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.