I did a lesson with my S3 Biology class on Thursday which didn’t go to plan. So as is usual for me, I sat down later (well, this morning actually) to try and put my thoughts about this in some kind of order. And when I started to do this the realisation that it actually went quite well hit home.

It was a GLOW lesson. Usual routine; pupils arrive, log onto GLOW, and find a news item from me on their pupil page with lesson learning objectives attached. After we had gone through these together, they all opened up their class GLOW group page, located the folder with the day’s work (detailing how to achieve the learning objectives) and started to watch a video which set the tone for the lesson -people dressed as Orang-U-Tangs protesting about the destruction of habitats due to over-production of Palm oil. Suitably amused, and engaged, they followed a link to a virtual botanical garden tour and started to complete a web-quest which comprised a series of questions about the different uses of plants and plant materials. They had to travel around the virtual tropical garden, locate plants which revealed information, and decide on the correct use of that particular plant to man. They each joined GLOW meet and imported their word docs containing the questions and their answers. They were soon checking out each others whiteboards and helping each other and the usual classroom banter continued on the instant messaging section of ‘meet’.

I moved around the room helping pupils where necessary. They had two other tasks to complete as well as the web quest ( watching another video about endangered plants and commenting about this on the discussion board). They all got really engrossed in this first task, and I have to admit, so did I, being kept busy answering questions and prodding a few in the right direction. The kids were pushing each other on as well. When I did do a time-check, I had to move them onto the next tasks and we didn’t all get the chance to post on discussions. I was a little concerned that we might not have achieved all our lesson objectives but the plenary questioning at the end revealed that the pupils had applied the knowledge gained from the first task and had started to think about the consequences of destroying plant habitats in terms of losing potential medicines and foods for the future. They all saved their whiteboard work and we will re-visit this task again and complete it next time we use GLOW.

I am finding more and more  that using GLOW is helping my pupils to develop abstract and critical thinking skills and this has been evident in their credit level assessment scores. Their social skills are also developing well evidenced by the increasing level of peer-to-peer instruction and assistance that is now taking place.

Although I was worried a little that the lesson had lost its way, the actual situation was that the pupils had taken control of the learning and teaching and used it to their advantage. All of my lesson objectives had been met (important when pushing through a standard grade course) and the pupils had applied their Biology to the real world. When considered in the light of ACfE, they certainly were successful learners and effective contributors, communicating in different ways, settings and in partnership. They took the initiative, solved problems and applied critical thinking well. As confident individuals they managed their own pace of learning and helped each other and as responsible citizens they developed informed views of  the environmental and ethical issues involved in managing or destroying the rainforests after evaluating the evidence presented. And as someone else who was observing in class that day pointed out, they were totally engaged and concentrating for the whole 55 minutes of the lesson.

So maybe things didn’t go as wrong as I thought  after all. Or maybe my judgement as to the success or failure of a lesson is less important than the views of the pupils. Having given them a clear set of learning intentions, a road-map for achievement and the tools to use, should I begin to trust them more to put it all together and finish the job in hand, asking me for assistance if necessary? Surely this is what ACfE is all about?

I’ve written before about how using GLOW changes my role in the classroom. Reflecting on this particular lesson has emphasised, to me anyway, how significant this change in role might actually be for my pupils and how important and powerful the reflective process is to my understanding of teaching and learning…