Clarity in the Classroom - Chapter 4

This chapter discusses the importance of using and sharing learning intentions with students. This was the same message I heard over and over again and university and something I have been reflecting on now that I have been teaching in the real world. I was (and still am) of the opinion that children writing WALTs in books is a waste of time, particularly at the middle school level where this is a very time consuming process! However I do see the value of sharing WALTs or LIs in the classroom and have a permanent area of my whiteboard that displays our current LIs across the core curriculum areas. I try and refer to these often in my teaching and the children look at them when prompted, however I feel I could probably make this interaction more explicit to the children. Absolum highlights the need for teachers to make learning clear for students to help them succeed. I think I often verbalise the LI and ask the children ‘What does this look like? (i.e SC) however on reflection I feel the success criteria should be just as visible as the LI as this is the how of the learning process. Absolum really clarified for me the importance and relevance of LIs and SC. What is the point of having WALTs displayed if the children can’t remember or don’t know how they are supposed to achieve the intended learning. I am going to tweak my display to include a success criteria under each WALT as a reminder of how we will reach the intention. I am hoping this will also feed into my goal of giving specific feedback as the SC will serve as a visible reminder of what we are trying to achieve in our learning. One challenge of this will be to define which particular skills should be on the success criteria. In some areas (e.g. maths) it will be clear cut and easy however as Absolum discusses other areas are not so clear. One area that I find hard to assess and set clear intentions for is inquiry due to the changing nature of the learning. One potential way around this is to focus on the process of inquiry rather than the outcome, I will have to do more thinking around how to make this clear in child speak! I would like to engage the children more in co-constructing the SC, the best way to put things in child speak is to ask the children themselves. I will make tis a goal when starting new strategies or units to take time to discuss this aspect of learning and succeeding.

The power of ‘How’

Another interesting comment by Absolum was the way in which we write learning intentions. He discusses the semantics of different learning intentions which led me to question the WALT framework we use so often. Using the WALT lead in we write intentions such as We Are Learning To write an informal letter. However Absolum talks about the power of how. This struck a chord with me particularly after reading the example of a principal. I vividly remember being taught how to locate key words in an exam question that would enable me to answer it correctly. This study skill has helped me hugely through all of my learning. This made me question wether we need to revise WALT to include a how. Showing children that they are learning how to do something implies that it will be skill to use again in the future not just a piece of knowledge they are learning. I believe that at a primary level we are very much equipping students with the skills and process to complete tasks rather than knowledge about certain subject areas. Therefore our learning intentions should reflect this. I think I might get rid of WALT and display learning intentions in a slightly different way!