Accelerated Learning refers to a series of simple techniques that any teacher can incorporate into any lesson to ensure that a maximum amount of learning takes place. It works on the premise that time spent in class must be efficiently used, implying that sound lesson planning forms the foundational framework.
Let’s take a look at five simple, but highly effective techniques you can use to accelerate learning.
Technique Number 1: Practice and Application
A lecture or talk is usually not enough to make content stick. Students need to know how to use it in order to understand it.
In short, this means that students need to complete lots of questions or tasks on the content and, crucially, receive feedback on their work.
Most school textbooks have cottoned-on to this by providing lots of questions within the pages themselves. However, you should look into extra ways to supplement these in-text questions with workbooks, past-paper questions, worksheets, puzzles, and games. On top of creating and keeping my own resources, I personally source extra materials from the following places:
Workbooks: Letts, CGP,andBarron’sprovide amazing workbooks which goalongside many American and British school courses.
Past paper questions: Your exam board will be able to provide these for you. At the moment I’m teaching CIE courses and past papers are available on theirteacher-supportsite. I often group these past-paper questions by topic, and many courses like theIBDPeven provide easy-to-use question banks.
Worksheets, puzzles, and games: TheTESandUKEdChatare great places to go for these. You can even sell some resources you’ve made on TES too. For games, I like touse mypersonal choice of seven,which are very effective.
Technique Number 2: Break Content Down into Achievable Goals
It was the famous Anthony Robbins himself who said that “If it’s believable, it’s achievable”. Students need to know where they are going, and how they are going to get there. Break down their progression into a series of simple, believable stages, or targets, that they must achieve.
Use level ladders, progression charts, and even your own tailor-made tables. These can be stuck into student notebooks so that they constantly have a reference guide. Also, use student self-assessment checklists regularly so they can assess their own progress. An teacher example is given below. You would probably adjust this for students to make it more encouraging:
Technique Number 3: Use the 80:20 Principle
Have you ever heard of the Pareto principle? It’s a golden rule that says that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work. It’s used widely in business (80% of sales, for example, coming from 20% of marketing campaigns).
The Pareto principle can be applied to anything.
In English, 20% of words make up 80% of written scripts. In music, 20% of chord progressions make up 80% of all pop songs. Accelerated learning requires that you focus on the vital 20% and avoid wasting time on the less vital 80% of the task.
Try breaking your subject down into the vital 20% of skills and knowledge students will need, and practice these regularly. To do that, you’ll need to know what the 20% is, to begin with. You’ll need to scour through your syllabuses and Course Guides, use your own knowledge and experience, and experimentation.
Apply the Pareto principle to all of your teachings, from foreign language vocabulary to cookery, and your students will learn faster than ever.
Technique Number 4: Block Out Distractions
I once gave a stern lecture to the entire final year cohort of a previous school. I had noticed that many of the students were getting distracted by the internet, chat, apps, gaming and smartphones. Some parents were complaining that their children were not getting enough sleep because they were staying up too late chatting through Skype with their friends.
It’s really important to educate students on the dangers of distractions. Technology can be a transformational tool in the learning process, but it can also be a dramatic procrastination tool. Watch your students closely when they are using technology in the classroom, and constantly create an atmosphere of urgency – that things must be done quickly and on-time.
Technique Number 5: Teach Students How to Revise
Too often we assume that students already know how to revise properly for exams, and many receive no formal education on the process of learning itself.
This is cause for regret.
Hold special study skills classes with your students as the terminal exams approach, perhaps through some kind of school mentoring program. Teach your students about mind-mapping, cue-cards, recording audio notes and other revision techniques. ThisGuardianarticle offers a great place to start.
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Fostering creativity in the classroom is more important now than ever before. In fact, Ofsted’s own inspection handbook for schools states, under section 133, that the spiritual development of students is shown by their “use of imagination and creativity in their learning.” I talk about the importance and excitement of encouraging creativity in the classroom, along with some practical tips, in this week’s UKEdChat podcast here.
Allowing students to ‘build’ something is a great way to encourage creativity
As service-based and online businesses become more numerous, the need for effective skills in marketing, social media marketing, branding and sales in the workforce will naturally increase too. In addition, the need to solve problems in a new ‘robotic era’ places increased demands on new graduates to be creative thinkers. And that’s one thing robots cannot replace: Human creativity and ingenuity.
Pop: A True Story of Creative Genius
Pop: The Best Illustrator in the World!
When I reflect on my 12 years of teaching experience, one very obvious example of the benefits of encouraging creativity in school comes to mind.
Back in 2008, Sutthiya Lertyongphati (or ‘Pop’, for short), was my IGCSE Chemistry student at Traill International School. She was always very hard working in Chemistry – considered to be a left-brain, analytical subject; but at the same time, she was also very artistic and creative. She would spend lots and lots of time making beautiful, elaborate drawings in her notes. Take a look at these beautiful Chemistry notes of hers, from way back when she was 16, for example:
When Pop left school after finishing her ‘A’ – Levels, she went on to study Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of Nottingham. During her third year, back in 2015, I was busy writing my debut book, The Quick Guide to Classroom Management. I needed someone to illustrate my book in a way that would catch the excitement, childish wonder and essence of different parts of the text. Images needed to be attractive and stimulating, so that readers would not only learn from my book but enjoy it too.
So who do you think was the first person to come to mind? The amazing and wonderful student who created those beautiful chemistry notes all those years ago of course: Pop.
Pop agreed to illustrate my book, along with another very creative former student of mine, and Pop’s friend, Khim Pisessith. Just look at these beautiful images they created, now enjoyed by thousands of readers all over the world:
Pop and Khim’s beautiful images were well-received by the readers of the book, who described it as “beautifully illustrated” and “Playfully decorated with tactful drawings that really bring the techniques into context”.
I was so honored and thankful for Pop and Khim’s work, and so happy that I could actually show my readers that my 45 secrets to classroom management actually worked. Pop and Khim were both very hard-working students and were a living testament to what effects personal determination, a nurturing school environment (and Traill International School is certainly that!) and good parental guidance can have on the outcomes of students’ lives.
I’ve been teaching long enough to now to be able to see the end result. I’m still in touch with many of my first students I taught back in 2006 in the UK, and I’m proud to say that they are now all mature, professional, inspiring young men and women in their early to mid-twenties. I see the output that results from encouraging students to fully express themselves through their schoolwork by being creative, and the results are always profound and positive, even after decades have passed.
Pop: The Greatest Illustrator in the World
As well as working full time and doing a regular day job, Pop is now my regular illustrator and a key factor in the success of this well-loved blog you’re reading now. Most notably, she drew up the plans for the 7 Starter activities blog, which is my most popular article ever. The beautiful images on creativity that color today’s article were also created by her.
Who else could I assign this role too? Pop has her own unique style of expressing herself through her art, which my readers absolutely love. Additionally, having known her many years, I know that she is determined and trustworthy. Her reputation speaks for itself.
