By and large life in the primary school happens to children. They are told where to go, what to do, and taught how to do it. Of course they get to choose their own friends and (up to a point) what they do in the breaks between lessons, but otherwise their lives are directed.
Which is why, quite often, when parents of primary school children ask their offspring what they did in school today the answer can be disappointing.
However, it can be very helpful indeed if children are encouraged to think about and make notes about what they learned throughout the course of the day – or indeed yesterday. For this gives them a sense of the educational process in which they are engaged.
This can be done initially by asking children to offer suggestions as to what they learned the previous day. But we can also go further, by asking the children to fill in a little table in which they report what they learned during a lesson.
To begin with it can be a good idea to tell the children that they are going to be asked at the end of the lesson what they have learned. Then they can move on to a situation with small groups in which they have to discuss what has been learned before the nominated scribe of the group writes down the key issues the group feel they have learned.
Then, when they are used to the notion of writing down what has been learned in a lesson, everyone can write her or his own individual version.
The final step then extends the activity, with the children writing down what they have learned in a lesson the next day.
Now, of course, it may seem that this could end up with so much writing down of what was learned previously that there is no time to teach anything new – but generally after a few experiences of being asked to write down what was learned last time the process should become more automatic, as well as being a way of helping the class settle down.
The request for writing down what has been learned can be varied according to age and ability, but a very simple chart such as this can certainly be used once the children have got used to the idea and know what is wanted.
| Date | Lesson | |
If you have any comments on using this idea, or indeed if you have ideas of your own which help children enhance their learning ability, we’d love to hear from you. We won’t publish anything you send us on this website (or anywhere else) without your express permission.
You might particularly be interested in our series ‘Learn French with Luc et Sophie” which is a story-based approach to teaching French at Key Stage 2. It uses similar self-assessment techniques to help the children identify and focus on what they have learnt.
Here are some other articles you might find of interest in relation to this topic.
Helping children remember what they have learned -2
You can find details of all our books on https://www.brilliantpublications.co.uk/