Supporting independent learning
Independent learning is one of the skills that is developed within English. Find out how independent learning relates to real contexts and how you can focus your teaching when pupils are asked to write for a website landing page.
How independent learning relates to real contexts
Pupils move from dependence to independence when lessons include:
- a range of contexts, including the unfamiliar (helping pupils to apply the skills they have built and developed)
- opportunities for collaborative planning across and between organisations (helping pupils to understand the implications of this).
How you can encourage independence
See how these independent learning skills can be developed when pupils create content for a website, writing a landing or home page.
- Integrate prior and new knowledge
A pupil who is planning a landing page for a website might draw on what has already been taught in previous lessons, or learned from their own research about how writers draft and edit their work. They can then absorb new learning about writers’ techniques when streamlining and tweaking their writing (for example, changing verbs).
- Acquire and use a range of learning skills
Pupils draw on different skills when composing their work, for example how to set out a page so there is an appropriate balance between image and text. They can consider conventions such as how to introduce subject matter or engage a reader’s attention. They might also look at using key words if they are writing for a webste.
- Make appropriate choices about learning strategies
Pupils will make their own decisions about when they need advice in order to continue. They might deploy strategies such as getting a mentor or peer to evaluate their work. They might ‘take time out’ to reflect on their work, recalling the key objectives of the task. They might choose to print out text from the screen and work on paper, or move from paper to screen. Even if pupils consult you, they make these choices independently.
- Cope creatively with the unfamiliar and unexpected
In designing their landing page, pupils might find that the information they develop is not sufficient to ‘fill the space’. They might find that the font they choose isn’t large to read. The task might change and require rewriting (for example, you, as the ‘client’, might request a different focus for the text). The task itself might be unfamiliar, offering opportunities to explore creative solutions.
- Solve problems individually and in groups
Pupils are often adept at working in groups, taking on different roles such as questioning, empathising, negotiating, and summarising. This is useful when they need to revise something in the light of changes or challenges; while drawing on what they have learned, they are also willing to try new things (for example, a different font, a different form of expression or paragraph order). In this case, the pupils learn to solve problems without worrying that it ‘might not work’.
- Learn from their successes and failures
- Pupils measure what they have done against the expectations of peers or reviewers. They take on board what worked and what did not for future work within this context and, more importantly, for work beyond it.
- Accept that learning involves uncertainty and difficulty
Writing can be difficult, especially when pupils have to deploy a range of skills and strategies concurrently. Often they do not find it difficult to select information, but pitching it at the right level for the chosen audience can prove challenging. You can help pupils by creating a culture in which mistakes and difficulties are a stage in learning (not barriers), encouraging pupils to go back over work and redraft.