Inquiry into Current Teaching

Silivia, another Sommerville teacher, and I videoed each other teaching our play based learning sessions. It was interesting reflecting on the video and getting feedback from another teacher- something I have never done before. 

I taught the students how to play the ENGAGE game 'Simon says' so the students were learning to think and focus on what I was saying. Silivia commented on my ability to question at different levels to check for understanding . Three of my students can explain what they are learning when playing a particular game and the other 3 needed questions to prompt them how to play the game. 

 

I started at a slow pace with familiar actions that we use in our fitness sessions and I physically did the same actions as Simon said. I quickly realised the students weren't thinking but were just copying me or each other. So I blindfolded every student so they were just listening and thinking! This proved very successful so then I changed my approach and didn't do any actions but just said the words. 

I also played the ENGAGE game 'hot potato' which focuses on staying calm and looking at the object being thrown. This was an interesting session to anaylze with another teacher as some of the students didn't react positively when the object was thrown badly or if the music stopped and they were holding the object. I had thought that the students were much better at dealing positively when games don't go their way but then I released I keep changing the game! 

After analyzing the videos with Silivia, I realised that my students aren't transferring the skills they are learning, to the different games. Even the skills they learnt last year with board games don't seem to be transferring to our engage games so I need to teach those better and make explicit links to skills the students already have. 

I also think that I change things too quickly because when I think the students have shown understanding, I adapt the game. Silivia helped me remember that our students need time to process and consolidate the information which may be why they aren't able to transfer the skills. So I am going to rein in my excitement, slow down the process of playing a new game and remember I played the same board games for nearly a year before I could claim the boys had developed play skills!! 

 

Therefore my hypothesis is:

 'IF I structure new learning more effectively, THEN my students will respond positively to new learning. 

'IF I make explicit links to previous learning THEN my students will have more success with applying new skills. 

 I am going to implement  a 4 step procedure with new games for future sessions:

1) play as a class 

2) play with a class peer

3) adapt the game and play with the same class peer

4) play the same game with a different peer (mainstream or class) 

Silivia and I are excited to catch up again in  a few weeks to analyse our new learning!