Active Learning

What? Why? How?

Placemat – What is Active
learning?
Write down individual ideas
on the assigned spot of a
placemat, then discuss and
write down group ideas at the
centre
Why?
Why?
 Creating engagement
Students learn best when they are…
• Interested
• Involved
• Challenged by work
ie: when they are engaged with their learning
Activity: Watch the video for active learning
strategies (16 min).
Identify strategies teacher uses to engage
students

To create an effective climate for learning

teachers need to think about
• Physical state of the students
• Emotional state of the student
• Learning Style of the students
• Prior attainment & knowledge
 When are students likely to be engaged?
• When they are clear about the
purpose of the work
• The work builds on their prior
knowledge
• They are emotionally, physically,
intellectually involved with the task
• Presentation and activities generate
curiosity & interest
• They have opportunity to ask
questions & try out ideas
• They can see their progress
• They get a feeling of satisfaction and
enjoyment from their work
 Actively engaging with Texts
Reading for information: Possible challenges

Ways of reading
• Skimming
• Scanning
• Continuous
reading
• Close reading

Activity:
• Read the text: Demands on the reader’.
• List the reasons for any difficulties reading it.
• Identify support which might be helpful
There is one rather significant difference between
similarity and identity chains. If two texts embedded
Demands on
in the same contextual configurations are compared,
we are likely to find a considerable degree of overlap
the Reader
in at least some of the similarity chains found in them. (Challenges and
This is not an accident. The items in a similarity chain
belong to the same general field of meaning, referring possible solutions?)
to 9realted/similar) actions, events, objects and the
attributes. The lexical items in a general field of
meaning from a semantic grouping that represents
the potential for the formation of similarity chains.
This semantic grouping is genre-specific and to the
extent that similarity chains are really a part of the
total semantic grouping they too are genre specific.
The implication is that if we know that specific social
process – the field of discourse – relevant to the
intersection, it will be possible to predict that some
selection from this or that semantic grouping will
appear in the shape of similarity chains in the text
generated, equally elections from given semantic
groupings are logically related to specific contextual
configurations
 Reading for Information
Possible challenges
• Prior knowledge
• Subject specific vocabulary
• Grammar
• High levels of information
(dense texts)
Useful Support
• Create context:
brainstorming, group
discussions, display,
diagram, summary
• Glossaries
• Collaborative work
• Opportunities to
read similar texts
 • DARTs can be very helpful in
DARTs: actively engaging with texts encouraging pupils to read a text
carefully, to go beyond literal
comprehension and to think about
what they read.
• They are popular with pupils (game-
like quality). They offer a good focus
for group work (very engaging)
• Some pupils expect reading tasks to
involve no more than a rapid trawl
for the right answer; helping them
to realise that something more
demanding is required (takes time
and practice)
• Training pupils to talk constructively
in pairs and groups also requires
time if it is new to them.
 Directed Activities Related to Text (DARTs)
DARTs can be grouped into two main categories.
Reconstruction activities :
use modified text Analysis activities : use straight text
(Pupil tasks: completion-type (Pupil tasks: text marking and
activities with deleted or labelling or recording)
segmented text)

1. Text completion Pupils predict deleted words (cloze), sentences or

phrases
2. Underlining or highlighting Pupils search for specific target words
or phrases that relate to one aspect of content, e.g. words that support
a particular view
3. Diagram completion Pupils predict deleted labels on diagrams
using text and other diagrams as sources
4. Labelling Pupils label segments of text, which deal with different
aspects, e.g. labelling a scientific account with labels provided by the
teacher, such as prediction, evidence, conclusion
5. Table completion Pupils complete deleted parts using table
categories and text as sources of reference
6. Segmenting Pupils segment paragraphs or text into information units
or label segments of text
7. Completion activities with disordered text a Predicting logical order
for sequence b Classifying segments according to categories given by
the teacher Activity: Students are given the
8. Diagrammatic representation Pupils construct diagrams from text,
e.g. flow diagrams, concept maps, labelled drawings or models statements 1-10. Make a table with 2
9. Prediction Pupils predict the next part(s) of text with segments columns (reconstruction activities &
presented in sequence
10. Tabular representation Pupils extract information from a written
analysis activities) and group the
text, then construct and represent it in tabular form statements

DARTs: actively engaging with
texts
Directed Activities Related to Text (DARTs)
DARTs can be grouped into two main categories.
Reconstruction activities
use modified text
Pupil tasks: completion-type
activities with deleted or
Pupil tasks: text marking and
labelling or recording
segmented text
1 Text completion
Pupils predict deleted words
(cloze), sentences or phrases
2 Diagram completion
Pupils predict deleted labels
on diagrams using text and
other diagrams as sources
3 Table completion
Pupils complete deleted parts
using table categories and text
as sources of reference
4 Completion activities with
disordered text a Predicting
logical order for sequence b
Classifying segments
according to categories given
by the teacher
5 Prediction
Pupils predict the next part(s)
of text with segments
presented in sequence
Analysis activities
use straight text
1 Underlining or highlighting
Pupils search for specific target
words or phrases that relate to one
aspect of content, e.g. words that
support a particular view
2 Labelling
Pupils label segments of text,
which deal with different aspects,
e.g. labelling a scientific account
with labels provided by the
teacher, such as prediction,
evidence, conclusion
3 Segmenting
Pupils segment paragraphs or text
into information units or label
segments of text
4 Diagrammatic representation
Pupils construct diagrams from
text, e.g. flow diagrams, concept
maps, labelled drawings or models
5 Tabular representation
Pupils extract information from a
written text, then construct and
represent it in tabular form
 DARTS ACTIVITY: Geography text
(Natural resources)
Sometimes people use these resources to – Re-order the sentences to make a
their advantage. coherent paragraph.
Others are non-renewable and can only – Highlight the words which helped
you do this
be used once, such as coal.
– Give your paragraph a title
The environment includes natural
resources such as coal and iron ore, soils,
forests and water.
For example, they use water for drinking
purposes, iron ore in industry, and
landforms such as islands or lakes for
leisure.
These are used to meet human ends.
Some of these resources are renewable.
People often misuse these resources by
using them up(minerals), by destroying
them (soils, forests) or polluting them
(rivers, seas and the air).
This means they can be used over and
over again, such as rainfall
DARTS ACTIVITY: History text (Roman food) - Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph. Provide a sub-heading for
each section of the text. Underline in contrasting colours the foods eaten by wealthy Romans and those eaten by ordinary people

Wheat was the main food for most

Romans. It was often boiled into a form
of porridge. Other foods such as
vegetables, herbs, olives, fish or meat
would be added to give it more flavour.
Wheat was also used to make bread,
biscuits and pancakes. The Romans also
liked bread flavoured with cheese,
aniseed or honey.

Whereas the diet of most citizens was

fairly monotonous, the rich could afford
to eat foods imported from all over the
empire. Having expensive banquets was
a way of letting people know how
wealthy you were. Julius Caesar became
worried that this showing off might
cause the poor to rebel, and in 46BC he
passed a law limiting how much people
could spend on meals. ………etc
 Case Study –
How fresh is fresh?
• For the text ‘How fresh is fresh?’,
plan one reconstruction activity
and one analysis activity. For
each
– State the objectives
– Explain the activity
• Share their ideas with the whole
class
• Show them different DARTs
examples for this text that can
be planned to support pupils’
understanding of the text (text
marking (analysis), table
completion (analysis), sequential
activity (reconstruction)
 Reflection
• Arrange pictures in order of
increasing ‘active learning’
Explain why!
• Thank you!