Norwich
Teachers were using working walls every day so that children could refer to these when they were stuck and as a reminder of their learning. Timelines on working walls had helped children see what was coming next and what was the end goal.
‘My turn your turn’ after each step in teaching a new skill helped children repeat their learning to help them remember it.
One teacher had reminders of phonic sounds throughout the day by having buttons stuck on the door which play the sound. All children remember the sounds.
Midlothian
All teachers had introduced regular pit stops in lessons to talk about what they were learning/doing. This refocused the children and allowed teachers to refer to learning powers to encourage them.
All teachers had planned playful learning experiences to reinforce the formal learning taking place. This helped children to apply the skills they were learning. Free play was also necessary, to allow children choice of activity and resources.
Having visual success criteria had been used by all teachers to reinforce the steps. The pictures provided the clue.
“In P1 (4/5 year olds), we have gradually built up children’s understanding of what a good talk partner looks like by co-constructing success criteria for levels 1-5 of an effective talk partner (e.g. Level 1 –I look at my partner; Level 2 – I look at my partner and use my body to show I’m listening). Pictures are used alongside the words.
“The cognitive load has been eased during talk partner tasks because pupils have been involved in the gradual building of the levels. They know what the expectation is and have practised to the point where the behaviour becomes a habit. This allows learners to focus on the discussion or task at hand as the behaviour of an effective talk partner has become embedded.
“Using the visual pyramid allows me to spy level 5 learners, which in turn encourages others to use the pyramid to up-level their own actions.”
Sarah Corrieri
Working walls were created with children for phonics as new sounds were learnt.
Multi – sensory activities were used by all teachers which led to children having many different opportunities to learn.
Teachers in P2 had introduced question starters so that learning is appropriately planned and all teachers had used the visualiser frequently for modelling feedback and constant reference to the success criteria. Children are able to refer to the success criteria and are able to articulate feedback. Children are able to self-correct during lessons.
During numeracy lessons children are being asked to say how they have carried something out, sharing their different strategies throughout a lesson. Skills are embedded and children are now able to articulate how they did something. Plenaries are constant features of lessons, not just at the end of a lesson.
North Wales 1
All teachers had been co-constructing success criteria which eases the cognitive load as children are working.
Prior knowledge starters also helped to start from their existing knowledge. Children’s skills can be recognised and can be extended and applied.
Two teachers had developed working walls so that all key information was available to children during their work and topic learning journeys were shown in lessons at the beginning to help children see where they were and place today’s learning more purposefully.