Page 46 - Module 2: Teachers Guide for Getting Ready for Writing PONY

Module 2: Getting Ready for Writing Teacher’s Guide.
Objective: Monitoring progress
Lesson Plan:
Early years teaching requires adaptation and differentiation of tasks and activities to ensure that all the children are able to access the full curriculum despite the wide range of variability present in their skills and abilities. In children aged between 3-5 years progress is represented by changes in gross motor skills like balance and coordination, fine motor skills for hand dominance, pencil grip and integration. These skills are then combined to help the development of prewriting skills like colouring, cutting and threading.
Access to a monitoring tool such as the Hemispheres Developmental Screening Tool is an easy and efficient way of capturing all the changes children are making. It easily integrates into the daily curriculum and offers schools confidence in identifying how the children are developing their skills across the year.
Recommended action:
1. Photocopy the recording form for the Hemispheres Developmental Screening Tool
for each child.
2. At regular intervals in the year use the different screening sheets to capture how
each child is progressing in their motor, sensory and phonetic skills.
3. Identify the level of progress for each child and record it on the front of the tool.
4. For a clear, visual representation of each child’s developing skills join the dots
together to complete the spider graph for each child.
5. If a child is showing the need for more support in developing a particular skill provide
the parents with advice and activities they can do at home to help their child develop
that skill more firmly.
6. Completing the form three times a year will ensure that the child’s individual
progress is being carefully monitored, and that their needs are being addressed in a timely and proactive manner.
© 2016. Shelley Birkett-Eyles. Hemispheres Think Write Limited