This was a fascinating workshop and linked to some of the professional development we have been doing in our syndicate meetings with Dale, the RTLit. Sheena and Louise showed us a diagram of children putting their hands up in a lesson they had observed, and how this linked to student engagement. They pointed out that the children who did not put their hands up were disengaged and missing out during modelled/sharing time.
One of the most important points I took away from the workshop was the fact that children need five seconds to prepare for talk. In their lessons they used a hand prop to reinforce this - the five fingers of the hand symbolised the five seconds of wait time needed.
Though it is easy to ask for a quick 'hands up if...' they discussed valuable alternatives, like having talking partners (and perhaps different, organised talking partners for different tasks), doing 'think pair share,' 'think, pair, record,' 'think, pair, walk and talk' or having a tub of iceblock sticks with children's names on them to choose at random someone to answer a question. They also suggested using an online random number generator to choose people to speak - thereby not just calling on the same children.
Having just had a conversation with parents of a child who finds it difficult to speak up in class I will be trying to implement some of these strategies in my classroom. His parents worry that his fantastic ideas are not being heard in the classroom because he is hesitant to raise his hand - I hope that some of these strategies will help to provide a more comfortable way for him to express himself.
PTC 4:
4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice
|
i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues
ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community
iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills
|
