Year 6 Small Group Assignment

[BustThePerp]

I have been called out for Monday and Tuesday (as trial to see if possible long term) to work with a group (about 12) of Year 6 students who are struggling and need focused attention to prepare them for their exams. I haven't met the children yet, but from what I gathered off the '08 Ofsted report is that they are improving in English, but still struggling in Math. A big concern passed on to me from the head is that they mostly need someone who can build a good rapport and help boost their confidence as lower performance has resulted in low self-esteem.

As this will be a bit different from regular supply (only 1/2 days until the end of May) does anyone have any suggestions? I will find out tomorrow if I need to be preparing their lessons or if I will be following something the teacher has set up. Basically, I'm confident as far as the small-group tutoring is concerned...I just want to make sure I don't speak condescendingly to them or insult their intelligence. I'm usually working with KS1 and I know it's a different ball game in Year 6.

Anyone know where I can get resources on the content they will need to know for their exams...or is it laid out in the National Curriculum specifically?

Thanks in advance.

[Footiegirl]

Good luck with it! As for speaking with the group, when I was teaching I had a yr 5 boy who loved to chat rather than do his work as he found it easier! As a result I would say to him things like "do x amount of sums/sentances/lines I will sit and talk to you for 5 mins" and would chat to him about his work plus whatever was on his mind.

This was a great tool for him as he was soon writing a page of A4 on his own without any assistance (much to my mentors disgust who spent 2 years trying to get him to put pen to paper, but thats a different story!).

I used other things like starting from where he was knowledge wise, encouragement, praise, "how do you think we should do it?" etc etc, the usual stuff you would do with a class, all the while showing an interest in them and showing them that the work can be easier than they think.

As for stuff to teach for SATS, I cant help there as dont teach anymore, but when I tutored for SATS I worked from study books I got from somewhere like WHSMITHS (cant remember the names), supplementing the homework/classwork they were doing. I am sure the teacher will be able to point you in the direction of resources the school like to use and from there I am sure you will find ones to supplement it, or someone on here will know more!

Hope that helps and let us know how you get on. x

[danfur]

I did this sort of job the first year I did supply (only with 3 boys though) and it was absolutely brilliant. I followed some of the lessons the teacher did and differentiated through my help and then did other activities as well to build up their basic skills.

I had specifically those three boys for lit/num and then often took other members of the class for foundation subject in the afternoon and sometimes went to other classes for the afternoon. It was a great opportunity to prove myself within the school and it got me A LOT of work. And to be honest it was easier than teaching a full class as there was a lot less marking and all 3 of them benefitted greatly from the extra attention.

[Wendy]

I did this last year. I helped the Y6 in booster classes towards their SATs. Mostly I did the same as the class teacher, she did the plannng, but took longer on each bit if they needed it.

[jennyfleur]

I've never done anything like this - or not at KS2 anyway. It sounds like a good opportunity though - how did it go today?

[BustThePerp]

It went well today...although a bit chaotic. Apparently there will be another teacher or staff member alongside me, but she had a small fender-bender this morning and was shaken up a bit, so the school sent her home. I was left with the children on my own, which was fine since there were only 12 of them, but it's mostly boys for both literacy and math. There is one girl in the literacy portion, and 3 in math.

The girls in math did pretty well and worked consistently, but many of the boys played about and didn't get much work done. I eventually sent one of them out of the room because he was crawling around the floor like a baby and just refused to work. (Am I wrong for feeling like I don't get paid to play that game after I give plenty of chances?)

So not bad. The school is pretty nice and the students don't have attitudes...just typical 10/11-year-old naughtiness. I can deal with that.

Anyway, onward to tomorrow. Hopefully it lasts through May as anticipated.