Gestión de riesgo financiero, objetivos y políticas

How well have your students understood the lesson, concept, topic or process? Display a picture or photograph of a set of traffic lights: red, amber and green. A green light represents a solid and comfortable understanding of the topic: a student choosing a green light feels that he or she has ‘got it’. A student who chooses amber has understood some or most of the material, but is not totally confident in using his or her understanding to answer questions or in applying a new skill. A red light indicates that a student does not feel that he or she has got to grips with the topic at all. It may help to write a word or two next to each of the three coloured lights to remind students what they represent.

Ask students to decide which light they think best represents their understand- ing of the lesson or topic. Explain that this is not a test, and that you are not going to be recording what students say, so they should be honest about their under- standing. Then go through the lights: red, amber and green, and ask students to raise their hands to indicate the colour they have chosen for themselves. This activity is a form of assessment for learning. Encouraging students to reflect on what they have understood can enable them to take more ownership of their learning and identify the areas that they need to work more on. It can also help you to assess how well you have taught a topic. You can quickly see which stu- dents need more support, including students who otherwise might keep their head down in class and remain unidentified for much longer.

You can use the results of the ‘Traffic lights’ activity to plan and differentiate sub- sequent activities: ask students to collect worksheets corresponding to the colour they selected (the green worksheet extending students with a good understand- ing, the red worksheet reinforcing key points or skills). Alternatively, ask stu- dents to pair or team up, each ‘red’ student pairing with a ‘green’. For a short activity, give the student with a good understanding five minutes to explain the topic, in their own words, to the student who is unclear on this material. Or keep students in these ‘mixed traffic light’ teams for the next activity or lesson. Incorp- orating an element of ‘peer teaching’ in this way often means that you can get the whole class to green much more quickly than if you worked individually with each ‘red light’ student. Students may also explain the material in a way their peers find more accessible, and feel positive about their role as ‘teacher’.

SECTION 7: REFLECT ON YOUR LEARNING

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Variations

N Teachers who use this approach regularly could choose to give students pieces of laminated card in red, orange and green which they can hold up to indicate their understanding.

N If you have mini-whiteboards, ask each student to draw the appropriate coloured circle onto their whiteboard (if they have coloured whiteboard pens), or to write the word red, amber or green onto their board before holding it up.

N Carry out the traffic light activity at the beginning and end of a topic. At the beginning, it will give you a sense of students’ existing understanding. Ask them to record in the margin or the back of their books the colour they chose. Repeat the activity at the end of the topic. Then ask who has changed colour. Who has moved towards a green? Has anyone moved in the other direction? N An alternative scale to ‘red, amber and green’ is ‘0–5’. Five fingers held up indicate that a student is very confident about their understanding of a topic; no fingers means they have not understood at all. Ask the class to raise a hand, holding up the number of fingers between zero and five which they feel best reflects their understanding.

Example

Subject: Geography • Level: Key Stage 3 • Topic: Map skills

Some Year 7 Geography students have used six-figure grid references before; others have not. This can give a lot of variation in class between those who can give and read references easily, and those who are confused, particularly about the third and sixth digits. Having introduced this skill and given students some opportunity to practise, ask them to identify themselves as a red, amber or green light. Pair or team those who are struggling with six-figure grid references with those who are confident.

Ask each pair to create five or ten clues for a grid reference test. Some questions should ask for the symbol or feature found at a given grid reference, and some questions should ask for the grid reference of an easily identifiable feature. They must work out the answers, but write them on a separate piece of paper. Each pair can then swap tests with another pair, and answer the questions, before swapping their answers back to be marked by the group that set them. The ques- tion setting and question answering provides two opportunities for the ‘green light’ student to work through the answers with the ‘red light’ student. At the end, ask who feels as though they have moved further towards green.

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