I very much enjoy teaching this year group due to it being the only chance I get to teach Human Geography at SGS. My main interests lie within this sub division of Geography, so I always feel more at ease in terms of planning and delivering these lessons and also the subsequent questioning I set upon the class. However, the downside of this is that I am happy to bounce questions around the classroom, which at times may be too challenging for some- the G+T pupils however appear to enjoy this.
I have seen this class twice this week. At times I feel they are trying to challenge me and push boundaries a little. I am normally fairly firm with them but not knowing all of their names makes it a bit difficult to instantly challenge a pupil with the same impact that I am used to at my main placement.
The lesson I had with them on Wednesday went quite smoothly, the downside was that I didn't feel the higher ability students were challenged so much, this can result in some restlessness-often quite infectious!
The lesson I had with them on Thursday was in hindsight, pitched too high. The more gifted students really got to grips with the task quite quickly. The lesser ability pupils seemed to skirt around the main focus of the task and not comprehend what was required of them. Again, being off task is a recipe for further distraction.!!
I didn't think differentiation would be as big an issue at a grammar school but it seems I am going to have to pay more attention at either pushing the G+T or breaking the work down further for the weaker students. This is applicable across all age ranges and is something I will have to put more thought into next week. Pitching lessons at the right level is obviously a skill that comes with knowing your students very well, something I am yet to achieve at SGS.
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