Last week of term

So we are coming to the last week of term. It feels like I have covered quite a bit in the last 6 teaching weeks but there is a whole lot more to come I'm sure.

Today I had another informal observation from a member of staff outside my faculty. In comparison to the lessons he has observed me in previously, this one was a lot better.

This particular year 10 class are brilliantly behaved, so behaviour management is never an issue but what I had experienced was the same individuals answering time and time again. To counter this I presented very little opportunity for hands up answering. I would direct a lower level question at a certain individual and then begin to formaulte other questions and topics for discussion based on their answer, attempting to build upon the difficulty each time.

With the students unaware who I would select next it did appear to keep them better focused and involved in the questioning process. For this to be effective I have had to come up with a bank of questions that I would like answered throughout the lesson to gauge progression. It was very time consuming: with preparing good learning materials, lesson plan etc but proved thoroughly worth it. This is certainly very useful for performing AFL and in particular to a wide audience.

Through the lesson I could feel that the students were becomming more comfortable with the topic and they were elaborating upon their answers and showing more detail, something which I haven't experienced with them as a whole group before.  Seeing certain individuals normally whom shy away from engaging being so visably keen, almost desperate to answer a question or give their point of view was very satisfying.

Spending more time catering for a variety of learning styles, using different activities to normal and using effective questioning really paid off in this instance. I am actually looking forward to seeing this group again after half term in two weeks time to see how much really sank in!