Hastings PEEL

Principles of Teaching for Effective Learning: the voice of the teacher This book (new in 2009)is a comprehensive amalgam of PEEL practice and theory developed over the 24 years of PEEL by practicing teachers and academics. It is structured around 12 strategic principles for effective teaching. The many ways each principle can be enacted are developed from rich anecdotes from primary and secondary classrooms and reflections by teachers and academics that identify a range of critical features of practice that stimulates learning that is purposeful, reflective and intellectually active. It explores teacher and student journeys in learning how to learn and what makes a successful learning community. It is a companion text to our book of teaching procedures. Australian orders $63.00 AUD International $68.00 AUD Add to order Principles of Teaching for Effective Learning: the voice of the teacher This book (new in 2009)is a comprehensive amalgam of PEEL practice and theory developed over the 24 years of PEEL by practicing teachers and academics. It is structured around 12 strategic principles for effective teaching. The many ways each principle can be enacted are developed from rich anecdotes from primary and secondary classrooms and reflections by teachers and academics that identify a range of critical features of practice that stimulates learning that is purposeful, reflective and intellectually active. It explores teacher and student journeys in learning how to learn and what makes a successful learning community. It is a companion text to our book of teaching procedures. Australian orders $63.00 AUD International $68.00

They didn’t learn anything

I began by introducing my grade 1 & 2 class to our new focus question  How does the weather affect living things?  Students were enthusiastic about this and immediately began to talk about their experiences with different types of weather.  We talked about the rain, the sun and then we moved onto storms. As can probably be expected many of the students were scared of thunder and lightning and it was their comments about this that started me thinking about their understandings.

I hate the thunder, It’s God being angry, Yeah he’s stamping his feet, Thunder happens when the clouds move, the lightning can be very noisy.’

It became evident that their understandings of electrical storms stemmed from their experiences and their fears. I enjoyed listening to the way they made sense of their world so I probed the students further.  I asked them where they thought the wind came from.

‘The trees’  the clouds moving’ God blowing air.’

I found their responses fascinating.  The students spoke with such confidence, they appeared to be well thought out statements, which reflected their current knowledge and understandings about weather.  I continued.

What about rain?
It rains when the clouds get full, the rain gives the flowers and trees a drink, the rain is God’s tears.

I had always valued students’ prior knowledge and provided opportunities to share their thoughts, yet this was different.  I felt like the students were formulating their ideas during the discussion. Maybe they hadn’t ever reached a conclusion and with this opportunity and the support of the other students’ ideas, they had the confidence to develop and share their own.

I don’t think I have ever felt so enthusiastic about exploring a focus question.  There were so many areas we could explore.  Over the next few weeks we looked at the water cycle, we constructed and used wind gauges, we studied different cloud types, we kept track of the daily weather, we read about the causes of thunder and lightening and discussed the many accompanying diagrams and pictures.  We then related each topic to day to day life to see the impact weather has on our lives.  We had been really busy.

Student comments and actions were very positive over the course of the unit.  Students produced terrific pieces of work that I felt reflected a growth in understanding in some of the concepts I had been attempting to teach.  Towards the end of the unit I wanted to find out how much the students had learned so I invited each student to have a one-on-one conference where we discussed different aspects of the content.  I decided to re-visit the questions I had used at the beginning of the unit as I felt that the differences in their responses would help me to see what they had learned.

After I had completed all of the conferences I felt really disappointed.

To my dismay they still thought God’s emotions determined the type of weather, the trees still caused the wind and lightning made just as much noise as thunder.  They had learned little if nothing of the content I had worked so hard to teach.  I had planned experiences that I knew were successful, students were on-task nearly all of the time, yet their ideas had changed very little.  Maybe at this point student fears and prior experiences overpowered what I thought would be more logical explanations.  Maybe some of the concepts were just too difficult so they maintained their current understandings that are comfortable and logical to them.  Although harder to stomach maybe it was my teaching.

It was this experience that taught me a very valuable lesson in teaching.  I had been told many times before that just because you teach students something doesn’t  mean they have learned it.  I don’t think I really understood this until now.

Or did they?

Years later I find myself re-visiting these events in my classroom.  There seems to be so much more to my story than I had first thought.  I certainly remember feeling extremely disappointed when my students expressed the same thoughts and ideas at the end of the unit on weather as they did in the beginning.  Looking back on a class discussion after the conferences I am convinced that learning is not just tied to the content or the concepts that are taught.

