Using student models in class

Creating WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) can help to show students what success looks like in practice for any particular task, and whilst this can definitely bring benefits to the learning process, models created by students can be so much more powerful.

In the analogue traditional classroom a teacher may seize the opportunity to do this by reading aloud a successful piece of work by a student. Sometimes however, this may be an abstract thing for the rest of the class as they can only hear it, but not see it.

The environment at XP allows us to use technology to quickly and effortlessly share models of student work visually – and at any time during the lesson. For instance, the Apple TV that is connected to the main TV in each of our classrooms allows us to use an iOS device like an iPhone or one of our iPads to quickly take a photo of a piece of work and airplay it to the TV in seconds. By using the pinch feature, you can zoom into a particular sentence, keyword or use of punctuation to then emphasise and visualise the success in action, leaving the abstract nature of the analogue method behind.

We’re also beginning to use the Notability app for the iPad Pro as the use of the Apple Pencil for the iPad allows you to draw on the screen and annotate student work which shows up on the TV in the classroom – all live and again at any time during the lesson.

We’re only 5 weeks into the first ever term at XP East, but we’re already developing the Teaching and Learning practices needed to ensure outstanding progress for our students.