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Revised Curriculum

Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities

Nursery Teachers

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Programme 9.30am – 10.00am Welcome, Introductions

Background to Northern Ireland Curriculum

10.00am – 10.30am Workshop

10.30am – 11.00am Coffee

11.00am – 11.30pm Examining the Stands of TS&PC

11.30am – 12.15pm Ethos, strategies and the environment 12.15am- 13.00pm Incorporating TS &PC

1.00pm – 2.00pm Lunch

2.00pm – 3.00pm Questioning

3.00pm - 3.15pm Review and Looking Ahead EvaluationEvaluation

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The big pictureThe Big Picture

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The Big PictureThe DE Vision

The vision of the Department of Education is to educate and develop the young people of Northern Ireland to the highest possible standards providing equality of access to all

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Workshop

The Nursery Child

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CoffeeCoffee

breakbreak

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Why thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities

Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities enable pupils to learn

how to learn

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‘Thinking skills are the tools that help children to go beyond the acquisition of knowledge to search for meaning,applying ideas analyse patterns and relationships, create and design something new and monitor and evaluate their progress’

Northern Ireland Curriculum Primary

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&

Managing Information

Thinking, Problem Solving Decision Making

Being Creative

Working with Others

Self Management

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Managing Information

• Work with a focus, ask and respond to questions to clarify the task

• Select with help, information from materials and resources provided and suggest ways to obtain information

• Follow directions in relation to a task

• Begin to plan

• Identify and record simple methods to record information

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Thinking Problem –Solving and Decision Making

• Show their ability to memorise by recalling restructuring experiences and stories

• Make close observation and provide descriptions of what hey notice

• Show the ability to sequence and order events and information and to see wholes and pars

• Identify and name objects and events as same / different, sort and put objects into groups

• Give opinions and reasons• Ask different types of questions

Thinking, Problem Solving

Decision Making

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Being Creative

Being Creative

• Be curious and ask questions about the world around them, using all the senses to explore and respond to stimuli

• Talk about their memories and experiences

• Play for pleasure and as a form of creative expression

• Show excitement, enjoyment and surprise in learning

• Be willing to take on new challenges• Experiment with ideas through writing,

drawing, mark making and model making

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Working with OthersWorking with Others

• Be wiling to join in• Learn to work and play cooperatively• Develop routines of listening, turn taking, sharing, co-operating and reaching agreement• Be able to learn from demonstrating and

modelling • Be aware of how their actions can affect others• Learn to behave and use words to suit different purposes• Develop a confidence at being with adults and

other children in a variety of contexts

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Self - Management

Self Management

• Talk about what they are doing and what they have learnt

• Develop the ability to focus, sustain attention and persist with tasks

• Develop awareness of emotions about learning, their likes and dislikes

• Be able to make choices and decisions • Ask a friend for help

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• Active engagement

• Deepening understanding

• Habits and dispositions

• Greater independence

• Ability to transfer skills and capabilities

What are the benefits to the children?

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TEACHING STRATEGIES

Add a Comment

Model

Question

Scaffold

FosterCreativity

Encourage

Listen

Promote Reflection Introduce

Critical Thinking

ProvideChallenge

IntroduceAmbiguity

Observing

Offer Alternatives

Allow time

Make Links

Provide Open Tasks

Accept Mistakes

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PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

Thinking aids on display

Well-organised

Attractive Displays

Outdoor facilities available

Child’sownership

Stimulating

Children’s own work evident

Colourful and Spacious

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LEARNING ETHOS

Friendly

Caring

Relaxed

Welcoming

Supportive

Challenging

Encouraging

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Workshop

Putting it into practice

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LunchLunch

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Effective Questioning Workshop

Shauna McCrea and Emma Brown, Advisory Speech and Language

Therapists WELB/WHSCT

The Speech and Language Project

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Aims for session are

• To empower teachers to use the Language for Learning Model in context of questioning.

• Use the Language for Learning Model to explore TS +PC

•  Ask quality questions pitched at child’s level

Aims for session

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We will……..

