If you are asking the whole class to take notes on a particular subject, students with specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, can benefit from using visual note-taking methods. 

For example, you could say: “By completing this activity, you will have a better understanding of why water sustainability is a crucial issue in the world today. You will also have a better understanding of what you can do to have a positive impact.”

Introduce an element of competition:

Should: be able to describe patterns on a graph using numbers and figures.

Could: be able to explain patterns on a graph and the reasons for these patterns.

Use learning menus:

Learning menus provide choice based on the following.

Ask older students to share success stories and tips with younger students on how they have improved their attendance and punctuality, as well as the impact this has had on them and their school work.

Key people who may be highlighted are:

Attendance can be analysed to reveal patterns for individual students. If patterns of absence are found, talk with the student about how they feel about these lessons.

It can help to come up with some SMART targets with the student to set some positive and realistic goals for attendance, especially relating to any subjects that they miss regularly.

Compare the brain to a muscle that needs regular exercise to grow.

Ask students to give areas in their own lives where they have improved at something through sustained effort in order for them to understand how their brain has adapted to this challenge over time.

For example, when students say, “I cannot write an essay response in an hour”, remind them that they “cannot write an essay response in an hour, yet.” This emphasises that, with sustained effort and purposeful practice using the correct learning strategies, students can achieve their goals. “Yet” can encourage greater confidence, enthusiasm and competition within one’s self when tackling new challenges.

An example of a pledge might be: “I don’t think of myself as a confident person. However, I am going to raise my hand and contribute to class once every day because I believe that this is something a confident person would do. I will remind myself every day that I am a confident person, even if I don’t quite believe it.”

Encourage students to record their progress in the mindset challenge every day

Encourage students to contribute to the board with examples they observe in their lives at home, in society, in their school life, and in their learning. A starting list of examples is available at: https://medium.com/the-mission/hard-work-is-the-single-greatest-competitive-advantage-8e65a1e674f4.

These activities can be used as a basis for independent student activities and projects, and will help students to understand that their actions can have a huge impact on others and on the environment

Extracurricular activities should preferably be run by teaching staff to build positive relationships outside of the classroom. Examples of activities include:

In doing this, you provide students with more than one way to feel successful in your lessons

Students with pessimistic habits of thought can learn to retrain their minds and redirect their thoughts to maintain positive, realistic views of themselves. Students should be able to observe when they are exhibiting pessimism and permanence (“always” or “never”) so they can shift their perspective and develop positive behaviour. The following steps can help students to achieve this.

This space must be free from distractions so that students are not able to disrupt the class further. This also allows you to address behaviour without removing the student from the classroom. Be sure to implement clear guidelines for what students should do once they enter the space in order to make it a productive method of decompressing – whether that be writing in a journal or practising mindfulness.

It is important that good classroom routines are established to complement this so that, if a student does need extra support or time, other students in the classroom have a clear routine to follow, know what is expected, and can engage in productive work. Having a “starter” or “bell” activity clearly displayed for the children to complete is an important part of this.

Active listening involves listening carefully not only to the words that are being said, but also the message being communicated. Therefore, paying attention to body language, inflection, tone of voice and the type of language used is as important as listening to the words being said.

When practising active listening you should:

Model your thinking with students while working through a test paper. Say out loud what you are thinking as you read a question, and explicitly model how you answer the question.

Write your thinking on the test paper and share this with your students, then ask your students to do the same. This will really help them to develop an understanding of the points they should consider and the questions they should ask themselves.

Provide the pairs of students with some questions they can ask their talk partner to prompt their thinking further. For example, when tackling a question on a maths paper, they could ask the following questions:

Monitor:
Am I monitoring how well my strategy is working?
Is there anything I could change to get a better result?
Am I checking to ensure that I’m answering the question fully?
What is my plan if my answer is not correct?

Evaluate:
Have I checked for common mistakes?
How well have I answered the question?
Is there anything I need to change?
Was my time estimate accurate?
Would I do anything differently next time?

Ask students to pronounce new words, and work with them to create their own definitions for these words (diagrams can be useful here). Students can then practise using the words correctly in their own writing and using them appropriately in conversation

Support students to reflect on the best places and times for them to study.

Plan a multiple-choice question that you can present to students at the end of a section of work that will tell you how they’ve understood the work.

In order for hinge questions to be useful, it is important to receive a response from every student. This will give you an accurate reflection of the percentage of students ready to move on to the next section of learning.

Answering the question should be quick (approximately two minutes). The multiple-choice format will allow you to assess the results quickly and easily. Using wipe-clean “Show Me” boards for students to write their answers on could also help.

“Learning without Limits” (Hart et al., 2004) is a research project set up to explore ability-based practice, such as setting and streaming, and to consider alternative methods based on the belief that a student’s learning capacity can dramatically change. This is called “transformability”.

Ensure that each piece of work is credited, and give it a description to show why it is worthy of display on the Wonderwall.

Ensure that all students have a clear idea of the progress they are making. Provide them with objectives at the start of a topic, expressed as success criteria that they will need to achieve. This will help students to plan and review their progress as they move through the topic, and to self-assess, reflecting on what they need to do to improve

Additional ideas can be found at https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/.

Don’t:

Include hands-on materials in lesson plans, such as.

For older students:

Here are some ideas to try.