Wellington Today Wellington Today 2018 en | Page 13

2018
WELLINGTON SCHOOL LIFE
LIFELONG EDUCATION
Create the right environment at home What to do on the exam day
The final key method of support that parents can give their
children during exam time is to create the right environment at
home. Exam preparation is a huge undertaking and pupils need
to have the right conditions to be able to study effectively. Some
key strategies where parents can help out in this area inclu de
creating a study space that works well for the child. Again, all
pupils are individuals; some will prefer to revise at a neatly
ordered desk in a quiet room all to themselves, whereas others
may prefer to spread their books out over their bed and study
while listening to music. Encouraging sufficient rest and exercise
are also vital strategies, and it is useful for parents coming up
with a schedule together with their children, in order to make it
fair and workable. Before the exam
Ultimately, the best thing to do is to openly discuss your
child’s needs with them. Have these conversations with them,
ask them how they work best, ask them what they need and
what they don’t. They are the best person to tell you what
works for them. Showing your child that they have control
over their exam preparation time is incredibly empowering.
The best thing you can do is to make it crystal clear that
they are in charge and you are there to support your child in
whatever way they need.
• Eat a good and light breakfast – something that will sustain
you and help you concentrate.
• Try to arrive at school or the exam venue early.
• Go to the toilet before the exam starts.
• Keep away from people who may agitate you before the
test or may say unhelpful, anxiety-provoking comments.
In the exam room
• Take time to slow your breathing and relax when you first
sit down in the exam room.
• Skim over the exam paper, underlining key words
and instructions.
• Work out how long they have for each question or section.
• Watch out for the wording of the questions – they need to
understand and address what the question is really asking.
• Answer the questions you find easiest first to build your
confidence, then as you relax more move on to more
difficult ones.
• Don’t worry about how long others are taking, but keep
an eye on the clock to ensure you have enough time to
answer the more difficult questions.
•
Re-read answers, if possible, and make any changes that are
necessary – correct spelling. Checking works.
COOPERATIVE TEACHING AT WELLINGTON
By Emma Paine, English Teacher & Key Stage 3 Coordinator, Wellington College International Tianjin
A friend recently sent me an article on the engagement rates
of university students during lecture-based learning. At first, I
dismissed the article as not being relevant to secondary school
teaching, however she had added a postscript ‘read to the bottom,’
where I found a table that compared the elements of lecture-
style learning that pupils found least engaging, to the elements
of an average secondary school lesson. Sadly, there were many
similarities between the two, so I started to look further; in
an average classroom the teacher talks between 70-80% of
the lesson, leaving only 20% of the lesson to pupil talk. Which
doesn’t seem all that concerning until you consider that children
remember: [1]
10 percent of what they read
20 percent of what they hear
50 percent of what they read and hear
70 percent of what they say and write
90 percent of what they actively participate in through
active discussion and defending their ideas
It set me on a path to learn as much as I could about how best
to engage pupils and give them the opportunity to invest in their
own learning and the learning of those around them. I began
talking with others and realised how many other teachers within
the Wellington College International Tianjin community share my
passion and interest.
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This term I was given the opportunity to attend a course run by
Kagan Korea, called Cooperative Learning and ELL, which is a
collaborative teaching system that uses structures that ensure all
pupils are actively communicating with each other in a variety of
forms; reducing teacher talk to as little as 10% for some lessons.
The course forced me to be an active participant in my own
learning and growth, allowing me to put myself in the shoes of
our Wellington learners. We as teachers learnt the structures
by participating in them ourselves, taking part in round robin
exercises which ensured we all gave our ideas; creating chips
with questions we could ask our students and then answering
them ourselves in Choose a Chip activities; ensuring that we not
only spoke, but also listened, by paraphrasing the idea of another
before giving an idea of our own.
I left inspired and driven to share all I had learnt and
experienced with the pupils within my classroom and also with
the teaching staff and our community as a whole. To that end
we ran workshops on structures that teachers from across our
College can apply within their various subjects, and just like
me, they will do so from a pupil perspective. I know I am not
the only member of our community excited about an even
higher level of engagement from our pupils and a whole host of
interesting student-led educational discussions.
[1]Edgar Dale, Cone of Experience
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