Eight Ideas from Eight Teachers Vol #1 | WAGOLL Teaching Ideas by WAGOLL Teaching

Vol. 1 | March 2019

Ideas 8 8 Sharing great teaching ideas with the world of education.

from

Teachers Amazingteachingideas sharedbyteachers, forteachers!

Contents Promoting Reasoning Skills 5 Simple activites to get your little ones thinking and explaining!

A Recipe for Reading A guide to planning whole class reading lessons.

No Strings Attached introducing puppets into your classroom.

Bring Culture to the Classroom Brining Brazilin Culture into the Early Years classroom!

Turn Awkward Parent Meets Into a Micdrop How to have those difficult parent meetings and feel like a

Lose the Loose Time High-impact, low-effort strategies to really up the ante in

rock star!

your class.

STEM in the EYFS Classroom Making the most of construction, science and engineering

Putting Sweat on the Right Backs Rethinking who we are as classroom educators.

opportunities.

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Featured Writers

@theactiveclass

Frank van den Ende (1985) is an educational designer, teacher and researcher working at Summa College in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Currently Frank is doing research on the effects of active learning on students and teachers. Frank shares hands-on tips and active teaching methods that can directly be integrated in any classroom.

by @WAGOLLTeaching

by @forestschoolandbeyond

I am a part time teacher in a school-based Nursery class in the UK. I have 15+ years teaching experience in both KS1&2 but recently made the jump into Early Years which I feel has been the best move ever, due to working with a fabulous team! I am currently completing my Forest School Leader training and enjoy spending time in the woods as part of my school day. I love spending time with family, walking my Choccy Labrador, Buddy, and being inspired by the endless talent on Instagram!

I'm Ben from WAGOLL Teaching. We create and share free professional development videos focused on great teaching ideas! Our aim is to build a community of teachers from across the world who wish to develop and improve their teaching by sharing great ideas.

by by

@hellosimpleenglish

@goodmorningmsfoster

I am just about to start my seventh year of teaching and it may be shocking to hear that I am not dreading it. I know! Word to the wise, inner London children do in fact smell fear. I then decided to work in a school that was failing in Hackney. Long story short, I became Whole School Behaviour Lead. I implemented the first nurture provision in my school for children at risk of exclusion. I am now in my second year of international teaching in Malaysia and loving it!

@twoteachasia

OH, HEY! I’m Bia and I’ve always been passionate about traditions, especially genuine Brazilian traditions! Since I started teaching 8 years ago, I’ve been on a mission to bring values such as respect, responsibility, and cultural awareness & appreciation to the Young Learner Language Classroom. I’ve created a whole class rewards systems as I felt the urge for a positive and authentic transformation of my daily teaching practice.

by @mrsb_teaching

Hello! I’m Mrs B and I blooming love BOOKS…and reading, trips to Waterstones and charity shop book raids! I am almost in my 5th year of Primary Teaching after completing a three year BA (hons), I feel like I’ve been teaching forever! I’m lucky to have worked in both key stages and I’m currently delving into the world of continuous provision. I’m a busy bee!

We are two UK Primary teachers and English leads who decided to go further afield and experience a sunnier climate! Now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we work in a large International School and get to share our joint passion for English whilst traveling the world, so lucky! As self confessed grammar geeks and always looking for the next idea, we love talking all things English and seeing the impact it has on our students (and colleagues!).

by @thomasblakemore

I teach, travel and sometimes triumph. I am a huge advocate for making life easier for teachers, children and parents to try and enable a better education system;I try to make a small splash in a big pond. I’ve taught from year 6 to year 2 and now work in Dubai. Check out my YouTube for a range of teacher travel and tips video linked.

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Editor's Letter Dear Reader,

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Promoting

Reasoning Skill

Learning to think critically and reason may be one of the most important skills that today's children will need for the future. Ellen Galinsky, author of Mind in the Making, includes critical thinking on her list of theÂ seven essential life skills needed by every child. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global and rapidly changing world, children need to be able to do much more than repeat a list of facts; they need to be critical thinkers who can make sense of information, analyse, compare, contrast, make inferences, and generate higher order thinking skills. To get you started, here are five simple ways to get your children reasoning!

