Exploring Learning

In conjunction with my Learners' Reading Challenge , I have also decided to start the year with a writing challenge. Inspired by a student's blog post, shared by  @intrepidteacher , about noticing the sunset and the importance of paying attention to our surroundings, I decided it was time to cajole my learners into noticing more about their world. Everything I read about writing starts with a) reading and b) observing. I think we have the reading part covered, so I want to get my learners to begin to be more present. Writers all say that we must take note of everything around us - to fuel our characters, plot, dialogue etc. But I am not sure how present my learners are. We have made a great start in writing, and spend time every lesson working on our Spilling Ink journals (see Christmas , Halloween , Inspiring a Writing Community  and Spilling Ink Journal agreements ). This year, I am also going to include some mentor texts in Spilling Ink time, to develop close ...

Can rubrics hinder as much as help? I had an official lesson observation for the purpose of our school Teacher Performance Assurance (TPA) about two weeks ago. I had my feedback meeting today, which is far longer than recommended 'same day' guidelines, but hey, life gets in the way most of the time. Peer Feedback Using Google Forms  My personal thoughts were that the lesson was 'bitty', as the learners were doing presentations that had spilled over from a prior lesson, followed by reflections on their learning. This meant that the lesson had two distinct halves - the half where learners were presenting or completing peer feedback on Google forms , and the half where they were working in groups to support each other to complete learning reflections on their project. This meant there were two learning intentions, one for each half of the lesson and, whilst success criteria were determined by me for the first half, to ensure they met the criteria for asses...