Into the future
Longer term planning
At the moment, you’re just starting out and trying ideas. As you become more familiar with the steps and the concepts, you’ll have a better sense of which activities work. You’ll know what some of the challenges and barriers might be and how to deal with them. You’ll also have a longer timeframe within which to plan and work.
Try to be as ambitious as you can for your students. The steps and preparation for longer-term planning will be similar to what you do at the start, but you’ll know your students’ abilities better, and have more information to use.
Who are you focusing on, and what do you want to achieve with them?
Try to keep this objective simple, clear and measurable. Think about what you’ve learned about your students so far, and how you can use this. Remember that it’s important to assess the objectives: use student self-assessment, peer assessment, teacher assessment of individual students, and teacher assessment of the class. Think about what works best for you.
What is your timeline?
Between a term and an academic year would probably be right. Choose a timeframe that works for you within that.
What activities will you use to achieve the objective?
Think about the opportunities you’ll have to build the core skills of your students. Remember that you can use a combination of:
- assessment tools – both teacher and student-led
- short skills-building exercises
- classroom materials
- reinforcement and practice through projects or other learning.
As you think about the combination of tools that you’ll use, remember the six principles. Make sure that you balance teaching skills directly with opportunities to practise. Ask yourself:
- What will I do?
- When will I do it?
- How does this support my objective?
- Which of the six principles does it support?
Remember what you can do on the Hub:
- Set up the classes that you want to use – if you access resources through this class, then what you’ve done and progress made will automatically be tracked
- Choose when to use the resources – the more you can use the videos and activities, the greater the impact
- Explore the other resources – can you make use of visual aids or reward systems to support your approach?