Prove It

A statement is given with the correct/incorrect answer. Children have to prove the answer is either incorrect or correct by gathering evidence from their learning to support their argument. This is all about explaining and justifying. e.g. Prove that a flying fish is not a bird.

@WAGOLLTeaching

What if...?

'What If' questions are open ended ideas that require children to use their learning to predict an outcome based upon evidence. This develops creativity and ensures they apply their learning. e.g. What would happen if commas were banned from writing?

Odd One Out

'Odd One Out' identifies a number of items or objects and asks the children to use their knowledge to decide which is the odd one out. Again there may be more than one answer.

Convince Me

Similar to Prove It, Convince Me asks children to use their learning to explain and evidence why something is true or false. The twist to this, is there may not be a correct answer. Children usually justify their viewpoint instead of facts. e.g. Convince me that superman is a hero not a villain.

e.g. Brazil / Argentina / Mexico Which is the odd one out?

Always, Sometimes or Never This tasks is similar to Convince Me but is more open ended. The children have to gather evidence based on their learning in order to draw a conclusions whether a statement is always, sometimes or never is true. e.g. All Nouns start with a capital letter.

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Recipe

by @mrsb_teaching

Hello! I’m Mrs B and I blooming love BOOKS…and reading, trips to Waterstones and charity shop book raids! I am almost in my 5th year of Primary Teaching after completing a three year BA (hons), I feel like I’ve been teaching forever! I’m lucky to have worked in both Key Stages and I’m currently delving into the world of continuous provision. I’m a busy bee!

Ingredients

· Enthusiasm (and lots of it!) – It might be tough at first, teaching in this new way, but persevere because you WILL get there. Your Key Stage Objectives – These are the areas that your children will need to cover. Think about what your children need to achieve in reading.

KS1 Clarify

Infer

Do you like Marmite? You either grinned and licked your lips or you grimaced and shuddered, “NO!”, thinking of that brown sticky goo that belongs in the depths of the bin. I’d expect similar reactions if I asked you, “Do you like teaching Guided Reading through a carousel?” When I hear the word ‘carousel’ used in the same sentence as reading, the hairs on my neck stand on end! Okay, that was a tad dramatic but reading is such an incredible and life-changing skill, so why are we stuck teaching it in a mundane way? I think the era of carousel activities is coming to an end, just like the 90s did. We may miss it but it might just be time to move on (S Club 7 you are still my fav!). I want to share with you a style of teaching reading that transformed my practice in the most wonderful way: WHOLE CLASS GUIDED READING. Let’s get to it; here’s my Recipe for Whole Class Reading.

Retrieve

Sequence

Predict

KS2 Clarify

Retrieve

Sequence

Relate

Infer

Predict

Meaning

Compare

Map Out Your Planning – Plan Reading just as you would Maths and Writing. Consider what objectives you plan to cover each week over the course of the half term. Aim for around 1 ½ - 2 hours a week (if it helps I teach 3 writing and 2 reading sessions) A Quality Text – Your possibilities are endless! You could choose an excerpt, a picture book, a front cover, a blurb, a web article, a leaflet or a poem!

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for

Reading 3. What’s the activity? Rather than just give out a set of comprehension questions, create a quiz show where the children work in pairs or small groups to test each other's retrieval skills. To develop this further, the children could create their own questions in response to reading or how about sequencing a story through a comic strip? Be creative! 4. How can you differentiate? Differentiate by outcome, by the style of questions given. In previous teaching years I used a ‘Chilli Challenge’ differentiation approach across most subjects. The children had a choice of mild, spicy and hot activities depending on where they thought their level of understanding lay. Work mixed ability, work in ability, differentiate by the text type given or by the quantity of texts given depending on the needs of your learners.

I rave about teaching this way! Like so many things in teaching, this is not something that will suddenly just work overnight (if it does, let me know your secret!). I invested time in delivering Reading to a whole class. I can still remember the first session I delivered; it was a bit of a shambles! But I am so glad I stuck with it because it got better and better. Break down your lesson just as you would any other.

