Hello, Readers!

When things don’t go as planned (teachers know all about this!), we can use those as opportunities for learning and growth. Here’s a reflection from a recent experience.

The Importance of Practice: Lessons from a Grade 2 Classroom

By Jen

Our journey takes place in a Grade 2 classroom. The students (we’ll call them intrepid explorers) are learning all about animal life cycles. Their task was to create short videos using their iPad camera and a cool little app called Clips to include a title, photos, facts, and even some emojis about their assigned animal.

A month earlier, the students were introduced to the Clips app, but they hadn’t practiced with it since. Our little explorers’ challenges with retaining technical information meant that a refresher was in order. The teacher and I realized that we may have overestimated the abilities of our explorers (debunking the myth that these kids “grow up with tech and just get it”). Teaching digital skills to these younger students required more guidance and handholding, even with some previous successful experiences.

A big lesson to learn from this is the importance of practice. While the students were excited during the initial introduction to a fun digital project, there was a month-long gap of research before using the app again. An alternate approach to this adventure would be to research and write first so they become animal experts, and then translate that knowledge into videos using the Clips app.

In the end, the students still had a blast throughout the project. They were encouraged to keep exploring and add more text and fun emojis to their work. They could always go back to edit and remove anything irrelevant later (a separate exercise that helps them refine and refocus their work). The important thing was they were having fun exploring and taking ownership of their project!

With these Grade 2 students and their animal life cycle projects, we see the importance of matching expectations to the abilities of young learners, with the emphasis on practice, practice, practice to reinforce their understanding.

Onward to the next educational journey!

Until next week,

The Classmate Team

Did you know about Apple’s Learning Centre? Check out this quick tutorial about using Clips in your classroom.