Adult Directed verses Child Initiated

The Early Years guidance is very clear that there needs to be a good mix of adult directed teaching and child initiated learning in your setting. What it is not very clear on is how much of each there should be.

The reason for that is there is no real definitive answer, as with a great deal of Early Years practice it depends on a range of other factors.

Before you even begin to discuss percentages and ratios, the first thing you need to do is to define what you mean and understand by the terms 'adult directed' and 'child initiated'. I often find that these definitions can be tricky to clarify within a team and that practitioners individual interpretations can differ considerably.

The next thing I would do would be to work out how you think your direct teaching is going to work because that is the easier bit.

Is it going to be every day? If so, how many times?

Are you going to teach whole class or group by ability?

Which members of the team will be planning and which will be delivering?

If you are following a programme like Letters and Sounds or Read, Write Inc. how are you going to fit those in?

So, you might decide that you are going to have 3 sessions of direct teaching each day. Theses will be at the beginning or the end of a session as you don't want to compromise the children's opportunities for sustained shared thinking, exploration and deep level learning.

Great. That is that sorted! Problem is what do you do when the children leave you after the direct teach?

Well you have a couple of options. Once you have finished the input then you will say 'red group you stay with me and the rest of you...go and get busy!' Shame for red group having to do more 'work' while everyone else gets to go and 'play'. Still I am sure that they will give you maximum engagement, after all who wouldn't rather count multi link as opposed to play in the water?!

Once 'red group' have finished, you have the eternal dilemma of what you do next. Most people opt for developing  a common condition known as 'tambourine elbow'. Common in Early Years practitioners and members of the Salvation Army. It occurs from excessive shaking of the tambourine!

So, red group have finished and while their seats are still warm you reach for the tambourine and shake it. Everything (well, nearly everything) stops. All the creativity, all of the sustained shared thinking, problem solving, deep level learning, imaginative play, everything! You then proceed with the 'I am looking for blue group mantra'. Now depending on the genetic make up of blue group, this could take some time.

After 5 minutes you have managed to coral 4 of the 6 children, but 2 are still AWOL. Outside on the bikes or making guns. Telling them that if they don't come in now they will never go out again, probably does nothing for their levels of engagement - but at least you have managed to rally blue group, safe in the knowledge that in approximately 15 minutes the tambourine will come out again and the herding of green group will begin!

I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that there needs to be some direct teaching in Early Years. Maybe with my idealist head on I would argue that every aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage can be taught through quality play based learning, but with my realist head on I know that in the majority of settings that type of learning just isn't practical and nor does that style of learning fit in with the way most settings operate.

My issue with grouping children for Literacy, Mathematics and then 'topic', is that the groups are too broad. At this stage of children's development they can excel and need support with different aspects of the same subject area. So I might be a brilliant talker but not such an adept mark maker yet I will be in the same Literacy group for both. I might be fantastic at shape but not so great with numbers but I will be in the same mathematics group for both.

I know what some of you are thinking...How could you possibly have a different group for each aspect of each subject area that you teach? The answer for me is...don't have groups.

When I say  don't group your children, what I mean is that you would group them in the aspect of the subject that you were planning to teach. Then (and this is the good bit) you take the next steps to the children not bring the children to you.

So... You might do a direct phonics, literacy and mathematics teaching session every day.

You would always place these at the beginning or end of a continuous provision session. You might ability group the children or teach them whole class.

At the end of this direct teaching session your children all go into Continuous Provision.

WARNING - When I say Continuous Provision I of course mean provision that is linked to assessment, leveled and dressed for attainment. NOT just places to play.

When the children are in CP the adults will go into that play not only to look for opportunities for assessment and observation, support children's play and discovery but also to teach, delivering an objective that had been identified by assessment as a need and has then been broken down into next steps  for each ability group.

This Objective Led planning might be linked to the direct teaching sessions or it might be linked to any other aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage that your assessment and observation has identified as a need.

This planning for adults in CP would last for a week.

During that week the adult (or adults) responsible for that objective would try to deliver it to all of the children at least once through play

They would probably not have a planned activity that they took around the setting. Instead they would look for opportunities to to deliver the next steps objectives through what was engaging the children most.

