Revised Curriculum
Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities
Nursery Teachers
1
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
Evaluation
2
The big picture
The Big Picture
3
The
Vision
The
Big DE
Picture
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
4
Workshop
The Nursery Child
5
Coffee
break
6
Why thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities
Thinking Skills and Personal
Capabilities enable pupils to learn
how to learn
7
‘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
8
Thinking, Problem Solving
Decision Making
Managing Information
Being Creative
&
Working with Others
Self Management
9
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
10
Thinking, Problem Solving
Thinking Problem –Solving and Decision Making
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
11
Being Creative
• Be curious and ask questions about the
Being Creative
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
12
Working with Others
Working 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
13
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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What are the benefits to the children?
•
•
•
•
•
Active engagement
Deepening understanding
Habits and dispositions
Greater independence
Ability to transfer skills and capabilities
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Add a
Comment
Model
Accept
Mistakes
Question
Provide
Open
Tasks
Make
Links
Scaffold
Allow
time
Foster
Creativity
TEACHING
STRATEGIES
Offer
Alternatives
Encourage
Observing
Listen
Promote
Reflection
Introduce
Critical
Thinking
Introduce
Ambiguity
Provide
Challenge
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Children’s own
work evident
Attractive
Displays
Thinking aids
on display
Child’s
ownership
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Colourful and
Spacious
Outdoor
facilities
available
Stimulating
Wellorganised
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Friendly
Relaxed
Supportive
Encouraging
LEARNING
ETHOS
Challenging
Welcoming
Caring
18
Workshop
Putting it into practice
19
Lunch
20
Effective Questioning Workshop
Shauna McCrea and Emma Brown,
Advisory Speech and Language
Therapists WELB/WHSCT
The Speech and Language Project
21
Aims for session are
Aims
for session
• 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
22
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
Ideas
Understand: individual words
= semantics and meaning of
sentence, literal & underlying
Decide
Choose words
Choose appropriate sentence structure
Remember = auditory memory
Select the sounds = phonology
Hear
Co-ordinate instructions to the
speech muscles
Listen
Articulate sounds
Look/Attend
Self monitor
Speak appropriately
Produce voice
Speak fluently
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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
27
Language for Learning Model
I
Teaching
materials
Language
demands
Language
matches the
materials.
Looking at
the whole
object
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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
Language
demands
I
Language
matches
materials,
looking at
the whole
object
II
Language
relates to the
materials but
child focuses
selectively on
parts of the
object.
30
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
Language
demands
I
II
Language Language
matches
relates to the
materials, materials but
seeing the child focuses
whole object selectively on
parts of the
object
III
Language does not
map directly to
materials. Use
language &
materials to
organise response.
See the object in its
context
33
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?
34
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
35
Language for Learning Model
I
Teaching
materials
Language
demands
Language
matches
materials,
looking at
the whole
object
II
Language
relates to the
materials but
child focuses
selectively on
parts of the
object
III
Language does
not map directly
to materials. Use
language &
materials to
organise response.
See object in it’s
context
IV
Demands
go beyond
materials.
Have to
use
language
to justify
& solve
problems
36
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?
37
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 things
Level II
Describing things
Who? What? Where?
Level III
Talking about stories and events
Level IV
Solving problems and answering
Why?
60% of 3 year olds
understand at level I
and level II
65% of 5 year olds
understand at level III
and level IV
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Language for Learning
Practical
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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
43
‘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
44