• Place responding to questions in the context of communication processes

• Relate LfL to other systems of questioning• Introduce the Language for Learning Model as a tool

for developing more effective questioning• Provide opportunity to apply the Model in a practical

session• Introduce screening tool• Respond to questions

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The Communication Chain

Self monitor

Ideas

Decide

Choose words

Choose appropriate sentence structure

Select the sounds = phonology

Co-ordinate instructions to the speech muscles

Articulate sounds

Produce voice

Speak fluentlySpeak appropriately

Look/Attend

Listen

Hear

Remember = auditory memory

Understand: individual words = semantics and meaning of sentence, literal & underlying

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The focus of this model is…

• Your expressive language and the children’s receptive language

• A qualitative approach to receptive language• This broad focus may well indicate difficulties in

receptive language that will require a narrowing of the analysis of children’s responses

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The Language For Learning Model

Blank, Rose, and Berlin(1978)

Materials produced by Liz Elks and Henrietta McLachlan of Elklan Training

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Elklan

Speech and Language Support for under 5s

Session 5

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Language for Learning Model

Teaching materials

Languagedemands

Language matches the materials. Looking at the whole object

I

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Level 1 Questions

• What’s this?

• Where are the plant pots?

• Find another one like this (show a bulb).

• Where’s the ……?

• What did you see on the table?

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Language for Learning Model

Teaching materials

Languagedemands

Language matches materials, looking at the whole object

Language relates to the materials but child focuses selectively on parts of the object.

I II

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Level 2 Questions

• Which one do we dig with?• You can water the garden with a ………• Find me something that is big• Find a big black pot• What else can you find here that we put in the

ground?• What is different about the fork and the trowel?

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Level 2 Questions

• What goes with a fork?• Name something that is a plant.• Mum planted the bulbs in the garden. Who planted the

bulbs?• Where was she?• What did she plant?• Show a planting bulb picture. What is happening in the

picture?

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Language for Learning Model

Teaching materials

Languagedemands

Language matches materials, seeing the whole object

Language relates to the materials but child focuses selectively on parts of the object

Language does not map directly to materials. Use language & materials to organise response. See the object in its context

I II III

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Level 3 Questions

• I want you to, put the bulb in the top, add soil with the trowel then tap it down

• Find me something else you can put plants in which is not made of plastic

• How are these the same?

• What does ‘sow’ mean?

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Level 3 Questions

• Arrange pictures in a sequence • Tell me how to plant the bulb• The flower looks lovely, what does Mum say?• Tell the story• What might happen next?• Summarise the story in one sentence

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Language for Learning Model

Teaching materials

Languagedemands

Language matches materials, looking at the whole object

Language relates to the materials but child focuses selectively on parts of the object

Language does not map directly to materials. Use language & materials to organise response. See object in it’s context

Demands go beyond materials. Have to use language to justify & solve problems

I II III IV

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Level 4 Questions

• Why will the bulb grow?• Why did you use a watering can to water the

flowers?• What made the plant grow?• What could you do if the plant doesn’t grow?• What could Mum do if the plant doesn’t grow?

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Level 4 Questions

• How can we tell that this trowel is old?

• How could we grow a plant without soil?

• Why do we plant the bulbs in a pot?

• Why is this called a flower pot?

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Percentage of Children Able to Respond at Different Language for Learning Levels

Level I Naming things60% of 3 year olds

understand at level I and level II

Level IIDescribing things

Who? What? Where?

Level III Talking about stories and events65% of 5 year olds

understand at level III and level IV

Level IVSolving problems and answering Why?

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Language for LearningPractical

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To Conclude

• Implications of the range of LfL levels presenting in your class

• The 80/20 rule• Self reflection sheet• The LfL levels and behaviour• The TALC screening tool• Keep within context of overall language development

levels.

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Questions

(effective ones of course!)

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Objectives:

• To increase participants’ knowledge and understanding of the Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities framework

• To identify practical opportunities for the infusion of Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities

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‘Thinking skills are the tools that help children to go beyond the acquisition of knowledge to search for meaning,applying ideas analyse patterns and relationships, create and design something new and monitor and evaluate their progress’

Northern Ireland Curriculum Primary