1. WALT: we are learning to…( or today)
The Learning Objective should be concrete and clear for children
from the beginning in every lesson
2. WALT = We Are Learning To…
Sometimes called a Learning Intention, a WALT makes the learning,
concept, understanding or skill clear to students. For example, “We are
learning to use talking marks in our writing”. I find WALTs extremely
useful in differentiating between the task or activity and the actual
learning. Without some element of explicit teaching, students prove
very competent in articulating what they are ‘doing’ rather than what
they are ‘learning’ by doing it. I learned this in my very first week of
teaching when I was attempting to teach children the ‘count on’ strategy
for totalling two numbers by getting them to play a simple die-rolling
game called Cover Up. When I asked them to explain their learning,
most answered with some form of “I learned to play Cover Up” rather
than what I’d hoped for – “I learned to add the numbers by counting on
from the bigger number”.
3. I have made stars with the name
of the children. Blue colour for
4ºA, red colour for 4ºB.
I use to award students when:
- They are ready to start the
lesson in silence.
- They participate in a good
way.
- They answer correctly.
- They are paying attention.
- Etc.
4. I used to register all the “well done” stars at
the end of each day and at the end of the
week, the best student will have a special
present like:
- Choose the songs during the arts and crafts
lesson.
- Choose a game like a starter.
- Be the first in the line during the hole
week…
- Etc.
5. I used to put the chairs in pairs or like a U, but now I realized that
is really much better to work in groups.
Students can help each other, they can talk each other to find the
answer for different questions, you can check their work easily,
etc.
6. I have divided each classgroup into 4 groups. I use to award them and do
the register with sticking smile faces in these cardboards.
7. I use a special Science
corner with all the
vocabulary that we are
learning during the unit.
