I have visited a range of classes which at first was challenge-card based. Then I decided to start visiting my homegroup who are 'throwing up' quite a few challenges and encoproate this with the challenge.
Anyone who teaches my home-group, knows just how hard it is to get them quiet. I noticed in Hums they were quiet for videos and visual tools like Power-points. I introduced short videos as hooks into Pastoral and that has helped. I also found that the vast majority did a great job on their music projects which we used an ICT focus to complete.
I saw them breifly in Maths and English and went to science and observed some students during a test. I was shocked at the lack of confidence in the class. They had told themselves they would not be able to do the test and it was a real struggle. Some of the girls who I thought would have been confident, said things like "I don't know this", "I'm not able to answer this". Certain students also became disruptive which is a trend in many classes.
Ryan and I discussed questions with individual students and this started to show they knew some information but lacked the confidence to write down the answers. I tried to get them to visualise what they needed to discuss. Asking questions started a thought process and students started to realise they did know.
A couple of days later, Ryan told me he allowed the class to re-sit the test. Everyone in the class improved greatly. We discussed how on the first attempt they lacked confidence and told themselves they couldn't, and of course the answers also couldn't be found. As the students started to realise they could, the answers started to come.
I have seen and heard of many incidents of my home-group struggling in most areas of the curriculum. I have begun to understand by watching them in other areas that visual aids and "hands on" activities help them learn. Hopefully this will lead to a boost in confidence and less disruptive class
Anyone who teaches my home-group, knows just how hard it is to get them quiet. I noticed in Hums they were quiet for videos and visual tools like Power-points. I introduced short videos as hooks into Pastoral and that has helped. I also found that the vast majority did a great job on their music projects which we used an ICT focus to complete.
I saw them breifly in Maths and English and went to science and observed some students during a test. I was shocked at the lack of confidence in the class. They had told themselves they would not be able to do the test and it was a real struggle. Some of the girls who I thought would have been confident, said things like "I don't know this", "I'm not able to answer this". Certain students also became disruptive which is a trend in many classes.
Ryan and I discussed questions with individual students and this started to show they knew some information but lacked the confidence to write down the answers. I tried to get them to visualise what they needed to discuss. Asking questions started a thought process and students started to realise they did know.
A couple of days later, Ryan told me he allowed the class to re-sit the test. Everyone in the class improved greatly. We discussed how on the first attempt they lacked confidence and told themselves they couldn't, and of course the answers also couldn't be found. As the students started to realise they could, the answers started to come.
I have seen and heard of many incidents of my home-group struggling in most areas of the curriculum. I have begun to understand by watching them in other areas that visual aids and "hands on" activities help them learn. Hopefully this will lead to a boost in confidence and less disruptive class