Clarity in the classroom - chapter one

Through reading the first chapter of Clarity in the Classroom (Michael Absolum) several things have been confirmed for me. First is the absolute importance of relationships within the classroom. I knew that relationships were important to make students feel comfortable and successful but I also now realise that in order for students to gain real ownership of their learning they need to feel safe enough to take risks. Something I have noticed with my current class is their desire to please and be told how to please. I hope through continuing to build relationships and scaffold ways to take risks the class will feel confident directing their own learning rather than relying on me to lead the learning. Absolum talks about how children and teachers need to develop six key capabilities to become effective learners. I am going to reflect on these six capabilities and brainstorm ways I can begin to build them in the children. I also want to do the ‘try this’ activity and create a class brainstorm about what the children think learning is. I did a similar thing in maths this week where I asked the children what they need to do or have to be successful mathematicians. The results were really interesting with many children coming up with concrete needs such as knowing times tables while other more abstract thinkers added things like ‘try hard’ and ‘don’t give up’. I am interested to see how the children currently view learning and how this may change over the year.