Engaging Pupils

Religious Education

Quality Circle

January 18th 2006

Principles for Creating Engagement

• Activating prior knowledge

•Challenge

•Cooperative group work

•Metacognition

•Modes of representing information

•Scaffolds

•Deep and surface learning

Developing Engagement

Develop good teacher – pupil relationships

Attend to the physical environment

Establish clear routines and ground rules

Raising Standards

We must look not only at WHAT pupils learn but how they learn…

Question:

What strategies are we already using?

Thinking Skills

• Information processing

•Reasoning

•Enquiry

•Creative Thinking

•Evaluation

Effective Development of TS’s

Pupils are given open and challenging tasks Learning builds on existing knowledge structures Collaborative group work Pupils are encouraged to talk about tasks they have done There are learning outcomes at different levels

Question: What thinking skills activities do we already have in our schemes of work?

Thinking Skills

Classification Odd one out

Mysteries Maps from memory

Writing Tasks

Purposeful Context

Visual Support

Collaborative Writing

Writing Frames

What supports lower ability pupils?

Key words displayed

Saying new words out loud

Analysing text with the teacher

Repeating a newly learned skill until mastered

Having a small part of the lesson that reviews work

Being shown the big picture

Linking learning with other work

Visualise abstract ideas using model and analogy

Immediate feedback and praise for success

Time to improve work and correct mistakes

Working with a partner

Linking learning to real life

Using writing frames to structure writing

Using games and competitions

Frequently setting tasks that guarantee success