Annabelle Guthrie

February 11, 2020

Serial Days Review So Far….

So far, I have been on placement for 3 Thursdays. `I have 2 Thursdays left before I start my 3 week block.

I am really enjoying my time in my school. It is a huge school – something that I am not used to as the primary school I went to only had 36 people in the school and there are just short of 300 in my placement school!

Last week, I read a story to the children called ‘What The Ladybird heard’ which is by Julia Donaldson. They really enjoyed this story as they thought it was funny. I really enjoyed telling it because the children were joining in with the animal sounds.

The children have also been doing lots of maths, literacy and Health and Wellbeing. On the 2nd serial day, I observed a PE lesson where the children were focussing on the different types of rolls in gymnastics. Last week, it was Children’s Mental Health Week, and they were talking about times when they were brave.

I am really enjoying my time on placement, and I can’t believe this is the 4th Thursday!

January 23, 2020

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5th Ed. London: Routledge

This was a post session task: to read a chapter from of a book (as stated in the title) and then write a review on the chapter based on given question

The main aim of the chapter is to unpack the topic of question and to help the reader improve their knowledge of the broadness of the topic and the range of questions that can be asked and their effectiveness. Some of the key themes mentioned in the chapter are: the purpose of questions, types of questions, the effectiveness of different types of questions, the suitability of types of questions for different age group and the different contexts where different types of questions may be used

I agree with the point made about recall questions being more appropriate for those at lower ability levels. This is because process questions require more complex thinking skills that some individuals may not have developed yet, so they may find this style of questioning more complex. My view can be supported with evidence from Rubie-Davies from 2007 which is given in the text to back up this claim.

I disagree with the style of questioning used in the example of the 4 year old girl giving evidence in the Old Bailey. This is because it was clear in the example that the type of questioning used was not suited to the girl’s young age and the questions used seemed to be putting words into her mouth. As well as this, she didn’t understand the question and as a result the question wasn’t answered clearly. I can back up why I feel this way with evidence from the chapter where it says “One journalist reporting on this case concluded “There has to be a better system for gaining justice for infants than cross-examination in court” (Anthony, 2008)

There were a couple of words in the passage that I didn’t understand. After looking them up in the dictionary, I understand the meaning of these words to be as follows:

Dyadic – something that exists in two parts
Acquiesce – to accept something reluctantly but without protest
Ubiquitous – found everywhere

January 21, 2020January 21, 2020

Situated Communication – Den Building: Post Session Questions

Today we we learning about communication in different environments and how our communication methods may change in different situations. In class, we went outside and build dens in random groups and we had to reflect on the task after the session using the headings below.

My group didn’t really have a main leader as such, but instead we all took on this role as we all had individual strengths and weaknesses which helped us to complete the indivudual elements of the task. By doing this, it meant that no one was excluded and everyone had a role to play. The most challenging part of this task for me was working with people that I hadnt worked with before because I didnt know what their strengths and weaknesses were before starting this task.

Explaining

The group explained very clearly, meaning I fully under stood the ideas they were coming up with. They explained their ideas by showing me what they were trying to achieve using the resources we had. I feel I was good at explaining the task and the criteria of the den and throughout the time we had I would reflect on whether the den we were building met the given criteria.

Environment

We had to speak louder so that we could hear each other over both the natural environment sounds but also the other groups working. When we were outside, I had to talk a bit louder than I would in a classroom environment, and I also found myself getting distracted by the environment, more so than I would in a classroom. To overcome this in an educational class, I could gather the children in an area where they may not be distracted such as in a corner.

Negotiation

Our negotiations were moderately sucessful. Whilst we gained resources that we required, we lost a member of our team, meaning it took us longer to complete the task. The most challenging part of the negotiation was working out what item we would swap with the other team as we had to quickly work out if giving the item away would hinder our progress in building our den.