For the last few weeks we’ve been looking at weather, focusing on How does the weather affect living things? Does anyone have any new thoughts about our focus question?  What about you Ellie?

Umm (A few seconds silence) could I have some more time to think?

Sure Ellie, we’ll come back to you later. What about you Tom?

I want to know how birds fly in storms.

How might you find out more about that Tom?
I might need a book from the library.
That would be an appropriate place to start.  Ellie how are you going with your thinking?

I would like to know how tornadoes start.

How might you explore your question Ellie?

I’m going to use the fact file on tornadoes that’s hanging up.
An Enviro walk, what a great idea.

You all have your own tasks to do. What might help you with your work today Sarah?

The displays around the room, the fact files on different types of weather.

Where would you go Shae if you wanted to spell Cumulus cloud?

I’d look at the information grid on different clouds.
While we’re looking at the displays around the room, is there anything that you no longer find useful? Sam?

 The pictures we did on water I don’t use them.
Thanks Sam, does everyone agree?  OK then I’ll pull them down today.  What about where I have put displays? Yes Kaitlin?

I like where the fact files are, I can see them easy.

What about the Venn Diagram I have just put up? Kyle?

It’s a bit high, it’s hard to read.

Thanks Kyle, I’ll fix it today.

Ok let’s get to work.  If anyone wants to remain on the floor for further discussion about their work, then stay. If you plan to start work think about the types of resources you need to begin and decide where is the best place to sit.  I’ll be working on the displays if anybody needs me.

 
(Sometime later.) What decisions did you make in your work Broddy?

I had to decide which procedure to use to show about my wind gauge.

So what did you decide?

I drew a labelled diagram of my wind gauge but I needed to write some more information so I wrote some facts on it like a fact file.

These students can not only frame questions, which reflect their learning needs but they understand how to explore them.  They can effectively access the resources and materials in the classroom while evaluating their effectiveness.  At this stage these students were capable of deciding which procedures to use to show what new learning had taken place and could articulate all of the decisions they had made.

Although I realise many students hadn’t learned much about difficult concepts like; how water changes to vapour during the water cycle, or how ice and water particles rub together to cause an electrical charge or even how to measure wind speed on the Beaufort scale. They had shared and used a language, which allowed them to discuss and explore different aspects of weather.

Maybe I wasn’t able to articulate it at the time but I had learned more than just you can’t force students to learn or that students construct meaning from their experiences, I also learnt that there are many aspects to learning.  These students were developing and using strategies that reflected the knowledge they had of their own learning.  They were showing me they had the power to effect what and how they learn. 

So what started out as an evaluation of my teaching turned into a lesson about learning.

Have you always found Grammar and Punctuation really dry and hard to get across to the children? Try the following link and see if this helps you in any way….

http://www.videojug.com/tag/punctuation/

There are many other helpful aspects to this site if you follow the next link and search through the subjects

http://www.videojug.com/tag/school-subjects/

We have managed to upload the majority of the resources made available to teachers during our most recent HIT LIT Day. All resources are linked for easy access and will allow visitors to download. It is worth noting that many of the presenters referred to a number PEEL strategies as well as graphic organisers and templates. Rather than uploading these twice you can click on the related pages above and gain access to these.

Click on the HIT Lit Resource page and enjoy what we have to offer. Thanks so much to the presenters who have designed the resources kits.

What a fantastic day all the schools in our cluster had today. We were not only blessed with the most beautiful weather, but the wealth of knowledge and expertise from those within our cluster.

Thanks to all those who presented today and be sure that your time and effort was very much appreciated. A special thanks to St Peter’s Port Mcaquarie for hosting our day and caring for us so well.

For those who attended the day, be sure to check the CD in your package as it has many gems to utilise within your classroom. There were some teachers interested in the WORD DICE link. You will find it attached here http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=worddice

Enjoy the beginning of the new term and check our blogsite for updates on a regular basis.

Written by Lara Laverman, Berwick Fields Primary School

To provide students with learning and teaching experiences that are authentic and prepare them for future stages in their learning journey and family and work experiences it is important that students have the knowledge, skills, capacity to work collaboratively with others. Students require the skills necessary to learn, work, negotiate, share, reflect and collaborate on tasks.