If a child you were working with didn't understand or achieve the objective then you could revisit  it  a number of times in a number of different areas across the week.

By the same token if a child clearly showed that they  were beyond the objective that you had set for them then you could revise that objective and deliver it to them again in a different play situation.

How do you plan for it?

For your direct teaching sessions you would differentiate your objective over 3 broad levels or more and direct your questioning to children based on their ability level.

For Objective Led planning you decide on which aspect of a subject you were going to focus on. It could be calculations, talk, upper body movement, pencil grip, ability to independently access the painting area. Anything that has been identified by assessment, observation or curriculum coverage as a need.

First you group your children by their ability within this aspect. 

Next, on your planning sheet, you make a statement of current attainment under each group of children. This is an important stage in the planning process because it crystallises your thoughts about what you think these children are capable ot and how you know it. It also lets the whole team know what you are thinking

Then you make a 'next steps' statement of attainment for each group. This is what you are going to take with you into the play and deliver.

If you go into play and you find a group of children of mixed ability, there is no need to syphon them off by their ability level, you just differentiate what you ask them guided by your 'next steps' statements on your planning sheet.

I have found that any more than 3 objectives led planning sheets  in any one setting becomes hard to manage and track. In larger settings adults often double up on one ojective and just present it in different ways.

Lindsay at Dee Point Primary has been trialling Objective Led planning with her two form entry team. 

Here is an example from the beginning of the year. The objective was centred around the children's independent use of paint.

The next step for each group is split into 2 smaller steps, hence the numbering nest to the children's names.

These planning sheets were on clip boards to make it easy for the adults to pick them up and put them down.

Where I would usually have a column for 'evidence' Lindsay has put in an example of an activity starter, just to give her team some support with this type of planning until they got their heads around it!

Any extra assessments and observations were written on the back of the sheet or on a seperate sheet.

Here is an example of a different objective with assessments and observations attached 

Of course there is no right or wrong planning format for this style of teaching  as long as all of the essential elements are there.

I have attached an example of my A4 planning sheet  here  Download Objective Led Planning

Here is a n A3 wall mounted version of Objective Led Planning  done by Susan from St Augustines that we were trialling before the summer break

The focus here was writing. Once this sheet had been completed then a member of the team would look for writing opportunities in the children's play and then encourage the children to access their 'next steps' target.

Joanne and her team at Chester Blue Coat Primary are also using this form of adult directed and then Objective Led planning to great effect. They started the process in their setting by every adult having the same objective. This was done so that everyone in the team could have a shared experience of how the system works. Once everyone is comfortable with what they need to do then you would move to different adults having different objectives. Here is Joanne's planning

Joanne had some lovely examples of how you can translate this sort of planning and teaching into display which had been created by her and the Reception team.  (As this post is becoming a very long one, I will 'show and tell' those at a later date!')

I also popped into Halton Lodge  to see how Ruth and her new intake were getting along. Again lots to share later from that visit, including their new 'Infinite Playgrounds' outdoor area. But, this is the objective led planning that she was using.

So, you might happen across a group of mixed ability children setting up an ice cream shop in the role play (this happened to me in Durham). If they were engaged in some amazing play or learning you would forget your Objective Led planning sheet and observe/assess/support what was going on.

If their play is fairly low level and non challenging (which it often can be) then you would go in, play alongside and then introduce the need for some kind of writing. A menu, a sign, a brochure, a website...whatever. Once you have engendered some enthusiasm you match your resources and your expectations to the ability of the children and the next steps objectives.

You do NOT turn it into a 'red group' table top session! You are going for high level engagement so you need to keep it relevant to their play and not hijack their play with your planning agenda.

If it feels like it is going that way then drop it and pick it up again at another time in another place.

It really is THE most effective way of teaching within the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage and more than that, it allows you to be creative, have some fun and really 'teach' rather than just 'deliver'. 

Give it a try! If you have got any questions, feedback or ideas, then post a comment and we can all share in each others experiences.

