In this assignment, I intend to write a rationale, record myself and write a reflection in relation to reading a Welsh book to a group of children in a year one class. The story I have chosen to read to the children is ‘Tedi Twt yn Dost’. I feel that the book is relevant as it enables the children engage with the story by recognising some of the sentence patterns that we have been practising during ‘slot drillio’ every morning. The book also encourages the children to think about their prior knowledge of vocabulary and introduces them to words that may not be familiar with. As I have been teaching the children body parts in Welsh, this book will give them the opportunity to use their newly learned vocabulary in a sentence structure that they have been learning.  The children will be developing many skills including ‘building on previous experience, speak with confidence’ and speak using correct pronunciation and appropriate intonation’ (Welsh Government, 2015, p.37) As this will be my first experience of reading a Welsh story to children, I would like to improve my intonation when reading the story to the children and my pronunciation of words. 

During my Professional Teaching Experience, I had to write a reflection in relation to my experience of reading a Welsh story to a group of year one children. Reflection is an essential part of teaching; without reflecting on experiences it is difficult to move children’s learning forward. Grigg supports this by stating ‘reflection is central to a cycle of planning, teaching, monitoring and evaluating.’ (Grigg, 2015, p.30) 

Initially, I felt quite nervous to read a Welsh story to the children because it was a new experience for me as I had not read a Welsh story to children previously. I practised my pronunciation of words that I was uncertain of and my intonation whilst reading the story several times beforehand to ensure that I read the story to the best of my ability. Overall, I feel that the experience of reading a Welsh story to a group of year one children went quite well. 

The children were engaged throughout the story and understood most of the content. The majority of the children were able to answer questions about the story which showed their understanding. The children used Welsh sentence patterns to answer questions that were related to the book. When I asked the children ‘Sut wyt ti?’ they would reply with ‘Dw i’n ____’ They used different answers which demonstrated that they were able to use a range of Welsh vocabulary to answer the question. The children also used their prior knowledge of what they had learnt during previous Welsh lessons to link their ‘parts of the body’ vocabulary to a new sentence pattern related to the book. This was demonstrated by the children using the sentence pattern ‘Mae ____ dost gyda fi’. According to Estyn (2013, p.14) ‘Most children’s achievement in listening and speaking is stronger than in reading and writing.’ The children were able to listen and speak well however, they were also given the opportunity to follow and read the story on the whiteboard. This aided the children to become familiar with the spelling of Welsh vocabulary and sentence patterns which they would be using to write sentences of their own in their Welsh books. 

The children were very eager to participate when they were asked questions related to the story and gave good answers using Welsh vocabulary; the children could have translated the Welsh answers into English to demonstrate that they understood the translation. The children could have repeated more Welsh vocabulary throughout the story to ensure that they would have the opportunity to say new vocabulary. This would have enabled the children to further practise their oracy skills in Welsh. For example, I could have given the children the opportunity to repeat sentences such as: ‘Dyma foddion coch i ti.’ The children could then have repeated ‘foddion’ as this was new Welsh vocabulary that they children may not have been aware of. 

I would definitely use the ‘Tedi Twt yn Dost’ book again as I believe that it was a very age appropriate book for a year one class. The vocabulary and sentence patterns in the book linked well with what the children are currently learning during Welsh lessons and ‘slot drillio’ daily. As there was familiar vocabulary and sentence patterns in the book it enabled the children to understand the story. However, there was new vocabulary and a couple of sentence patterns in the story that the children were not as familiar with. This gave the children the opportunity to further develop their Welsh language skills. The cause of the most important disappointing element was that I did not give the children enough opportunity to repeat a wider range of vocabulary and sentence patterns from the story. 

A possible solution to the disappointing issue identified would be to give the children the opportunity and encourage them to repeat new and unfamiliar vocabulary and sentence patterns. I could give the children time in their ‘talking partners’ to ask questions and give answers in Welsh which would be related to the story. I could have also used a puppet or a Tedi Twt bear to ask children questions in Welsh to aid them with developing their oracy skills in Welsh. 

To conclude, I feel that the reading book I chose and the questions I asked the children were appropriate for their abilities and their age. Going forward, I will ensure that I choose an appropriate book that is suited to the age and abilities of the children. I would also encourage and give the children the opportunity to translate what they have said themselves, instead of telling the rest of the group what the child has said in English. It is vital that children in Primary schools are given the opportunities to read stories in Welsh in order to further develop their Welsh language skills and understanding. According to Lightbown and Spada (2013, p.30) ‘The acquisition and maintenance of more than one language can open doors to many personal, social, and economic opportunities.’