“We want W.A.L.T that is less Disney”.
A brilliant quote from Lester Flockton.
In my classroom, I have developed a new way of presenting the “WALT”.
W.A.L.T stands for “We Are Learning To” which is how the Learning Intention (or L.I.) should start for students.
In my class I did away with W.A.L.T.
It annoyed me and my students are more than capable of understanding “Learning Intention”. So I use L.I.
Recently we have heard about the benefits of students knowing WHY they are learning what we are learning. I have thought about this and added to the L.I.
L.I.Y – a little bit like D.I.Y, but not. It allows a teacher to combine the WHAT we are learning, and the WHY we are learning it. The “Y” stands for the word it sounds like… “why”.
I have been using this system in my class in all subjects and it has been really interesting to see students picking up on the new way of thinking and there has been a noticeable improvement in engagement.
History
For a long time I have been sceptical and cynical about the use of Learning Intentions in the classroom. My main reason being that we never had them growing up, and I turned out okay. We never worried about what we were learning or why we needed to learn it. We just did it because we respected the teacher and trusted that what they were doing in class was part of them providing a good education, so we just did what we were told.
However, it is a reality and an expectation that teachers should be directing their students by explaining what the students should be learning.
Much has been made of Success Criteria, or S.C. It’s the HOW students will know they succeeded or WHAT it is students are going to be doing.
To be honest I am even less enthusiastic about S.C. The How is just what happens during the lesson. I always give my students targets during a lesson, or expectations for what they need to complete. They know what they have learned without having to over think about it.
Sometimes it does feel like there is a lot of actual teaching time used up explaining what I’m going to be teaching, rather than actually teaching it. But I have seen some benefits, and even as a teacher, it is quite cool to see my learners come full circle and realise what they learned.
I feel that now with L.I.Y., I have made it myself. I came up with it using my own thought process, and because I “own” it, and made it my own, I’m more likely to use it on a regular basis in my class.