Effective Teaching

Thinking back on 2017 identify something that YOU did that made a difference for a child’s learning?

I consciously made an effort to use Talk Moves, a pedagogy that my school focused on for two years but was specific to Maths only. Last year I decided that I would include this in all learning areas and this became my professional goal.

I noticed after 6 months, after every question, one particular student automatically turned and started talking to her peers. She questioned her classmates about their understanding and then made them repeat and rephrase their learning.

It would be great if all students could perform this task with ease.

How might this impact your practice... or someone else's practice... in 2018?

I am continuing with the Talk Moves as the learning skill the student has developed is benefiting not only herself but her classmates. This positive shift has made me realise that Talk Moves is an important pedagogy that needs to be repeated again for the class of 2018. In addition it will be practised along with explicit Vocabulary teaching through the Oral Language which my school is focusing on this year.

I'm looking forward to the professional development on Oral Language as I feel that too many of our students are not talking enough at home with their family but instead focusing too much on playing games on their digital devices..