Focus: Looking at the impact of outdoor learning for developing Skills for Learning and Work.
My Question
How can learning outdoors enhance and deepen learning within curriculum areas of numeracy .
Who
BGE(S1 -S3)
What
Raising attainment in numeracy through partnerships between staff in schools, other educational settings and with other organisations and create working relationships that construct clear pathways for delivering Curriculum for Excellence experiences in numeracy and outcomes outdoors.
Why
Raising attainment in Numeracy is one of the main focus areas in the school improvement plan. There are well constructed lessons and assessments already available for science and maths teachers which can be done outwith the classroom and result in better understanding of the concept and achieving related outcomes in numeracy.
I will follow school improvement plan as a guideline which is constructed drawing on a wide range of evidence, including assessment information. Actively involving children and young people in the assessment process helps develop ownership of learning also.
Evidence
I will be looking at benefits to pupils in terms of numeracy skills. For generating evidences I will use pupil evaluation forms, focus group, dialogue with head of maths and also looking at HGISO-4.
When
- 15th January Week: Referring to the reading, looking at CfE outcomes, school improvement plan and impact it is going to make.I’m hoping that children will make better progress in numeracy and be more engaged. They will have better understanding of the concept.
- 22ndJanuary Week : How effectively we engage with parents through outdoor education and wider community engagement.
- 5th Feb Week :Working outwith the classroom with S2 pupils.
- Task: Problem Statement to be solved with measurement criteria.
- Plan: Students will work in groups of 4 students to design an outdoor classroom. They are to brainstorm what type of facility would be useful, search for costs of materials needed, building type, plans, and use the web to get ideas. They are to stake out a site on the east side of the high school so they can visualize what the dimensions would look like. After deciding on a plan the group will draw blueprints on graph paper – roof design, floor plan and side view of your building. They are to construct a 3D scale model from the plans. A written estimate of costs for the project and a written report about why they chose this particular building type as well as an oral presentation is to be given at the conclusion of the project.
- My Assessment: copy of solution.
- 12th Feb: By the end of this week will be looking at their work with maths teacher and value any impact within this initial 4 week Research Block.
- 19th Feb: 2nd March will be a review of planning and evaluation depending upon how the children are responding, evaluation of activities themselves and how successful I am in my project.
This sounds exciting, Rachnna, and it has really all come together now. Under ‘evidence’, don’t forget the most obvious which will be the work/presentations of the students. This should give you lots of evidence and depending on the questions they have to address in their presentation, you might not need to also carry out focus groups and/or evaluation forms. They could give an oral evaluation as part of the presentation (which you and others could question at the end). This could really cut down on your workload.
When you say under ‘Why’ that good assessments and lesson plans already exist, in what way have you had to tweak them to make them suitable for outdoor learning (if at all)? It sounds great to be able to make use of existing material in this way.
Hi
Yes, that is the plan but not through out the enquiry only at certain times. I am also working with local community working groups on few aspects of eco-committee. In the recent meeting my HT suggested the importance of involving neighbours and local businesses.
Apologies for not looking at posts/comments. I was away to India, recently came back.As you suggested I will be focusing more on formative assessment and verbal questing to gather evidences of learning.If I require further evidences, l will make some changes in the material already available to suit my group needs.
Hi Rachna,
I agree, this is much more focused now. Which will be easier for your to track and monitor. You mention engagement with parents, are you planning on utilising the parent voice throughout your enquiry?
Stephanie.