Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
4.1.1 Support student participation
As every student is unique and learns in their own way and pace, standard 4.2; supporting student participation can be exceptionally challenging. Student participation is valuable for a number of reasons some of which are:
-
provides opportunities to grow as a learner
-
examines individual thinking processes
-
develop confidence and motivation
-
enables teachers to pinpoint any learning challenges and/or disabilities.
Artefact 1: Performance based rewards
Student participation corresponds with standard 1 as knowing your students, how they learn and differentiating within the classroom impacts the teaching strategies and pedagogical approaches an educator chooses to use. When it comes to teaching younger students, I witnessed an improvement in participation with the incorporation of positive reinforcements and performance-based rewards. Artefact 1 shows the use of table points as a useful strategy that promotes a fun yet effective way to ensure all students were engaged in lessons and working cooperatively in all tasks. It is important to note that participation does not necessarily mean a student finishes a task the fastest or completes every question on a quiz. Participation can be as simple as being involved in classroom discussions, answering questions, and listening intently to the teacher (Turner, J. 2004). Artefact 2 is another great way that I ensured participation within the classroom whilst using the interactive ICT of Nearpod. At the beginning of an English lesson, I always ensured I had every student’s attention by playing a small quiz which was a fun introduction to the upcoming lesson. The quiz would go for 5 minutes and in this quiz, the students would learn the weekly spelling rule, fill-in-the-blank paragraphs, word association and spelling quizzes. Artefact 2 was an extremely popular activity we completed in my year 6 class to improve engagement and student enthusiasm.
​
​
Word count: 313