Creating the Pops of this world
So, how do regular teachers create more Pops – students who are successful, creative, confident and turn out well in life. Well, one of the main ways is to encourage exploration, which is really just another word for creativity. Here are my top tips for encouraging creativity in the classroom:
Get the students to decide on the success criteria or output. Once your learning objectives have been made clear to the students, (e.g. Describe the stages of cell division), ask them to decide how they can show you what they have learned. Students are nearly always very creative with this kind of task, and Pop always loved using her creative juices with this kind of work in class.Song is just one way through which students can creatively express themselves
To assist, you can even give them the world-renowned Osborne-Parnes model to work with, which has six stages:
Mass-finding: Identify a goal or objective
Fact-finding: Gathering data
Problem-finding: Clarifying the problem
Idea-finding: Generating ideas
Solution-finding: Strengthening and evaluating ideas
Acceptance-finding: Plan of action for implementing ideas
If you’re doing group work with the kids then you could assign these stages to different students in each group. And that’s another point to remember about creativity: it tends to be fostered brilliantly in groups, especially when a technological output is required. I’ll never forget when I asked my IBDP Biology students to create a summary of DNA replication using technology. One group produced a website, one produced a stop-motion animation, one produced a Prezi and one produced a really funny song about the process. Try using the age-old differentiation technique of heterogeneous grouping: that is to make sure that each group contains a real mix of abilities and skill sets. Doing this, you’ll find yourself rather surprised at the quality and creativity of each group’s output.
Art is not just for art class. Students can express any concept through art.
Also, try using the technique of Student Teachers. This is one of my all-time favorites. In this activity, you give students responsibility for teaching part of a lesson. You’ll need to give basic instructions regarding the topic, the length of time and essential points to cover. Leave the structure and delivery to them – students are nearly always incredibly creative with this!
Try this list
Allow students to express themselves and the output of a task through:
It was a cold December night at Kinmel Park Training Camp. I was all done up in camouflage: sticks and twigs even stuck out of my epaulettes. It was pitch black, and my seniors had L.S.W. rifles pointed diligently in the perceived direction of the enemy. A helicopter flew overhead. I really felt like I was a soldier, even though I was only a 13 year old Army Cadet recruit. This was awesome!
One of my first experiences as a teacher: A 14-year old Lance Corporal instructor in the Army Cadets
I was really fortunate to have a childhood that literally depended on the outdoor environment. I grew up in the town of Flint, North Wales: A place that’s surrounded with some of the most amazing countryside in the world. As a kid, I would roll down the old moat like a sausage at Flint Castle and I’d go walking and running in the mountains, forests and on the beaches that literally surround this ancient town. I wasn’t afraid to get dirty either – riding my mountain bike down Cornist Hallhill and tumbling over in the mud, building dams in streams and digging holes to bury toy soldiers. All of this was a normal part of my childhood, and I loved it. It toughened me up and taught me skills that I’d use later in life when I would live in big cities like Bangkok and Chongqing.
Joining the Army Cadetsreally changed my life, and I don’t think I’d be here writing this blog post as a seasoned educator now if I hadn’t have joined. What did the Army Cadets give me? That’s easy to recall: Confidence in my abilities (tons of it), the best friends in the world, a mentality of pushing through when life gets tough and a sense that being a layabout was never a good, or satisfying, way to live one’s life. I would never have been adventurous enough to leave the comfortable climes of North Wales and work abroad, for example, if it wasn’t for the tenacious spirit that the Army Cadets instilled in me.
I was lucky, and I talk about my childhood experiences with the outdoor environment in this amazing UKEdChat podcast about Outdoor Learning (highly recommended) at 30:06 here:
The modern problem
With increasing urbanization happening globally, many schoolchildren these days are not lucky enough to have the intense outdoor immersion that I had as a child. However, there are multiple, daily opportunities for outdoor learning that teachers can work into into their lessons that we will explore now.
The misconception
In my opinion, Outdoor Learning doesn’t just have to be achieved through a field trip, residential or a visit to a special place. Outdoor learning can happen within the immediate environment of the school, and this can be worked into many curriculum areas. Let’s explore some practical strategies.
#1 Use the school’s plants and foliage
Even in the most built up of environments, schools will have some plants on site. I once worked at a school in Bangkok that had an astro-turf football pitch (so no grass) and the only accessible outdoor plants were some climbers on a back wall.
“An AMAZING book! Essential reading for all teachers!”
But at least it was something.
A funny thing happened one day at that school. I was teaching my Year 9 students about biodiversity and we all went down to those creeper plants with pooters and sweep nets. I thought we wouldn’t find anything, but to my amazement the students collected loads of crickets! I was befuddled, but rather pleased at the same time! We took them back to class and took a look at them.
I later learned that day that my Science colleague had been using crickets in his lab the lesson before, and had just released them onto those creepers minutes before my kids came down swinging their sweep nets! Poor crickets – they’d been prodded and poked and released and recaptured and prodded and poked some more! We had a good laugh about it that afternoon!
This short story teaches us that there are always benefits to using the school’s plant life, even if it’s skimpy. You never know what might come of it, even if a weird coincidence like the one just mentioned doesn’t happen. In addition, students will learn to appreciate their school environment even more than they did before.
#2 Make use of the unexpected
You never know what might happen, but when it does happen, use it!
A classic example was at another school I worked at in Bangkok when a snake slithered into the grounds! It was long and green and had a fat part in the middle: as though it had just eaten a rat. What a memorable experience! It’s a shame my school didn’t use this fully. Just think what could have been achieved:
Photos of the snake could have been taken and sent to all teachers
Teachers could show the students the photo and link it to curriculum areas.
For example – The serpent in the garden that tempted Eve (Religious Education), an analysis of this snake species and it’s global distribution (Biology and Geography), adjectives used to describe this snake, such as ‘slithering’, ‘creeping’, ‘demonic’ and ‘scaly’ (English language).
After the snake had been captured by the professionals who were sent in, it could have been contained in a glass tank and students could be allowed to visit the snake safely for a few days before it was taken to it’s new home. Great for primary kids!
Where were you when 9/11 happened? I bet you remember – of course you do (if you were alive and conscious then). Unexpected events etch their engravings deep into the subconscious memory, allowing recall to take place decades after the event has happened. Surely, then, it is foolish not to make the most of the unexpected, if safe and practical to do so.
#3 – Outdoor Learning is not just for Science teachers
As we’ve already seen, many curriculum areas can be supported in the outdoor school environment.
Are you teaching IGCSE German? Take a walk around the school and get your students to identify key items, such as leaves, bricks, walls, grass and trees, in German. Maybe you’re teaching a History lesson about Offa’s Dyke path – why not get your kids to build a mini-dyke on the school field? How about mathematics? – Well geometry and shapes burst to life in both the built and natural environments.
