Display of the week 4

This display in the English department has a velcro ‘progress line’. Each lesson or series of lessons, a ‘big question’ is posed and students have to identify their confidence in answering the question by sticking their name on the line. Lesson objectives underpin this exercise along with regular progress checks but students are now getting used to just moving their own names  whenever they feel they have made progress.

This is a very effective way of engaging the students in their classroom environment as part of their lesson. If you hadn’t guessed already, it is something I see as vital in our classrooms. Dusty, out of date displays that students might or might not connect with passively, can easily be replaced with interactive, up-to-date displays that actively contribute to the learning that takes place in our lessons.

You may notice the paper chain to the right of the above picture. I’ve seen this in another English room recently and it is a technique used to encourage students to build effective pieces of extended writing. It is based around the principle of PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explain, Link) and used in this way, students can collaborate to build extended pieces of writing.