Saturday, 19 November 2011 Independent learning and the 4 "B"s.
Trying to get students to learn independently can be a bit
tricky. Many children are taught lots of good stuff but not how
to find things out for themselves. In many schools there is a
culture of "do this, learn this, and you will pass the exam".
I've been trying to get away from this and train some of my
groups to embrace the 4 Bs. So far, I'm having some success with
some of my classes, and in particular, one of my year 7 classes.
The 4 Bs of course are: Students ask themselves: Have we done
this before? When did we do this? What do I know about this?
Students use their resources to look up facts, words and/or
grammar points they don't know. Students ask the person nearest
to them on their table for help and/or advice. If that person is
unable to help, then they should ask up to 2 more others. If 4
people in the group don't know, it's probably a safe bet that
none of the class knows. (All my students sit in mixed ability
groups of 4-6 on cluste