In short, there are always ways to use the school environment in your subject area. Build opportunities into your Schemes of Work and planning documents, book spaces in advance (e.g. the school field) to avoid clashes and be creative!
#4 Your school environment provides space
Many of the learning games I use frequently in class, such as corners and vocabulary musical chairs (shown below), require lots of space. Why not take the kids outside to play these games from time to time? It’ll make the content more memorable and you’ll avoid problems such as trips and falls, which can sometimes happen in a cluttered classroom.
#5: Embrace the opportunities offered by field trips and residentials
Sometimes the best way to benefit from the great outdoors is to completely leave the confines of the school premises with your students. If you’re asked to go on a residential or field trip, or are responsible for planning one, see this as a tremendous opportunity to enrich various curriculum areas.
With this kind of event, individual subject teachers are almost never consulted on what kinds of activities they would like to see happen. This is unfortunate. Try to involve all members of the teaching team in the planning process, so that maximum benefit can be made. Field trips and residentials often provide the perfect environment to get coursework done, for example, and are great for project-based work.
Conclusion
Outdoor learning does not have be outdoors, in terms of being outside school. Find opportunities to use the school environment to enrich various curriculum areas
Use the unexpected: Caught in a downpour? – go and collect some rainwater and test the pH, or use it as a symbol of cleansing in Religious Education, or talk about precipitation in Geography. The unexpected can often offer opportunities for serious long-term knowledge retention.
Use the vast space that your school environment provides to play learning games and explore the richness offered within the school grounds.
Plan field trips and residentials fully, so that key curriculum areas are enriched.
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As an author for the Times Educational Supplement teacher resources site, I was very excited to receive this month’s Author Newsletter. In it was a breakdown (the first of its kind), of all of the resources that are in the highest demand at different points in the year. For April, SPaG (meaning Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) resources were listed as being bestsellers, indicating that demand for SPaG tips is high at this time of the year. I thought, therefore, it would be helpful to begin May with some great SPaG review tips and tricks.
For those readers who are teaching a non-British curriculum, you may not be aware that SPaG tests are now compulsory in England at the end of Key Stage 1 (Ages 6-7) and Key Stage 2 (Ages 8-11).
However, as a teacher who’s teaching Science and Mathematics through the medium of English, I vehemently believe that good SPaG teaching is the responsibility of all educators, whether you’re teaching small children, teens or adults. SPaG can be effectively reinforced in any subject area, and I’ve come to the realisation that I’ve actually been doing this for years, without calling it SPaG!
Here are my top tips for teaching and reviewing SPaG, which are all tried and tested and highly effective.
Play vocabulary games
The following vocabulary games are awesome! I’ve used them for years, and my mostpopular blog post everprovides 7 of the very best games you can play with your students. Try these for SPaG specific benefits:
Splat
This quick game is so easy: all you need is a whiteboard, whiteboard markers and class of kids. It’s a great game for consolidating key vocabulary, and is perfect for E.A.L. learners.
Here’s a short video showing a quick clip of me playing ‘Splat’ with my students (I will include some more lengthy clips soon, but this is a good start):
Mystery Word
Another easy game. This time, students randomly pick out written words from a hat (or cup, beaker, container, etc.), and then they have to explain their word to the class (without saying the word). The students who are listening have to guess what the word is.
Who am I?
A very simple game. All you need are post-it notes and a class full of energized students! Great fun. Perfect for reinforcing key vocabulary and concepts. I just played this last week with an AS-Biology class and they loved it!
Corners
I love this one! It gets very competitive so be prepared for a noisy lesson!
Use vocabulary journals
These are very powerful learning tools, but they are so underused in the teaching profession!
Take two weeks ago for example. My AS-Level Biology students had just finished their mock exams and I sat down with one young lady to provide feedback to her. She had great subject knowledge, but had used incorrect adjectives in some of her answers. For example:
Any AS-Level examiner will tell you that this is a common way in which international students lose marks in exams. So, how can I help this student now?
The solution is simple and effective: she’ll have a special notebook in which she writes down all of the model answers to questions she gets incorrect in the intense past-paper practice we’ll be doing for the next month and a half. She’ll be keeping a ‘vocabulary journal’, and I’ll be checking it and sitting with her to discuss it each week.
Journals are a great way for students to constantly review their understanding and knowledge of key vocabulary. With students who have very low English proficiency, you may wish to use journals from day one. With others, such as my AS-Biology student who only needs some ‘fine-tuning’, they can be used at specific points in the academic year.
Elocution, elocution
Elocution simply means modelling good speech.
Speak your key words and key vocabulary clearly, and get your students to repeat them! I used this technique only three days ago in a KS3 Science class. One of the key words was ‘species’. The dialogue went something like this:
Teacher: “Say spee-shees”
Students:“spay-shees”
Teacher:‘One more time. Listen carefully: ‘speeeeeeee-shees”
Students:“Speeee-shees”
Teacher:“Perfect, ‘Speee-shees’ Well done.”
Elocution might seem like a silly way to review concepts that will be tested in a written exam paper. However, many studies have shown the remarkable benefits that elocution can have on spelling proficiency, as well as conceptual understanding.
Differentiate texts
Many school subjects require students to read and analyse paragraphs of text. Whether it’s a description of freeze-thaw action in geography, or a synopsis of the rise of crypto currencies in ICT or economics: blurbs, descriptions and essays confront our students with unique challenges.
Sometimes our students don’t yet have the reading level to cope with the text. Sometimes they just simply get switched-off or disinterested, and this may or may not be related to their English language proficiency.
Have you ever stopped reading a book, or a short article, because it just didn’t interest you enough? I know I have, many times.
I can read but if I’m not interested, I’ll switch off.
Thankfully, there are a number of methods we can use to make texts more digestible for children and young adults. I’ve written a separate blog post outlining these strategieshere.
Follow Me cards
This is a classic technique, which can be applied to many subject areas. Share a large number of cards around your class (e.g. 32). Ask one child to read the definition on their card. The child who has that definition then has to read their word and also the definition on their card. This continues until all 32 words and definitions have been shared.
If you complete it correctly, the game should end with the person who started it!
More SPaG resources
For tailor-made made SPaG tips and resources, try these links:
Times Educational Supplement SPaG site
Just filled to the brim with superb resources! Check it out!
It was an unusually hot September morning. The year was 2005, and this was the first lecture I would receive at Bangor University’s prestigious School of Education. The topic: Differentiation.
Differentiation, in the context of education, was a totally alien concept to me before I embarked on my PGCE course. My degree was in Molecular Biology, so differentiation to me meant stem cells developing into specialized cells, such as red blood cells and nerve cells. However, this background knowledge wasn’t totally obsolete on this day, as I soon realised that educational differentiation means tospecialise your teaching to suit the needs of different students, so that each student learns as much as they possibly can.
Here’s the best official definition of differentiation that I could find:
Differentiation refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course, classroom, or learning environment. The basic idea is that the primary educational objectives—making sure all students master essential knowledge, concepts, and skills—remain the same for every student, but teachers may use different instructional methods to help students meet those expectations.
