encourage the student “to integrate visual, phonological, syntactic and semantic cues” allowing the teacher to “make an assessment of the students’ progress” and helping to identify if any student “is having particular difficulty with the text” (Hill 2006, p. 82). || The students were each given a copy of a text and took it in turns to read. This differs from Hill (2006, pp. 80-81)who’s guided reading approach spends far more time getting the child ready for reading through “connect[ing] the book to the children’s prior experiences” and talking through the book. ||
 * **Shared Reading-**This involves the teaching using large books and reading the book to the whole group and also asking the students to participate by reading parts of the text. || The teacher used a pointer to show the children what each word she was saying was and the children often joined in with some choral reading. Students were also asked what each bit of grammar meant throughout the poem and also asked students to identify the rhyming words throughout the poem || “Big books are generally used during this activity and that student participation is encouraged with the focus on reading specific text types or examining the use of punctuation in the text” Gill (2006, p. 192). This was evident during the observed literacy program with the teacher focusing on involving all students in the discussion including students in the reading of the book as well as examining the use of full stops. || The independent task was completed prior to the shared reading activity which was a different way of clarifying the students understanding of the task they were set. The shared reading then clarified the learning that had take place during the independent task. ||
 * **Modelled Writing-**This involves the teacher writing on the board and demonstarting to the students as a whole group, how specific words or a sentence strructure should be written. || The teacher showed the students the correct way to form a cursive p and where to place a question mark in a sentence. || The students were shown how to correctly form a letter and the correct structure of a sentence || We did not observe any differences for this approach in comparison to the theorectical readings. ||
 * **Guided Writing-**This involves the teacher working with a small group of students who each write their own piece of work on a selected text type provided by the teacher. || A copy of the question and topic the teacher wanted answered was laid on the student's table. A number of a reference sheets, how to form the cursive letters, a list of the common most used words and a list of the inquiry key words. The teacher provided assistance when necessary. || The students were provided with a short demonstration by the teacher and were then given a template to assist them with completing the task. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The teacher chosen to do this activity as a whole class as she wanted to emphasise to all students at the same time, how to correctly write this piece rather than do it in small groups which may have made it difficult for students who needed help as she had a larger group to rove. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**Shared Writing-**This involves the teacher leading the students as a whole group, through ways in which to write various different text types and sentence structures. || The teacher talked the students through a varity of writing tasks and asked them to complete the task whilst she was explaining. Students were then able to practice the variety of writing techniques and selected students were asked to show the class what they had written. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The teacher instructed the students to focus on a specific text type to develop their writing style for that text type. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Students completed the writing task and then shared this with the teacher and other students in the class rather than writing on a class demonstration page with the teacher selecting different students to write words or letters and complete as a class activity. ||
 * **Independent Writing-**This <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">involves students working individually on writing tasks provided by the teacher to develop different writing forms. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Students were set a writing task which required them to pair up words and pictures, allowing them to practice and develop their writing skills and build on their writing fluency. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The students were provided with a task to complete which would allow them to develop their writing fluency and their writing development in a particular focus area. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">"The purpose of independent writing is to work on the students writing fluency as well as develop the ideas and interests of the students "Hill (2006, p.88) although the task set by the teacher was directed and did not allow the students to express their own creative ideas. ||