Alistair

Comments

[Louisa Hewitt]

Hi
Does anyone know if their is a school I could visit in the Wigan/Bolton/Preston area that is using objective led planning. I have tried it a little bit but would love to see how it works in action as I struggled to make it work in my Reception class.
Cheers
Louisa

[Camille]

Hi Alistair,
I've been following your blog for a while now and would like to say a massive thank-you for all of the inspiring insights into early years education. I particularly loved this objective led planning post and have been trying it out in my reception class for a few weeks now with great results! Delivering the children's next steps during child-initiated learning has resulted in maximum engagement and what is more the children are now independently applying these next steps in other situations too! I am now much more likely to see children writing or counting anywhere and everywhere - it s no longer something they only do when an adult calls them over to a table. This week one of my objectives was to use tools to create different effects. Having introduced this to the children and provided opportunities in the creative area for them to explore this, many children chose to use this area and I was able to support them in achieving their next steps. My question is, what do I do with those children who do not chose to come to this activity? If they are using tools in the sand or experimenting with tools (pens/pencils etc) at the writing table would this be an opportunity to meet my objective? Or should I be dressing my creative area to attract this group of children? Sorry if it's an obvious question, just keen to promote maximum engagement!

[abc does]

Hi Camille
Really glad it is making sense and that you are seeing some great results. The beauty of objective led planning is that you can pick up your objectives and run with them. So if some children weren't accessing the skill in the creative area then you could take it to them. You could indeed also dress your creative are for interest but this might end up being very labour intensive!

Good luck

Alistair

[Kimberley]

Yep we are on the ball too :) makes me proud to read it here for all others to see who seem to think topic is the way and groups is the ONLY way children learn!! You'll never go back... Promise x

[Rachel]

Hi I am hoping to introduce OL planning to our Reception classes once i've persudaed the head and the KS1 leader. We have a 2 form entry and offer free flow between 2 rooms and a garden. Our children come in and plan from the CP straight away for 1 hour so as I wouldnt have had a group time I was thinking to use this hour for long obs and supporting children to develop characteristics of learning through plan-do-review. ATM when we analyse the long obs we are finding lots of eveidence of playing and exploring, some active learning but rarely any critical thinking. Wondered what you thought? We would then use the rest of the day for OL planning focused on prime and specific areas.

[abc does]

Hi Rachel

It is very much a case of running your day in a way that suits where your children are up to in their learning. I would imagine that you would need to put in some taught sessions somewhere unless you have a reasonably large team who are very aware of all children's learning in all areas. Critical thinking often needs a fair bit of scaffolding to help children to pose questions in the first place and then extend or support the answers that they come up with. You will need to do some specific planning for this as well as trying to resource your space with open ended experiences that will help children to think critically and ask questions - I know that is easier said than done!

Good luck

Alistair

[Rachel]

Thanks for your reply Alistair, my mind is ticking over with so many ideas ATM. I read your book 'From Vacant to Engaged' again today. There are so many lovely ideas in there :-) I loved all the Gruffalo things that were going on but wondered how that fitted in with OL planning? I'm in Bristol, do you know of any schools doing this approach in the south west?

[abc does]

Hi Rachel

The Gruffalo would be a 'dressing' for OLP. So if I had read the Gruffalo and lots of children were showing a real interest in it then I would still plan my next steps objectives in the aspect that I wanted to deliver as OLP but may do a Gruffalo starter or create some Gruffalo enhancements. Once the interest in my Gruffalo stuff had died down I would then go and find the children who hadn't been engaged by the prospect of the Gruffalo and deliver their objective through something else that interested them.
Lots of people think that if you choose to teach using OLP then the whole concept of a theme like 'pirates' or 'dinosaurs' disappears, but it doesn't. You just don't do it as a blanket 'topic'. You dress some children's learning in dinosaurs whilst dressing others learning in Disney Princesses.

I have not worked with any settings in Bristol who are using this method of planning but if anyone reading this is having a go and is happy to share they can reply to your comment with their details. If not, you will just have to get me down for a visit!

