| Description of good practice: |
Teacher Richard Moult set up an electronic suggestion box to get the views of his learners. He used the Durham Learning Gateway as a safe online chat room with his pupils. The idea was to get feedback from pupils and get to know them better.
Context:
Most pupils at the school come from White British backgrounds. A small number of pupils of Polish heritage are at the early stages of learning English. A few pupils are Travelers. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities is above average.
Method of engaging learner voice:
Richard had previously tried using a traditional suggestion box to gather feedback from pupils. He then set up an electronic one using the Durham Learning Gateway, and posted some questions to find out how the children felt about their lessons and their environment.
He received some constructive comments along the lines of “I like class three when kids are being good”. He found it interesting to discover how much children valued harmony in the classroom.
These exchanges led to the Durham Learning Gateway being used like a safe chat room, with the children able to say what good things they liked about the class and the lessons,
as well as what they didn’t like. For example, they did like the new way he had set out the classroom, but they thought the homework he set was too hard. He had previously thought they would hate the new desk arrangement and he hadn’t realized the reason that children didn’t hand in homework was because it was difficult.
Using the chat room also made him more aware of some of his pupil’s emotional states.
For example, there was one girl who often seemed down. By tracking her comments on the gateway, he realized that there was more to this than a couple of bad days and he kept an eye on her in class to try to keep her involved.
Focus of inclusive practice:
This work began with Richard’s desire to get to know his pupils better. He originally started using the Durham Learning Gateway as a system that would automatically mark spelling work and return it. By chance, he found that the gateway offered an electronic guided suggestion box scheme. He started by posting some questions such as “What kind of after-school club would you like to join?” and “What can we do to make the class better?” Soon, children joined in and began to share ideas with one another.
Level of success:
Some of the children seemed to be more open to using the electronic suggestion box than having a face-to-face conversation, where the peer pressure of their classmates can color
their responses.
Richard used pupils’ comments from the chat room to inform planning. For example, he block-booked time to do an extended D&T lesson on moving monsters, after realizing
that the children really enjoy the artistic and practical side of these lessons.
Richard felt that this had been a useful exercise for himself, but also believed that other teachers could benefit. He suggested that this is a tool for any teacher new to a school, or a class, who wants to know about the pupils in the class and their social skills. Sometimes it can take a while to get to know the learners, but this process has helped him to do that a lot quicker. |
