You have already named the things that matter to you and put them in order. Today you turn the lens onto something quieter: the things you pick up faster than the people beside you.
That pull is called an aptitude. It is not the same as liking something, and it is not the same as being trained. By the end of this lesson you will hold five real activities where your natural tendency shows up, saved in your Aptitudes document.
Before the class pins the three terms down, capture what you already think. Mark each statement true or false on what you honestly believe right now, before any definitions go up. You will revisit these after you meet the cases, so honest answers matter more than clever ones.
Orla wrote a short note after a guidance conversation. She mixed aptitude, interest and skill without naming them. Your job is to mark each loaded phrase with the right label, then reveal the model and see where you agreed.
Work through every highlighted region. When the class is ready, compare against the model annotation. Notice especially the lines where she is fast but cold, and the lines where she cares but is still slow.
Key terms for this lesson
| Term | What it means | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Aptitude: a natural tendency that makes success more likely with effort | Faster uptake than peers on a concrete task | Picking up a new phone app layout in minutes while others still hunt for settings |
| Interest: something you enjoy, whether or not you are strong at it | Enjoyment and pull, separate from speed | Watching every match even when you rarely play |
| Skill: capability built by practice, training and feedback | What you can do on demand after training | Safe knife work after kitchen shifts, not on day one |
Orla's note: aptitude, interest or skill?
Two cases on the cards, both the same age as you. One has high aptitude and low interest. The other has high interest and lower early aptitude. Read each card in full before you argue about it.
This one is talk, not writing: work through it with the room or with the person beside you.
For each case the same three questions: where is the aptitude evidence, where is the interest evidence, and what would have to happen for this person to build a skill here?
Interactive activity
Open your Aptitudes document in the Strand 1.1 folder. List five activities where you have noticed you pick things up faster than peers. For each activity write:
- the activity in plain language
- one specific occasion (where, roughly when, what you did faster or more easily than people beside you)
- an honest one-word tag: still interested or cool on it now
If you cannot find a real occasion for a line, cut that line. An empty claim is worse than a short list.
If you blank, scan these places (then write your own occasion, not a vague label): sport or training; part-time shifts; fixing phones, bikes or games setups for family; languages picked up from TV or friends; organising group chats or group work; map-reading on trips; music, art or making things with your hands; spotting errors in lists, money or timetables.
This Aptitudes list is the only Digital Portfolio entry for today's lesson.
What one Aptitudes line has to carry
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