303 written questions

Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools Level 3

Name: Claire Duggan Date:3/12/14

Written questions: Unit 303 Support learning activities (including part of units 332 and 301)

(NB: Please also refer to guidance in standards for words in bold)

Explain how a learning support practitioner may contribute to the planning, delivery and review of learning activities, highlighting the importance of evaluating learning activities. (1.1, 5.1)

A learning support practitioner contributes to the planning of an activity by finding out the learning objectives of the lesson and how the teacher expects them to achieve this. They would then find out the ability of the children they will be working with to determine what extra support they may need or if they need any extra resources. They would gather any resources or equipment that are needed for the activity, ensuring that they work and that there is enough. The practitioner could also foresee any children in the group who may struggle or find the activity easy, so they can prearrange with the teacher any extension work or simpler work if needed. During the delivery of the lesson the practitioner will reinforce what the children have been learning and ensure that they understand the learning objectives and how this can be achieved. It is important that they can adapt strategies and styles if a child is struggling to understand what they have been asked to do. They should give extension work if needed. The children should be constantly observed to make sure they can provide the teacher with sufficient feedback. A practitioner for contribute to the review of the activity by giving the teacher feedback on how well the children did and if they achieved the objectives and how well the activity itself worked. They can comment on what worked well and what didn’t, say what could improve the activity to make the learning objectives better and if it would work again in the future. It is also important for them to look at their own performance during the lesson to see what was successful and what wasn’t and to see how you could improve. It is important to evaluate learning activities to make sure the children understood the learning objectives and that they were achievable. By giving feedback on the children they were working with, seeing how well they coped with the activity, they are informing the planning of future activities as the teacher can then see what the children can do and what they still need to work on. The children may need to go at a slower pace with some topics such as fractions but may understand area and perimeter quickly and could be extended at a faster pace. Evaluating the activity will also show the teacher what resources worked and what didn’t, this can determine what could be used in future lessons.

Explain the importance of reflective practice in continually providing the quality of service provided. (Unit 332 2.1)
It is important to look at your own practice as it is one of the ways that you can improve the support that you give the children and it will also help you and the children reach their potential. By looking at your own practice you can assess the level of support you give and can see the areas that you can improve upon. If you fail to reflect on your own practice then you will stagnate and the level and quality of support you provide will remain the same meaning the children will also fail to reach their potential. It is also important to look back and see how you worked with different ability groups as the level of support you give will vary and you will not improve or learn new strategies or techniques if you don’t reflect on your own practice.

Consider 2 recent learning activities you have supported and your perceived strengths and weaknesses and complete the table below (1.2)

Learning activity 1
Details of learning activity to be supported ( include objectives/ children/ learning activity etc):
LO: to

Beforehand, evaluate your own strengths in relation to supporting the learning activity

Confident with methods of addition and subtraction

Beforehand, evaluate your own weaknesses in relation to supporting the learning activity

I have a limited knowledge of roman numerals

How may your strengths impact on your support

I can adapt the support I give to the children depending upon their needs.
How may your weaknesses impact on your support

Not being able to fully support the children with the activity due to my limited knowledge.

Learning activity 2
Details of learning activity to be supported ( include objectives/ children/ learning activity etc):

Beforehand, evaluate your own strengths in relation to supporting the learning activity

Beforehand, evaluate your own weaknesses in relation to supporting the learning activity

How may your strengths impact on your support?

How may your weaknesses impact on your support?

Explain how social organisation and relationships may affect the learning process (3.2)
Social organisation and relationships affect the learning process in many different ways, one way is grouping them by ability. By sitting them in ability groups you can focus your attention on a whole table and tailor your activity to their needs to ensure that they are successful and they may be more confident to join in with a lesson when they are with a group of the same ability. However it is important to have mixed ability tables where possible, creative lessons for example, as children will learn from each other and can discuss ideas. It is also important to make sure children who can cause conflict do not sit near each other as this can disrupt the lesson and can affect their learning, equally being too friendly can cause a similar issue, as the children can become too chatty and may not pay attention during the lesson. Sitting children together who speak the same language is also useful, especially if a child is new to the school and where English is a new language, as one child can help the other to understand what is being said and asked of them during the lesson and it will also help then settle in more quickly. Children who show signs of bad behaviour and even some SEN children may also affect the learning process by how they behave. They may disrupt others who are at the same table or could even disrupt the whole class, so it is important that the teachers and teaching assistants can handle these situations to minimise disruption to others but also ensure that these children can also learn and reach their potential.

Give examples of problems that might occur when supporting learning activities under the following headings and state and how you have/would deal with them. (3.6) Learning activities:
Some children may find the activities too easy or too hard. This could affect their motivation and concentration. If this does happen we would adapt the activity to suit the needs of the pupils. For example in maths if a child is finding the activity too difficult we would simplify it to ensure they can achieve the learning objective. Similarly if the activity is too easy then we can give them something more difficult to challenge them and meet their needs.

Learning resources:
Problems with resources include not having enough, being poor quality and not working correctly. To make sure this doesn’t happen resources are prepared before the lesson and checked for quality and that they work properly, that way if there is a problem there’s plenty of time to find other resources or fix them. For example if the I pads are needed they will be checked a couple of hours before hand to make sure they are charged sufficiently.

Learning environment:
The learning environment could too hot or cold, it could have little access or there could not be enough space for the activity. If the room does become too hot or cold during the lesson then opening or closing the windows or doors would fix this. If space is a problem then tables and chairs can be moved safely to make sure there is enough room for the activity.

Learners:
Learners can have low self esteem, be a mixed ability within the class and could disrupt a lesson with bad behaviour. A child behaving badly is dealt with using the red/yellow card system to minimise disruption to the rest of the class. Mixed ability classes are put into ability groups to ensure help can be given to those that need it.

Assessment:
Problems may include having to deal with another issue during the activity or having too many children to assess. If you know how many children you need to asses then you can keep a check list with their names and write or tick off what they can and can’t do or go back through their work to remind yourself of what they found difficult. It may also be difficult to assess children if you are unclear what the learning objectives are or if there has been a problem with the resources as they are vital to the learning process and will determine how the child found the activity. You must make sure that you understand the objectives and that the children will be able to use the resources so they can be assessed.

Evaluate how own knowledge, understanding and skills impact on your practice in:

Literacy

I have a good knowledge of punctuation and grammar. I can use a range of connectives to help push the middle ability to make complex sentences. I know all of the terminology used in literacy so I can help the children with their own understanding. However I have a basic knowledge of phonics which would be useful when working with the lower ability groups.

Numeracy

I am confident with many areas of numeracy including addition, subtraction, area, perimeter, graphs, coordinates etc and I can easily explain these and adapt to suit the needs of the children. However I struggle with fractions and I also find it difficult to explain a method that I haven’t used much and at times have to have them explained to me, for example chunking for division.

ICT
I have no formal ICT qualifications and have a basic knowledge of word. I am confident when I have to source something from the internet like pictures and can easily put them onto a document but I struggle with power points. I find it difficult to show children how to do certain things on some programmes unless I have a lot of prior knowledge.