Group work

http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/07/11/so-what-are-learning-spies/


This is a great article from @LearningSpy on effective group work. some of his comments mirror previous posts on 'Invisible Teaching' http://mrmacooley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/invisible-teaching-1_5.html

@LearningSpy is a wise follow if any Tweachers out there have yet to sign up!



http://www.learningspy.co.uk/

There's a lot of buzz on Twitter recently on Bloom's Taxonomy, infographics ahoy!...

Lots of Tweets about how this can be used for digital learning tools such as Pinterest

and how various Apps can be used to support (explained here http://www.unity.net.au/allansportfolio/edublog/?p=836) 

for a simpler, more universal image, see here

lots to explore!

The most uplifting thing I've heard today

This came from a review courtesy of the 5 minute lesson evaluation from @Jobaker9 on Twitter, filled in by a Yr 8 student (14yrs old).

We believe all learning experiences are powerful resources we can use in future situations

Quite a compliment to teachers everywhere...

Digital Learning Platform- The Future of Learning

This came from what was initially a cover lesson where I essentially asked students to design a school or classroom for the future.

Every student did that except one.

What he designed was a digital learning space that would exist within a classroom. The like of which I have yet to see. It goes so far beyond anything that my school has ever bought in. Kerboodle, Fronter. please?!

They just don't compete with the imagination, thought processes,design sense and understanding of what is really fit for purpose of this 14 year old.

I really liked it. I wanted to present this idea to other teachers, so I asked if he'd mind if I made a digital mock up of his paper designs and share his ideas. He said 'no problem', 'go ahead'.

So, I made this

I put it in a Powerpoint along with the responses to the questions I had asked about what schools, teaching and learning of the future would look like. Next time he was in my classroom I showed him what I'd done. He looked and smiled politely. 'Do you mind if I take my design home and do another version?'. I was excited, I wanted to see what else he could come up with.

It was this...

Which kind of blows mine out of the water. He's just been studying hard for SATs, but wants to design more based on these ideas.

I can't wait to see them!

small change BIG difference#3

Get students to write their own learning objective(s).

This makes a really good mid to end point review. It's not new. I found it works really well with the above success criteria as before, what I was getting tended to be more like a list of tasks. This was a pattern I had seen in some staff as well as students in the past.

So I recently used it with a class of Yr 9 students (13/14 yrs old), in an introduction to 2 point perspective, here are their learning objectives written during the end of lesson review.

'To work as a team to plan and produce a drawing in 2 point perspective to scale using 3d shapes'

'To use and observe a source, to construct our own versions to practice for our school design drawings'

'To use perspective to create a piece using teamwork and your own input, (through) observation of detail and characteristics

'To be able to draw buildings in different perspectives by using drawing techniques'


For me it was important that the students be able to verbalise completely the correlation between these new techniques and the outcomes they wanted to achieve. As with some new drawing techniques (and I'm sure this can happen in other subjects too), it can be difficult to persuade students to leave their comfort zone and try them-.as the first time they do, results may not reach the same standard as old ways of working that they developed during primary school and have practiced for years.

After this, students were very comfortable in arguing with me why these new methods were better, how each stage of working fed into the next and why they were now better, more skilled artists than before.

Small change BIG difference#2

Keywords in learning objectives, on the whole tend to relate to skills that need to be developed or acquired as a result of working towards a specific task.

Earlier on in the year I decided to look at keywords that related to personal qualities I wanted the students to consciously develop. Things that are discussed in staff meetings all the time, things that very much constitute good practice, things that we are asked to make explicit rather than implicit.

So I asked students to derive their own definition of the terms 'persistence' and 'resilience'. Job done. In an art lesson, dictionaries were used, students had to exert mastery over their use of language, little bit of group work, differentiated questioning used, literacy boxes were ticked etc

But what was so much better than that, was as the lesson progressed, one of the lads became frustrated as his work was turning out quite the way he wanted despite success the previous week on similar tasks. After turning to his talking buddy and asking him to brief his struggling partner, I stepped back and assured him that the results he saw previously would come through practice.

So I stepped back.

A few minutes later, an eruption. A pencil struck the floor.

'I can't do it!!!'

I am not normally a shouter, so I turned slowly around to apprise the situation. I looked over and there was my struggling student, frustrations having got the better of him, staring at his work. Dissatisfaction, anger written all over his face.

I walk over.

As I do this guy's talking buddy turns round. Lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Looks him in the eye and says

              'O****. You've got to be persistent. Use what you learned last week to be a resilient learner'

BEAT.

              'Yeah. OK then.'

Beautiful!

Small change BIG difference

At the start of the year, this year our Year 7's were each given a dictionary. Now a typical introduction for me is to assign groups a different keyword to look up- read out and listen to as a class. Then I ask 2-3 students to think about how to re-phrase the definition in their own words.

We discuss sentence order, clarity, quality of explanation, ease of understanding etc. When we're all happy the definitions are recorded in sketchbooks.

To quote the '5 minute lesson plan', this enhances the 'stickability' of keywords more than just defining them straight out on my Powerpoint.

As an example, this is what they came up with for 'cliffhanger'-

an ending that is sudden and unclear in a story or film. It is aggravating, intense and exciting because it is uncertain. It makes you want to find out about the next part of the story.  

Finished!!! Transition Newspaper available on TES resources from mrmacooley

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Pre-Transition-Project-KS2-to-3-6338924/ 

Available on TES resources is a very special edition of The Heron, Wanstead High School’s newsletter.
This issue has been brought to you by a group of 33 Year 6 students from Aldersbrook Primary School, Highlands Primary school and Wanstead Church of England Primary School and their dedicated teachers. These future Year 7 Wanstead High School students came to visit us, spending the day with interviewing staff and students to find out and share what really goes on here.

Our visiting Year 6 students were ably supported by a crack team of Year 8 and Year 12 Learning Ambassadors, who really went out of their way to ensure that our guests felt welcome and supported in their learning. Students were assigned to a group of three, with each team member being from a different school to ensure that lots of networking and relationships were developed before the big transition day.

These Year 6 reporters have done an amazing job feedingback on life what life is like at Wanstead High School. Copies of the newspaper have been printed and distributed to our four main primary schools and will be available on transition day so that all our new Year 7 students and their families can find out about us the excellent work that goes on here.

Year 6 got to interview a whole host of students and staff members, including our Head Teacher who was both surprised and pleased by the grilling he received during an interview at the hands of some very inquisitive, budding reporters. We would like to extend our thanks to all involved and to say that we are looking forward to meeting the rest of our new Year 7 very soon.

A BIG well done to all the students and staff involved, the day was a great success- read for yourself!