I would like to take this opportunity now to explain some of the best “instructional methods” I have used to enable effective differentiation to take place. I also talk about my top three techniques in this UKEdChat podcast here:
Learning Style Tables:This is such a great activity for engaging a wide variety of learners. The idea is that you produce the same information or lesson instructions via pictures, audio, in writing or in clues that need to be solved or through some some other style, such as tablet PCs linked to online simulations. Students can go to the table that best suits their learning style or you can direct themto one. This takes some preparation but its well worth it.
Delegated Responsibility:Allocate different tasks to different groups within a class, based upon ability levels. For example, when analyzing a poem a weaker group might be asked to ‘describe the meaning’, whilst a higher ability group might be asked to ‘suggest the ways in which form and structure emphasize the meaning’.
“An AMAZING book! Essential reading for all teachers!”
Student Teachers:This is one of my all-time favourites. In this activity, you give students responsibility for teaching part of a lesson. You’ll need to give basic instructions regarding the topic, length of time and essential points to cover. Leave the structure and delivery to them – students are nearly always incredibly creative with this!
Creative Styles: This is really easy to implement, and can be done on an individual basis (so its slightly different to the Learning Styles Tables activity). Offer students a range of ways in which to complete a task. For example, a verbal essay submitted via video; a traditional written essay; picture essay; a newspaper article and so on.
Plenary Assessment:Get students to write down on a slip of paper the areas they are still having problems with, or any questions or queries they still have. Collect these in and use the information to plan the groupings and activities for the next lesson.
Peer Enabling.This isn’t very hi-tech but it’s easy to put in place, and it’s very effective. Seat the students in mixed ability groups and get the students to decide a name for their group. Hold a group competition, perhaps using some of the activities like the ‘Poster Game’ here. Peer competition can improve performance and, in a mixed-ability class, weaker students won’t feel intimidated by the more able.
Questions.Give students some control over the lesson by getting them to write any questions they need answering as part of your starter activity. Divide them up and get students to suggest answers in their groups. This works particularly well with Science, Geography, English Literature, History and Poetry, but it can be applied to any task or text.
Economical Students.In groups, give students the opportunity to ‘buy and sell’ information, tips or ideas from you by giving them tokens or vouchers to swap for resources. They can then ‘sell’ the information on to other groups in the class. In a small class, this would also work well on an individual basis.
Glossaries.Prepare different types of word glossaries to support learning in class. This is particularly useful for ESL or bilingual students. If you can produce bilingual glossaries for individual students, then that would be a major token of help. Some can be to explain difficult words, whereas others can offer ‘wow’ words that need to be included in a piece of writing (for more able students).
Discussion Statements.Provide a series of generalised discussion statements to which students can apply differing levels of knowledge. For example, ‘If Tesla was alive today, he’d be trying to generate free electricity. Discuss’. For more specific topics, such as a historical account, use the statements to frame the entire lesson, allowing students to change their views as they gain more information.
Stepped Complexity. When writing comprehension questions, make sure you place them in order of complexity, so they become more open-ended and challenging as you go along. You could try structuring these aroundBloom’s Taxonomyfor extra effect.
Assigning Roles.This is a very easy and powerful differentiation technique, which I talk about at length in this video here. Allocate tasks for any group work: leader, scribe, ideas people, speaker and so on. This makes sure everyone joins in and you can assign roles according to ability or character. In fact, roles should be assigned during all investigative group work, in order to maximise efficiency.
Mixed Starter. Have a PowerPoint or Prezi slide divided into four tasks. One focused on numeracy, another on words, another encouraging deeper thinking skills, one that’s really challenging (for the most able) etc.
In the Frame.Have differentiated writing frames with increasing levels of support available. Highlight the level each writing frame is aiming for – students accept this more readily and are likely to challenge themselves to the level above. Take a look at theseBadger Science Assessmentsfor some ideas.
What’s in the Box?Have a ‘help box’ at the front of the class or place one on each table. Put tips, pictures, word glossaries or advice inside. Students use the box as and when they feel they need more help.
Traffic Lights. This is a classic. Give students red, green and amber cards. When they are completely happy with a task, they display their green cards; when less certain the amber ones and when they are absolutely stuck, the red ones. This works well if students are encouraged to do this throughout the course of the lesson.
It Belongs to Me!: Get some envelopes and give each student personal instructions about what’s required with individual support that still allows challenge. Of course many will be the same but use their names on envelopes. This engages the students straight away!
Reverse Annotations. Try giving your annotations for a text or piece of work to students. They have to decide where they would place them and why. This provides structure for weaker students, but keeps the more able challenged. This works with diagrams and charts too.
Questionnaire: Use a mini-questionnaire to find out more about your class. Students love to tell you about themselves and you can tailor lessons or worksheets to include their hobbies and even favorite football teams. I write about this extensively here, in my guest blog post about building rapport.
Must, Should and Could:This is an old classic. Phrase lesson goals in terms of: ‘All must complete …’, ‘Most should complete …’, and ‘Some could complete …’. This works well as an aspirational tool, because all students want to be in the elite, ‘some’ category and so tend to try harder.
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It was a typical INSET/teacher-training day at my school, or at least it started out that way.
I was up early at the ring of three alarm clocks, and a few snooze buttons worth of ‘sneaky sleep’ time for each (a habit which I have now, thankfully, changed. Side note: Check out a book called The Miracle Morning if you want your life to change immediately!).
It was a long summer vacation, and now it was back to the daily momentum of the first semester.
The morning was fairly standard: new staff introductions, receiving our timetables and talks from the principal and deputies about our school’s focus and aims for this academic year. A complimentary lunch of Pad Thai and iced tea followed. So far, so good.
And then came the afternoon slot. First session on the agenda: Supporting EAL students in mainstream classes. We all eagerly walked in, took our seats and got out our pens and notepads ready to take notes. One of our popular and friendly American colleagues was leading the session, so we were we’re all excited.
The session began with a ‘Bonjour……, sava?” and that’s all the vocabulary I can remember from then on in. I had no idea that my American friend was a fluent French speaker, and I couldn’t speak even a string of three words in French: I dropped it at age 14.
This went on for about 15 minutes. The spoken language was French, the PowerPoint was in French and the handouts were in French. And then, oh no, the teacher asked me a question!
I did what all of my EAL students habitually do at this point, I turned and asked my friends for help, in my native language (English). Big mistake! My American friend turned into a ruthless foe as she launched a vicious and aggressive verbal attack on me (which I didn’t understand). Even though I knew this was a teacher-training session, and I was ‘supposed’ to make this mistake, I still felt humiliated.
I later learned that she said “Speak in French only”, in French.
If you’ve never took part in an activity like this before, then try it. It is a very blunt and merciless reminder of the challenges our EAL and ESL students face when they are taught through the medium of English.
