Part 2 of the Teachmeet review at Newcastle Mining Institute 29th April 2010
Darren Mead’s (@DKMead) 7 minute presentation was a riveting account of pedagogical research based around the book that he had recently read entitled: ‘The hidden lives of learners’ by Graham Nuthalls. He spoke about the book’s almost ‘fly on the wall’ approach regarding the complex interactions of learning within the classroom. Darren also spoke about, via his own practice and experience, the need to celebrate and measure success against a student’s targets instead of actual grade. I need to read the book he was talking about!! http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/2010/04/hidden-lives-of-learners.html
Fiona Joyce (@wizenedcrone) presented the beautiful ‘Storybird’ found at http://storybird.com/ It allows you to create free books online based around some beautiful animations that artists have submitted. I have played around with this and its simple to use – well worth having a look. Check out some of the MFL examples that are being used in classrooms – great stuff! http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com/French+Storybirds
Chris Harte (@charte) showcased ‘how to make learning visible’ and this is a solution to something that I have been thinking about for quite a while. The ‘thumbometer’ (thumbs down, sideways, up) as a quick review tool for students to show understanding can be quite effective. But Chris has taken the concept to a new level. He uses it as a mini plenary tool at junctions within a lesson to measure progress against specific outcomes. See the picture below:
The most effective part of this technique is to move each outcome (via projector) to where the class generally rates their progress against it. Chris used the teachmeet crowd to measure understanding of the outcomes as shown. He then showed how, using the scenario of a lesson, that further learning activities would boost how far along the coloured thumb gestures the outcome would move (from initially amber to potentially green). What a GREAT way to motivate students and assess progress made. You can read Chris’ own article here: http://bit.ly/charte
Part 3 to follow soon
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