Tuesday 15 February 2022

Year 9 Sos: Working in the Goldilocks zone #1: Slowing down the learning.

When introducing a new unit, I always start by using a double period to focus on teaching and learning 7 key concepts needed to understand the unit.  I don’t allow devices and expect students to use their brains to work hard to remember the concepts and their meanings (please see previous inquiry and video).  

This year was no exception and I invited members of my department to come and observe how I did it.  One of them commented on how engaged even the most challenging students were and how in their teaching, they needed to practice more patience when using wait time and that they tend to rush through the teaching.   They also shared that the levels of confidence of the students to speak and verbalise what they learnt, even though it was basic was really cool to see.  I told them it was really hard at first and I had to slow my thinking before I could slow the teaching.


I was really happy with how well my year 9's engaged with the lesson.  The lack of distractions from devices really helped and I gained a small sense of accomplishment even from the toughest of critics.  


Linking this lesson to my inquiry:

Creating a sense of achievement by remembering the 7 concepts helps to set the tone of learning.

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