One of the roles (and also one of the pleasures) of our school’s leadership team is visiting classrooms. We have a culture in our school that encourages leaders into our classrooms to observe and participate in our learning. Our students also enjoy sharing their learning. Teaching is a complex task and support from the school’s leadership team is an important component in assisting all teachers to continually develop and enhance their teaching practice. When visiting classrooms, questions often asked of students are:
· What are you learning?
· How will you know if you have learnt it?
· Where are you going next with your learning?
It is critical that students understand the purpose for their learning. This is why teachers share learning goals and success criteria with students. Asking these questions allows them to know whether or not students really get the importance of what they are learning. If they don’t get it, then we need to figure out what we are going to do to make sure they do.
We want to hear the language of learning. Engaged learners will articulate clear criteria for what good work looks like. They will be able to clearly talk about their learning. High quality explicit teaching will enable students to do this and including them when devising learning goals and success criteria is a powerful strategy in achieving this.
Asking a student, “Where to next?” has an impact on student learning and promotes the development of a growth mindset. Effective feedback, from teacher to student, from student to teacher and from student to student, is vital in ensuring student improvement.
Parents, you can assist this process, by asking your children to talk with you about their learning.
