Motivation

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Mumto3Girls
Posts: 59
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:08 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by Mumto3Girls »

2Socks wrote:
Guest55 wrote:PLEASE do not look at KS3 topics - do enrichment similar to what I suggested.
No worries, but can I ask why they shouldn't do KS3 stuff? Essentially, they have a good understanding of the structure of the atom, working of the organs, entropy, evolution, laws of thermodynamics etc (we love telling them about cool science and their friends come round and ask us to do experiments!) and they have both started learning languages by themselves. We haven't sat down and worked through the KS3 curriculum and that's not the plan... but have we done wrong?! I'm assuming that you have educational expertise... which we don't...we just like sharing cool knowledge with them!

Any advice gratefully received (NB, we have several science degrees behind us, and we're not doing anything unsafe in the experiments, so please don't worry!)
I am not sure what Guest55's motivation is for suggesting you don't look at KS3 topics. From my perspective as an experienced teacher and school leader, this will not impact anything other than positively once students start secondary school. The more foundational knowledge a student has, the more it can be developed and built upon at school AND at home.

One of the reasons students don't like school is because they feel disempowered through lack of knowledge and get "lost" when knowledge is expanded and deepened as they move through the years. Anything they know and learn helps equip students better and the less stressful they will find the rest of their school experience.

It is a teacher’s job to correct any misconceptions they might have picked up and this is an expected part of teaching tbh! Students always come with mislearned / mistaught and misunderstood knowledge and it can actually be a really useful teaching tool.

If you want to get really geeky one of my "go to" books on teaching is Daniel Willingham's "Why Don't Students Like School?" which is all about knowledge and memory. He's not a teacher, but a cognitive scientist and talks so much sense about how knowledge comes before everything :D
dodie102
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:27 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by dodie102 »

Think I'll have to diverge from Mumto3Girls a little and I've been teaching a very long time.

I would avoid specific KS3 books on Science but go rather for more topic based learning. I find that if students feel they have 'formally studied' the topic before that they can switch off. I'm not a science teacher though. Yes, we could spend time correcting misconceptions but it might not be that useful for the other students' learning. I would urge you to spend time on other enrichment - there are some amazing science books for young learners that are not directly relevant to the curriculum but will complement it. Biographies and philosophy books can be useful too. I would also look at Geography/History and Art. Cultural capital was quite a thing for OFSTED a while ago and looking at topics in the context in which they were written/created is always a good way to enrich a student's understanding. Ancient Greece and Rome are great for Art/English/History etc...

Maybe it's just me but working through KS3 topic books before they have started secondary school is just not something I would consider. Going to museums, cultural events, wider reading, challenging discussions over the dinner table,chess, board games, exercise and socialising with friends and family would be higher on my list. But, that's so much more difficult than pre-covid.

Sounds like you've got an interesting time ahead 2socks!
Last edited by dodie102 on Thu Dec 10, 2020 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ginger40
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:24 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by Ginger40 »

Personally, I am letting my DD have a well earned rest, yes she is bored in year 6 and is coasting but it will not do any harm for what is now roughly 6 months. She had started 2 new hobbies / clubs and reading lots of new books. Chilling out !. Before we know it, everything will be stepped up and they will taking their GCSE’s, clubs and hobbies will be greatly reduced and they will be grown up !
dodie102
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:27 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by dodie102 »

Ginger40 wrote:Personally, I am letting my DD have a well earned rest, yes she is bored in year 6 and is coasting but it will not do any harm for what is now roughly 6 months. She had started 2 new hobbies / clubs and reading lots of new books. Chilling out !. Before we know it, everything will be stepped up and they will taking their GCSE’s, clubs and hobbies will be greatly reduced and they will be grown up !

Absolutely!!! :D
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by Guest55 »

I'm an experienced teacher - all the research shows acceleration is not advisable and enrichment is the way forward.

I have posted links to this in the past ...
2Socks
Posts: 375
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:04 am

Re: Motivation

Post by 2Socks »

Thanks everyone. It's good to hear that she's not the only one like it. We're not pushing her, she wants more and keeps asking for things to challenge her. I wonder if it's because we're both always learning something (StarCrazy, I'm currently trying to learn Python, she could well do better than I!) We're not looking to teach KS3, and we do quite a bit of the cultural capital stuff generally, just because we enjoy it! With the great suggestions here, hopefully we have enough to keep her going :lol:
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by Guest55 »

You could look at Scratch before you move on to Python - many Primaries are using it.
cheltdad
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2019 7:53 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by cheltdad »

Guest55 wrote:You could look at Scratch before you move on to Python - many Primaries are using it.
I'd agree - Python is great but getting an overall understanding of programming "ideas" first is a good idea.

Scratch is good, and I'd also suggest looking at Code.org and going thru the course on there provides a lot of guidance and fun things to try - it may be that they've done some of it at junior, but we found the school had not got as far as the later lessons - so I suspect are things there to do.

I'd also like to note that my comment in the earlier post about the KS3 book was not meant to imply that you should start working thru them - what we wanted to do was to get an idea of the topics that would be coming up and in what level of detail (as it's been a long time since I had any experience of what is on the syllabus etc at that age) so we could based any ad hoc "learning" or talking about things around what might be useful.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Motivation

Post by Guest55 »

I can match all of that [and more] if you are trying to score points!

Please post research that backs your view.

I offer: https://www.ukmt.org.uk/what-we-do/advice-for-parents" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and the policy linked on that page.
Moderators
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Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:45 am

Re: Motivation

Post by Moderators »

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