Our First Interactive Learning Wall By Year 10 and Ms.Kirby

Starting Out Based on ideas acquired on the first day of the TLO Coaching Course and after discussions with a fellow AST, decided to trial an ‘Interactive Learning Wall’ with my Year 10 class in preparation for their first piece of coursework. We started with a blank canvass.

Laying the Foundations…… I then placed the title of the coursework in the centre of the wall and invited the class, in groups to discuss the possible content of the coursework and to place their ideas on the wall.

Building the Wall…… Pupils then grouped the ideas into clusters of similar ideas and information that would logically go together when writing a biography of a famous person e.g. personality and physical description, career and future plans, hobbies and likes and dislikes.

And the cement…… I then asked students what elements were necessary in order to gain a Grade C or higher at GCSE level. They told me that they needed to include ‘Past, Present, Future (Tenses), Opinion, Subordinate Clause and Connectives’ and I put the headings on the board. In groups the students discussed possible opinions and connectives that could be used and added them to the wall.

Brick by Brick…… Again in groups, students discussed the verbs that might appear in a piece of coursework with this title, they wrote the infinitives on a piece of paper and placed them around the outside of the board. I coloured coded the past, present and future tense endings and placed them above the board. Again working in groups, students changed the verbs into the correct form of each tense and placed them on the board. They placed any irregular verbs to the left of the board.

Assessment for Learning I then gave students 2 examples of coursework which they corrected and discussed why they were good or bad examples and what was missing or how they could be improved. I then gave them the Assessment Criteria directly from the Specification, explained the categories and definitions and they marked each piece in pairs. We discussed their marks as a class and agreed on final marks.

Feedback From The Students I invited students to join a discussion group to give me feedback on the whole process that took three 1-hour lessons. I videoed the sessions and have included some of their comments.

Next Steps…… There is still work to be done on the ‘Wall’, the students have suggested that we add more verbs and possibly relevant nouns and adjectives. And, of course, the students still have to write their coursework!