Over the last few weeks I have outlined how we are seeking to build powerful Room 4 learners by helping children ask deeper questions aimed at helping children internalise learning. We found that “WHY” was a powerful word. The purpose and application of this to classroom teaching is for the child to ask WHY they are doing what they do in class. If a child can think about and articulate the reason behind a learning task they are engaged in, if they can understand WHY they are doing a task, if a child is able to understand the relevance of work they commit to, then there is likely to be a greater motivation to be a learner. “Because the teacher said so” can be quite a weak reason for getting excited and enthusiastic about a task.
Think about when you were at school. Certainly for me at primary school I was given no choice in what I was taught. The teachers chose what was taught and when. (As a beginning teacher I was taught that to plan a unit of work, look and see what resources were available and build what I taught around those— there was no reference to children helping shape teaching content.) The expectation was that as a child I would learn the information or skill and then I would be graded on how successful I was through some kind of test or activity. My report card gave me a rating (poor, average, good, excellent) and somehow the teacher put a tick in a box to show how much “effort” I had exhibited. In hindsight I wonder just how this measured my interest, my depth of learning or even what I had achieved that was actually relevant to me.
Research in education clearly indicates that ownership of learning is increased through the learner understanding WHY they are doing a task, and WHAT the outcomes might look like
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Powerful Learners 1
Displayed prominently at the front of the classroom there are some sheets that are headed up Room 4 Learners. On these your child has identified some of the characteristics and traits they think someone who is a powerful learner might display. As we build on this theme I am hoping that when we revisit this your child will be able to build on their initial understanding, adding new ideas and skills that they would personally aspire to.
At the start of the year when I asked the class after explaining something if there were any questions, some children would put up a hand. They then would make a statement or tell a story. So the first step has been to help children differentiate between a question, a statement and a story. Once they understand what a question is, they need to recognise that some questions will elicit interesting and perhaps useful information (a fact). e.g. “What time does the bus leave after school?” However there are other questions that can be more powerful, demanding more processing and thinking that may result in a wider range of understandings and even more questions. There is a place for both types of questions—It is not a case of one being “wrong” and the other “right”. It is more a case of the appropriateness and purpose of a question than defines it as being rich or powerful.
This week, as we continue to build on the idea of ...
What are powerful, rich questions? What do they look like? How might I recognise them and learn to use them as a learner?
Some of the most useful words in a learners vocabulary are How? Why? Who? Where? When? They are akin to phrases that in “kid- speak” might be “Is this …..” , “If ….” , “Might there be ….” “How come …”.
When we are doing classroom tasks I encourage the children to begin to ask those rich questions. I have also included an optional task on page 4, asking questions as a homework activity this week.
Have an awesome week,
Peter Corlett
At the start of the year when I asked the class after explaining something if there were any questions, some children would put up a hand. They then would make a statement or tell a story. So the first step has been to help children differentiate between a question, a statement and a story. Once they understand what a question is, they need to recognise that some questions will elicit interesting and perhaps useful information (a fact). e.g. “What time does the bus leave after school?” However there are other questions that can be more powerful, demanding more processing and thinking that may result in a wider range of understandings and even more questions. There is a place for both types of questions—It is not a case of one being “wrong” and the other “right”. It is more a case of the appropriateness and purpose of a question than defines it as being rich or powerful.
This week, as we continue to build on the idea of ...
What are powerful, rich questions? What do they look like? How might I recognise them and learn to use them as a learner?
Some of the most useful words in a learners vocabulary are How? Why? Who? Where? When? They are akin to phrases that in “kid- speak” might be “Is this …..” , “If ….” , “Might there be ….” “How come …”.
When we are doing classroom tasks I encourage the children to begin to ask those rich questions. I have also included an optional task on page 4, asking questions as a homework activity this week.
Have an awesome week,
Peter Corlett
Personal Goals
Hi! I am looking forward to meeting up with a few more parents tonight at our Family night. What gives me a real buzz is to hear children telling their parents about what they have been doing at school and the things they have learnt to do.
Our theme this week is “Personal Goal Setting”. The two key tasks are our cone runs and our spelling. For the cone run we see how far we can run in five minutes around a track marked with cones. There are at least three children who can run further than me! We recorded what we thought we could do today based on previous runs. My final score today was 28. In order to model what goal setting means I talked to the children about how if I had worn shoes I think I could have done 29 because I limped across the stony bits and across the berries under the trees. I also talked about it was my responsibility to do what was needed to achieve my goals and asked the question of what they felt they could do to achieve the goal they had set.
As for last week in spelling we did our pretest and not only recorded our score but I also asked every child to set a goal for the test on Friday. Some children are cautious while others were overly optimistic. We talked of making goals achievable, but not too easy. On Friday they will be able to compare what they hoped to get with their final score. For some they will need to take ownership of the amount of effort they put in, while other will be able to celebrate their success of meeting or exceeding their targets. While this process is a challenge for some of the younger ones it does build the concept of being a learner and provide a clear strategy for measuring personal progress.
Our theme this week is “Personal Goal Setting”. The two key tasks are our cone runs and our spelling. For the cone run we see how far we can run in five minutes around a track marked with cones. There are at least three children who can run further than me! We recorded what we thought we could do today based on previous runs. My final score today was 28. In order to model what goal setting means I talked to the children about how if I had worn shoes I think I could have done 29 because I limped across the stony bits and across the berries under the trees. I also talked about it was my responsibility to do what was needed to achieve my goals and asked the question of what they felt they could do to achieve the goal they had set.
As for last week in spelling we did our pretest and not only recorded our score but I also asked every child to set a goal for the test on Friday. Some children are cautious while others were overly optimistic. We talked of making goals achievable, but not too easy. On Friday they will be able to compare what they hoped to get with their final score. For some they will need to take ownership of the amount of effort they put in, while other will be able to celebrate their success of meeting or exceeding their targets. While this process is a challenge for some of the younger ones it does build the concept of being a learner and provide a clear strategy for measuring personal progress.
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