Tom can write!

To print this complete exemplar download one of these files:
Download PDF file (312.2 KB)
Download Word file (470.5 KB)
Print only this page

I can sit and write

Student	Tom	Date	1 August 2008
		Observer	Annie (ORRS teacher)

Learning goal

Tom will work for at least five minutes on a writing task.

Tom was sitting at his desk. I placed a piece of A3 paper with the word “Tom” on it on Tom’s desk. I said, “Tom, we are going to write your name”. Tom looked away. I said, “We are going to use playdough to write today”. One of the students at Tom’s desk asked, “Why are you using playdough to write?” I said “Tom might find it easier to write his name if he can feel how it is written”.

The other students at Tom’s group said, “Cool” and “Yeah”. “He finds it hard to write his name,” I said. “We’ll help him then.” I got out the playdough and rolled a piece in front of Tom. I asked, “Can you help me roll the playdough, Tom?” Tom put his hand down on the desk, but did not look down. I interpreted his hand down as a choice that he wanted to roll the playdough.

I placed my hand over Tom’s as we rolled and made the letters for Tom’s name. Tom’s peers were fascinated to watch us writing. I placed Tom’s hand on top of the T and said, “T.” I repeated this for “o” and “m”. The children joined in, “T-o-m – TOM”. Tom smiled. He looked away. He picked up a toy to play with. I said, “Good working, Tom. Nine minutes of writing is hard work”.

Tom’s peers made comments like, “Good writing, Tom” and “Cool playdough”. They returned to their work.

(Clicking on image opens full size version)

Footer navigation