Category: 04. Learning-focused culture

Reflection on Connections AS

Next time, I will expand on discussion of themes of text taught in class by giving students a list of detailed themes that they can select from. I didn’t think that ‘student selection’ could mean from a list- I interpreted it as they had to come up with their own. This will give a lot more direction and help ensure their theme/connection has sufficient depth for a high grade.

Wordles for next year

Idea: Students reflect on lesson and sum up the lesson in one word. Wors are compiled into a wordle for the lesson, then total for the week, then for term, then for year. Could also look at frequency of words used, and analyse how they change over course of year or topic etc. Could be a fun, visual way to evaluate student’s engagement and feelings on lessons. Wordles worked well for last year’s inquiry with specific learners. Will make a wordle based on the Google form this years classes completed on the year- just waiting to get as many responses as possible.

Jeopardy!

Trying to make study more fun! Great all class game that they love! This one is on language features. I made another specifically for my Level One class that focussed on reviewing their film, novel and poetic techniques for exams. It was a success! After giving it a go, I highly recommend printing off a copy of the answers for yourself, I forgot some!

https://www.playfactile.com/languagefeatures2019

Inquiry for this year- the long game.

My inquiry for this year has been an ongoing focus of my practice- “How can I build an intrinsic desire for learning rather than one that is based on results?”.

In our credit counting NCEA system, this can be tricky. Students are picking and choosing what they want to learn based on the credits they need. However, I have noticed student engagement in lessons even when I know those students aren’t intending on doing the assessment attached to that learning. Frankenstein has been a good example of this.

My L3ENIN has really struggled with reading the text on their own. However, in this late stage of the year they are much more comfortable with the content and messages of the text. Even though many of them haven’t read the book, and a good chunk have told me they don’t even intend on doing the exam, they are still engaged in lessons on the text. They are interested in the bigger ideas the text represents in terms of progress, science and ‘playing God’. They have enjoyed the history of the text and how the time influenced (s) the content as well as how it is still so relevant today with the creation of AI and medical marvels as well as the darker side of science.

So, these students who struggled to read a classic text, and have out rightly said they won’t be doing the assessment, are still learning in the actual lessons. Isn’t that what we really want? These students (in my opinion) simply aren’t ready to read a complex text like this on their own. But I believe they are likely to come back to it as adults, or even try other texts they might not normally approach. Although I can’t quantify this result now, if I have sparked a passion in them that will grow over time, I feel I have met my goal of encouraging an intrinsic desire to learn. It’s just that it’s a long game that I might never see!

Positive progress

I was so happy today to see two repeaters in my L1ENG class, who are usually reluctant to participate, work really well in groups. One took on the leadership role, making and sharing a document. The other, who is usually petulant and resistant, joined another group on her own and participated in the discussion. She worked well with students she didn’t know and put herself out of her comfort zone. Excellent progress this lesson for both these students, quite the turnaround. 😁

Interview skills

Inpreparation for interviews next week we practised meeting the interviewer, shaking hands, good manners-pushing your chair in when you leave etc. We also did role play and looked at a worse case scenario of what might go wrong in an interview and how to fix it. HILARIOUS, loud, very active lesson but the class was happy and hopefully they took away some essential skills to help them for their first interview.

On reflection I’m really surprised that many did not know the essential skills of meeting somebody, shaking their hand , greeting them correctly and knowing how to leave- standup, shaking their hand etc. This was a really worthwhile exercise if just to know those all important first- impression skills.

Matrix

Students are working on Chinese Cinderella Matrix today. It is the last lesson for them to finish it up as it’s due tomorrow. They’re all working really, really well, collaborating on various tasks. Good to see lots of different apps being used. Students are working outside nicely, great teamwork. Very pleased with how they’re working and they seem to be genuinely enjoying it!