Reflection: Inquiry Update for 2018
16th March 2018
What’s happening and why?
At the end of last year I identified ways to carry on and continue my inquiry of creating independent learners. I knew that I would have the IGCSE PE class as my senior class for the year. I was able to reflect on what strategies were successful last year with my Level 2 students and apply some of these concepts from the start of the year. Some of the successful concepts from last year were:
- introducing concepts such as checklists, ask 3 before me etc. at the start of the year
- the release of learning
- ensuring students understand the why
- using student voice to interpret teaching style/activities
Setting up the year
I ensured to start my year off valuing the importance of building relationships and setting expectations and routines. This included spending longer on setting routines - what happens at the start of a lesson, how to find things on iTunes U & submit assignments, how to use PDF expert, using class Quizlet for revision etc. My thoughts on spending time ensuring I do this well was that I would be saving time later on in the course. Overall I feel like this has been relatively successful. Students understand basic processes and this has saved time. Also if students do get stuck other students have been proactive in assisting.
Relievers & Student Ownership
The start of the year often brings disruptions to classes. Whether it's swimming sports and athletics or PE department camps. As a result of camps, professional development and other inevitable absences such as sickness I have missed a few classes with my IG class. During this time students were left work complete with instructions on their iTunes U course. I simplified their work as much a possible knowing that not all new content they would be covering could be found in their textbooks. For content that was not easily accessible I left them notes in which they had to fill in the blanks and then had to answer some questions to show their understanding.
Just before returning to school I received an email from one of my students. In summary this email said that they did not think it was fair that they were left to learn this new content on their own, especially with relievers that weren't able to help them. This email was a response to my email to the class about the lack of work that had been submitted while I was absent. When I returned to class we broke this down and discussed student ownership. They identified that I do not tell the the answers and they need to seek them themselves, so I challenged why should it be different if I was absent. This discussion resulted in referring back to the range of places where students can revert to for help while learning new content. These included; textbook, iTunes U, notes, Quizlet, Google, classmates or myself.
I have been trialling different teaching styles and types of activities with this class to show them that I am interested in how they like to learn and how they learn most effectively. I have also received informal verbal feedback and actioned this.
What’s not happening & why?
- Although students most students are starting to become more independent and show more ownership of their learning not all are. Certain students can be quite needy. Whether it is handing in incomplete work as they 'don't know what they are doing' or where to find answers. These particular students are also the ones that ask questions expecting me to give them the answers when completing activities.
What am I going to do to influence what is not happening?
- I can introduce the use of checklists before students hand in any completed work. This could ensure that students have completed all tasks by utilizing all resources when trying to complete activities, have included key points for each topic, have broken down the questions and used appropriate sentence structure when applicable
- I am going to ensure I do some formalized student feedback & learner voice before the end of term to help construct my 2018 inquiry and see whether or not I will continue pursuing this inquiry or something similar
