TheParagon-Education

But, by formalising all the necessary skills, there is a need to be aware of what kind of teaching will actually work. To build a successful system every teacher has to recognise that to achieve excellence every single child, whatever their talent and background and whatever their problems, has to have the best chance possible. Some of the approaches that you might think are ready for improvement might include:
- preventing children falling behind by providing earlier interventions and using teaching assistants
or support groups to improve progress
- using teaching assistants or classroom organisation to provide small group or individual teaching
- creating more and better opportunities for less able children as well as those who are gifted and
talented
- providing homework clubs and other kinds of support for children who may be vulnerable.

Confronting problems
Obviously, teaching some children can be extremely difficult for all kinds of reasons, but, I can only repeat, each lesson needs to cater for the learning needs of all pupils. This means differentiating to include the gifted and talented as well as the less able. One of the main problems we will all face when we seriously commit ourselves to making improvements is how to remove the barriers that some children bring into the classroom. One of the simplest improvements is to be able to demonstrate that you actually like teaching them and then to both challenge and support them by:

- inspiring trust and confidence
- building learning commitment
- engaging and motivating them with well-paced differentiation
- thinking analytically about what they need
- being able to take positive action to improve the quality of their learning
- using data and the evaluation of results to plan learning.

What Should Children Be Doing?
It is important that any attempts to standardise teaching methods and to achieve a sense of a consistent approach to learning doesn’t totally inhibit the creativity of individual teachers. There needs to be room for flexibility and this is really part of that old cliché: if at first you don’t succeed try, try again. Perseverance can mean carrying on in a specific way but it can also mean trying something different to achieve the same ends. Some interesting training sessions can be built around the idea of what children should actually be doing and what is expected of them. Why not ask your teachers the question, ‘What would you do to help your children achieve the following?’
Acquire new knowledge and skills.
Meet appropriate targets.
Reach appropriate levels in both internal and external tests, assessments and examinations.
Develop ideas.

And of Course - What We shouldn’t Be Doing
It would be ridiculous to expect perfection all the time. This is much more of a neurosis than a realistic expectation. But each child in each class should expect excellence most of the time. It is relatively easy to find out what it is that makes teaching effective and successful. By doing this we can make sure that we know what to improve and in many cases how to make all the necessary improvements. But do we know what ineffective, poor teaching is - in fact the kind of teaching that should not happen and which, by its very nature, has to be improved. Let’s end with a final list and suggest that all teachers should recognise that learning is less effective and teaching unsuccessful when children are:

- unsure about what work they are doing
- doing purposeless activities
- finding work too hard or too easy
- not knowing how to improve
- being made to work at too fast or slow a pace
- poorly motivated.

So, there it is - in a nutshell and perhaps it is the key to another ‘Improving Teaching and learning’ training session. Use the bullet points to ask teachers another question, ‘How can I prevent this happening in my classroom?’

Teaching Strategies

There are many classroom modifications that can be put in place to help improve school performance, memory and attention, impulse control, organization, and self esteem. You should discuss implementing these techniques with your children's teachers.

* Improving memory and attention span:
- Seat the child in an area with the least amount of distractions, near the teacher if possible.
    Consider using a study carrel, especially for independent work and keep her work area uncluttered.
- Make instructions clear and unambiguous.
- Keep oral instructions brief and repeat them at least once.
- Consider providing written instructions and directions to supplement oral instructions.
- Use visual aids.
- Break up instructions, assignments and homework into small steps.
- Improve reading comprehension by teaching her to underline key words or topics with a highlighter.
- Improve listening comprehension by teaching her to take notes of key concepts.
- Provide special signals or cues to remind her to get back on task.

* Improving organisational skills:
- Establish a daily checklist of assignments.
- Keep a special notebook in which she can record homework assignments, project or report due dates, and test schedules.

* Improving productivity:
- Divide work sheets and assignments into sections.
- Reduce the amount of homework and written classwork, especially repetitive assignments such as math problems and spelling
    words that she can do accurately.
- Vary the type of activities that she is doing.
- Vary the way that material is presented.
- Provide one on one instruction or small groups to introduce major concepts.
- Improving performance:
- Provide extra time to complete assignments and tests.
- Consider providing oral testing instead of or in addition to written tests.
- Remind the student to slow down.
- Give extra weight to the content of an assignment when grading, and do not take off points for poor handwriting or minor
    spelling errors.
- Protecting self esteem:
- Avoid humiliating children who perform poorly in front of the other children.
- Give positive feedback when she stays on task, pays attention or works hard at an assignment.
- Find things that she has special interest or strength in and encourage her to do these activities.
- Improving behavior and impulse control:
- Provide special signals or cues when she is beginning to misbehave.
- Give clear expectations of what behaviors are expected in the classroom.
- Be consistent in your expectations and in the consequences for misbehaviour.