perthacademy

We spent a lot of time on Friday working on how to improve a simple piece of work…. and to keep on improving it.

Each S2 pupil took an A4 sheet and at the bottom wrote either

J’ai un chat or J’ai un chien before handing it on to another pupil who added JUST ONE THING before passing it on to a third person and so on.

eg J’ai un grand chien  J’ai un grand chien noir   J’ai un tres grand chien noir

J’ai un tres grand chien noir et blanc.

Here are some of the finished results. I was well impressed!

J’ai un tres grand chien noir qui s’appelle Tortoise qui est assez actif mais tres bruyant.

J’ai un petit chat rose et vert qui s’appelle Bob qui est asses actif et tres marrant.

J’ai un assez petit chien marron qui s’appelle Bow Wow qui est tres joueur mais assez stupide.

 And all that just from J’ai un chien! Well done! 

 S4 had been preparing a folio piece on pocket money and part time jobs.

They were asked to fold over a very large margin of their A4 page and to write on every second line of the rest of the paper. Each had 2 coloured pencils and they were to highlight whatever was more than the basics in one colour and really good bits in another. They were to put a mark of the relevant colour in the margin. Once they were finished they were asked to swap with someone. With the list from their blog   [Read more →]

I’m sure we’d all love to have the “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” gear which allows instant feedback but then again it only allows the answers A,B, C or D. This low tech version is MUCH more versatile.

You need:

A class set of wipeable white boards (laminated white card would do to start off with)

A recycled plastic tub with lid to put cut-up squares of fleece in (as cleaners)

A recycled tub with thick washable felt pens

What you do:

Ask a question and the pupils write their answer on the board, hiding what they are writing. Once they have ALL written something..

Count 3 2 1

and the pupils hold up their answers.

You can see who gets it right or whether a lot of them have the same but wrong answer and explain accordingly.

Who is it ideal with?

Lower ability – they love it! – see it as a game

Advantages

It’s fun – They are ALL working – you get faster feedback than marking a pile of jotters 

I’ve been asked to establish a notice-board in the staffroom and to maintain it. AifL will have to appear somewhere but the idea is that the information is short, colourful, MEANINGFUL!! LOL and can be consumed  whilst passing with your coffee cup.

The aim is to have “The idea of the week” with a star rating as to a) how easy it is to set up b) to use and c) the benefit reaped from those efforts. I aim to put up photos of the idea being used, the materials and the names of colleagues who’ve had a go and are willing to pass on their experience. (Emphasis on experience not expertise!)

I think that seeing concrete examples and names of people they know, more people will want to have a go than when they read a 20 A4 sheet document.

My next post will be about something I saw today which I liked very much and was about instant feedback – not high tech as in “Who wants to be a millionaire?” but extremely low tech!

I’ve done a fair bit of this at different levels and have found the response very interesting. Here are some comments written by S1 pupils when they marked each other’s work. I must admit I was quite impressed!

What do you think?                    And here are a couple more

I’ve uploaded some speaking activities my 4th year did and some other pupils have commented on the work

Showing how an S1 class can do better when writing about their freetime We can read as many documents and reports as we like. I don’t know about you but I have always felt happiest when I have an example to look at. I’m quite proud to say that this example which I have often used with classes is at LEAST five years old. My point is that not all ideas are new ones! It’s all too easy to be put off by jargon and not take the time to demystify something and expose it for what it is – something you have actually been doing for years.

A pretty picture to start me off!

Anybode else fed up with the A words? Come on, you KNOW the ones I mean. You won’t find them here, just my musings about how I can teach better and the kids learn better.

The average age of teachers in our area is over 50 so I guess I’m in good company. Like many of you I’m allergic to jargon and endless DMs. That doesn’t mean I’m not open to new ideas, but some I find a wee bit daunting. Thinking about applying certain of them makes me feel at best a bit silly and at worst a bit fearful. I’m hoping to find like-minded people I can share ideas, experiences with.

Take this traffic light thingy! THEY tell us green means – I’ve understood this and feel quite happy, amber means – I think I’ve got this but I’m not too sure and red means – I haven’t got a scoobie. Do THEY think we oldies but goldies are STUPID! We know perfectly well that the little darlings aren’t telling us about their understanding! They’re revelling in the chance to give us our long overdue nul points!! Green means you’re not bad, amber means they’ve seen better and red – well – red means you’ve got the famous nul points and the darlings are delighted to have the chance to tell you their opinion at last.

Now, I’m game to give it a whirl but I’d feel happier under the following circumstances:

a) I wasn’t personally issuing them all with the dreaded red cards they are going to damn me with. Maybe the coloured cards could be incorporated as pages in the planners they all get nowadays. In theory that should mean that they always have them on them.

b) I had an idea of how many other staff were doing this.

 c) I knew a colleague was doing the same with a class we share and we could share notes and strategies. Better if we are reading from the same hymn sheet, I reckon!

So to that end I’m going to see mangement about the planner idea and put up a notice in the staffroom with a copy of this post asking for colleagues to let us know whether they have had/are having a go with this and if so with what class(es).

We’ve read the theory, we’ve attended the CPD. I think we now need to know what is going on on our doorstep and who is out there having the same thoughts and ideas as ourselves, who has something they might be willing to share with us.

Anybody can add their comments here, write on the sheet in the staffroom or just talk.

I’m away to cut up lots of paper! Now where is that darned red card?

EF