Tuesday 19 March 2013

Behaviour Management with ClassDojo

ClassDojo is a brilliant behaviour management tool for educators. If you unaware of what it is and what it can do then you could start by watching this pupil friendly video (I show this to all of my pupils before we start using it): 

ClassDojo works exceptionally well when trying to engage the reluctant learner and also those presenting challenging behaviours. I've been using ClassDojo for months now and absolutely love it. As do my pupils. Here are my top four reasons for recommending this wonderful FREE software:

Customisable behaviours

ClassDojo comes with pre-programmed behaviours which you can use to reward pupils for their positive behaviours and deduct points for making the wrong choices. Here are mine:


Positive Behaviours


Negative Behaviours

Random Name Generator


A great way to embed AfL in you classroom. Not only can you randomly select pupils to answer questions but you can also reward them points for their answers. Also, pupils love watching the avatars changing until it lands on the selected pupil.

Pupil Accounts

Pupils can create their own accounts once they receive their teacher generated codes (very easy to do). This is great as they can track their own progress and see what they need to do to improve. They can also create their own avatars which they seem to love doing regardless of their age!



There's an App for that

ClassDojo has now developed their own iOS and Android apps which are brilliant for awarding points as you circulate the classroom. Also, it keeps pupils on their toes as they hear the sounds after positive or negative points are given.

So, what do all of these points actually amount to? Well, as a department we have invested in some history related prizes which you can see here and here. These are awarded to the top three pupils in each class at the end of each half term. Thereafter the points are reset to zero and the process starts again. 

Sunday 3 March 2013

Overview of Learning Sheets

MKI

Since I began teaching five years ago I have used Overview of Learning Sheets to help pupils (a) understand their learning journey and (b) assess their progress as we move through the Schemes of Learning. I have found these sheets to be invaluable tools when marking pupils' books as they highlight gaps in their understanding. The Overview of Learning sheets (an example of which can be downloaded here) requires the pupils to assess their understanding of key questions by ticking either green (fully understand), amber (partially understand) and red (do not understand) as we are learning about a given topic.  Whilst I appreciate that it would be easy for pupils to tick the green box, regardless of whether or not they have understood the key question being addressed, I find it is useful to question pupils on their self assessment whilst circulating the classroom. If pupils know that they will be be asked to justify why they have ticked a particular box they are more likely to provide an honest reflection. 

For each Overview Sheet there is an overriding question , for example, 'why were the trenches described as hell on earth?". This question is then broken down into smaller questions as I am a firm advocate of Enquiry Driven Learning as I believe that having lessons which are driven by a question not only provides challenge but also engagement from the onset of the lesson. 

MKII (incorporating SOLO) 



As from next term I will be introducing SOLO Taxonomy into my classroom. I won't pay SOLO a diservice by writing a long post about what it is and why it is having such a positive impact on learning. If you would like to know more I suggest reading The Learning Spy's blog or maybe this post by Darren Mead. You could also use the brilliant Hooked website for further information and resources.

With this in mind it feels only right that I create the Overview of Learning Sheet MKII to include SOLO levels of understanding: 


You can download the first example here. As this is a work in progress I would very much appreciate any observations/ feedback.......