Supporting Learning Activities free essay sample

Describe the sorts of problems that might occur when supporting learning activities, and how to deal with these: 1. Noise: Sometimes during classes children can become distracted by noise from within the classroom and from outside (such as another classroom, or people on the hallway). I help to combat this problem by closing the doors and any windows open to the noise, and also by reminding children to work as quietly as possible and raise their hand to speak rather than shout out. 2. Insufficient resources: Many of the activities set by the teacher involve the use of multiple resources e. g. books, pencils amp; crayons, scissors, glue, rulers etc. Unfortunately there are not always enough resources for every student, resulting in there being a delay in the commencement of work (due to trying to locate extra supplies). This problem is managed by preparing for the lesson before it begins, ensuring there are sufficient resources for the class, and also by encouraging children to help to and share with each other whenever possible. 3. Having an inclusive class (with a wide spectrum of abilities: Another problem which can occur when supporting learning activities, is ensuring that the all children are engaged, involved and fully understanding the task that has been set when there is such a wide spectrum of abilities. This can be dealt with in several ways, such as splitting the class into ability based groups, encouraging high ability children to help those who are struggling to keep pace (this also helps to keep the class working on a similar level), and also by setting achievable targets for work. Shy students: Children may suffer from shyness which can affect their ability to work individually (such as being worried about being wrong), and get involved with the class as a whole or participate in group work. You can tackle this issue by attempting to establish a good rapport with the child, pair them with more extrovert; friendly and sensible students, and also by giving frequent encouragement and praise for the work they have done. 5. The learning environment: If the children are doing an activity that requires more space than is available in the classroom e. . painting, they will quickly become distracted by other things, lose focus and quite often bicker with other classmates over who will get a ‘go’ first. The most efficient way of dealing with this is to split the class into small groups, set up a painting area, assigning each group a task to do until it is their turn to go and paint. 6. Disruptive behaviour: Occasionally the poor behaviour of one or two stud ents can affect the work and concentration of the class. It is important to try and understand the root cause of the child’s behaviour, and work to overcome it (such as a child losing focus because they do not find the task set challenging enough). I deal with this by encouraging, praising and rewarding good behaviour (with the use of raffle tickets, stickers and gold stars etc. ), but also by notifying the teacher of any persistent bad behaviour. Another way of promoting more cooperative behaviour is by setting more appropriate work / higher targets (if the child is of higher ability, and is not challenged or stimulated by the work at hand). . Short attention spans: Children may have a low level of attention for a variety of reasons, this can be dealt with by including multiple sources of learning, setting project work, activities, field trips, experiments, making the lesson multi-sensory, giving frequent encouragement and praise for their efforts, by observing the child during other learning activities to try and assess which acti vities the child is most responsive to and enthusiastic about, and also by increasing student involvement. 8. Lack of clarity/ understanding about the learning objective: When children are given their learning objective for the class they are not always clear about what it is they have to do when returning to their seats, and may feel too shy to ask for it to be explained again or could have quite simply forgotten. I deal with this situation by; splitting the class into groups and explaining anything they may be unclear about, by encouraging the students to discuss work and their ideas, and by also encouraging higher ability pupils (that have finished) to help those struggling to keep pace. Task 5. 1: Describe the importance of evaluating learning activities: It is important to evaluate learning activities to ensure you are delivering them in the most effective way. It’s important to be honest and consider the lesson from all angles, taking into account both the pros and cons. This will enable you to be constantly developing and improving the delivery and learning in activities. This is done by; analysing whether the learning objective was fully achieved, asking how the activity could be improved in the future to maximise learning, working out whether any parts of the lesson were unsuccessful and why, thinking of ways in which you could improve your role ( in terms of planning, organisation, facilitating learning, supporting pupils and giving feedback etc. , observing whether the children remained interested amp; focused on the task whilst understanding and completing the task set. Another way of evaluating learning activities is by observing, listening and talking to the children about their likes and dislikes of the lesson. This can enable you to develop a good understanding of what motivates, interests, challenges and stimulates the children, so in the future when planning activities you will have a good knowledge of how best to deliver curriculum.