OER4Schools/Introduction to whole class dialogue and effective questioning: Difference between revisions

Did participants notice the “wait time” after asking a question before teacher made a further contribution or question? Increasing wait time a little increases thinking time and in turn leads to an improvement in the quality of students' responses.

{{activity|wcd|: Reflectiong on what you have learnt.|10}} Reflection on what you have learned from this session about

* body language for encouraging dialogue,

* cumulative talk,

* encouraging most pupils to talk,

* withholding feedback sometimes to motivate pupils without fear of “wrong” answers: not evaluating pupil responses, just accepting them,* forming rules for dialogue, and

{{activity|wcd|: Read about assessment portfolios together and discuss any issues arising|10}} In Unit 1 we learned about the cycle of plan-teach-reflect and the idea of keeping a reflective journal. We would like to extend the idea of a reflecctive journal further now by asking you to select material from it for submission to an assessment portfolio. We would like you to select material for your assessment portfolio that best illustrates how you have made use of the interactive teaching techniques that you have learned about in the workshop sessions. An ideal submission for your portfolio should include

* an explanation of why you have chosen to do a particular activity with your students,

* a completed activity template showing how the activity fits into the rest of the lesson,

* a description of how the students responded to the activity,

* a reflection on what you would do differently if you did the activity again,

* any other important notes,

* samples of students' work if possible e.g. a concept map, and  

* 'snapshots' of the activity to show how it went eg a copy of the results of a brainstorm or a copy of the images you used.

Submission of an assessment portfolio containing at least one piece of material (with notes) from each unit is a key part of completing the OER4Schools programme.  Further [[OER4Schools/Assessment portfolios|assessment portfolio guidance]] for use during discussion .

'''Do you have recording equipment available?''' This could just be your phone, or if you have a laptop or tablet, you could use that for recording. If you have something you can record audio with, then for each piece of work that you submit, do an audio reflection. To do this, think about how you would show a teacher in another school what you have been learning through the OER4S programme. What concrete examples would you share with them? How would you show them the range of things you have covered? Suppose then this teacher asked you some questions, e.g. What worked well? What didn’t work so well?  What would you say to them?  

Ideally you would make a link between the workshop session and your classroom trial. Tell us where the idea came from, and how you applied it. We don’t want or need evidence - we just want to know, if your own words, what you have learned.

Here is a short example of the sort of reflection we would like you to record: “I learned about _________ in session ____. I thought that it could be really useful for my pupils during a lesson on _________, I tried it out with my students. The work I have submitted is an example of ________. I have also submitted an example of what the students did. I had initially written this ______ [for the students], and the students then added ________. Students responded differently. Mary had difficulty with it because ___________. (E.g. some computer did not work - why did it not work?!) I concluded the lesson with a plenary, and they told me these answers. If I was to do this again, I would do it like this: ______. I would also apply this tool to another lesson on  ________topic,  because ______________“.

You can also do a short audio reflection right after a lesson where you tried out a new approach or technology, so you record your immediate reactions and thoughts. These files can then help to inform your portfolio later on, or even be submitted as part of it.

At Chalimbana Basic School there is a set of the dictaphones available, that you can use for the reflections.

{{fup|A}} Try out the ‘magic microphone’ technique with an easy question for pupils to answer (eg “what’s your favourite food?”); every child should say something but keep the pace rapid so it doesn’t take too long – if someone isn’t ready, come back to them.

{{fup|B}} Try out cumulative talk by asking pupils to create a class story, contributing one line each whenever they are handed the magic microphone by their peers. Use some of the techniques discussed in this session to create a supportive environment, for example: positive body language, enthusiastic tone, listening to each other before speaking and building on what the previous person has said. Encourage any shy children to have a go, and repeat the activity with another topic on other occasion so they get more used to public speaking.

* Continue practising finding resources and downloading images for a lesson that you can do. When you download images, put them into your lesson_resources folder, and use the slideshow function using a web browser on the netbooks or teacher computers.