Collaborative learning roles
As on this article by the Primary Professional Development Service, we have introduced roles into all of our group tasks.
There are a few things which have shifted in our classroom. The first has been a need for students to slow down and go deeper in their discussions, allowing them more time to react, respond and further question what they are studying at the time. Initially getting the students to offer their thoughts or explain their thinking involved far too much teacher input/questioning. Giving the other groups more wait time and guiding only when needed has paid off with all students happier to discuss and pull apart the texts.
The second development has been a slow, but steady shift in collaboration between students. Guided Reading is now treated as group discussion and conferencing together to unpack the questions, text and tasks together. By sharing more of the decision making over how to "Create-Share" their work engagement has improved across the class. Attitudes towards sharing ideas, collaborating to meet the needs of the assessment task and presentation of evidence of learning have also made a strong improvement as student focus moves from learning basic digital skills towards exploring an increasing range of media to assist their own work and presentation.
This is more apparent following on from the trial of "Drama In Schools" facilitated by ATHCO - Students are willing to share ideas and seek critical feedback/forward as they now view it as non-threatening and important in helping them with their own questioning skills. On a whole, the class have shifted their notions of how learning should occur since being exposed and exploring the performing arts as a way of getting inside the issues and feelings.
In a smaller, but still significant development, the Design For Change model of Inquiry based learning has helped these learners learn collaborative skills while encouraging them to use critical thinking strategies to get deeper into an issue.
I have discussed my thoughts around basic facts drills and keeping their new skills practiced with a few colleagues, but (at least this term) there hasn't been much progress above what was already happening.
There are a few things which have shifted in our classroom. The first has been a need for students to slow down and go deeper in their discussions, allowing them more time to react, respond and further question what they are studying at the time. Initially getting the students to offer their thoughts or explain their thinking involved far too much teacher input/questioning. Giving the other groups more wait time and guiding only when needed has paid off with all students happier to discuss and pull apart the texts.
The second development has been a slow, but steady shift in collaboration between students. Guided Reading is now treated as group discussion and conferencing together to unpack the questions, text and tasks together. By sharing more of the decision making over how to "Create-Share" their work engagement has improved across the class. Attitudes towards sharing ideas, collaborating to meet the needs of the assessment task and presentation of evidence of learning have also made a strong improvement as student focus moves from learning basic digital skills towards exploring an increasing range of media to assist their own work and presentation.
This is more apparent following on from the trial of "Drama In Schools" facilitated by ATHCO - Students are willing to share ideas and seek critical feedback/forward as they now view it as non-threatening and important in helping them with their own questioning skills. On a whole, the class have shifted their notions of how learning should occur since being exposed and exploring the performing arts as a way of getting inside the issues and feelings.
In a smaller, but still significant development, the Design For Change model of Inquiry based learning has helped these learners learn collaborative skills while encouraging them to use critical thinking strategies to get deeper into an issue.
I have discussed my thoughts around basic facts drills and keeping their new skills practiced with a few colleagues, but (at least this term) there hasn't been much progress above what was already happening.
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