Section 1 Teaching Assistants
1.1 Introduction
Student teachers are often younger and less experienced than the teaching assistants with whom they work so it can be daunting for them to organize the work for their TAs, but planning and forethought can help to develop confidence in this essential element of their role. They need to realise that in order for the teaching assistant to work effectively, the TA will need to know the pupils’ targets or individual education plan (IEP) details.
The School Workforce Development Board, reporting in 2006 in their document Developing People to Support Learning: A skills strategy for the wider school workforce 2006-09, stated that
‘People working in support roles are at the heart of school reform. The rapid growth in support staff numbers, the emergence of new higher level and specialist roles, and evidence from many research studies confirm that support staff are playing an essential role in school improvement – making schools more efficient, enriching experiences for children and strengthening teaching and learning’. (p.3)
1.2 Selecting pupils to work with the teaching assistant
Student teachers will need some guidance in knowing which children they will select to work with a teaching assistant. They will probably know that TAs most often work with less experienced pupils, but may be unsure about the criteria that have been used to determine the selected children. The teacher must use various assessment data to determine these groups, such as reading and spelling ages, SAT levels in reading and writing or pupils with targets from IEPs.
TAs often deliver intervention programmes with small groups of children, such as Additional Literacy Support (ALS) or Further Literacy Support (FLS), or use of published schemes purchased by the school. Student teachers should be shown examples of such programmes, and directed to the criteria for selecting pupils who will benefit from them, included in the teachers’ guide. They will also need to familiarise themselves with the intervention programmes used, in order to know exactly what it is the TA will be working on with the children.
Student teachers should bear in mind that pupils should be grouped according to need, so that the work of the teaching assistant can be properly focused – not all less experienced readers have the same needs, for example. It may be possible, however, for the teaching assistant to work with more experienced pupils, freeing the teacher to work with the less experienced.
1.3 Activities
- Ask student teachers to consider the issues of using the teaching assistant to work with higher ability pupils, together with planning implications. Following discussions, a list could be compiled of their ideas which could then be circulated to the group for possible use in school
- Ask student teachers to look at the materials produced for intervention programmes specifically related to English e.g. ELS (Early Literacy Support), ALS, and FLS. Ask for suggestions about how the regular sessions could be integrated into the timetable. How could teachers ensure that those pupils being taken out of the main lesson do not miss vital elements of teaching, such as text level work? How could the skills taught in the intervention programmes be used within the classroom?
- What ideas can student teachers generate for TAs to work with children on developing speaking and listening skills at various ages?
Student teachers should be reminded that even though they may be teaching older children, there may still be a need for individuals to work on Key Stage 1 skills and objectives in Key Stage 2, or Key Stage 2 objectives in Key Stage 3, so they will need to have an understanding not only of the requirements of previous Key Stages, but also, for example, of phonics and early spelling skills.
1.4 Planning the work of the teaching assistant
Student teachers may have seen extremely competent teaching assistants working apparently under their own initiative and perhaps have been unaware that this is usually as a result of the class teacher’s planning and organisation which has been efficiently communicated to the TA, together with the development of a mutually supportive working relationship. These things, of course, do not usually happen purely by chance.
In planning how to use a TA they will need to consider:
- the needs of the children
- resources needed for the session
- the particular skills of the TA - are you asking them to do something for which they have not been trained, e.g. intervention programmes?
- timetabling implications – taking groups out of the whole class, and the knock-on effects this may have
- planning considerations – when might planning time with the TA be found? If this is not possible, what other practical methods of communication might be used?
- recording what work the TA did and how the children performed
- assessing pupil progress
The following examples are from the Standards Site:
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/features/literacy/659825/918003
1.5 The role of teaching assistants in the shared section of the literacy hour
Confident teaching assistants may move into a more pedagogical role in helping the teacher deliver the lesson. Examples might be:
- echoing the teacher by repeating, rewarding or refining teaching points, e.g. repeating or rephrasing instructions for pupils who are slow to respond:
"That's right - look for the speech marks"; "See where Mrs Goodwin is pointing";
"Remember what you've been told about sounding words out."
- directing attention, e.g. pointing at the feature in the big book under discussion;
running a finger beneath a script during reading aloud
- taking part in a double act, e.g. working the puppet in phonics games
- acting as demonstrator, e.g. modelling how to scan a passage for the teacher, showing how to use a dictionary on a regular basis, demonstrating how one works out a spelling - a living exemplar
- playing the "devil's advocate", e.g. raising questions or problems, pretending not to understand so the teacher can go through step-by-step tuition
- playing Box and Cox - where the topic can be listed or staged in simple steps, taking turns with the teacher to explain each step, and thus helping maintain pupils' attention
- acting as the teacher's memory bank:
e.g. "Stephen's turn next";
"John's not had his hand up for a while";
"We said we'd go back to…";
"I have a dictionary here…"
There is also a DfES publication called Working with Teaching Assistants: A good practice guide Ref: DfES 0148/2000
1.6 Activities
Ask the student teachers to suggest ways in which a teaching assistant could be used to support:
- pupils of different abilities to develop speaking and listening, reading or any aspect of writing
- formative assessment
- summative assessment
- working with EAL pupils
Some questions to answer:
- What would you need to consider before giving the TA your instructions?
- How might you be able to involve the TA in the planning?
- Would you always place your TA with lower attaining pupils?
- Will the TA mark children’s work? How can you ensure this fits in with the agreed marking policy of the school?
If possible, student teachers could work in pairs or groups to plan a lesson where the use of the teaching assistant is outlined. This should be in a form that would be useful to the teaching assistant as well as to the teacher. Where this can be linked to a placement, it would be more relevant.
1.7 Useful Links
