Tip of the Month Flyer 11 - General

Tip of the Month Flyer Issue 11

Remember Bloom’s Taxonomy…

Think of it as a “Ladder of Learning” that your learners can climb with each passing task or activity. Using Bloom’s type verbs (doing words) are an ideal way of setting the learning Outcomes for the session. Try using words that move from easy (or mastery) tasks such as listing or recalling knowledge, right the way up to harder (or developmental) tasks such as critically evaluating an argument. “Tasks” include everything you ask students to do; such as verbal question and answers to full blown assignments or projects. In order to differentiate, lessons should ideally include a mixture of mastery and developmental tasks. Have fun, Simon.

The General Tips Issue

Welcome to the latest edition of the Tips of The Month flyer. In this issue we’re

focusing on general tips for your classrooms, especially

for those staff whom may be new to teaching. Here we bring you some tips that

others have found useful…

Evaluation • Judge, critically appraise Synthesis • Create, design, invent Analysis • Consider, compare, follow Application • Cook, use, calculate, practice Comprehension • Explain, identify, organise Knowledge • List, store, describe.

Harder Tasks

Easier Tasks

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“Becoming a new IT manager means you

must actively take the reins”











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The Power of Mind‐mapping…

Don’t forget the power of using Mind‐maps, thought showers and “word vomits” (where you ask learners to put as many, randomly thought of, words on to the page in 60 seconds!)… these are a great way to help build revision skills, and are a nice warm up task to check learning from previous sessions, and help learners self‐assess their progress and development. A nice touch is that when you go back over the mind‐map with the group, plugging gaps in their knowledge, ask the learners to use a different coloured pen/pencil when adding things they missed – these become the things they need to revise, or work on, leaving the original items / word as things they already know or are comfortable with. Enjoy, Richard.

Victoria Says…

I keep in contact with the learners and encourage

them to use Facebook effectively. I use it to

contact my personal tutor group and to work on collaborative projects. They need to learn to

use Facebook appropriately and for a range of things not just

for social networking. Media, Music and

Performing Arts have a link to the college

Facebook on their Oaklearn pages.

Context is Everything…

When motivating students as to why they should complete assignments and complete their course, bring it back to what is meaningful to them. I often say that, for most people, qualifications means more pay for less hours. What appears to motivate students more than anything, is asking them, if they see themselves still living with their parents when they are older, and under their rules. This seems to motivate the most reluctant learner to get on with it! Why not try it, Elizabeth.

Quick Tips…

With a large group of learners where a small core of disruptive/disaffected individuals try to take control; rather than let them disrupt the whole group, isolate them to one corner, give them a task to work on & concentrate on those who want to learn. Most of the time the 'difficult' ones behave inappropriately for attention & what they really hate is being ignored & excluded from the main group. When I tried this in a main stream school, the 'few' became frustrated & curious as to what they were missing & one by one joined the main group.

To encourage punctuality to sessions, I merely write down how late the learners are & deal with them at the end by keeping the for the time missed. They are also free to apply the same rule to me if I am ever late.

Why not give these a try? Sylvia.

If you’ve not already tried this web site, give it a go… The construction team have been trying it out for while, so why not get in touch and ask them to show you around? Anne.

As a personal tutor you could set up a blog named ‘Your Weekly Performance’. Within this blog the personal tutor could ask learners to write a short evaluation regarding their performance at the end of the week. The evaluation could relate to their assignment,

behaviour, attendance or punctuality. This way the tutor and learner can monitor, review and set targets for the following week (if you get time....). All of which can be linked to the ILP. It is not always possible to speak to every learner, but this way you can at least have an understanding of how they are performing’. Your could try this yourselves, Viren.

Send your Tips to: [email protected]

Using Multi‐media In Class…

Ewan’s Stress Buster! Hand over the work

Use one of lessons to get the students to prepare

the following session. Give them the learning aims and

let them design the teaching and learning

materials. You can decide whether you create the activity for checking of learning. They learn

through discovery while you have your materials

prepared for you.

Let it out Many teachers find the

demands of the job stressful. Jobs in education are the 5th most stressful in the world! So, let it out

once in a while. Share your thoughts with a

colleague. You may find they share the same

experiences or can help you with your problem. If this doesn’t work, write it down in a diary or keep a

blog. Go to http://learn.oaklands.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?id=40733 and have a look at my blog. You can even add your own entry to it.

