Assessment criteria 3.2
Social organisations and relationships within the class room are again another great learning tool. If you group children together and work with them on tasks within the curriculum, they will start to develop a strong learning relationship. You could see that the group dynamics will often change on particular tasks, where a more confident child on this task will take lead over a more confident child on another task. If the children see the adults within the class react well and interact with other children, they will get a better response from them.
Children are put into groups in order to give them the best learning potential and for their learning to be appropriate for their age and level of understanding. Some children can be easily distracted, so would work better in a smaller group with adult supervision to keep them on task and encouragement them to keep focused. Potential issues that may arise in group learning could be that some children may take over the group and always answer before others, which in turn not all children in the group get to put their opinions, idea's or views across. It could cause ineffective communication between the group if a few are not understanding the task or some may be shy and introvert. Due to the nature of working in teams, children can sometimes find that they are not working effectively, which negatively impacts on their learning, and their ability to progress.
Children are grouped in several ways, e.g. in ability groups, in nurture groups, SEN groups and in EAL groups. The children are also encouraged to join after school clubs, e.g. art or cooking club, which would help them to form relationships with others of the same age and across the year groups.
Groups with children of varying ability in some subjects can encourage them to help and motivate each other, increasing their self-confidence. Some children would feel a great sense of achievement knowing they have helped another child. Staff working with children in small groups or in whole class support must make sure all interactions with children give encouragement and praise, giving help when needed but not doing the work for the them.
Assessment criteria 3.6
When supporting learning activities, there are a number of potential problems, including:
Learning activities and resources
A learning activity may require resources such as, pencils, paper, worksheets, maths apparatus, paint pots, paint brushes etc... if there are not enough resources for each child, the learning activity would be disrupted, as someone would have to leave the room to collect more resources, which wastes valuable learning time. A way of preventing this from occurring is by resourcing the equipment needed early and making sure you have enough to go around. It is important also to check that equipment is safe and working and is not broken in any way and that the adult is aware of how to use it safely.
The learning activities and environment
If children are working on an activity that requires a lot of space such as painting and there is not enough room for them to have access to the paint, they may quickly lose their focus on the task, so it is essential to ensure there is enough room for them and the equipment. One way of dealing with such problems is to have a separate painting area/table for a group of children to use, whilst the other children are doing a different activity and then wait their turn.
A lot of noise would be a distraction whether it is from other children in the room, from some kind of outside disturbance such as grass cutting, or from a different area of the school such as the corridor or a nursery class. You could deal with these situations by reminding the children to work as quietly as possible, and by shutting windows and doors to minimise the disruption.
Pupils ability to learn
If any children are not focused on the task due to unacceptable behaviour, you could intervene straight away and remind them of the class rules. You could praise good behaviour using stickers, green card systems and telling the class teacher how well they have done, in accordance with the school behaviour policy. You could deal with situations of unacceptable behaviour by encouraging the children to change their behaviour, but if they do not you could inform the class teacher of the situation..
Sometimes children with low self esteem may think that they are unable to complete the task and give up trying to do so. You could deal with this by giving them lots of encouragement and praise for trying and making sure they understand what is asked of them. Always encourage children to do their best. Being aware of how long children can concentrate on one task is the reason why the staff within schools adapt their planning to incorporate the different learning styles of children to keep their attention on the task. Working with small groups who often have a range of abilities, you could overcome this by making sure that the activities had been delivered for all abilities, such as when working with a mixed ability group you could extend the activity for the children who finished first in order to keep them focused. If that did not work then you could inform the class teacher, she/he could then make the differentiation needed and adapt the existing and future planning.
Assessments
A child’s development is observed, assessed and recorded by the teaching staff including T.A's. Every child's development is assessed through out their academic life. This can be done in many ways such as observations, guided reading, maths assessments, phonic assessments, writing tasks, creativity, teacher assessment, SAT's and later on O Levels and A level exams.
The teacher and T.A will be able to tell whether or not a child has a particular difficulty in any area and overcome this by deciding what the child should be learning next. In the early stages of learning a record of development across all six areas would provide a picture of the whole child at the end of the EYFS. Keeping such data would enable comparison with national standards. Tracking can identify underachievement in individuals and groups, inform teaching strategies and help schools target intervention effectively. In the personalised learning and Every Child Matters, detailed information on individual pupils can help ensure that they realise their potential and that no one is left behind.
When assessing children and small groups you would use formative assessment to focus on measuring progress so far in the curriculum. Problems that could arise from this is the member of staff may assess different to others within the same year group. There needs to consistency throughout to ascertain a fair chance to all pupils and the levelling within the year group. The child/children need to feel secure with the adult who is assessing otherwise the outcome can be very different. All factors have to be considered to be able to assess at that time. It then would need to be moderated with other class to give a true reflection of the classes as a whole.
Conclusion
Social organisations and relationships within the class support children to learn. If you group children together and work to support them they will start to develop a strong learning relationship with others their own age and with the adults within the setting. By addressing issues that may effect the learning process we can gain the best learning potential and outcome for each child. When planning and delivering activities for the children to learn from we need to make sure each is resourced accordingly and reflects their age and ability level, the environment in which they learn is safe and appropriate and that children are focused and engaged with the activity set. All of this can support them to have the best start in school to learn and develop.
Page 33 and 187 of the Support Teaching and Learning course handbook
NVQ3 UNIT 303 Assignment 1 how to support children's learning activities?
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