Learning Mat
1st trial evaluations
CHawker
Which activity did I try that I haven’t used before in my classroom? In what context?
I tried the ‘elaboration ladder’ that Jenny added to the mat. I used it to structure and scaffold thought and group discussion with bottom set Year 8.
How did it go?
It was extremely useful to be able to scaffold speech, just like we might scaffold writing – particularly for this bottom set, who find group interaction challenging at times. A group leader was assigned, who lead the questioning as they ‘climbed up the ladder’. I did change the sentence prompts from the official ladder on the A3 mat, just to make it relevant to the lesson. The focus on ‘elaborating’ was also extremely useful, as comments from students can often be underdeveloped.
Student reactions?
Students reacted very well, with group work becoming very focused and lead well by those prompting with the questions. Some still struggled to engage with the conversations, so perhaps I need to build in independent work to gather ideas before they share them in groups next time – particularly with lower ability.
Next time I might…
The activity just before group work should generate ideas that lead directly into the group discussion. I might also combine this with the ‘expert groups’ idea to structure their ideas as they tour around the class sharing information. This could be used to structure writing at KS4 and to develop detail with the students in exam answers as well.
JTurner
Which activity did I try that I haven’t used before in my classroom? In what context?
I used community of enquiry, which I haven’t used in this structured way before. I used it with my top set year 7 group during a series of lessons on women and the vote. I thought it would be a useful way (other than thinking hats) to get the students thinking about a subject matter and to stimulate questions on how women should protest for the vote and the issues that surround it.
How did it go?
This worked really well to get the students thinking creatively and also to allow them to apply their previous knowledge about protest to the specific enquiry about women getting the vote. They were able to think about new approaches to how women could have gotten the vote and were able to comment on other student’s ideas.
Student reactions?
The students worked really well using this task as it allowed them freedom to question and comment on others ideas, whilst still remaining focused on the task
Next time I might…
Use this in conjunction with the thinking hats – Lucy did this and said it worked really well as it gave the students a really good framework for the thinking hats discussions.
JBrandham-Carter
Which activity did I try that I haven’t used before in my classroom? In what context?
I tried the ‘thinking hats’. I used it to aid decision making with design ideas in a cross curricular project with yr 7’s. They were working in groups on an open ended design and make project with an Olympic theme. They were a mid set yr 7 grp
How did it go?
It worked well with the group, some of them were familiar with this process as they had used it in another subject. It did help focus them to make decisions especially if groups were not working too well together or couldn’t decide what to do
Student reactions?
Students reacted very well, with group work becoming more focused and some groups particularly focused due to those prompting with the questions. Some still struggled to engage with the process and probably needed more help and guidance as some students weak / lower ability.
Next time I might…
Plan the groups possibly based on ability, assign roles to students as opposed to letting them pick their hat.
I would like to try this method again possibly Yr8/9 who may have more maturity to work in this manner. I can see some uses of this with my yr 10/11’s to help with their coursework.
LMonger
Which activity did I try that I haven’t used before in my classroom? In what context?
I tied the Thinking Hats and the Community of Enquiry together with 2 year 7 sets.
How did it go?
The students really liked the ‘Community of Enquiry’ and at point 4 instead putting them into groups of 4, I put them into thinking hats groups – ie red group blue group etc having numbered them off around the circle. This gave each group a specific focus for the mystery. They then took it in turns to write up their findings rather than their questions on the board and the blue hats managed this. They then invited each group to present their findings to the rest of the class back in the Community of Enquiry.
Student reactions?
The students really enjoyed this activity. Before we started the mystery we went over what we understood by the term Community of Enquiry. Their thoughts were…
Community – means people working together for the same thing
Enquiry – Finding things out, lots of the time on our own.
Applying the thinking hats to this…In a community if everyone has their own job to help the community then that will help the community to work better – so with thinking hats we will all have a different job to help with our community of enquiry.
…I was very pleased with this thinking!!
The students felt that the thinking hats helped them to be focussed but the Community of Enquiry helped them to feel like more of a team and share ideas more confidently.
Next time I might…
Use steps 5,6 and 7 of the Community of Enquiry as they are prescribed on the learning mat – it just so happened that they didn’t lend themselves as well to this particular lesson.