Over the past 11 years I have had the privilege of working with thousands of EAL and ESL students. It started when I was in the UK teaching the children of eastern European migrants, and then progressed on to a wide-spectrum of international students in the ensuing 8 years in Thailand, and my current year in China. I’ve learnt that some techniques work really well almost every time, and some can be a bit hit-and-miss (sorry for the colloquialism: that’s something you should avoid, by the way!).
Let me share with you the best techniques that will take your EAL and ESL teaching to the next level of excellence.
Have sympathy and patience
Don’t forget that EAL students need time to process whatever you’ve said, or the task or information they’ve been given, in their native language before they can give you a response in English.
Allow students time to think. Pause a while, let the student discuss their answer with a friend who speaks their language if necessary. Listen carefully to the response you get. Praise the parts that were correct. Model good grammar and execution.
Pause and allow your students time to process information. Praise them when they provide a good response. Have patience, and watch your students flourish!
Take a look at this short dialogue:
Teacher:“So, James, what does the word ‘Species’ mean?”
James:(Has a short talk with his friend in Chinese. Teacher pauses.)“Species mean when animal are like the same.’
Teacher:“Wow! Great answer James. A species can be a group of animals or plants that have similar characteristics. Well done for using the word ‘same’, but I think that ‘similar’ is a better word. Can anyone else tell me something about the word ‘species’?”
Focus on the long-term goals of improving your EAL students’ comprehension gradually. Don’t expect miraculous results overnight, but at the same time don’t limit your beliefs in these students’ abilities.
Speak slowly and watch your accent
As soon as I landed in Thailand I discovered this important secret: EAL students need to hear a clear speaker when being taught through the medium of English, so that they can model good practice.
Slow your voice down, and speak loudly and clearly (but don’t shout). If you have a thick localised accent, try to make it more classical and concise.
I come from Flint in North Wales: a small town with its very own unique accent that’s different to anywhere else in the UK! When my wife, who is Thai, comes with me to the UK to meet my family, she often cannot understand what we are all saying when we use the local dialect (including me, her husband!).
My wife has a master’s degree from the UK, so what hope would my high school kids have in understanding me if I tried speaking in ‘Flint’ to them?
I have learned to slow my voice down and speak in a more neutral/classical dialect when I’m teaching. You may have to do the same. Make a video recording of one of your lessons and watch yourself teach. You’ll be surprised at how many slip-ups you make, and there may even be times when you can’t understand yourself!
Elocution, elocution
Elocution simply means modelling good speech.
Speak your key words and key vocabulary clearly, and get your students to repeat them! I used this technique only three days ago in a KS3 Science class. One of the key words was ‘species’. The dialogue went something like this:
Teacher:“Say spee-shees”
Students:“spay-shees”
Teacher:‘One more time. Listen carefully: ‘speeeeeeee-shees”
Students:“Speeee-shees”
Teacher:“Perfect, ‘Speee-shees’ Well done.”
Be vocal. Use elocution as a way to reinforce concepts, vocabulary and inflections
Don’t forget that written delineation is not enough to enable students to understand words and contexts. Visual and auditory outputs are essential too, and that’s why we must spend time on correct elocution.
Prompting
This is a classic technique that is very simple to implement. Prompting is when you say the initial sound of the word, allowing space and time for the students to complete it. Take a look at this example:
Teacher: “The force that pulls objects towards the Earth is called grr, grr, grr…….”
Students:“Gravity!”
Teacher:“Yes! Gravity. Well done!”
Use prompting often, even with written language. Point to words on your presentations, and make students say them.
Do you prompt your students to use key vocabulary?
Use vocabulary journals
These are very powerful learning tools, but they are so underused in the teaching profession!
Take this week for example. My AS-Level Biology students had just finished their mock exams and I sat down with one young lady to provide feedback to her. She had great subject knowledge, but had used incorrect adjectives in some of her answers. For example:
Model answer: ‘The nuclear membrane disintegrates’
Any AS-Level examiner will tell you that this is a common way in which international students lose marks in exams. So, how can I help this student now?
The solution is simple and effective: she’ll have a special notebook in which she writes down all of the model answers to questions she gets incorrect in the intense past-paper practice we’ll be doing for the next month and a half. She’ll be keeping a ‘vocabulary journal’, and I’ll be checking it and sitting with her to discuss it each week.
Journals are a great way for students to constantly review their understanding and knowledge of key vocabulary. With students who have very low English proficiency, you may wish to use journals from day one. With others, such as my AS-Biology student who only needs some ‘fine-tuning’, they can be used at specific points in the academic year.
Make full use of dictionaries and translators
Many international students carry electronic or paper-based dictionaries with them to class. Personally, I think that all international schools should make this a requirement for all of their students, even native English speakers.
Why? Because they’re powerful learning tools.
Students can use dictionaries in many ways, but the most common and effective are:
Translating key words in their textbooks into their native language, allowing full understanding of terms and permannet record that’s all in one place
To support learning journals, where key words and adjectives can be written bilingually and checked regularly. Get parents and language teachers involved in this for extra credibility and scrutinizing
Some electronic dictionaries can ‘speak’ the word being researched, allowing good verbal modelling and repetition by the student
Creating bilingual displays in class (e.g. posters and infographics)
Use vocabulary games
I write about this extensively in mybook, and my blog post here has some very clearinstructions and ideas for using vocabulary games in class. My personal favourites are ‘splat’, ‘mystery word’, ‘corners’ and ‘bingo’ which I’ve included below. These are great fun, but they do take time to implement in class. It’s worth it though!
Never demonize the native language of the students
I had the unfortunate experience of working in a school that had an ‘English only’ policy, which was strictly and rather bizarrely enforced. As a British teacher in Thailand, I was expected by the management of my school to tell students not to speak Thai.
I thought we’d left this archaic ideology behind with the abolition of the ‘Welsh Not’ necklaces in 1888. I guess I was wrong.
Don’t forget: our EAL students will be using their native language to cognitively process facts and information. Try these strategies:
Allow students some time to discuss answers with a friend who speaks the same native language as they do
Pause, and allow the student to verbalise the answer in their native language before expressing it in English
Instead of saying “Don’t speak Thai” or “Don’t use German”, say something like “Try your best to use English please”, or ” I really want you to improve your English, so could you please try to talk in English?”.
Posters and displays around school that promote English can be effective. Choose upbeat, modern graphics that show students why English is important. One school I worked at had a poster in every classroom that said “In this school, we try our best to express our ideas in English, so that we can get good grades in our exams”.
Use groups strategically
You’ll come across two scenarios when using group work with international students:
Groups where every students speaks the same native language
Groups were some or many students speak different native languages
Do you assign roles in groups?
Where possible, it’s a good idea to group together those students who do not speak the same native language, This forces them to use English in their group work (though, most probably, you’ll have clusters of two or three students per group who can speak the same native language).