Instead of stopping for 30 minutes a day, extend your Maths or Writing session, and use the saved time for 2 hours of quality Reading teaching a week. Instead of gathering your 7 children together and trying to remember where you read up to last week, introduce a new book or text every session! Do the children all need a copy? NO! Have the text on the visualizer, photocopy the page from the book or get the eBook on the iPads! We should instil excitement and enthusiasm in our young readers!

1. What’s the objective? What do you want the children to achieve? Remember, keep it manageable and keep it specific so that YOU know what you want the children to learn. Rather than ‘to improve comprehension’ try ‘to develop prediction skills.' 2. How are you going to hook them in? Is there a video that links to your chosen text or could you role play as a character that needs help with inference/retrieval? Can the children become reading detectives?

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No Strings

Attached! Story Telling

I’m a huge advocate of technology; however, it would be mad to forget the one thing -well two actuallythat consistently engages my pupils every day.... puppets! I’ve recently moved from a Year 6 class to Year 2. This initially daunting move was made slightly easier by the realisation that KS1 would likely fall for the magic that the puppets were alive… I was wrong! I decided to introduce the puppet to them by retelling the story about how we met. However, as I finished the story, one of my boys quite rightly pointed out that the ‘teddy’ on my lap had a hole in the back of its head where I controlled it with my hand.' Caught out by a 6 year old! What next...? For children to respect the puppets it is important for them to develop a trust. As I came back from lunch, the children were just packing away some bits in the classroom due to it being too hot outside - Dubai school problems! That’s when I noticed it. The same child who previously caught me out, now retelling a story of how he knew the puppet and what their relationship was - got ‘em!

First, understand the puppet: what it can and can’t do. Can the mouth open? Can the limbs move or is it simply a teddy? In any case, use it to develop your oral storytelling. Whilst you can use silly voices, I often find getting the puppet to ‘whisper’ parts of the story to me and relay information back to the class has children more gripped, making them want to hear more. In my International School, there is a high percentage of children with English as an additional language (EAL). In this case, I use puppets to demonstrate correct pronunciation of words as my accent sometimes gets in the way. Children now find it a privilege to read to the class puppet during quiet reading times. I must point out that my year 6 class last year did often enjoy me retelling stories from the puppets too!

Class Buddy/ Mascot

As my children build a rapport with the puppet, they now find it greatly satisfying to recap prior learning and teach it what they have learned. This works well as an assessment strategy. Strangely, the puppet answers questions wrong. The children now use logical reasoning and explanation skills to show why and how it is wrong. This strategy works well as a hook but also as an extension to unlock greater ‘Blooms Taxonomy' style ways of thinking.

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Behaviour Management

Children in my class know that the puppet is looking out for good behaviour throughout each lesson and will often whisper the names of those with exceptional behaviour. Additionally, the puppet chooses someone it would like to go with at the end each week for exceptional circumstances, behaviour or any reason outlined at the start of the week it works a treat!

Mental Health

Mental health awareness is a priority in schools. Puppetry lends itself well to aiding mental health. In my class, children who come into school with negative feelings (anxiety, stress) benefit well from looking after the puppet, almost like a teddy or pet. When someone struggles to control their own feelings, puppets are one thing that they are able to control. Therefore, some of my children find puppets a form of comfort, controlling their negative thoughts. If children in my class find it hard to express their feelings, some children find it easier to voice their concerns through the puppet. These are just a few ways which I use puppets to enhance my children’s experience in school. I will be creating a video on YouTube going more into depth on this topic via my channel. I look forward to hearing your messages and comments on the creative ways you have started to implement puppetry in your classes and hope you all have fun introducing your class to a brand new friend!

Top Puppet Tips!

