PLG Log Three – Student voice on feedback

I think I want my next student voice endeavors to be around feedback. I don’t think my feedback is always as relevant as it could be. I have tried really hard with my year 10s over the past week, while they have done a practice essay, to use google docs to offer instant feedback.

Essay writing is an interesting thing in terms of how students feel. The often feel like they hate it, even though they are good at it. However I was pleased to see that the majority of the class after the work in class this week felt better about it. Also, the instant feedback was a hit. However one student said they did not understand it – which is what I want to pick up on next.

I really hope that when I give feedback students see me as teacher B. However sometimes I worry that I get caught up in certain things I am looking for and do not make myself very clear. Some students come and talk to me about it, which is always the dream – but I know that there are students who probably just sit there and feel lost.

As such my goals over the next week are to get some feedback on the quality of my feedback – especially handy as all my classes are getting essays back this week, so a quick survey might just tell me how it is working for them.

Watch this space to see what happens!

Mrs K

PLG Log Two – The learning Pit

I was planning PLG this morning, and under a google search for growth mindset – I found this image – the concept of The learning Pit. I quite like the whole image, about the idea of struggling through something, hitting the wall, and then coming out the other side. However, what I like most about this image is that little quote on the right hand side that says “if you can leap over the pit, you’re probably not learning”.

How easy is it to get excited about something easy – about leaping over the pit. But it does not offer a true learning experience. This is the same in the classroom, it is easy to fall into a rut and just do ‘interesting’ or easy activities – ones that engage the students. But are they really challenging the learners? Challenging them to learn more?

I have been doing some work with my year 10 class around the best way that they learn, particularly around the novel.  We did a range of activities in class, and then I asked these questions (among some others).

I thought that this was a really interesting reflection in terms of students thinking about learning. The green activity task 4 – was the winner in the interesting category, but it was the clear winner in terms of learning. In the opposite way, Task two  – red – was interesting, and so they seemed to enjoy it, but they did not feel like they learnt most from it at all!

On reflection, I agree with them, I designed Task Two so that they were able to think about the character, and how they would feel to be in the characters shoes. However, it did not aid their understanding of the novel.

The next steps would be to be explicit with students – and I was a little bit in terms of the bigger picture of this unit I was doing. But next time they tell me a task is boring – perhaps I will whip this out and point out that interesting does not necessarily mean they are learning lots – although there is nothing saying the two need to be mutually exclusive!

Food for thought!

Mrs K