Our Learning Team has held its second meeting and enthusiasm is high.

The group identified several areas to focus their work on. Some have added a few strategies together.
Below is a flavour of the kind of things that are happening.
Significantly, there is a strong desire to improve practice and a willingness to try things out.

Link between Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria (most popular choice)

Since the last meeting I have been involved in the planning review group (nursery). I advocated that success criteria should be included beside learning outcomes on the new planning proforma – a next steps column has also been added. The planning proformas have been piloted by group members. I have personally found it quite empowering (for all!) to discuss success criteria with the children before and during an activity. It has reduced anxiety in one particular child. However being a “nursery person”
I still like to go with the flow and develop any incidental interests that may arise, taking these forward to next steps.
It takes thought/time to really think through success criteria. It can be tricky at times! Nursery

I have been trying out a variety of strategies with my class, the most successful of which has been the sharing of learning intentions and success criteria. I have trialled this during my maths lesson and begin by writing the learning intention on the board.
At first I had to model the success criteria for the children, but some are now beginning to have an input. I find it really helpful as I can get the children to check their success against the criteria throughout the activity. At the end of the lesson I can also check with the children that they have achieved their learning intention. It also informs my feedback to the children and parents. I also find it useful to use traffic lighting to gauge achievement and understanding. P2

I decided to try using WALT & WILF with a group to get them to think more about the success criteria for writing at level A.
I discussed WALT with the children and they told me that they were going to write a report. We then after much teaching/ discussion and keeping on task created WILF.
This was great because when I came to mark the work with the children they had a real understanding of what I was marking and why and, most importantly, they had an input to this.
This was the first time they had actually really discussed their work. LSS with P3

The focus of my work has been to explore target setting in writing.
The process involved the children examining a genre and creating a list of features. Eg letter – address, date, 3 paragraphs etc
From the list we would make a checklist, which became the success criteria used to guide their writing.
Using this the children would write then use it again to evaluate their writing, first by themselves then by a peer.
To address core writing targets such as punctuation and grammar, I established target cards from level A to C. If they addressed a target I would sign their card and they would store it away. They would pick a new target.
Level A – yellow, Level B – red, Level C – blue
Very motivating. P4

I decided to look at peer marking.
At first this was hard for me because I thought I was “cheating” by getting the children to mark their work and not me.
After 1 –2 weeks I started to see the benefits as the children voluntarily offered each other advice and also complimented each other. This has developed their self esteem. I also saw the class starting to take responsibility in their presentation and taking an interest in how they were assessed and wanting to know if they had achieved. They were also taking responsibility in saying to me (the teacher) I have more than 3 questions wrong, I don’t understand, show me and I can do my corrections. P5

I decided to focus on learning outcomes and success criteria. Also on using the plenary session for next steps. I did this because I felt at the end of maths lessons in particular, some children did not seem to be fully aware of the point of the lesson!
It has changed my approach completely. I now state the aims, teach the lesson and the children are much more aware of what they are learning and also what they find difficult.
The plenary session has been very useful. Often if any of the children have not understood they use the plenary to discuss it. They enjoy having their peers helping them to understand. P6

I was interested in looking at learning outcomes and quickly discovered that it worked better done in tandem with success criteria.
I have used it primarily in ES and writing but have started extending this.
I have found it really enhances children’s ability to focus on what is being learnt/taught and why they should learn this.
Asking children to identify their own SC in a lesson where there is a familiar LO makes them much more engaged and clear about what is expected of them, so much better work is produced.
· Makes marking easier for me!
· Has improved my teaching!
On occasion has ensured I clarified prior learning/knowledge that allowed me to change the lesson slightly eg in lesson on endangered species I discovered ch’d thought endangered meant dangerous! P6

Questioning

I began to think more carefully about the questions I ask the children and to encourage the rest of the nursery staff to be more aware of this too.
A good strategy for me has been to ask myself if I know the answer before I speak to the children. If I do, I try to rephrase it.
eg If I know the grass is green why am I asking for the answer? Can I extend it in some way to ascertain the children know the grass is green but can think about things that are the same colour.
Now I ask the children more open ended questions. I want to know what their opinion is – it doesn’t have to be the “right” answer, just what they’re thinking about, how to solve a problem/challenge. Nursery

I have been concentrating on asking my children to ask more effective questions. Nearly all the questions they asked were business questions or closed questions. I think children’s questions answered appropriately is a very effective learning tool. I used the analogy of fat (open) and skinny (closed) to start making them aware of the difference. We used newstime and show & tell to help them learn the difference. I modelled questioning as well. This has proved moderately successful. Much more successful was bringing someone in from outside to talk on a topic that interested the children and opening it up to questions. This gave a good variety of questions. I am looking for ways to bring this in to general teaching. P1

Encouraging children to appreciate the difference between questions and telling.
To do this children had to be aware that questions needed an answer.
I chose to hide an object in a bag/box. Children had to ask questions to discover the identity of the object. At first questions had to be framed to allow for a yes or no answer.
As children became more confident with asking questions they were encouraged to ask more open ended questions.
I have found when visitors come into school children now ask them questions instead of telling them stories about themselves. P2

I tied in increased wait time to this.
It seemed like a very simple small step I could address due to lack of time in classroom. I only see my class Monday & Tuesday at the moment. I found it very difficult to wait until all the children had an answer to a question. Being P7 they were a bit puzzled in the beginning but soon realised what I was doing and what I expected.
I think what I have noticed most is that very often children who put their hands up straight away take them down again as they realise they have more “think time” and then they put their hands up again. – quality of answers has improved. P7

I am a new member to the group hoping to find out more about improving learning through formative assessment share this with colleagues back at school.
One idea I have used in the classroom from a session at Longniddry Primary back in October is to have students’ names on lollypop sticks to randomly choose people to answer questions.
This ensures everyone has to think and gets a fair chance to contribute. Secondary science

Next Steps

Having a composite class I was finding it difficult to fit in a meaningful plenary, always felt rushed. I began with one group during maths. After each lesson, time was given to establishing what the children had learned, still needed to learn and that formed the starting point for the next lesson.
It took a few lessons for the group to feel comfortable in speaking about their learning so far. Use of traffic lights helped. From this we are now moving on with the children learning quicker and I can plan my lessons where the children are at. The children now seek plenary -“sharing time”.
If we don’t have it then they ask why.
I am really astounded by the way the children have taken clear ownership of what, how and why they are learning. P1/2

Personal Challenges

Looked at setting targets for key pupils, also addressed a wider variety of learning styles.
Reward charts and individual goals worked short term to keep the pupils focused and engaged. Novelty wore off quite quickly.
A wider focus on learning styles was effective eg more use of powerpoint, props and maps engaged the visual and special learners. Need to monitor this further to evaluate success. S1 geography

Read the update on the Learning Teams