Contemporary Education

Pedagogy, differentiation, collaboration, Frayer model, and guided reading are all buzzwords in education. Seasoned teachers know what they mean, but you probably do too without realizing it. There are a zillion different ways to teach your child and there are popular approaches, radical approaches, traditional approaches, and “new” approaches that aren’t really new at all. The only thing you really need to know is….

Do whatever works!

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

I can’t really give you a Must-Do list since I don’t know your child, his interests, her strengths, his weaknesses, her previous experiences, or his favorite approaches, I can recommend ways to NOT teach your child.

1. Do NOT demand your child follow the 1 approach that works for you.

This is my #1 gripe about classroom instruction. While many classrooms are turning towards more…

A teacher’s take on the jargon of explicit teaching…

I know that parents have to decode a lot of jargon whilst their kids are at school. I’m often asked about some of the acronyms commonly seen and heard in my classroom. Perhaps they sound more like a quartet of elderly folks in a retirement home, however WALT, WILF, WALA and TIB are some the latest educational buzz words.

Explicit teaching focusses students toward the learning/understanding/skill, rather than the doing/task/activity. Below are some useful acronyms that are becoming more and more common in schools, for making learning explicit for children.

WALT = We Are Learning To…
Sometimes called a Learning Intention, a WALT  makes the learning, concept, understanding or skill clear to students. For example, “We are learning to use talking marks in our writing”. I find WALTs extremely useful in differentiating between the task or activity and the actual learning…