Swivl DAT

My deliberate act of teaching was a reading group who were focusing on Self Monitoring.  We had worked on this comprehension strategy for a couple of weeks and were doing the last, refresher session on it before the holidays.

What Went Well
The learners had their self monitoring bookmarks they'd been given and they were able to refer to them confidently.  There were a couple of learners who were very confident with answering the questions that I had put up for discussion and could talk about self monitoring skills easily.  Over the previous weeks the group had understood what self monitoring means, the importance of it and the different ways to do it

What I Would Change
Next time I would set the swivl up at the back of the group so that the learners are in the video.  It would have been helpful for me to see their interaction so that I can better plan for sessions and to allow me to write narrative assessments on specific learners.
In the future I need to ensure that I move around a wee bit instead of standing or sitting in one spot, I think this would make the session a lot more interesting for the learners and would allow me to connect with more of the group (I follow a special needs teacher on Facebook and he uses this strategy to keep things interesting and keep the attention of his learners).
I need to use strategies for getting the whole group participating in the learning.  More often than not it's a handful of learners who answer all of the questions and do all of the thinking, perhaps because the others are shy, or worried about being wrong or language is a problem.  I think if I had them discussing, writing, mind mapping or doing some other activity in pairs or threes it would be a non confronting way for all learners to participate and access the learning.  This is my main goal moving forward.
I think I also need to think about the structure of the session and really plan it out a bit more deliberately so that I can get the learning I want out of it but keep the session short and sharp.