Know what the puppet can and can’t do. Ensure the children know how you met the puppet (build the relationship). Don’t go for expensive puppets. Simple works too! Use it sparingly as a hook to engage learning rather than teaching through the puppet Take a deep breath and have fun with it

by @thomasblakemore

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Bring

Culture

to the Classroom After lots of thinking (and almost driving my whole HUGE family crazy with me - we are 8 siblings and I always get everyone somehow involved in the creative process!) I finally had the momentum! You see... if you want to transform something, you must first take a look at what you have (what’s working and what’s not), so you can analyse where you are, where you’d like to be. A great technique to create effective and positive solutions for your young learners is looking back and reflecting on your own childhood. This was how I realised I hold amazing memories of cantigas de roda (traditional chants sang over group games and dances), so I’m bringing them to the Young Learner Classroom. Through research, I’ve reconnected with amazing cultural chants that make childhood unforgettable in Brazil, and used their tunes to create a message that will bring positive transformations to the Young Learner Classroom. The “Bring Brazil to My Classroom” approach aims to give a new life & meaning to traditional Brazilian childhood chants with the aim of creating a sense of community, cultural awareness & appreciation in a simple, fun classroom filled with joy, respect and authenticity.

My first chant of “Bring Brazil to My Classroom” movement was extracted from a traditional Brazilian childhood chant known as “Pobre de marre de si” (when searching it, you will find that its name may vary slightly, as it has been a part of Brazilian popular culture for over 50 years). You can see me singing it on my YouTube Channel (link in bio) but be aware, I was not gifted with a Disney voice (although I don’t seem to care). The lyrics have been adapted to call children to circle time and get them familiar with the tune, before presenting the translated version of the original song and, therefore, its original theme. The chant is meant to be sung with young learners during circle time, and followed up by our simple “Make a Circle” booklet.

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The 'Make a Circle' activity booklet (available on my website) works through various activities that focus on a range of Early Learning skills including the following:

● Gross Motor Skills ● Fine Motor Skills ● Social Skills ● Life Skills ● Cognitive Skills

When the children became familiar with the tune, it was time to turn to the original Brazilian chant “Pobre de Marre de Si”. So, the traditional chant highlights socio-economic differences in Brazil to children and used to be sang during a role-play game: The game and song is split into two parts: rich and poor. This represents Brazilian society and its clear socio-economic differences (when visiting Brazil, you will see homeless people asking for money in traffic lights all over the country). The chant is usually played by at least two children: one child who is poor (“pobre”, in Portuguese) representing Brazil’s lower socio-economic groups. He/she would stand on one side of the room. The other 'rich' (“rico”, in Portuguese) child stands on the opposite side of the room, representing higher socioeconomic groups. More children can be added to the 'poor' team if needed.

by @hellosimpleenglish

The chant begins with the poor child stating they are poor “de marre de si”, and the rich child stating they are rich “de marre de si”. Then the rich child asks for one poor child to join their side. ’The poor parent asks “What job will you give them?” and the rich child replies with an occupation. The poor parent checks with the selected child if they accept the occupation. If so, that child trades side and goes to the rich “family”. If not, the rich parent keeps on offering occupations until an agreement is made. Once all children have changed sides, the child that started as “rich” becomes “poor” and the same happens to the child who started as “poor”. The song recommences. Can you see what goes on during that practice? That’s right! SO. MUCH! There’s the the role play of different standards of living, an experience of what it might be like to be less well off. It puts Brazilian socio-economic context in child-friendly terms and (my favourite aspect:) it helps children reflect about their future and be ambitious through play. You have right to choose who you become later in life regardless of your starting position!

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Turn

Awkward

Parent Meetings Into a

Mic Drop! Check Your Tone

One thing I am always asked about is how on EARTH do I approach a parent whose child I believe to be the Horrid Henry or that mean girl with the braces from Finding Nemo in real life? Ok no one has ever said that. But you know, similar vibes. You have a child in your class who is displaying behaviour that has got you scrunching up your face in bafflement. Teaching really is the worst form of wrinkles am I right? Maybe it is physical, maybe it is verbal, maybe it is continuous low level behaviour. Whatever it is, it is something you would prefer not to tell to their parents, face to face, because let’s face it. It’s awkward. It’s weird because it is not something that you are taught in University, or even during CPD when you are a fully-fledged teacher with parents left, right and centre. So you just get dropped in the deep end. Sometimes you swim, sometimes you sink, or sometimes, just sometimes you find a life boat. I am here to float you to safety. Are we done with this analogy? Ok here are my 10 top tips for nailing a (would be) awkward parent meeting and doing a celebratory boomerang-worthy mic drop.

