Read Resource 1, ‘Monitoring and giving feedback’. Annotate the document as you read it, noting the ideas that you already implement, the ones that appeal to you and that you could easily implement, and any questions that you have. Do this with a colleague and compare your notes, if possible.
![]() Video: Monitoring and giving feedback |
The next two activities – which should be undertaken on different days – invite you to purposefully monitor your students as they work.
Give your students some classwork to do independently and silently for approximately 15 minutes. A short textbook-based reading or writing activity would be ideal for this. While your students are working, stand back and observe them. Consider the following questions:
Divide your class into groups of five or six and ask them to do a short talk-based task. This could involve making up a story to accompany a picture or responding to a problem or a controversial question. The group discussion should last no more than 15 minutes. Remind your students how to work politely together, taking turns and listening to one another’s contributions.
Walk around the class, observing and listening to your students as they talk.
Consider the following questions:
![]() Pause for thought Activities 3 and 4 invited you to observe and monitor your students as they undertook language- and literacy-related tasks individually and in a group.
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Watchful monitoring is one of the core skills of an effective teacher because it helps them gauge the extent to which their students make learning gains from the tasks they are set.
Whether such monitoring involves the whole class, small groups or individual students, the following question should be at the forefront of the teacher’s mind: how is this lesson being experienced and understood by my students?
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