How you assign groups will depend on the age and emotional maturity of the students too. For example, you don’t want to group together students who you know will just chat aimlessly with each other, and you also don’t want to group together students of completely different nationalities who all have very poor English language proficiency – that would be a very quiet group!
Also, don’t forget to assign roles to each student in a group. Who will be the spokesperson? Who’s drawing the diagram? Who’s doing the research using the iPad? Who’s collecting the data? If you don’t assign roles, then you may find that the group work is slow, unproductive and chaotic.
Differentiate your resources
This is a classic and vast area of pedagogy which is often made more complicated than it needs to be.
Basically, make sure your worksheets, tasks and materials are neither too easy or too difficult for individual students.This websitehereprovides some links to detailed strategies for this, but the most common ones that I’ve used include:
Breaking down prose into sentences, bullet points or ‘blanks’ to fill in.
Using pictures, lots of them! When student asks “What does ‘tripod’ mean”, are yougoing to give a lengthy explanation? Show the student! Type the word in on a search engine and show them an image of the object.
Writing out step-by-step instructions for any kinaesthetic task, such as doing an experiment or building a model
Changing your verbal questions to match the fluency of each student. Do you ask a student to ‘describe the electromagnetic spectrum’, or “Name the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, gamma rays, radio waves, and……… (prompting again)”
Differentiate the resources and tasks in your teaching to meet the needs and abilities of your learners
Conclusion
We all have a duty to help our EAL and ESL students in the best ways that we can. Our efforts need not be time-consuming nor difficult, just a few easy-to-implement strategies like the ones mentioned above are needed. Be consistent, have patience, never lose hope. Previous EAL and ESL students of mine have gone on to study bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UK and American universities and now have flourishing careers.
Patience always pays dividends, so make sure you are patient with your EAL and ESL learners.
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Accompanying podcast episode (published July 2022):
Teaching is an amazing and inspirational vocation. Just think: every single day we get the opportunity to literally help, inspire, motivate, coach and train young people. All of our learners are special and unique, but I’ve found that working with students that have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can be the most rewarding part of the job.
Here’s my take on it all:
So how do we best help those students who may face additional challenges in school?
Whether it’s dyslexia, dyspraxia, English as an Additional Language, problems with motor function or even low emotional intelligence and mood swings, I’ve found that the following actions always achieve positive results:
Create and use Individual Educational Plans (IEPs)
Two things amaze me about IEPs:
Many schools (especially internationals schools) don’t create IEPs for their students with ALN. Moreover, despite easily having the ability to do so, many schools still don’t embrace the idea of enabling full provision for SEN students and instead focus on raising the grades of their high flyers as much as possible.
Of those schools that do create IEPs, it is alarming just how many teachers don’t read them, use them or fully contribute to them.
Do you really know and understand the learning challenges that your SEN students face? How are you targeting those challenges?
Creating an IEP should always be the first step in providing help for any SEN student.
It’s impossible to fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is
You don’t need a SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) or even anyone with specific training to create an IEP. Follow these steps:
Speak with all of the teachers of that student who have ether worked with him or her in the past and/or those who are teaching the student now. Take a survey of all of the concerns they have. What kind of challenges are commonplace? What kind of barriers to learning seem to be ubiquitous? What actions do you all agree on? What kind of help can be put in place? If the student is new to school then contact their previous school (even if it is in another country) and gather this information.
Produce a table outlining all of the actions that have been agreed on
Monitor progress along the way.
Rapport is the key strategy
SEND students often require much more one-to-one attention than students in the mainstream.
Embrace the opportunity to build up a great rapport with these students. You’ll notice amazing results within a very short space of time!
Well-planned lessons which include a variety of activities often provide rapport-building opportunities as a valuable by-product
Rapport is the one key characteristic that all successful teachers have. It’s so important, that I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book. A summary of good rapport building strategies is given in this guest blog I wrote a short while ago, and a quick list is given below:
Take a genuine interest in your students. Find out what their hobbies and interests, and their likes and dislikes are. Find out what’s going on in their lives. Ask them about it regularly. Remember what they’ve told you. For example: “Hi Mark! How’s the violin lessons coming along? Are you ready for your concert next Tuesday?”
Use tasteful, laid-back humour in your lessons. Plan well. Include a wide-variety of tasks that cater for as many learning styles as possible. Include cut-and-stick, model-building, ICT tasks such as movie-making and blogging. SEN students often adapt well to multiple tasks, activities and exciting learning challenges.
Use sincere praise as often as possible. Always encourage SEN students: even for little steps of progress, such as using a ruler to draw a diagram. Record this progress. Remember it. Reward it using your school’s rewards system.
Personalize your resources
Are you giving all of your students the same material despite a broad ability range within the class? Do your ESL students read lengthy prose and try to decipher complex adjectives alongside their native-speaking peers?
Back in the day, we called the technique of personalizing your teaching as ‘differentiation’. It’s vital if you want your SEN students to access the curriculum.
Differentiate your worksheets, your verbal questioning, your ICT activities, your homework. It’s not ‘dumbing down’ and it’s not making life easy for some students and difficult for others. It’s called provision.
This website offers some great ideas for differentiating your resources. And don’t worry about time – lots of differentiated material is ready made for you at places such as TES resources and ESL Gold.
If you do have to make resources from scratch, then be organized enough to keep them stored, ready to use again with future students.
Embrace the use of ICT
I write about this at length in my two previous blog posts here and here. SEN students loves using technology, and you can even use instructional software which does all the teaching, assessment and differentiation for you! Now what could be better than that?
SEN students love using ICT (generally). Try using instructional software, games and even social media and blogging
Conclusion
Working with SEN students is rewarding and, when you get to my age, you’ll even see what happens to these kids when they leave school. Many of my former students who had incredible learning challenges in school, went on to become tradesmen and women, college graduates, business owners, artists and even teachers themselves! When you discover this, it’s brings a profound sense of satisfaction and happiness to your life.
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ICT offers a whole new world of discovery and adventure to the learning process, but how many of us actually use it strategically?
Tragically, many teachers are still ‘ticking the boxes’ with ICT, using it as a means to impress an observer or inspector, or to fill in an obscure rubric.
This is concerning.
Last week, we looked at ways in which ICT can be used to support instruction and support learning, and we emphasized the fact that the full use of computer systems can even save youmassive amounts of timeand energy in lesson planning and assessment.
Are you working too hard? Computers can even do most of the teaching for you now, leaving you to embrace the roles of mentor and facilitator
This week, we will focus on exploratory and collaborative ICT systems, and how they can revolutionize learning and improve student grades.
Exploratory and Collaborative ICT
I’ve grouped these methodologies into one category as groups of students often use ICT to explore and create content at the same time. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to implement this into your teaching.