Tone is everything! The first few sentences and gestures you make are so important to the success of the meeting. I normally say ‘Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to come and meet me, I hope it was not far too travel?’ Something like that. It immediately eases them and they feel like I am not the enemy. I will then lead on with some riveting small talk about how the stairs in this building are my main source of cardio and the wonderful British weather. Do not, I repeat do not, walk to the place of the meeting in silence. Ergh, nothing worse! Even if you need some small flashcards ready, do it!

Say Nice Things

Obvious, but often overlooked. When you are setting up a meeting in your head you are like OH MY GOD THIS CHILD IS SO WILD HOW? HOW DID THIS CHILD BECOME SO FERRAL? IT MUST BE YOU! I BLAME YOU! This needs to be locked away into the cupboard, preferably the one where Narnia is. You need to completely detach your negative emotions with this child and any negative behaviour that this child has displayed. Before your meeting, think of at least 2 or 3 good things to say once you have sat down. ‘How do you think xxx is finding school at the moment? I know there are some behaviour issues but I am so impressed with xxx writing/contributions/team work etc’ There is always something positive to say and it is absolutely your job to highlight that.

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Get a Bit Intense

Look, they don’t know you. They know they are probably here for a bad reason. You need to drop some truth bombs on them. I normally go with ‘I know xx has had a few behaviour concerns/difficulties in other year groups/not always found school easy etc.' You choose your opener. But this year/term is going to be different. 'I really care about xxx and I know how special xx really is. I want xxx to flourish at school and I am honestly not going to give up on xxx. But I will need your help to get there. Can we work together on this?' That’s it, they are at ease, they feel like they can talk to you and the meeting can fully begin.

Know the Facts

It is also your job to try and figure out why this is happening. You cannot come into a meeting and say a child is constantly talking during Maths and only Maths and it is unacceptable. It is your job to think hmm if a child is only talking in Maths is it because it is too hard? Too easy? The person they are sat next to? The time of day? Are they hungry? Tired etc? You need to come with some ideas. I would share whatever your ideas are and then on to the next part…

Don’t Leave Them Out

Propose Possible Triggers

You were going in to a meeting without evidence? Are you crazy? Get your CSI self together! If a teacher has said this child has hit another child you need to know when, who else was there, talk to witnesses, where did it happen etc? Does it take a long time? Yes. What is the alternative? Oh hey parents, yeah, your child hit someone. When? Erm not sure? Did anyone see? Ahh... good question. Even though you know, I know and they probably know, if you don’t have the facts it is pointless. When I start noticing repetitive bad behaviour I start to keep a behaviour log. When, where, what happened, possible triggers and how I dealt with it. That way you have a clear reason when you do hold a meeting. Now I am not saying go in with a 60 page bound behaviour evidence book because that is just going to really impact the tone of the meeting! I would mention 2-3 incidences that have led to this meeting and be ready with the facts!

Ask them what they think! There is nothing worse than you making assumptions about their child without asking them if they have an opinion. The amount of times I have gone into a meeting and got to this point and I swear you could hear the penny drop. ‘We have just moved house.’ ‘He is saying he is getting bullied.’ ‘She isn’t sleeping at the moment.’ They are so important. They have a perspective of this child that you cannot see and you need them to shed that light. Sometimes this part of the meeting can be the end of the meeting. Be open minded, be concerned and value what they have to say.

by @goodmorningmsfoster

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Provide Solution Paths

If it is not the end of the meeting and they either agree with you or are unsure. This is where you come in with a plan. Preparation is the key to elevation at this point. Discuss with your mentor, manager, leader etc what this should be in line with the school. Is it a behaviour plan? Is it a change of seating? Is it a now and next board? A timer? Fiddle toy? Honestly there are multiple solutions here because I have absolutely no idea what your context is. But, make sure you have a plan ready. This, also, is part of your job. This meeting is not about sitting down these parents and having a whine over a glass of wine…see what I did there? It is about you, yes you, a professional, identifying an issue and coming up with a plan to solve said issue.

