New Academic Year, New Students, New Challenges!

First, a quick relection on last year. My three main areas of development last year were:
●Assessment for Learning
● Planning
● Differentiaton

AFL

My main aim was to ensure that throughout each lesson I was continually formatively assessing the students understanding. I began with 'beefing' up the initial recap from previous lesson. The importance soon became apparent of linking one session to another, in ways other than the un-stimulating questions such as "So, what did we do last session?!" Then simply waiting for blank looks and awkward silences.

No! These new ideas were based around engaging, paced activites which required the students to actively use the knowledge and skills developed in the previous session. Examples of these activites include:Purpose Games, Articulate & Snowball.

Many of the above mentioned activites were used throughout sessions, to reinforce understanding or as a recap activity to check knowledge. I began creating a tool kit for engaging activities, which range from activites requiring interactive boards, smart phones etc to those that simply require a piece of scrap paper.

Planning

I developed my use of lesson plans, from something which briefly outlined a session, to a document that clearly highlighted the session aims, key information about the group of learners, learning strategies, LSA roles within sessions, formative & summative assessment methods and detailed timings.

The key things I discovered were:

● Learners can often discover or reach conclusions independantly, for instance, I previously planned sessions in the format of; Intro, Explanation of ideas/concepts, activity to reinforce ideas, method of assessment to check understanding and end with a recap. However, with the help of my mentor,  I changed my plans to make the sessions more learner-led. So the new format would be; Intro, activity to discover concepts/form an idea of key concepts, explanation/reinforcement of students idea with facts/concept, assessment and students complete recap.

● We are constantly assessing students throughout sessions in some format, be it direct questioning,  observing group tasks, learning games and actual assessments. I planned for these throughout my sessions.

Differentiation

I previously felt differentiation was a tricky subject and would always rely on "high and low order questioning". I soon found that differentiation was much more and many ways to achieve it.

One of my most used techniques are the traffic light cards, to check for understanding and then using this to stretch the H.O learners ('green cards) by getting them to peer teach the L.O learners ('red cards')

Alongside this I use the 'show me boards' to get a clear idea of learners progress through ranging questions, for example, L.O - Give me 3 parts of a typical plant and H.O Give me 3 parts of a typical, explain their function and their role within photosynthesis.

Looking Ahead

My goals this academic year are to:

● Develop further my use of engaging activities, including at the start endof lessons
● Improve the use of technology within the classroom including the use of Ipads,  Digital Visualiser and BYOD.
● Develop learning outside the classroom using the VLE as an interactive learning resource, linked with social media.

Overall Aim, to develop the tool kit and confidence to deliver Grade 1 Outstanding Lessons.

3...2....1...GO!