Hope that helps a bit

Alistair

[Jenny]

Hi Alistair,
I have been following your blog for a few months now and am really inspired by many of the ideas, particularly the objective led planning. I want to start using Objective led planning but am still feel a little confused about some aspects of it and I wondered if you could clear some things up for me.
If I choose 3 objectives per week as suggested, then how will this look over a number of weeks to make sure I am covering all 7 areas of learning. For example if there is a writing, EAD and CL objective one week then maths, PSED and fine motor the next week then that means that I won't be moving children on in these areas (and the others) on a weekly basis? Or have I missed something? Also, with reading, I do group reading, shall I still continue with this? As parents expect this and I feel I need to write in reading records etc. Or do you know of a way of using objective led planning to teach children reading which allows them to apply what we are doing in letters and sounds?
Sorry this is all probably really obvious stuff but I just can't get my head around how it would look on a weekly basis.
Thanks
Jenny

[nataliecarey123@hotmail.com]

I Love this idea, can i just ask, do you have a different focus each week? I am in reception so would you do one week writing,one week number, shape, creative etc?

[abc does]

Hi Natalie

You would usually have one focus per adult per week (ish). If you only had one single focus per class per week you would get enough coverage.

Alistair

[Annamurgatroyd]

I tried this for a few weeks last year and I don't think we really got to grips with it fully. I tended to find we struggled to get round all the children in one week. I am continually striving to improve our provision for teaching and learning so I've re-read your blog and all the comments(it is really useful to read others' experiences/questions), I also have your Continuous Provision book and am determined to make it work this year! I think my concern was similar to the last couple of comments in how do I ensure coverage, particularly in Literacy and maths....I wondered about having 1 literacy, 1 maths and 1 other objective each week...although again I think I would struggle to cover all of these as I have 3 adults in the morning and just 2 in the afternoon with 30 reception children. This includes me trying to fit in reading groups etc. Sorry, this is me thinking out loud but any suggestions would be appreciated before I totally bombard my TAs! Also, what do you suggest in terms of "on-entry" assessments as I suspect these are key to by objective led planning?. Any help/suggestion much appreciated. Thank you!

[abc does]

Hi Anna

Thanks for your comment. It is really hard to give you a definitive response, because how you work your Objective Led Planning will depend on how you do your direct teaching. The important part of the direct teach is that you do it through other areas of learning and other areas of the environment, that way you get more than enough coverage of all of the areas of EYFS. Your OLP needs to go where your assessment is indicating need.

Hope this helps

Alistair

[Jack Francis]

Great idea, just to clarify though if you have three adults and therefore three objectives and next steps I'm assuming you change these weekly to be covering all the seven areas. So one adults objectives to deliver might be maths and the other writing gathering evidence as you go. Then when you are planning for writing objectives again you look back to see if they got the next steps and move on from there. So one week the 3 adults will be doing writing,maths,pd, and the next week objectives on psed,ead,uw.Have I understood correctly sounds great but hard to get people out of calling children over to do a focussed activity in the normal sense.

[abc does]

Yep, you could certainly work it that way Jack. Give it a go, you will love it!

[Jennie]

Hi, I work in a reception/Year One class, any tips on making this work with this mix would be much appreciated. Thanks

[Tobi]

Hi,
I am an NQT working with a mixed class of 20 reception children and 10 year 1 children in a one-form entry school. This term I would really like to change my planning into objective-led. How should I balance this approach with my year 1 children. I usually use focus groups working with my year 1 children in two groups of five children on their literacy/mathematics. Would you suggest continuing this approach with my year 1 children still and objective-led with the reception children? Thank you.

[abc does]

Hi Toby

Mixed age group classes can be tricky. My only concern about working it the way that you are doing is what they Reception children are doing while you are focussing on your Y1's. Although they will be in Continuous Provision, if there is no other adult in there with them, it is likely to be quite low level.
I have worked with settings where the children have been grouped by stage of development, rather than age. Then the Continuous Provision and the objectives on the OLP have been levelled to match their attainment. This way all adults are in CP at the same time making sure that you get high level engagement and attainment.

Good luck

Alistair

[lizip96@gmail.com]

I wondered if you had templates for your planning I could look at- always looking for ways to do planning and think you objective led planning is fab!

[Fredo]

I am just wondering
Recep/Y1 mix... I am trying to get planning sorted into a more manageable format
for the reception children how many adult directed activities would you expect the children to do through the week?
Do I do a focus plan for each of the objective led objectives through the week..
is this on top of daily phonics literacy and maths sessions?