Don’t Leave Them Out…Again.

Think of this like a chorus to your meeting, keep checking in with them. What do you think of this plan?

Set Your Next Date

You, the child and the parents need to feel accountable for this plan. Set a date to which you will all work to. This gives the plan more momentum. Depending on the context I generally give 1 – 2 weeks. Now you can choose to meet up again, call them, email them, contact them through Class Dojo but the point is, you are not going away. You care about their child and you are going to come back with plan. Do not say anything formal like ‘review’ or ‘evaluate’, they will run for the hills. Just say you can all get together/touch base and see what is working and what is not so we can move forward in the best way. Then I would get them to sign something (meeting notes write up is best) just so you have evidence that they have agreed.

Mail Trail

When the meeting is done you should have come up with a plan they have agreed to and a date to review (forbidden word) this. It is not time for your mic drop. Listen, you do not know how the next weeks are going to go. It is always best to have some digital back up in your favour. The parents may turn on you, argue the meeting didn’t happen, say something happened that didn’t, I know these sound crazy but they are all examples from experience! My suggestion is to follow it up with an email. Even if it is not to them, maybe it is to your deputy head or line manager. Just write down the outline of the meeting, main highlights, the plan involved and when you will review. Take a photo of the signature and scan it in. Yeah I don’t know how to scan either. Why is it this mysterious task? Just email the photo to yourself and attach it to the mail trail email. VOILA! Mic drop, slow mo catwalk and get back to your classroom to finish your marking you glamorous thing you!

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Free example texts to support the teaching of writing! www.literacywagoll.com

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CL ICK FO R PD

FRE E

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Lose the

Loose Time High-impact, low-effort strategies to really up the ante in your class.

Do you ever just think you could do with one more lesson or need more time to teach everything? But, do you find yourself struggling to think of short activities for those loose times in the day? How can this time be more productive and can we use it to harness children's enthusiasm and direct it towards their learning? We tried and tested many different 'loose time' activities over the years and here are some of our favourites ready for you to try.

Idea 2: Fantastic Films

Idea 1: Power of Pictures

Who doesn’t love to escape into another time, place or life?

Images are an amazing resource to unlock students' creativity and get them asking questions. There is an abundance of visual literacy resources online. One of our favourites is pobble365.com

As teachers, we are always searching for ways to drum up the kind of excitement in our own classes and leave our students inspired by what they have experienced.

Here you will find a treasure trove of pictures to spark rich conversation and get them asking questions. The Story Starters will get those pencils wriggling whilst Question Time develops that ‘oh so tricky’ skill (yes, we know this term is in debate) of inference.

Using visual media, such as short films or animations, can be great to kick start the imagination. A huge hats off to the team at Literacyshed.com who have put together great visual resources. What? No book we hear you say? We believe that stories are stories. No matter the form they come in it’s time to throw out the expectation that reading is simply taught using texts. The films you will find on Literacy Shed will draw experiences from every background and all of them are accompanied by a whole load of different ideas to promote deeper thinking and reading skills.

This website can be used with maximum impact and minimum set up - it’s all there ready to go! It doesn’t matter whether you have two minutes or more; getting this into your daily routine is a game changer.

But what about reading? Well just about ANY reading skill can be taught through film; making connections, predictions, summarising, inference and character development. It’s also great for children who struggle with decoding. An activity like this can take as little or as much time as you like - from a 10 minute filler activity to settle the class after a busy lunchtime, to a whole lesson!

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by @twoteachasia

Idea 3: Motivational Music Music is an incredibly powerful tool in the classroom. There is a reason why we can remember song lyrics for our entire lives, but we forget what our teachers discussed an hour later. It can be used in so many different ways to aid learning and many of them we have all been doing for years. Who still finds it difficult to recite the alphabet without breaking into song? The potential for using music in the classroom extends way beyond this. Mr P’s Blog has plenty of examples of how music can be used to teach reading comprehension. It doesn’t even have to take a full lesson! There is an abundance of great music out there. Try having music on in the mornings as the students arrive and have a set of questions on the board to think about. “How does this song make you feel?”, “Have you heard a song like this before?”. Simple questions that ignite far from simple ideas and thoughts.

