We aim to 'make cognitive education a priority' as stated in our Teaching and Learning Policy. This policy can be found on our website under the Teaching and Learning heading.
At Redden Court School, staff have been trained to use David Hyerle's 'Point Patterns'. These are visual tools that allow students to recognise the thinking process behind their work. Each point pattern requires a different 'type' of thinking. They are great tools for exploring ideas, developing knowledge and understanding as well as revising.
In our current scheme of work 'Journey to a Poem', the students have read a poem about a parrot that is trapped in a cage. I asked them to complete character point patterns to show their understanding of the emotions the parrot was feeling. The character point patterns below were modeled by the teacher on the board and students learnt the process as it was demonstrated. All students were able to access the idea of the visual tool and very quickly (and freely) started to offer their own adjectives to add emotions to the visual tool. I am very pleased with this first attempt and I hope that (next time) students will be able to add a metacognitive frame and eventually produce their own character point patterns.