My Learning Plan

This week (week 2) was the first week that Room 8 were given the opportunity to plan their own day using their My Learning Plan. Some children in my class will require a lot more support, while other children are already very capable at working independently and self-managing their learning. Because of this, the way individual children plan their day will vary from the use of visual or paper planners, through to the use of Google Docs.

 I decided that because it was the first week we were using our My Learning Plans that I would give all children the same paper template. Initially I had thought that I would group children into supported, self-managing and self-directed prior to this week. I changed my mind, as this was a new concept for all of the children in my class and a week for exploring. To prejudge and group the children prior to a week of experimenting would have been like putting a glass lid on the jar of fleas. If you haven't seen this experiment, it's well worth watching - Fleas and the Glass Jar.  In a nutshell, the fleas start off jumping higher than the top of the jar. A lid is then placed on top of the jar for three days. Once removed, the fleas never jump higher than the top of the jar again. This year in my class I want to ensure that I'm not placing any 'glass lids on jars.'

Prior to introducing My Learning Plans, Room 8 have had blocks of time where they've had to manage their time effectively and complete certain learning experiences. At the start of this week we spent a lot of time breaking the My Learning Plan down. I displayed my timetable for the day on the board. Room 8 can all access this through our class Google site. We discussed what were the whole class workshops, group workshops and what children could choose to do if they weren't part of those workshops e.g. their must do activities. I also gave Room 8 time to go away with their peers, discuss their My Learning Plan and must do activities, then ask questions back in our campfire space. My year 5 children are already familiar with the process of planning their own day, as we experimented with it a bit as a class towards the end of last year. After another campfire meeting (whole class meeting) everyone went off and had a go at planning their learning for the day.


Here's how the children in Room 8 will be planning their learning.


My Learning Plan

Their My Learning Plan is the timetable that children will use to plan their day. This will look different for different children, depending on how supported or independent they are. To begin with I will be using three different types of planning templates - a visual planner, paper planner and digital planner via Google Docs.

Here's a little bit about how each planner will work.

The Visual Planner - This planner is for children who need a lot of support with self-managing and planning their learning. Children will select their independent activities for the day by putting their name beside the appropriate photo of the activity they want to work on. Each one of their names will also have a number on it. The number corresponds to the order the child wants to complete the activities in. When they have a group workshop they will simply leave their independent activity and then come back to it after the workshop. Each child also has a weekly must do activity list to tick off. This supports the child with ensuring that they have a balanced week e.g. of literacy, numeracy, inquiry etc. It's also a way of scaffolding them towards using a paper planner.

The Paper Planner - This planner is for children who are self-managing, but aren't completely self-directed yet. Children plan one day at a time. Once they've completed their My Learning Plan, I check it  and then they put it into the planning folder. At any time throughout the day they can grab their plan out of the folder and refer to it. Children at this stage are often still getting mixed up with where their group workshops need to go and aren't yet managing their 'must do' activities at an independent level.

For both the paper planner and digital planner children use the class timetable on our Google site as their guide for planning their day. They first put in any whole class workshops or campfire meetings, then their group workshops, followed by their must do activities. If towards the end of the week children have completed all of their must do activities they may move onto their can do activities.

The Digital Planner - Children using the digital planner via Google Docs are working at an independent and self-directed level. They're able to manage their time effectively to ensure their must do activities are completed within the weekly time frame, know what to do when they're stuck in the learning pit, can demonstrate balance across curriculum areas in their My Learning Plan and are confident with using ICT as a tool to support their learning. A new digital planner is sent out to this group of children at the beginning of each week. This is then edited by the child in Google docs and saved in their planning folder online. We use Teacher Dashboard, so I can easily access their My Learning Plan at any time.

Next week (week 3) is the first week we will be trialing the different forms of our My Learning Plan. I will reflect on how the week went in a blog post at the end of the week. I'm sure it will be a big learning curve for us as a class.