And finally, how about taking those loose moments of the day to get to know your students better. Growing up, we both remember long car journeys listening to a programme on the radio called ‘Desert Island Discs’, in which the host would interview celebrities about the soundtrack of their lives. It would end and you would get a real sense that you were witness to a greater insight into that person’s life: their joys and triumphs but also their struggles and challenges. This year, we have taken this idea into our classroom and students have prepared short presentations on their favourite songs and why they are important to them. Play these presentations in those ‘loose’ times and just see what reaction you get. Go on, we dare you. We hope you find these ideas useful and have fun giving them a go! Remember, even though for much of the day it may be just you and your class, there is a whole network of people around you ready to offer support

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M E STIN THE EYFsSroom! There’s a finely tuned art to keeping your curriculum and planning inspiring and exciting for your pupils, so when my colleague and I were thinking about how to capture the imaginations of our Nursery children, we thought we’d look to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to give us a helping hand.

s a l C

We enjoy starting a new topic with a book that’s relevant to how we would like the learning to begin. There are loads of books out there that can stimulate dialogue for learning but some of our favourites that have linked seamlessly to STEM activities recently, include ‘Here we are: Notes for living on Planet Earth’ by Oliver Jeffers, ‘Ten black dots’ by Donald Crews and the classic ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ or ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?’ by Eric Carle. The stories have led the learning journey onto finding out about planets in our Solar System, how simple electrical circuits are constructed with switches and buzzers and life cycles of both plants and animals.

Click on a book

STEM-based activities are brilliant because even at their most simplistic level, they incorporate so many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. Tinkering with loose parts and natural materials, objects to explore like torches that are powered differently (we love wind up torches and UV lights on spy pens!) or deconstructing real life household items that you no longer need like video cassette players (remember those!) or old toys have led to problem solving and resilience skills being challenged and fantastic conversations when the children are working together to make something happen. They’re the sort of activities that have been revisited time and time again by our pupils because the openended nature of the task has allowed them to create their own opportunities for exploring. We have recently come across the NRich website designed specifically for Early Years (https://nrich.maths.org/early-years) which has been great as a starting point for open-ended Maths activities and promoting conversation with children involving problem solving and number tasks. We have practiced the skill of subitising, using cups and shiny gems which has attracted the children to the activity, sparking their interest, rather than having to invite them over.

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By their very nature, STEM activities allow us as practitioners often just to stand back and observe the children leading their own purposeful play, perhaps only stepping in to ask questions like ‘I wonder what would happen if…’. Tasks including growing our own plants to eat or to attract wildlife to our setting have been invaluable not only in showing them where their food comes from but also enabling incidental moments. We take part in the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ challenge (https://www.growyourownpotatoes.org.uk/) each year and last year when we were harvesting our spuds we found some snails. It was a great chance to pop them onto a transparent surface and look closely at the underneath of a snail – see how they move and find out about the pattern of the trail they leave behind. We also added a bit of Maths into the activity by predicting how many potatoes we thought we would harvest, using numbers in real life situations and starting to think mathematically. Our aim in Nursery is to focus on the child-centred approach to learning, acting upon and responding to their interests. We try to enable independent learners at every chance and have been inspired by Anna Ephgrave’s ‘In the Moment’ planning structure. As recommended by her, we designated an area outside as a woodwork space, giving the children the chance to use tools safely, supervised by adults, to design and create anything that their imaginations would allow! We’ve had a range of flying and wheeled vehicles, houses and even beds for story characters. Some children spent time, inspired by each other, to make photo frames outside, paint them and then use our class camera to take photos of themselves to feature in their own handmade frames!

