Laura Augustus - How can I get the balance of challenge?

Am I challenging my students or do I let them coast?

How do I prove I have set the right level of challenge for my students?

High Expectations and Challenge

Do I encourage independent thought or am I encouraging them to be reliant on me?

Even if I have high expectations, what do I do if my students don't have high expectations of themselves? Do I use enough data effectievly to ensure the right level of challenge?

I picked this topic as I like to think I do have high expectations for all my students in terms of exam results and expected work ethic (and performance management reviews have always commented favourably on this) but I still have students who under-perform and I wanted to do some research on how I could improve my teaching to target them in every day scenarios and not just long term goals. The reading, especially Lemov’s paper on “Setting High Academic Expectations”, has given me some ideas and things to reflect on. One idea that I have been using this academic year is ensuring that no students opts out in my lessons and as Lemov implies, the more you make students try, the more they realise “it is not okay not to try.” When I was with year 11 on a High Fives conference, that was aimed at students under achieving, one of the tutors responded to a student in a way that inspired me. When she asked a student a question he said that he didn’t know that answer. Instead of accepting that as an okay response she replied with, “If you thought you knew the answer, what do you think you would say?” The student then gave a relatively strong answer and one that was definitely more detailed than the “I don’t know” that they had initially offered. Having seen how simple it was to illicit a response from a reluctant student I decided to use that response with both my Key Stage 4 classes who, I have been guilty of accepting the, “ I don’t

know,” answer. Initially with the yr 11 class of under achieving boys the response brought about nervous giggles from both the student I was questioning, and other members of the class who realised I was not about to move on. However, they all soon accepted that I wasn’t going to let them get away with a vague response and that I wanted some sort of response that resembled an answer or at least had key words as part of their utterances. I also tried another of Lemov’s suggestions where one student provided an answer and then I asked another student to repeat and develop what had initially been said. This allowed me to target specific students and use my knowledge of their ability to extend their thinking whilst not accepting a response that allowed them to opt out. I also used humour in my approach as if a student was very reluctant to give an answer, when going over the work I would always ask our “resident expert” for the answer. That resident expert was that reluctant student but it allowed them to develop their response every time I asked the question. Succeeding in English Literature relies on students having a large amount of subject knowledge and I found that by sticking with this approach, say for key quotes, the student who was not able to give me an initial answer, was able to give me a precise quote as well as an analysis as to why it was classed as a key quote. Students were able to reach this level by me adopting an approach recognised by Debbie Light in “Stretch and Challenge in your classroom” where students have to be exposed to something three times and by me constantly returning to the same student, they were able to refine their response by using ideas that they had heard from others in class discussions and felt proud of their achievements in being the font of all knowledge on a particular topic. This also links to Mary Myatt’s thoughts in “High Challenge, Low Threat” where she says that the “more safer people feel, the more likely it is that they will take reasonable risk.” I always find that when year 10 start their GCSE course it takes a while for students to find their place in a new class with a new teacher. I have found that by setting my expectations high from day one but in a subtle way, it allows me to build relationships with students but also sets the tone for the rest of the year where they will have to opt in to the lesson. I have been guilty of accepting half answers, but Lemov suggests that it is important to tell the students if they have even have a half right answer as that builds confidence. However, it is important to not just stop there and give the correct answers ourselves, as experts in our subject knowledge. This is something I have consciously worked on with my current year 10 class as I often feel that I am doing more work than them but for what benefit? To help students with their answers I have spent a lot of time developing displays that have key words that are very visible and will often direct students to them if they are struggling so that they can supplement their answer with something concrete and that they are familiar with. It also allows other students, who are not part of the dialogue, to realise that I will not accept a sub-standard answer, but that I will provide help for them if I can see they need it which builds trust and improves relationships. It also, and probably most importantly, promotes a level of independency where they can use the displays to formulate answers themselves by using the key words available to them and can check their response against the one being offered by the student. It also allows them an opportunity to provide more information on the initial response and use more subject specific vocabulary if needed. One area that I can improve on is that Lemov says we should “never be apologetic for our high expectations or blame an outside entity” such as an exam board for having them. I often find myself saying that, “this is what the exam board want” when really I should have my high expectations because it is allowing the students to show off what they know and what I have taught them, regardless of who

will read the final answer. Research from the Education Endowment Foundation also shows that homework can have a significant impact on development. This is an area that I always strive to have high expectations with, but again have been guilty of letting it slip when in the middle of mock marking and planning for new term teaching. I have found that by having quizzes it allows students to have instant access to a result which they like, and it enables me to have a very clear overview of the learning that has taken place or what needs to be revisited. Just because the quiz is multi-choice, high expectations can be held, but the threat of doing a homework at home with a result that is only shared with me enables students to feel empowered to do well and proud of their achievements. It also allows me to provide feedback to acknowledge their achievements or request a resubmission if I do not feel their score is a reflection of their ability. This allows me to have high expectations for all whilst being adaptable to each student’s individual needs and therefore a low threat which encourages engagement. Peer feedback is also important and can be championed to show high expectations without causing embarrassment. I often ask a number of students to stand and swap seats with others who are still sat down. This allows me to target high achieving students to give feedback to lower attaining ones and it also allows lower attaining students to read a decent piece of work that they may be inspired from. Light suggests that 80% of peer feedback is wrong and misinformed so it has to be managed effectively. To make peer feedback meaningful and not just a time filling exercise, I use criteria from mark schemes to make a list of WWW and EBIs so that students always have something meaningful to say to each other even if they are struggling to come up with it themselves. This also allows the peer who is receiving the feedback to have something purposeful that they can take away, rather than a comment about their hand writing or spelling which does not really add much to improving their mark.

Moving in to the next academic year, I can feel comfort in the fact I do a lot of the recommendations by the published authors so I will continue to do that. One area I will focus on improving is not to accept the half answers that low ability students may offer and strive to find different strategies to stretch the answers that they give me without making it feel like a threatening environment.