As part of a T&L focused Twilight in March of 2020 we looked at introducing and trialling two new display/learning mat style resources, in order to promote challenge and independence. This is outlined below for staff to use as a source of information and a recap of the session.
The intention was to explore a means to:
- Provide a school-wide common language, to encourage learners to ‘keep at it’. and see things through a little more.
- Avoid being task specific – so teachers retain the freedom to plan and deliver tasks that the resources could still support.
- Incorporate priorities relevant to the school.
Resource One – Brain, Book, Buddy, Boss (for wall displays)
The display was professionally printed, however a copy of the file can be downloaded below. In summary the points discussed around this resource were:
- A wall display for every learning space – prominent position / front of class / next to boards
- Use as a prompt, when appropriate, to counter “I don’t know”/”I can’t”
- Brain: includes to think about what you already have been told, can see on the on the board etc.
- Book: includes looking back at notes, or any other help material you might provide
- BBBB does not replace you as the expert (important) and sometimes you are needed!
- Can be used to promote and increase challenge through resilience
- Could even be used as an assessment tool:
- “for this task you can use your brain and book”
- for this task you can use the first three Bs”
- See further Assessment ideas by TheEffortfulEducator – Brain, Book, Buddy: A Strategy for Assessment
Resource Two – Steps to Success support mat (sets for classrooms)
As with the above, this resource was printed professionally, however a copy of the image can be downloaded below. In summary the points discussed around this resource were:
- A learning mat and support tool for classrooms (keep a class set as part of your toolkit)
- Encourages pupils to actively consider their approach to forming a response to a question or task, supporting and challenging them throughout
- Does not have to be for written work
- Will unlikely be used every lesson, but more so when you want pupils to consider and craft out a piece of work and, over time, ‘train’ them to get better at doing this automatically
- Provides prompts and discussion points to support your classroom dialogue with, and immediate feedback to, pupils
Thanks also to MACS’ James Donovan for supporting with the design and graphic work!