The whole idea with POGIL is that it is very inquiry centred - students push themselves to learn and question each other to develop higher order thinking. It is fair to say that I threw my students straight into the deep end with this one - we had looked at questioning each other whilst working with me but their follow up tasks had very nearly all been individual activities. Last week they were expected to participate in the same level of discussion when they were not with me as when they were with me - looking back I may not have given them the correct level of scaffolding around this and so this week I have aimed to do things slightly differently.
To introduce the tasks, especially in maths, I had them brainstorm their prior knowledge and then research what they were being asked to do - I did not direct them with where to go for the research or how they should undertake this. I think this was the part that the students found most difficult - not surprising considering for the past five years at school they have been given the content and told exactly where to do and exactly when to do it. This week I am going to explore using their weebly to help guide their research - put them onto websites that I think are age and stage appropriate that hook their interest in an engaging but meaningful way. I think that for maths this will help them begin the week with more confidence. During the week and after their first teacher session the students were all feeling much more confident and working well in groups. One group was multiplying fractions by whole numbers and started off with equation such as 7/5 x 6 and 6/9 x 15. This group is not known to naturally extend themselves, however after discussion in their group and working out these problems they came to me with more complex problems that they had taken turns to write and solve such as 8/5 x 320 - and asked me to provide them with more challenging tasks along the same line. It was great to see them pushing themselves and each other to develop success - they were working effectively as a team and not one child was left behind.
I found that reading was a lot easier to get straight into, as we were already following our future learning process of "plan it, find it, sort it, use it, evaluate it" in our reading programme. The children were up to the use it part of this process and used POGIL as a way to change their thinking on how they could present their information. All of the students had at first decided that they would make posters - but began to challenge each other to create and share their learning in a way that would influence others also. As a result of this, and the guidance that the students were provided with they began to discuss a variety of ways that they could share some information. Groups are doing Pontoons, making videos, slide shows, songs and one group is still making a poster - but have just changed how they are doing this in a way that is visually appealing. These students can express why they have chosen their method and what it will make people who view it think about - they are engaged with their own learning at a much higher level than simply recalling knowledge.
The student discussion within the reflection period of each session is also much richer. Within the last five minutes of each subject block I am now hearing discussions about what made them work effectively, what they need to improve on for next time, how they think that they could have made that session more effective - and what level of understanding they have reached about a particular subject. The students begged to continue with this style of learning on Friday - so whilst we may only be beginning to crawl at the moment, the students are engaged, challenging each other and taking ownership for their learning - the building blocks of what I believe to be the most important aspects for POGIL to be applied successfully within a classroom.
With parent pupil discussions coming up this week, the next task is to convince the parents of the benefits of this learning style - and hope that they buy into it as much as myself and their children have.
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