When the learning process is wholly invented and seen through by the children and you play the part of the facilitator fetching the resources needed on their wish lists and following their lead, you know that your efforts to create independent, resilient, confident human beings are on the right track and using STEM as the basis of our teaching and learning process has really helped us to do that!

by @forestschoolandbeyond

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Putting

Sweat

on the right backs! Years ago, when I started my teaching career in a high school in the Netherlands, I was amazed by the passive consuming mode students were put into by my colleagues. Somehow all that seemed to matter was the way students were able to reproduce knowledge on tests. Nobody really seemed to care about long-term knowledge and understanding. Once a student showed on a test that he or she mastered the new acquired knowledge, teachers moved on to the next subject: turning the curriculum into a checklist for students.

Luckily a lot has changed over the last 15 years since I started out as a teacher, but there is still a lot of work to do. The last couple of years I have dedicated my professional career to making teachers and students aware of the importance of active learning. Involving students as actively as possible in their learning process, putting them in charge over their learning, so they could put real meaning to their newly acquired knowledge. When I started out, I thought the toughest part would be changing the mindset of the students. But I was wrong; changing teachers beliefs turned out to be a lot harder!

Our current school system is still based on 19th century principles. Principles that worked great when students were being prepared for a job they would be executing for the rest of their lives. School was there to make sure starting professionals were ready for their working life. A working life that would not be confronted with major changes. Most people would remain working in the same profession and the knowledge they had acquired during their schooldays had given them a solid base to work from. But in the last decades, things have changed dramatically and are expected to change even more dramatically during the up and coming years.

I have a habit of asking people I meet about their profession and the relation of this profession to their schooling. In the last couple of years, I met more and more people who were not working in the same field as they have been schooled in anymore. The same people told me that they really only started learning, after they had left school. The real world demanded them to be actively involved in their own development instead of reproducing knowledge. Most of these people ask me: Why do schools invest so much time in making sure we learn the knowledge they want us to learn, instead of investing the same amount of time into how we learn?

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by @theactiveclass

Once we involve students actively into their own learning, they will automatically become the owner of their learning process. The role of the teacher will change from the knowledge owner who tries to put his or her knowledge inside of the heads of the students into a knowledge constructor. As a knowledge constructor the teacher will help students to connect new knowledge to the prior knowledge of the student. And they will facilitate teaching methods to help the student process their newly acquired knowledge. This will give meaning to the knowledge and will become their own.

Neuroscience and multiple educational scientists have showed that when people are actively involved in their learning, they will be better in reproducing knowledge and skills over a longer time. But how can we incorporate this in our own classrooms? According to Grabinger & Dunlap (2014) a rich environment for active learning (REALs) consists of learning activities that involve students in a continuous collaboration process. In this process students build and transform knowledge based on their newly acquired experiences and knowledge. Grabinger & Dunlap state that learning should take place in authentic learning situations that reflect the world around the learners and pursue an investigative attitude of the students. In their research towards active learning Halpern & Hakel (2003) conclude that the learning success of students does not depend on what the teacher does, but what the teacher asks his or her students to do. Students should produce ideas themselves instead of just receiving information from a teacher or a book (Bertsch e.a., 2007). Instruction should mainly consist of integrating new knowledge with existing knowledge (Ambrose & Lovett, 2014) and repeating this knowledge in various contexts (Karpick & Blunt, 2011). When it comes to active learning, the role of the teacher is crucial. It is the teacher who creates an environment in which active learning can take place. In which students are allowed to make mistakes and to follow their own path. In an active classroom, the teacher dares to take a step back and let the students take charge of their own learning. They are not afraid that the students won’t learn what the curriculum asks of them. In an active classroom there is sweat on the backs of the students, not on the back of the teacher. References: Ambrose, Susan A., and Marsha C. Lovett. “Prior Knowledge is More Than Content: Skills and Beliefs Also Impact Learning.” Applying Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science into the Curriculum, edited by Victor A. Benassi, Catherine E. Overson, and Christopher M. Hakala, American Psychological Association, 2014. Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & cognition, 35(2), 201-210. Grabinger, R. S., & Dunlap, J. C. (2014). Rich environments for active learning: A definition. ALT-J, 3(2), 5-34. Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (2003). Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond: Teaching for long-term retention and transfer. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 35(4), 36-41. Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775.

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