My first BTEC
year 11 lesson consisted of: minimal workload, off task behaviour, unauthorised
exits and a large amount of distraction.
Reflecting on
the lesson and discussing with my colleagues, we devised a possible solution
and concluded that it may be beneficial for all students if I changed the
seating plan in search for a positive learning environment. Initially I thought
this would be difficult as it being a fairly ‘challenging’ group, and the
reaction would be un-manageable.
However, on
entry to the classroom when given the starter the students looked at the
seating plan shown on the board. This plan identified the students who
contributed to the distractions previously were seated away from each other yet
still allowed people to work in pairs, although these pairings were strategic.
I decided to pair students with non friends and opposite typical behaviour with
the ambition that the quiet work of a pair would encourage the other. I also
felt that the students working would obviously receive lots of praise and therefore
could motivate the ‘non doer’ to try harder.
The next
lesson- HUGE DIFFERENCE!!
I feel the contributing factors were:
An effective, well thought through seating plan. Particularly, the 1 student who instigated alot of the previous distractions is isolated at the front, away from others where he is unable to distract others or be distracted.
An engaging
starter activity, they didn’t have a chance to complain about the seating plan.
After this I could then just flow through the main activity.