Hi, Lee here… If you are doing group work as part of a lesson you can use music to time the group-discussion part. You can say ‘Right, you’ve got three songs to talk about this than I want to hear your reports’.

Once the policy is established you can use ‘choosing next week’s music’ as an incentive for students to stay focused/do well. Also, the music, carefully chosen, can be used to influence mood and atmosphere.

Alternatively, why not play the

‘Post It Note Game’ to establish key vocabulary or the key points of a topic.

Write the words/ideas etc on a series of post-its that students then stick on their foreheads (without seeing which one they’ve got). They then need to find out ‘who they are’ by asking questions of others, questions can only be answered in YES/NO format, so students have to prove contextual knowledge of the word/topic and it’s context in phrasing the right questions to find out ‘who they are’…

Another nice idea to try…

‐Using coloured squared cards to put learners into groups, my learners find it easier to remember a colour than names they may forget by the time they get to the yard…

‐Peer pressure tasks help less enthusiastic learners to want to have a go as others are being rewarded ~ a nice behaviour management strategy too. Enjoy these, Sally.


Paul’s Top Tips.

Embedding functional skills.

To illustrate how functional skills can be embedded within a lesson, give all of your students a copy of the functional skills standards for the level and subject that they are sitting. Then, deliver your lesson as normal and at the end of the lesson, get the students to identify which of the standards they have been working towards during the activities that have taken place in your lesson.

Lesson activity on translation.

In a lesson which deals with a theory based topic, say, for example, how nerve impulses are sent from the brain to a working muscle, get the students to read through a section of text and to highlight the key points. Then, get them to devise a storyboard which illustrates what the action is. By doing this, they are demonstrating that they are able to translate written text into a pictorial reference and they are also demonstrating their understanding of the subject matter.

An excellent web site for aids available and ideas for learners with communication difficulties is Speechmark Publishing [speech‐and‐language‐therapy‐update@speech‐and‐language.teachingexpertise.com].

They provide a weekly bulletin that includes loads of information, courses and ideas to develop communication.

Hope this helps, Libby.

Learning Difficulties Made Easy…

If you are having problems with learners with severe

learning difficulties that include visual impairments developing their communication strategies try introducing tactile objects of reference. This would need to be on a very gradual basis starting with say a cup for a drink or a plate for lunch/snack. These would need to be used several times a day for the learner to begin to understand these tactile clues.

Put the cup/plate into learner’s hands and encourage them to feel the object. Follow quickly with the drink/snack explaining clearly what you are doing to aide understanding. Over time more tactile objects can be introduced. This aids understanding of concept of choice and works as a situational clues. This form of communication will then allow learners to transfer skills and have some input into future day care provision to include choices of activities on offer.

Tactile objects of reference can be any item the learner is familiar with and can be personalised accordingly.

Work Life Balance for your Students… I use this tool in tutorials to help learners evaluate the current and immediate importance of certain

aspects of their life and assess suitable alterations if required to attain improved balance. Nick.

Step 1 – Draw a circle with 8 lines crossing the circle at equal distance. Then draw four smaller circles within the large circle. The lines should be numbered 1‐8 and the circles numbered 1‐5.

Step 2 – Mindmap 8 aspects of your life / course that are currently important to you.

e.g. assignment deadlines, relationships, social life, sports etc.

Step 3 – Write each of the aspects on different lines around the edge of the circle.

Step 4 – Think about each of the aspects in turn and consider and rate how much attention and time you are currently spending on that area. Mark this on the circle using 1 as low and 5 as high.

Step 5 – Now join up all the marks. Does it look balanced?

Step 6 – Think about each of the aspects again and assess where you would ideally like them to be rated on the circle. (Remember that you cannot just put all the aspects at a number 5 due to time

limitations). You should mark the new positions on the same circle.

Step 7 – Now you can view where you are currently and where you would like to be in the future. What gaps can you see?

Step 8 – You can now plan what you need to do to enable the gaps to be reduced or closed

(balanced).

Have you got any similar ideas that you want to share?

Send your tips to the SASP Team, and we’ll include them in the next issue.

Best Tip each issue wins a prize!!!


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Tip of the Month Flyer 11 - General