Building Learning Power

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Building Learning Power
By Miss M Williams and Miss H Deacy
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Excellent Schools A vision for Schools in Wales
in the 21st century

• The development of learning skills, or what is
  increasingly being known as learning to learn
  is inseparable from good subject teaching.
• Schools should develop clear policies and
  strategies for teaching pupils to think, learn,
  work collaboratively and solve problems.
• Estyn 2002

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Expanding the capacity to learn

• The test of successful education is not the
  amount of knowledge that pupils take away from
  school, but their appetite to know and their
  capacity to learn.
• Sir Richard Livingstone, 1941

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Building Learning Power(BLP)

• What is BLP?
• How we are implementing BLP in years 2 and 6
• The next steps for the school

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What is BLP?

• BLP is Building Learning Power
• Helping children to become more effective and
  independent learners
• There are four elements
• Resilience
• Resourcefulness
• Reflectiveness
• Reciprocity

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Resourcefulness

• Questioning Getting below the surface being
  curious.
• Making Links seeking coherence, relevance and
  meaning.
• Imagining Using the minds eye as a learning
  theatre.
• Reasoning thinking rigorously and methodically.
• Capitalising making good use of resources.

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Resilience

• Absorption The pleasure of being rapt in
  learning.awe and wonder!
• Managing Distractions recognising and reducing
  interruptions.
• Noticing really sensing whats out there.
• Perseverance stickability tolerating the
  feelings of learning.

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Reflectiveness

• Planning working learning out in advance
• Revising monitoring and adapting along the way.
• Distilling drawing out the lessons from
  experience
• Meta - learning understanding learning and
  yourself as a learner.

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Reciprocity

• Interdependence balancing self-reliance and
  sociability.
• Collaboration the skills of learning with each
  other.
• Empathy and listening getting inside others
  minds.
• Imitation picking up others habits and values

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How teachers build learning power

• It is important to remember that teachers are the
  catalyst and scaffolder behind pupils and their
  ability to develop as independent learners.
• Teachers can build young peoples learning power
  by helping them to expand their own learning
  capacities.
• It is about adapting and adjusting to ensure that
  you as teachers develop the way in which you talk
  to children, the organisation of your classroom,
  design of activities and how you teach.

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How teachers build learning power

• Explaining
• Orchestrating
• Commentating
• Modelling

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• The classroom becomes a place where pupils and
  teachers engage together creatively as
  researchers in their own learning.
• Guy Claxton, Building Learning Power 2006

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How we are implementing BLP in High Cross
PrimaryResourcefulness and Reciprocity

• Class 2HD and 6MW

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Implementing BLP

• Developing Resourcefulness
• - Stuck Boards and Posters
• These are a way of developing childrens
  resourcefulness.
• They encourage children to think of all the
  resources they have around them in the classroom
  which support their learning.
• Stuck boards and posters encourage the children
  to capitalise on the full range of resources
  available to them.
• The children use their stuck board or posters as
  a reference point when they get stuck and need
  some help.

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Developing Stuck boards in Year 2

• Stuck boards were introduced into Year 2 Autumn
  term 1.
• First steps were to think, pair and share.
• With a partner pupils developed ideas on yellow
  sticky notes.
• Each sticky note was shared to the whole class.
• Pupils decided which ideas were relevant to them.
  
• Now when they are stuck they use the board to
  help them.

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Stuck Boards
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Stuck Posters
Stuck posters are designed and made by the
children. They keep them in their trays for
reference when needed. On a termly basis two or
three stuck posters are chosen, enlarged and
displayed around the classroom as reference for
others.
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Stuck Display
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Implementing BLP

• Developing Resourcefulness
• - Tour of the classroom
• Something that quite often hinders pupils ability
  to learn effectively, is unfamiliarity of their
  own environment.
• A tour of the classroom is another way of
  developing childrens resourcefulness. They
  encourage pupils to be curious, not afraid of not
  knowing and to make the most of the learning
  resources.
• Tour of the classroom enables pupils to become
  familiar with their surroundings and to hopefully
  work out things for themselves.

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Classroom Tour
The pupils worked with their learning partner to
think of useful things that they needed to find.
When ready the pupils put on their snazzy specs
and went on a tour of their classroom.
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Classroom Tour
The pupils searched high and low for items that
they wanted to find. The pupils recorded on a
plan some of the items which they found. Some
cheeky chappies even sneaked a look in their
teachers cupboards.
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Implementing BLP

• Developing Resourcefulness
• - Learning partners
• The children have a learning partner who they
  can ask for help when they are stuck. Learning
  partners are also used for some directed pair
  work activities.
• Learning partners is another way of developing
  childrens resourcefulness. They encourage
  children to use the resources available to them
  so becoming more independent in their learning.
• Learning Partners support the stuck posters and
  develop the childrens capitalising skills
  drawing on a full range of resources available to
  them.

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Learning Partners in Year 2
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Learning Partners
The children are paired up in different ways
depending on the activity Ability Mixed
ability Friendship group Children use their
learning partner to support learning during
directed time and also independently for help
when they are stuck.
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Learning Partners
The children often complete their language and
Maths work using the laptops. By working with
their learning partners on the laptops they can
share ideas and use each others strengths to
achieve the task set in the best way they
can. Sometimes learning partners are TAs in the
classroom.
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Implementing BLP

• Developing Reciprocity
• - Q and A Cards
• These are a way of developing childrens
  reciprocity.
• The children use their question and answer cards
  within a lesson to decide very carefully about
  which questions they want to answer and which
  questions they want to ask as they can only use
  their cards once.
• Q and A cards encourage children to stay focused
  on the lesson listening to others views and
  opinions making decisions about the right time to
  contribute their thoughts and ideas
• Q and A cards encourage the childrens empathy
  and listening skills and encourage everyone in
  the lesson to make a contribution whilst making
  their own decisions about their learning.

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Q and A cards
Q and A cards are handed out at the start of the
lesson. Different children are given different
numbers of cards. Children choose very carefully
when they would like to use their card to answer
a question or ask the class or teacher a
question. All children have to use the cards they
are given.
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Implementing BLP

• Developing Reflectiveness
• - Keying in
• After a piece of work has been completed pupils
  reflect on their own work by commenting about
  what they have learnt. This is also known as
  Meta-learning.
• Pupils begin to know themselves as a learner and
  talk about the learning process.

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Reflecting in Year 2
Pupils commented on the skills they used and what
they felt they had learnt. Their comments were
added to a display based on their work.
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Reflecting in Year 6
Following our work on rock idol, the children
reflected on their learning and recorded their
thoughts in a speech bubble for the display.
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Next Steps for the School

• To filter BLP into every classroom.
• To support staff in implementing BLP
• To have 101 Ways training as part of an inset day
  in the Spring Term.

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Action Plan for Implementation

• To hold a presentation based on BLP to the
  parents. This will be to help them understand
  what we as a school are doing and an to develop
  an understanding of the language that their
  children might use at home.
• To liaise with staff to help them to implement
  BLP in their classrooms and to provide a support
  network for them.
• Develop the language of BLP with the pupils to
  produce icons that represent BLP to make it more
  child friendly.

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Learning to learn

• Since we cannot know what knowledge will be
  needed in the future, it is senseless to try to
  teach it in advance. Instead our job must be to
  turn out young people who love learning so much,
  and who learn so well, that they will be able to
  learn whatever needs to be learned.
• John Holt

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• Thank you for listening.
• Any questions?