Allow opportunities for research
If you are trying to teach a large topic (e.g. cell division, transformations of functions,
Capitalise on the creative abilities of your students when using ICT to enhance learning
the Battle of the Somme, etc.), then you’ll naturally have lots of content to get through. Why not try the time-tested method of the market place activity, whilst using ICT at the same time? Follow these steps:
Split the class into groups, each with a specific task and roles to play (this is crucial). For example: Team 1: Rosie (Information researcher using iPad), Charles (Prezi creator using laptop, receives info from Rosie via e-mail), David (voice narrator using the AudioMemo app on the Smartphone), Thomas (Final editor and team leader, ensures good communication flow between members). Teams 2-4 would be constructed in the same way.
After a suitable length of time, get the team leader to quickly go to another team and find out what they’ve been studying and researching. After about five minutes, the team leader can come back and report his or her findings to the group, so that they can put it into their presentation.
At the end of this lesson (or the next lesson, if time is limited), allow students time to present their work. Perhaps each group could peer assess each other?
“This is a great book for people who are trying to get to grips with their busy teaching schedule” –
Think of novel ways to create content
Part of a new wave of educational culture focusses on achieving success criteria. This is language that you’ll have to teach to the kids, but once it’s in place it can work wonders in your classroom.
For example: Let’s say you are leading a Year 8 art class on city-scape images. The objective is to create an image of a metropolis from the perspective of an alien visitor. But what are the success criteria? How will the students know that they have achieved this objective, and what methods will they use to achieve it? If you plan in advance and you’re smart, you’ll let your students decide how to tackle the problem by themselves, using whatever technology is available.
Now a traditional artist would quickly get to work with brushes, paint, pens, pencils and the like. But why be limited to this? Try providing the students with a wide-range of materials to use, including technology (e.g. Tablets, smartphones, camera’s, digital sketch pads, 3D printing, etc). Perhaps you can group the students, and allow them some planning time first, before they embark on their project.
Try providing your students with as many technological options as possible when embarking on a project. Allow them time to plan. This builds up collaboration and problem-solving skills, and it’s enjoyable! Perfect!
Does this sound scary to you? Some educators and schools would frown on this, saying that students should never direct the methodology of the lesson and the teacher should always lead from the front. This ‘sage on a stage’ approach, however, doesn’t adequately provide students with the key skills that employers and universities are really looking for these days. Take this quote, fromtargetjobs.co.uk, for example:
Teamwork is one of the fundamental skills employers look for and it’s on the graduate recruiters’ high priority list. The best way to show off any skill is to explain how you used it to get results. However, with teamwork you will have to show how you achieved a group result.
So try killing two birds with one stone: Get your students working together and using ICT at the same time. They’ll be engaged, they’ll be learning and they’ll be building up their key skills.
Use, create and edit videos
You’ll notice that I’ve created my first ever instructional video this week! (Well, I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn’t!).
Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to do this. Videos can be used in all sorts of ways. See this extract from my book:
When it comes to editing movies, iMovie (Apple) and FilmoraGo (Android) are great apps you can use. Why not ask your school’s ICT department to download these onto your school’s iPads or tablets? In addition, get your students to share their videos on the school’s VLE or official Facebook, Vimeo or YouTube site. This is great PR for the school and gives the students a wider sense of purpose to their work as they can inform a wide audience and showcase their project to their parents.
Try stop-motion animations
I’ve sued these many times in my career and they are great. Some of the earliest forms of film-making involve taking still images of a scene and then sunning them together to make a ‘moving picture’. Students can do this with model building to illustrate any process or strategy. Take a look at this video, for example, of a stop-motion animation illustrating DNA replication:
Collate data in unique ways
These extracts from my book show how smartphones and tablets can be used to collate and present data:
Just look at these beautiful charts that can be easily made on tablets and smartphones
Try using social media
It’s unstoppable: Social media platforms continue to grow in both influence and functionality. The following infographic outlines some cool ways in which you can use social media in education. Can you think of more ideas?
Summary
I really hope that both this week’s and last week’s blog posts have given you some tips that you can use in a practical way in the classroom. Please feel free to comment below with any extra ideas you have, and please feel free to contact me through any of the social media buttons on the top right of the page if you have any questions or comments.
The following summary extracts are taken from my very popular debut book. I hope they’re useful.
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We all know that we should be using different forms of information technology to enhance our students learning experiences. In my 11 years of teaching experience, I’ve had the great fortune of being able to experiment with different methods and I’d like to share my findings with you.
One thing is certain: ICT definitely enhances learning, when it is used and planned properly!
The possibilities are endless when ICT is used to enhance learning
I’m going to split the methodologies into four streams for the sake of clarity: Instructional ICT, Supportive ICT, Exploratory ICT and Collaborative ICT. If all four of these streams are used in unison with each other, then teachers will find that their workload reduces dramatically, their students progress rapidly and parents are kept happy and informed. Now what could be better than that?
Safety First
Make sure your students are safe online. Educate them about the SMART acronym. See this extract from my book below:
Instructional ICT
Interactive Presentations
MS PowerPoint has been around for more than two decades. My lecturers were using it in university, and I even created PowerPoints as a student when I was in high school. Now I’m 33 years old, and some schools are still content with the notion that using a PowerPoint can count as ‘using ICT to enhance learning’.
I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t cut the mustard these days.
Try using presentations that get the students actively engaged. Do your students come up to the whiteboard tomove objects around, match words to descriptionsorinteract with simulations? Do you use your PPT or other presentationas a prompt for getting students out of their seats, such as by making them stand on either sides of the room for True/False answers, or asking them to form a human graph?
Are you just lecturing at your students lesson after lesson? Try making your presentations interactive, and get students up out of their seats.
Tablets, Smartphones and Laptops
“This is a great book for people who are struggling to cope with their busy teaching schedule” – UKEdChat Book Review
Portable technology has revolutionized every area of teaching. When embraced and utilised properly, mobile devices can assist in the the delivery, assessment, record keeping and discovery of content, as well as building up key skills such as communication and collaboration.
I wrote about this exhaustively in my book, which I would recommend for any teacher who wants to brush up their classroom management skills through the use of ICT. For the sake of conciseness, I shall summarise the main themes here.
Don’t be camera shy
Camera’s on smartphones, tablets and laptops can be used for variety of purposes. Try the following:
Taking photos and videos of experiments, projects and fieldwork to put in reports
Setting up a QR code treasure hunt where the students have to hunt for ‘clues’ and information around the school campus (great fun). Students can even compete in teams for this task, and collate the information together in a unique way, such as a flow chart, at the end of the lesson. See below:
Instructions for using QR codes treasure hunts in your teaching practice.
You can also use smartphone, tablet, laptop and standalone cameras with students to create videos (which can be shared online), podcasts, radio shows, stop-motion animations and even instructional lectures, such as a model-building demo. I’ll write about this in more detail in next week’s blog post, in which we’ll focus on Exploratory and Collaborative ICT.
Use instructional software
I’ll never forget when I first started usingMyiMaths, an online maths tutoring and assessment system, to teach mathematics. It was back in 2013, and it totally transformed my work life.
