Taking the Teaching Ancient History module was a bit of a gamble on my part, as I had not taught before and did not know if I wanted to train to become teacher after my time at university or not. Luckily this module was available and I thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to find out for myself. At the preliminary meetings and training I was apprehensive of my first class ‘on the job’ due to my inexperience and this feeling only grew as the first day of teaching approached. But in hindsight I do not know what I was worried about as the pupils in the class were delightful and very enthusiastic and even though there were 35 of them we managed to retain their attention throughout the lesson. As I left that first lesson I was already looking forwards to the next as we would have to dress up as Romans and Celts so the class could ask us questions. I was chosen to dress up as a Celt and this proved to be rather humorous as after that lesson, when I was back in regular clothes, I was constantly asked if I was the Celt in disguise.
Early on in the project I mainly helped a table of low ability students, and later on in the project I mainly helped a table of higher ability students and the difference was profound. It really brought home to me the need for different worksheets and activities within the same class: if a single worksheet was produced the high ability group would often finish the work on their own and would only need help if they came across a word they did not know, whereas the lower ability group would need to be guided through each individual question, reading it as a table and then going back through the worksheet to find the correct answer and then encouraging them to phrase it as a sentence and then to write it down. This also applied to the SEN pupils that would join us for the class as they were spread throughout the class so there was one at each table. What warmed my heart about this was that often if the SEN pupil was struggling with a question or some work, the other pupils at the table would help them and explain the question or help them find the answer. When combined with the outside support given by the dedicated SEN teacher, who would go over the worksheet again with them in another lesson when we were not present, I feel that we provided an excellent learning environment for all the pupils in the class, no matter what their ability.
Written by Joe Perry, 12 January 2015
Early on in the project I mainly helped a table of low ability students, and later on in the project I mainly helped a table of higher ability students and the difference was profound. It really brought home to me the need for different worksheets and activities within the same class: if a single worksheet was produced the high ability group would often finish the work on their own and would only need help if they came across a word they did not know, whereas the lower ability group would need to be guided through each individual question, reading it as a table and then going back through the worksheet to find the correct answer and then encouraging them to phrase it as a sentence and then to write it down. This also applied to the SEN pupils that would join us for the class as they were spread throughout the class so there was one at each table. What warmed my heart about this was that often if the SEN pupil was struggling with a question or some work, the other pupils at the table would help them and explain the question or help them find the answer. When combined with the outside support given by the dedicated SEN teacher, who would go over the worksheet again with them in another lesson when we were not present, I feel that we provided an excellent learning environment for all the pupils in the class, no matter what their ability.
Written by Joe Perry, 12 January 2015