Blog post by Amandeep Madher
When I look back, I don’t know how I managed my first 5 years of teaching without it. These days, I cant get enough of it.
My visualiser has become one of my most effective teaching tools. I use it so much more than before and for so many different reasons.
I have found that the visualiser helps with HAPs and boys- Yes, two of our target groups.
So, I hear you ask, what am I doing with the visualiser? Well, nothing extraordinary.
In terms of the boys, I use it as a stimulus for them to engage with long answer questions. Before a task I will let the class know that I will be selecting a student from my random name generator to share their work under the visualiser. Whether they want to impress or not look daft in front of others, it seems to work in getting them to write.
When it comes to the HAPs, I like to use my visualiser to dissect answers with them. The other day, I timed myself over break to write an answer to an exam question and shared it under the visualiser. The students loved the fact I had written it and were keen to see what I did well and how it could have been improved. By doing this it challenged the students to do better.
In geography we sometimes draw diagrams (not colour in) and graphs. The visualiser is a great tool to model step by step what I would like students to do.
More recently, as a department, we have tried to move away from mass marking and providing other valuable feedback. Using a visualiser is a great way to do some whole class live marking; it involves all students, it becomes a whole class ‘peer’ assessment activity. Students then use that feedback to improve their own answers.
I could go on. But to summarise, if you have a visualiser gathering dust, give it another try and if you have not used one before, see how it goes.
