At the meeting of the Deep Learning ARG on 18th January, the group agreed to carry out some research into the use of plenaries and into effective questioning strategies. Please post comments to feedback from your plenary swap visits before the next meeting on March 14th. Use the resources to guide the kind of questions you used - and drop your reflections on how it went, and what the most effective questioning techniques were.
I have just returned from Ben's Y10 Geography class where we spent 10-15 minutes reflecting on what they had been learning. I found several things that were really important:
ReplyDelete- the learning that had been going on had been structured in such a way as to aid a clear period of reflection: there were clear categories, clear structures and the learning was active in that students were making sense of information. This meant it was easy to reflect on what they had been doing.
- the kind of reflection that we were doing was something they were used to, and they commented on how they did this 'plenary' regularly.
- the structure of Bloom's Taxonomy is helpful as a scaffolding for questioning. I started with what they had learned, how they had linked and constructed meaning and then onto how they had learned it and how they could use it in other situations. They responded very well indeed and it was clear that they felt this kind of reflection helps them to move on in their understanding. Evaluating their learning and reflecting on how it deepens their understanding.
- I found it empowering that I did not know what they had been doing and started from scratch. It did help me that I knew what they had been doing as I also teach geography. I wonder what it would feel like to do this in a subject that I am not a specialist in .
- Thanks to Ben for letting me in to do this.
Daniel came to my Y12 Economics lesson to do the plenary of the first of a triple lesson.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to listen to the questions and the answers from the students. On reflection there were a number of things I would change about the lesson which I had delivered and it was useful to have someone else there to ask questions which I may not have asked.
On the INSET day (9th February) it was useful to attend the questioning workshop as this, together with the plenary swap has given me a number of things to reflect on.
Thanks to Daniel for coming in and doing the plenary.
Stephen
I visited Renae's Year 9 English class last Wednesday for the final 10 minutes to carry out a plenary. It was really refreshing to step well outside my normal my comfort zone of geography since it placed me very much in the position of being ignorant of what had been going on, and that the students were very much the experts in what they had been learning. After a quick introduction about what we were doing I soon moved into getting them to reflect on what they had been learning. It became clear that they understood that they were reading about Henry VII and relating their thinking to Richard III the historical play by Shakespeare they had been reading. I had to work hard to involve different students, to probe and scaffold their thinking so that it helped me to understand what they had been learning, and then what the features of persuasive writing were. I then began to get them to consider how they could apply what they had been doing to other situations and here their responses were deep and demonstrated a clear understanding of the skills they had been developing. I have been triggered to blog this tonight as I came across this article ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/nov/17/lessons-good-to-outstanding-afl-questioning ) about a simple framework for questioning in lessons - called POSE, PAUSE, BOUNCE, POUNCE. It is v useful and helped me to make sense of what I had been trying to do. What I definitely needed to work on was involving more of the students somehow - it was hard work to not just have a few students in the room willingly responding. Does anyone have any recommendations for that? Any particular strategies?
ReplyDeleteDaniel here,
DeleteI have both given a plenary, to Stephen's yr 12 class, and recieved one, from Ben, to my yr 11 English class.
When delivering the plenary I certainly found that it was difficult to involve everyone. Following the questioning inset I think I will try and include some of the P4C techniques when giving plenaries i.e. using a ball that can be passed around and only the holder of the ball can talk. Hopefully this will help involve more people.
It was interesting to watch Ben give the plenary to my lesson as he offered up questions I would never have thought of. This was particularly interesting because I could tell the students were forced to think more 'deeply' as questions unfamiliar to them were posed.
Thanks to Ben and Stephen.
I visited Douglas's year 9 Geography class… Personally, this was a whole new experience for me; with a limited background of Geography.
ReplyDeleteInitially, in order to guarantee all students were to be involved, I supplied post-it notes to all. Students were then asked to provide a sentence explaining their overall opinion on whether people or the environment had a stronger influence on earthquakes, and then to stick it on the wall. The responses were exciting.
After reading aloud a variety of anonymous opinions, and questioning, students responded to inform me of what, who and how both elements contribute; bringing the discussion to an inclusive agreement. Students then shared how they were incorporating their knowledge and understanding into a representation of their learning: presentation, film or essay, and continued to make links on how their new knowledge and skills could be developed and intertwined in other curriculum areas.
On the completion of our plenary swap it felt to me as though it not only reassured both teachers of the individual students learning, but also replenished my skills to question clearly whilst providing guidance for the students to be able to reflect on their lesson.
Renae.