Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Weekly Teaching and Learning Email - Plenaries (Thanks to Sara for sharing additional ideas)

This week’s email is focused around the importance of reflection. At the start of a new year it is easy to focus, both ourselves and the students, on the year ahead and miss opportunities to reflect on the progress made all ready.

Plenaries are a vital part of any lesson and come in many forms for example;
·         Mini plenaries through out the lesson. Short, formative tasks which allow the teacher to assess student progress through the lesson.
·         End of lesson plenaries. A task at the end of the lesson which refers back to the learning objectives, summarises students understanding and helps a teacher identify any misconceptions.
·         End of topic plenaries. Summary sessions on a whole unit of study where students can map the progress they have made and teachers can challenge a students understanding or misconceptions.

Although, the typical three part lesson plan is not always suitable for every lesson, the importance of some form of plenary task is highlighted at the end of this article:

One simple technique to ensure a plenary is include in each of your lessons is the use of a plenary board. Pre-written reflection questions can be printed off and displayed in the classroom. Students themselves can then select the most relevant question to ask as a class and the students respond in whichever way you find appropriate.

Examples of reflection statements or questions could include:
·         The task I found most challenging today…
·         What went well
·         This links to last lesson because…
·         Next lesson I think we will be learning about… because…
·         The activity I enjoyed most today…
·         Something I need to revisit is…
·         This could also be used in….


This type of activity also demonstrates student engagement with their own learning – a whole school development target. And is an excellent way to demonstrate progress in a lesson for observations! 

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