By C Brooks
This term I’ve tried giving roles to my year 7 class because of the practical element to aid in organisation. They really enjoyed having their own my responsibility and it’s possible with careful planning to ensure all feel confident. The roles I chose were technician, safety officer and an analyst although been thinking of others too for the future. In the past I’ve used Scribe, questioner etc too which may be better for older year groups.
I’ve also tried a flipped learning lesson with year 10’s, which worked out really well. The topic was metal extraction and involved the students making their own notes at home about different techniques used (Flipped lesson for Metal Extraction). Although a few didn’t do the homework (which needs to be planned for) it still worked well as I think they enjoyed the different style of learning. At first they compared with others on the table and added any information to their own work in a green pen. We then went through a video explaining the methods but also taking it up a level to describe in more detail. All students finished with past paper questions which I marked and the evidence showed most had gained relevant knowledge and understanding. From one homework and one lesson I feel that more students gained a greater understanding of the topic and would definitely recommend trying flipped learning with the right topic.
