Academics

Where I am today is the place where I am at. It is NOT who I am.
My brain has the ability to grow and change. This is where I want to go…and how I will get there!

What do we do to improve learner performance?

It is our responsibility to support learners to understand the work. It is their responsibility to learn.

However, learners need specific skills to be successful.

When learners for example do not know how to plan in order to accomplish their goals, they might hand in an incomplete task or no task at all. Sometimes a learner does not know where to start or how to go about completing a task. 

  • We  start each new section of work with learners writing or pasting the Success Criteria in their scripts. Scaffold the learning. What do they need to understand, know or do to achieve success? Which skills do they need to master? When a section of work is complete learners should reflect on when and even how (if applicable) they achieved the success criteria. 
  • Always guide learners through good time management practice when they complete tasks. Some learners might only write the date during a whole lesson. We can’t afford to have learners not completing tasks during lessons that we facilitate and are responsible for. It is our responsibility to guide and support learners with good time management.
    • During lessons, break the work into sections and schedule regular checkpoints with the learners. Those who did not make any progress in the expected time should receive support at that moment. We realise that each learner works at his/her own pace and it is not to add additional stress on the learners but to eliminate a learner not completing work while we have the opportunity to intervene. 
    • When learners have to complete a task over a week or longer, let them write checkpoints in their diary as to complete the task on time. This will support them in understanding the importance of planning and time management. 
    • If a learner is challenged to complete tasks on a regular basis, please record it on d6 and contact parents for an intervention. We need to understand why as to intervene successfully. Report this to your HOD for support. 
    • There must be immediate consequences for learners who do not complete work on time. We can’t wait until the end of an assessment period and then realise we did not intervene or do not have any results for an assessment not done. 
  • Provide time during lessons for collaboration and processing of information
  • Assessment for learning during learning opportunities is very important to identify if learners mastered the Success Criteria during that time. 
  • When a section of work is completed, the learner needs to know what they did or did not understand or achieve. Give meaningful feedback on how or what they should do to improve their performance.  Let learners reflect or complete a star and a wish feedback to peers. They should write down the next step to take. Celebrate success or go back to the success criteria to try again. Use the Power of YET in this context. 
  • Use peer coaching to support understanding when you identify challenges during the lesson. 
  • Expect each learner to complete a Metacog to show that they worked through the content and processed the information on their own. 
  • Provide, or let learners create, possible questions that can be linked to the Metacog. This will support them in understanding how they might be questioned on the work they will be assessed on. A challenge learners experience during formal assessment, is understanding the question and what information is required to answer it successfully.
  • Always have a dictionary section in their scripts and a Word Wall to grow their vocabulary. 

It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way.”
- Jeremy Aldana

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