Category: Team Teaching

“Literacy Lift-Off” is an initiative which is actively used in Knockainey N.S. It is an intensive programme of reading which gives the pupils lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency.

It works by gradually lifting the complexity of reading through the use of levelled readers (levels 1-30). It equips our children with the necessary reading skills to develop fluency and comprehension.

This is realised by utilising a team teaching approach whereby the groups rotate between various stations – New Book Station, Familiar Reading Station, Oral Language/Comprehension Station, Word building Station, Writing Station, ICT Station etc.

The aim of Literacy Lift-Off is to make pupils constructive learners. It teaches them ‘how’ to problem-solve independently. We are seeing fantastic progress from our classes participating in this initiative.

Senior Infants are taking part in Numeracy Stations. Through these stations pupils are given the opportunity to explore number in a smaller group setting and are mentored closely by a teacher. Future topics to be covered during these numeracy stations are money, time and capacity.

The Senior Infants recently covered the theme of ‘The Classroom’ during Aistear. They really enjoyed taking on the role of the class teacher. It was very amusing to watch them mimicking the teachers behaviours, most of which they have perfected. For the next couple of weeks, the Senior Infants will be covering the theme of ‘The Post Office’, any resources to accompany this theme would be greatly welcomed.

Early Intervention Station Teaching has commenced in our Junior Infant classroom.

During this time the children are placed in mixed ability groupings where they rotate between 3 different stations where they explore different aspects of Reading, Numeracy and Literacy.

• At the Reading Station: Pupils use knowledge of first letter sounds and picture cues to read the text and put some sight words in context whilst also developing sound blending.
• At the Writing Station: Pupils began working on fine motor skills exercises to aid their pencil grip and control of the pencil. They have now started revising the formation of letters. They will begin practicing writing numerous letters to form words.
• At the Numeracy Station: Children explore components of the numbers 1-5 including matching number of objects to numerals and partitioning sets.