MLA News

The Learning Pit

In MLA this term we have been exploring the ways we can support our learning by reflecting on our thinking and considering how this can have a powerful impact on our learning. To encourage a positive attitude toward learning challenges it can be helpful for students to have a visual representation of the journey, to show their thinking and feelings they encounter. 

To achieve this each class has their own Learning Pit - a visual display in the classroom help students identify how much progress they have made so far in a particular new challenge, understanding or skill. This can be used throughout the year for students to see and express how they are progressing and to reflect on ways to approach a challenge with a positive and resilient attitude.

Students have created their own individual Learning Pit characters to represent them. These characters can then be moved to represent how they feel they are progressing in a particular challenge. Along with these characters, students have explored the types of thinking that can help them progress through the Learning Pit. Students have also made connections to the dispositions of resilience, risk-taking, collaboration, creativity, curiosity that can support us in the Learning Pit.

To demonstrate this, students participated in an unfamiliar task which challenged them.

Throughout the task, the words, thoughts and feelings that students expressed as they persisted were recorded and students were encouraged to share these with each other. We all listened and observed how we approached the task and explored ways that we can make positive choices to over come the challenge.

Here is an example of a Matchstick Task that helped us to recognise some of the thoughts, words and feelings that we can all experience when faced with a challenge: