Skip to main content

Posts

Agency and Engagement in Writing

What led to this learning? During writing, I noticed my target learners and ELL were struggling with formation of ideas, had a very slow pace of writing and needed lots of teacher support during writing time. I gathered student voice and this led me to understand that my target group do not like planning and do not see the purpose in it. They also were concerned that they didn't write enough; that their spelling wasn't good enough and that they didn't enjoy spelling. A third noticing was that my students preferred writing about personal experiences rather that something unknown. My aim was to improve writing fluency, create more agentic learners and create a passion and love for writing. Summary of learning design: My learning design was focused around an ESOL teaching strategy - quick writing. I planned to have a set time of 10mins at the beginning of each writing session designated to Quick Writes as a writing warm up. Each day of the week I used the same structure e.g. M
Recent posts

Junior Agency Self Perception Tool (JAT)

The tool measures the level of agency learners have to take ownership of their learning and make informed decision with the tools and strategies they use.  The survey will provide us with detail so we can evaluate the progress over time and the shifts we need to make. It will provide us with information to make adjustments to our learning design and deliberate acts of teaching.  We have standardised tests to access reading, writing and maths. We have designed a survey to provide us with more standardised and comparative data the focuses on the soft skills for example growing collaboration.  The soft skills that are measured are Reliance/determination Self Aware Take Action Using Tools and Strategies Collaboration' Assessment Capable The 6 Agency capabilities are representative of across school CoL goals and come out of our Stonefields School signature practices.... These comprise of the  'big 3'  Learning Pit, Learning Process and

Fire and the Flood - Developing a New Community

What led to this learning? This learning came out of observations from Term 1, where we saw limited acts of deliberate collaboration within our learners. When they did choose to collaborate, it was within their close peer friendship groupings and was more of a working alongside each other, rather than collaborating based on differentiated strengths to meet a shared goal. We wanted a learning experience where learners would be forced to rely on each other in order to succeed and give a shared emphasis on each learner playing their own unique part to realise communal success (or survival in this case.) Summary of learning design: This was the initial learning design where we brainstormed what kinds of facilities we might need in a new settlement. This was the prerequisite to the physical construction and town layout design. I have also included my amended Google draw reflection which was part of the later planning refining process. Reflection on Learning Design As this was given to learn

Grow my voice - Sharing stories

What led to this learning? When using the reading strategies I posted in a previous comment I noticed that learners did not have an authentic place to record their reading strategies. Summary of learning design: So I created a blog where the learners could record and share their reflections of stories. They record their story then write a blog post including the following elements - reading strategies, levels and genres. So the learners are developing their assessment capability as well as learning from other learners and their reflections. Reflection on Learning Design Learners have grown in their vocabulary and this is mainly due to seeing the reflections of other learners and how they are phrasing their blog posts as well as using the reading strategies to extend their writing. Curriculum Links Literacy, Digital Curriculum Agentic Capabilities Take Action, Assessment Capable, Using Tools and Strategies Link to Evidence

Reading Strategies - Growing Vocabulary

What led to this learning? I noticed learners did not have resources to drive their own learning when developing an understanding of their reading strategies. Summary of learning design: I designed these cards to empower learners to grow their own vocabulary while practising their reading strategies. These can be used for learners to ask each other questions or during intentional workshops with the teacher. Reflection on Learning Design This has grown Literacy language with the learners. I realised that I can not do all the strategies at once. During workshops with a teacher I have been focusing on using one reading strategy with the whole group. Eventually or with learners who already know some of the strategies, you could use more than one strategy card. Curriculum Links Literacy Agentic Capabilities Take Action, Assessment Capable Link to Evidence

Stop, Collaborate and Listen

What led to this learning? Year 7/8 Learners were reluctant to collaborate with learners outside of their immediate friend group. We wanted to build into their learning the concept of diverse perspectives. Summary of learning design: Learners were told that the world was about to be hit by an asteroid and they had to design a future colony on Mars! Learners were assigned a group and had to research and pitch an idea for how they believed the colony should work Reflection on Learning Design This went really well for some, but not equally well for everyone! 'Below' and 'At' literacy learners demonstrated a significant shift (up to 16%) in their self perception of collaboration whereas Above and Well Above learners didn't respond as well. Boys also shifted way more positively than girls, despite girls having a higher self perception to start with. Curriculum Links Literacy, Science, Digital Curriculum, Social Sciences Agentic Capabilities Collaboration Link to Evi

Using the Agency Survey to Track Shift

What led to this learning? My Numeracy group took the Agency Survey at the beginning of the year. When I reviewed the results I noticed the group was lowest in the area of assessment capability. Summary of learning design: I decided to focus on using the Learning Process to build my learners' ability to use feed back and take action. Some ways of implementation were as follows: ~ SchoolTalk Checkout before leaving workshops or Numeracy for the day. ~ Using teacher created and learner created Success Criteria ~ Shoulder tap and choice workshops through whole hub Numeracy ~ Choice grouping when working on independent learning tasks ~ SchoolTalk Thursdays ~ Students paired up by teachers to receive feedback on what they are uploading onto SchoolTalk Reflection on Learning Design My initial assumptions were inaccurate and somewhat incomplete. I should have looked deeper in to the survey, as well as at more students, possibly even waited a bit longer to get to know my st