 In my grade 3/4 class students are able to all contribute to lessons as they all have enlarged visual access to information, and stimuli.  Students are able to work together as a whole class to solve problems, brainstorm solutions, share discussions, annotate images and text, ask questions, play, share ideas, teach one another and reflect.

An example of collaborative work on a whiteboard was the introduction of arrays where a video clip of ‘Scooby Doo’ was used to engage the students in their quest to find arrays (3×4).  Students collectively watched a short clip of the film once to enjoy and then the second time that they watched the clip they were asked to look for arrays within the images.  To begin with students were unsure of arrays and their application in day-to-day life.  This clip allowed them to search for them and understand them in real life circumstances.  Students were at first hesitant to identify them and an example was provided in the sets of windows lining the front of the window as two groups of two and therefore a two by two array.  From here there was a frenzy of discussion as to whether within the windows there were further arrays, within the bookshelves there were arrays, within the tiled floors 

 Each time an array was identified a ’screen capture’ photo was taken of the video and placed into Smartboard notebook and then the image was annotated over with students offering and sharing their reasons why this particular image was or was not an array.  Students had the opportunity to draw over the array.

 Future tasks involved students going outside to explore the school and find the arrays that around the school grounds.  Further collaborative interactive whiteboard tasks also allowed for the creation in small groups of arrays using image programs such as KidzPix and Smartboard tools where children were grouped into no more than three and together their tasks was to create an array for the rest of the grade to identify.

Is the use of IWB more effective than a video clip on a DVD/ TV, yes in the sense that it can be paused and that scene can be captured, cropped, saved, annotated the whole group are able to share in the process rather than just watch it take place and then talk about it.

 The students are engaged in physically moving objects and recording with the other students engaged in the process as they can see what is happening.

 A whole class is able to take part in the manipulations, discussion, negotiation, turn taking, decision making, problem solving. The work that is recorded can be saved for future reference or further investigations. The process is fast, exciting and engaging and the results are immediate.

For those teachers who have utilised God Tube in the past it has changed try now http://www.tangle.com/  You can sign up and emails will come your way to let you know of new data and videoes for your lessons. Spending a little navigating the sight can enhance your religion lessons.

You will note that there are some Vod Pod videoes here on the side bar to end the term and celebrate Holy Week.

Rest well for the holidays.

The Hastings PEEL Team

As a team we recognise the momentum that PEEL has generated within our Diocese. We are seeking feedback from teachers and support staff in relation to our Blog site. We are constantly adding to our Delicious links and have posted some new templates, graphic organisers and units of work over the past six months. We would very much appreciate hearing from those who log onto our site so we can best cater for your needs. We are looking for any ideas of how we could improve the site for you.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Any feedback would be welcomed.

This article by Jo Osler appeared in the most recent editon of PEEL SEEDS # 102 which focused on the use of Interactive Whiteboards to improve student learning

My aim is for my students to develop an effective approach to learning that reflects their understandings of the learning process.  As they build these understandings they are simultaneously developing a language that helps them to communicate what they know about learning. I am constantly looking for new ways to support this process in my classroom and the latest has been to incorporate the use of our interactive whiteboard. While my students are working and learning in the classroom I capture them in action by taking a photo. I ensure I take random shots as well as strategic shots to highlight students a range of learning behaviours. Once the photo is taken we view it on the interactive whiteboard on a flipchart. Using the whiteboard interactive pen I ask students in the class not featured in the photo to give feedback about the learning that is taking place in the photo. I then ask the students featured in the photo to share their reflections about what was really happening in the photo. All of this is recorded on the photo, which turns into a Labelled diagram.

In the beginning, students usually make comments at a surface level where they will focus on the physical actions of the learner: ‘getting materials organised’, ‘putting facts in circle’, or ‘doing my work’. These comments reflect current understandings about learning and provide me with directions to support their learning further. As students develop more effective reflective skills and have built richer understandings of what effective learning involves and looks like, then their comments begin to reflect this development:  ‘I was checking the criteria and making a decision about when to move on’, ‘Sam looks like he is enviro walking and looking for ideas to help with his literary sociogram.’

Once the photos have the reflective comments we print them out and use them during later discussions about learning, as well as placing them in student portfolios to show growth in the areas of personal development, interpersonal development, communication and thinking. Next, my goal is for my students to incorporate this process into their team tasks, where they will develop a series of photos that reflect on the learning that has occurred over a period of time.