Final COPS reflection

-


WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY?

At the end of this inquiry I have been reflecting on the change in my students. There has been a huge change in the mindset and vocabulary used in the classroom around what and why we are learning. The children have a clear understanding now of why we learn certain things and can usually articulate this without prompting. As a teacher I initially did lots of the talking about why we learn certain things however I can now step back and the children have more voice in the classroom. I struggled to think of different ways to introduce this goal and discuss it with my students. In the end I found the most effective way to do this was to hold a class discussion or think-pair-share at the beginning of a new learning experience.
As a teacher this goal caused me to think deeply into the learning activities I created for the class to ensure they were the most effective and authentic way I could teach a certain topic. This meant the 'why' was really obvious to them. Through this I have developed a stronger ability to think about more authentic ways to teach different things. Likewise, it has helped me to relax the timetable and 'rules' slightly to allow for more integration and real-life learning which has increased the 'why' in what the children are doing.
For the children I have seen higher engagement, particularly in writing and maths, as they now see the relevance of what they are learning. This process has been really powerful as a class to see the links across different learning areas as well as different skills. In writing we have moved away from discussing surface features to really thinking about why we are writing a particular text. This has helped the children then see the importance of surface and language features which was always a battle before.

WHAT IS NOT HAPPENING AND WHY?

Something I would like to promote now is higher order thinking around why we learn certain things. The children are now very good at coming up with reasons why we might be doing something however they don't very often question and debate why.

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO TO INFLUENCE WHAT IS NOT HAPPENING AND WHY?

I will model debating and critically thinking about why we are learning various things. I could ask questions like
why are we learning this?
who says it's important?
why do you think we need to do this at school?
I hope this will make the children think deeper about the things they are learning and start to develop some critical thinking and analysing skills. This will build more as they get older and hopefully give them the skills not to take everything at face value just because an adult said you need to do something.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Visibly Random Groupings

-
Image
Last year I started investigating the power of visibly random groupings in the classroom. I was introduced to an article by Peter Liljedahl (http://www.peterliljedahl.com/wp-content/uploads/Visibly-Random-Groups.pdf) looking at visibly random groupings in maths. I began using these groups in maths with mixed success. This year I have decided to use visibly random groupings with a pastoral care focus. Initially I started this as a way for the new girls to get to know the exisiting girls in the class however it worked so well it has continued all year! Each Monday all of the names get put into a 'magic bag' and randomly drawn out in partners. The girls then use these partners all week for any think-pair-share, news sharing or collaborative activities. Reflection What is happening and why? The girls have been very open-minded about learning buddies and very rarely make negative noises about the buddy chosen for them. I think as they can see it is completely random and dr...
Read more

Writing Asttle Data

-
Image
This example shows evidence of  a next step in practice in order to achieve improved student outcomes. This example clearly shows   achievement through standardised testing data. From the 'Where to next' data I can see that I need to focus more on spelling as this was the lowest score across the whole class. I will do this by including a word study/phonics based spelling programme into our timetable for terms 2 and 3. 
Read more

Four minute walk through

-
Walking through the middle and senior classes today we saw a variety of literacy programmes, most classes were doing writing (between 10.20-10.40) with one doing reading. We have been struggling with teaching writing in our collaborative team as I am concerned that teaching in a big group when modelling means some children's needs aren't being met. We have also found it hard to balance the planning and teaching as a team. When walking through other classes we saw lots of whole class teaching and modelling with one class working in groups. Writing groups is something I have tried before and haven't made work for me but I really enjoyed watching the teacher with her small group. This group were listening to each others' writing and then discussing improvements that could be made. I would like to introduce this to my writing programme as I feel this is a very authentic way for children to get feedback from their peers. I have used written 2 stars and a wish feedback with...
Read more