Why? That’s simple. Students would go into the ICT lab, or use their laptops or tablets in class, and literally be taught mathematics by the computer! The program would even assess the work immediately, and differentiation wasn’t a problem because students could work through the tasks at their own individual pace. The benefits were enormous:
All of the students were focussed and engaged
All of the students were challenged
The teacher had more time to spend with individuals working on specific problems
The content was relevant and stimulating
No behavior management issues as the students were all quietly working
No time was needed by the teacher for marking and assessment. The program did all that for you. All you had to do was collate the data.
Try using instructional software with your students. The benefits for everyone are enormous, and the cost is usually cheap.
Supportive ICT
Allow for research opportunities
Gone are the days when ‘chalk and talk’ and ‘sage on a stage’ methodologies permeated every school. ‘Collaboration’ and ‘exploration’ are the buzzwords of education now, and we are able to do this better than ever before.
Don’t be shy about allowing students to use their smartphones in class (but be sensitive to what they’re actually accessing, and also be aware that some students might not own smartphones. Have a stack of iPads or tablets ready, to give students the ‘choice’ of using them).
Students can use the web to find out facts about their subjects, as well as for revision. Great websites to use include these classics:
Also, check out thisearlier blog postof mine where I provide great websites split into subject areas.
Making graphs and charts and editing images
Any form of data set can be graphed in various ways by tablets and smart phones. This could happen in a history lesson in which you’re studying the number of new cases of the bubonic plaque over a set period of time; a mathematics lesson where the students have conducted a simple survey; a science lesson where the kids are measuring the light absorbance of different solutions or even an English lesson where you’re studying the frequency of particular adjectives in different texts. Good graphing apps include ‘Numbers’, ‘Viz’, ‘3D Charts’ and ‘Chart Maker’ (Apple™) and ‘Simple Graph Maker’, ‘My Graph (Chart)’, ‘ChartGo’ and ‘Juice Labs’ (Android™).
Portable homework diary
Are you sick of your students forgetting their homework? Does your school still use those old-fashioned homework diaries where everything needs to be written down? If your school isn’t using a homework database or a VLE to set assignments, then one way to solve this is to get the students to take a photograph of the homework task after you’ve written it on the whiteboard or projected it. This is also a very good option for students with additional learning needs and those who are operating with English as their second language. Additionally, if the homework is complex and involves multiple steps (e.g. navigating through a particular VLE portal), then students should be encouraged to take photographs of each step in the process.
Messaging systems and Virtual Learning Environments have revolutionized the way that students keep track of their homework and grades
Create!
There are a myriad of programs offered within the Apple™ and Windows™ suites can assist students in the creation of their assignments. You can be very open minded, and give your students the task of ‘using ICT to produce this homework’, or you can even train students in the use of a particular platform first, and then set them the task of creating something with it. Furthermore, online interfaces such as Weebly and WordPress allow students the opportunity to create websites quickly and easily. Websites that students create can be used for:
Blogging
Recording topic summaries each month or on a regular basis
Keeping track of coursework (the website itself can be a coursework log)
Homework assignments
Revision
Collaboration – working with teams at school or between schools
Allow your students the freedom to be creative in their use of ICT
What if the kids don’t have any ideas?
The following form was included in my book and is great for getting students to think creatively about using ICT, with special reference to future systems that haven’t been created yet:
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Students all around the world are approaching the final sprint to their terminal examinations right now. Whether its ‘AS’ or ‘A’ – Levels, IB Diploma exams, SATs or IGCSE’s, students and teachers all over the world are feeling the pressure.
However, one thing that can be overlooked at this time is good-quality careers advice for students who will soon (6 months in some cases) be at university starting their first of a degree programme.
And yet, this careers advice is probably the most important facet of this approach to the exam apocalypse. Students need to feel excited by going to university now. They need to know why they’re working so hard for their final exams in the first place (the purpose). They need to have a dream; a goal, to work for.
“This is a great book for teachers who are struggling to get to grips with their busy teaching schedule” – UKEdChat Book Review
Have you sat down with each of your final year students to find out what their dreams are? I promise you – you’ll be very surprised at what comes from this.
And then, what do you do? You reinforce the importance of each dream, as often as you can. “Debbie, I know you’re going to be a great drummer one day. The best. We will work together to get you to Birmingham City to start your music degree”. “John, I’m so pleased with this vectors homework you did. You put so much effort into this. You will use this material when you’re studying engineering at Loughborough. I know you’ll make it. Keep working hard. Keep up the excellent work”.
Do you know what effect comments like these can have on your students? They can be life-changing!
For my next book, I have compiled advice from 100 young graduates who have studied at universities all over the world. Many of these graduates are my former students.
Going to university is a massive learning curve for many students
Take a look at these extracts below:
Name: Orachitr Bijaisoradat
Latest accomplishment: Ph.D in Polymer Science. The petroleum and petrochemical college, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Advice to freshmen
1. Make lots of friends and be sociable. Some students may struggle at the first term of uni but you will feel much better if you work as a team and help each other by sharing your knowledge. And knowing lots of people will help with connections for your future career. Sometimes connections are more important than grades. 2. Plan ahead. It is okay if you don’t know what you want to be when you graduate but it is best to plan so that you can have everything prepared for your next step. For example, if you plan to continue a master’s degree, what are the requirements that you need to prepare. If you want to apply for the top 10 famous universities but your GPA is lower than the requirement, then you won’t be able to apply.
Students are required to take ownership of their learning at university
Name: Mintra Rungruengsorakarn
Accomplishments: Bachelor’s Degree in Music from University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, Class of 2015 Master’s Degree in Music from Mannes School of Music, The New School, New York, Class of 2017
Advice for freshmen: There were many things that happened during my studies in the United States in the past five years and a half. Those memories and experiences were all valuable regardless of any rises and falls. As a second year Master’s student, I am here to share with you my advice from a perspective of someone who has graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree and is on her way to finishing her Master’s.
Here is some advice I would like to give:
‘Time’ is precious, and it is the only treasure that everyone has equally. Use your time wisely, the better you manage your time the better advantage you have over others. Four years in a university is so short that you will be out of school before you know it. Secondly, be sure to know your responsibilities and realize how fortunate you are to be in school. School prepares you for the real world, as you are being exposed to new surroundings learn to adjust as soon as you can and stay strong, be positive and optimistic.
Do not start your new life with a goal to just graduate and leave. You need to strive and look for opportunities which are plenty out there, embrace the experiences which make you grow and never forget to consistently work hard. Appreciate the gift of ‘today’ and do your best so that you will not regret when you look back. For whichever route you are taking, there will always be certain things you would wish to have done better. However, that will always be alright.
Take risks and be spontaneous. Live life to the fullest while being generous and kind. Be happy and enjoy life. Be fearless and have faith, believe in yourself that you are capable and that nothing is ever impossible.
Collaboration is key. Do your high school students collaborate enough?
What advice would you give to a final year high school student who wants to go to uni?
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