Improving my Learning Intention Slides

Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed over the last few months that I have been amending my 'Learning Intention' slides that I create for each of my ICT lessons to make them a bit more useful for the children. Improvements include:

• shifting the learning intention up a little bit to make more room underneath;
• presenting the steps children need to follow to achieve success as a series of four, 'manageable' instructions;
• displaying any extra techniques the children may wish to do alongside each instruction with a little tick;
• adding an additional slide containing some child-speak self-assessment 'I can...' statements that I now refer to both mid-way through the lesson and again at the end.

Download LI for Middleton Photo Collage

I know I've blogged before about how useful these slides are but I just felt that it deserved repeating in case you've not seen them before. Not only do they act as a quick reminder for me when I'm setting up a lesson (as I do the majority of my planning a half-term in advance) but they also mean that once I've done a few minutes of initial teaching/demonstration at the start, the children can then refer to them to help them work as independently as possible during the main part of the lesson - this works particularly well in conjunction with using 'Independent on the Computer Tokens'. They even come in useful after a lesson as I share them on Edmodo for the children to access at home if they wish and I also know of one school that prints them out to stick into an ICT journal-type book that each child has to help evidence their lessons.

Please do let me know if you use something similar in your ICT lessons as it would be great to compare it to my approach!

Comments

[Amy (Chanch18)]

They look fantastic! A really useful resource :-) Definitely would be interested in using them with my Year 4 class as I feel they are too reliant on myself and my TA during ICT - reminding them of what to do. Need them to be more independent.

[Elaine]

These are a fabulous resource, really purposeful and well thought out. I like the helpful child friendly format, rather than the formalised worded box. This really promotes learning independence with the useful instructional steps and as a plus can serve as a guide for all children, thereby supporting inclusion. I would be interested in pursuing this idea.
Just a quick follow up question, if you don't mind?...How do your children self assess, at the end of the activity? Just wondering how and if you document that?

[Mr Haughton]

Hi Elaine,

At the moment I don't get them to record any of this self assessment - it's usually just a quick show of hands to show me how many children are at which level. I do however get the children to talk to a partner sometimes to explain why they consider themselves to be at a particular level/what they need to do to improve. Also, in longer ICT projects I also get the children to peer-assess each other's work using the standard 'two stars and a wish' criteria - scroll down on this page for an example: http://www.simonhaughton.co.uk/2012/03/creating-non-linear-information-powerpoints.html

regards,

Simon Haughton

[Janetteww]

I tried this for the first time today with my year 5s. It worked really well, especially for my less confident children who had it as a ready check list to refer to. It was also great for my TA who doesn't arrive until 20 mins through the lesson. She found it really helpful as a quick guide to what the children were doing.
I will definitely work on these in future lessons.