Mantle of the Expert - Let the students be the teachers Part 2

As mentioned in Part 1 I have always found with older year groups in the school that by adding a sense of responsibility to their work it always has a more positive outcome.

With some tasks I have set the children I give a purpose for their work by adding it is something I want to show younger children in the school to help them with their learning or for people visiting the school, prospective parents, special visitors for example. This always means the children approach the work with a more mature attitude. It is giving the task a sense of worth and turning the children into teachers. Using the iPads give children the perfect opportunity to showcase this through some excellent speaking and listening opportunities.

In Numeracy, I used the app Explain Everything A very useful presentation tool that has a built in recorder which will record what you type with what you say. 

We decided to try and make a video to show younger children in the school how to use the column method for addition. We recognised that we would have to be clear and thorough to make sure younger children understood every step clearly.
It was a really interesting activity to see how well the children could verbalise their understanding, did they know why we carried to the next column or was it just "that's what we have been told!" 
It certainly made me as a teacher aware of the children's understanding as to how the method works. I was quite confident in all the children's ability to use the method but having them demonstrate it verbally as well as written was a very valuable exercise. This lesson could be transferred to many other numeracy objectives: Shape and space, multiples, subtraction, times tables - the possibilities are endless! 
Here are some examples:
Using Explain Everything to demonstrate our understanding of the column method for addition. from Davyhulme Primary School on Vimeo.

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