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/

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.

We wish our Clarence Cluster all the very best for their upcoming PEEL Staff Development Day. This is the second cluster day that has been conducted in our Diocese within a year and we know that the momentum behind PEEL is fantastic. For those attending the details are as follows

Where: Mary Help of Christians Primary School, Sawtell

When: 27th March, 2009

Good luck and enjoy the sharing of wisdom.

Hasting PEEL Cluster.

You may have noticed an absence of items being posted to our blog over the last few months. Not only have we enjoyed a well earned holiday break, we have also experienced a great turnover of the members of our team. We would like to take the opportunity to thank those members who have left our team and gone on to other endeavours, especially Brendan and Paul who were very much the driving force behind our blog site and PEEL within our cluster.

We welcome our new members and are very excited about the potential of our group as we venture into planning our next professional development day.

Try this free site out!!

http://classtools.net/

This site has a collection of wonderful classroom tools that are both teacher/student friendly.

Most procedures are interactive and can be downloaded and printed from your computer.

If you have any more wonderful sites that you have come across please send them into

the PEEL Hastings team.

Thanks Amanda Wood for this one.

http://www.bubbl.us/

Peter Triglone
Computer Support

St. Mary’s School Bellingen

1. Timetable PEEL

This has worked really well this year as at the start of the year I was able to lock in 40 minutes which can be used specifically to teach a new PEEL procedure. The students gain a better understanding of the ways it can be used and it can be taught in a more relaxed atmosphere. Having PEEL Procedures written into the timetable makes me more organised to locate procedures that will suit my class at any given time.

2. One Minute Checks

Students are given a group task to do in a set time. Within the time given the teacher and students can nominate 1,2 or 3 times that a member of the group can go and look at what the other groups are doing and bring back ideas to their own group. One minute is allowed for each check. They cannot interfere with the other groups.

The teacher monitors the time and physically marks it off from a board so students can see how long they have left and when they are allowed to check the other groups.

eg If the class is given 15 minutes to construct a cube the following may be seen on the board..

15                                            10                                     5                    

14                                            9                                       4

13                                            8                                       3             

12                                            7 (1 minute check )         2

11 ( 1 minute check)              6                                       1 ………..STOP

I have found it important to set a minimum level to get to. For example, in this case it could be drawing and cutting out the net shape.

3. It’s Alright to Share

At the start of the year I noticed that some students found it very difficult to let others access the information they had or know when it was alright to share. After years of being told not to look at other student’s work and “keep their eyes to themselves”, this was I suppose quite understandable. As a class we discussed the benefits of sharing process and knowledge, when this was appropriate and I have tried to make it a point to praise those students who helped out others by doing this.

Two groups tended to struggle a little with this concept. Firstly, some of the more academic students felt they had to give away their “secrets ”and the secondly students on the autism spectrum also seemed to find this a difficult task.

Putting some procedures in place to overcome this have overcome many of the issues at the beginning of the year. I’m also guessing that the age group would have a bearing on this!!!!

by Paul Burke, St Josephs Primary Port Macquarie