Glen Eden Intermediate

Yesterday was Glen Eden Intermediate School's day. Originally, I was going to go to Avondale (because I used to teach at GEIS), but Jody went instead. It was actually a blessing in disguise because I was able to catch up with a few people I used to teach with. It was SO much fun reminiscing and talking about old times! We went into several different classes and saw some interesting programs. A couple of classes were involved in inquiry learning (a New Zealand focus) and were asking questions, researching, and preparing presentations. They had good scaffolding available, so it wasn't just a case of "Look up things about Endangered Animals and do a presentation on it". Rather, they had to develop questions and subquestions, then talk to their teacher about which ones to choose before even thinking about starting (oh, brainstorming topics came first). I was impressed with how interested and involved the students were. We also saw a lesson on alliteration and assonance. The teacher was focusing on making the students' writing more powerful. After discussing this, they all went outside and wrote a passage describing place (i.e. where they were). I was impressed with the writing I saw... very descriptive indeed. In the afternoon we visited a class which was doing what the teacher called "Book Clubs". This involved the students being separated into two groups of girls and two groups of boys. Each group had a different book that catered for their interests and reading levels. I was really impressed at the conversations that insued. Book clubs isn't the same as Literature Circles, but there are similarities.