Cronulla

Day 1 – St Aloysius Cronulla – David & Lauren
Student Working Collaboratively – Kinder, Year 3 and Year 6

Essential Question: Why are the learning environments engaging? What is going on to ensure each student progresses?

We spent the day at St Aloysius today and one thing that we observed and stood out as a focus at the school was the emphasis on student working collaboratively.

In kinder students where encouraged to ask each other questions and problem solve before asking the teacher or the teacher assistant. The spaces set up with in the room where very conducive for this to happen and was witnessed on numerous occasion. Even to the extent where children discussed if they were achieving their goals. We observed this in their writing lesson where they were instructed to think about if they were a 1 Star or 3 Star writer.

In Year 6 the class worked together to create a whole class Venn Diagram. They then moved to working with a partner to construct a class glossary of terms. The collaborative aspect of this lesson was that they constructed the document simultaneously as a Google doc.

The Year 3 class did a similar thing, where they made a google doc and shared it with their group members and collaboratively worked to construct a script/plan for an iMovie at the same time. It was a great time of students working together, focused on the same task, in the same space yet on different devices.

Collaborative Learning with Google Docs

One working space with in the school is the ‘Hub’ this is a collaborative space in which grades and stages use to bring groups together.

It has a variety of spaces to allow the children different avenues to work together. There is one main space for explicit teaching and a smaller explicit space for smaller groups that need extra assistance. We witnessed it in action with their Italian program, where Year 3 were taught an explicit part of the language then they broke into allocated groups and pairs to work on a variety of tasks to enhanc and extend their learning.

One stand out aspect of our visit today was the learning spaces created in the kinder classroom. There was a variety of movable furniture in differing forms. The children where given choices as to which areas they would like to choose to work in. It was interesting to see children make different choices during different learning activities. These spaces make collaborative learning possible and it was evident in how the children interacted with each other and moved easily between the spaces on their own accord and when directed by their class teacher.

Different spaces in the Learning Hub

Cafe Style Booth

Dear Southern Team on TP,

All the best as you start the experience. We will be reading your posts and thinking about how this experience can add value to what you are doing in your own school. This experience is intended to broaden your pedagogical perspective and provide you with the opportunity to critically reflect on your school situation with colleagues from other diocesan schools, some of whom you may not know. The Essential Questions are important. Please frame all discussions around these guiding questions. 

All the best for the first day and post often. 

Paul Thornton