It’s that time of year when you are planning book lists and orders for school.
It’s also the time of year when companies have their publication evenings. I attended them this year and was impressed with new titles coming out from EdCo.
Let’s Talk Literacy
This series is available from 1st to 6th class. It is an English workbook which also links with the new Primary Language Curriculum. It explores a writing genre in all three strands, oral, reading and writing. I particularly like this approach which is very popular among all new publications. There is a set structure for grammar too. Each month also focuses on a specific comprehension strategy. It’s an ideal accompaniment for English.
Explore with Me
The new SESE programme is available from Juniors to Second Class and I am really impressed with the layout and content for this new series. Explore with Me has a themed approach to SESE which is ideal to link with your Aistear topics. Each month contains lessons for History, Geography and Science. There is a small poster book with each workbook for the pupils to take home and it contains the poster explored in class along with questions for parents and guardians to ask to link with the theme. I really like this idea as it encourages oral language activities for homework.
Explore with Me also has a detailed teacher’s manual with outlines for each month along with suggested play stations for Aistear. While I don’t like to be too prescriptive for the play areas I think it’s an ideal resource for teachers that are new to Aistear. Explore with Me also has a variety of online materials – videos, posters etc that link to the different lessons. I really like this new series for the Junior classes.
Learner Identity
This is also a new series from Dr. Suzanne Parkinson (if you attended Mary I you will remember her). It is a complete programme to help children identify with their learning strategies and learning behaviours. It also contains a variety of self-reflection questions for the children. If you use Aladdin in your school, you can now record the results of the self-reflection questionnaires and activities for each child.
The self reflection questionnaires are based on Attention Behaviours and Learning Behaviours and there are lessons to follow on how to improve them. I really like how this resource is child-centered and encouraged the children to become more responsible for their own learning styles. It also has lovely lessons on well-being, identifying strengths and promoting resilience. At the moment I have a copy of the 4th class book but I think this new series is ideal for senior classes.
Mrs Murphy’s copies
These copies are amazing, the tag line says you’ll never have to dot a copy again and it’s true. There are three copies in the Junior Infants set. What I really like is that one copy focuses solely on pre-writing patterns. I think this is an added boost to this new series to identify the importance of pre-writing. Junior Infants also has a copy for lower case letters and another for CVC words.
There are two copies in the Senior Infant set, one focuses on lower case and upper case letters. The other copy focuses on copying simple sentences. These copies are ideal for building the children’s confidence in writing and preparing them for using their own lined copies in class. I can imagine they will be popular on the booklists this year.
If you have any questions on the above series, please send me a PM.
A.M.
Aistear Múinteoir 