ALDE VALLEY SCHOOL SEAWARD AVENUE LEISTON IP16 4BG
Volume 2 Spring Issue 1 2013 Special points of interest: Marking Policy to Feedback Policy Progress within Lessons Questioning Pace of Learning Must Reads for Teachers
Developing and becoming Outstanding - a Journey...
TEEP and the 7 Steps Risks & Outstanding INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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Making a Marking Policy a Feedback Policy - A Quigley
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The Myth of Progress within Lessons - Keven Bartle
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Questioning - John Sayers
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The Learnig Arc - It takes the time it takes - Tom Sherrington
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Must Reads for Teachers
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TEEP and the 7 Steps to a Perfect Ofsted Lesson - Eric Wareham
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Icebergs, Taking Risks and being Outstanding - David Didau
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One iPad in the Classroom? - 10 Apps - Daniel Edwards
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And Finally.... ............. iPad 10 Apps
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There has been a big focus on progress made in lessons, especially related to the Ofsted documents. As a school we were monitoring lessons using the new framework but this was an area in which we were uncertain - looking for “sustained and rapid progress ” in 20 mins - I think not. Thanks to some twitter discussion and posts, the situation is looking clearer. In this issue of A4A I have included some great blog articles that may clarify the meaning of the statements,
and Kev Bartle’s excellent article is included. Also, I have been reviewing our Marking Policy after my initial version went ‘live’. Alex Quigley’s blog really pushed it home to me the importance of feedback and how that can aid pupil progress. It was never a side issue but his drawing of attention to DIRT makes for an invaluable review of the approach we take. Questioning is key to allowing pupils to make progress intervention that is timely and allows pupils to think deeper, therefore learning deeper.
Once again, we have an article from the ever excellent David Didau and he focuses on how we can show we are outstanding. At AVS we have started on the long journey to have systems and support in place that allow all of our colleagues to develop, make their own progress but also an ability to share ideas. This is a continuation of our learning journey and one that needs to continue to be more reflective.
It’s time to find out what you think Gove might think of next... OR is the empty space significant??
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
Make your ‘Marking Policy’ a ‘Feedback Policy’ Marking workload getting on top of you?
Alex Quigley @huntingenglish Subject Leader of English. Sharing resources & ideas for great teaching & learning. His blog: http:// huntingenglish.wordpress.co m
“Marking and assessment must be the servant, and NOT the master, of our pedagogy and our profession.”
Many schools, and departments, have been reflecting about their marking policies ever since OFSTED declared more than a healthy interest in scrutinising books. Progress over time has rightly been identified as more important than single lesson snap shots – of course, that evidence if best found in ongoing student work and the attendant formative assessments. This has combined with greater scrutiny of standards of literacy, particularly writing. I have no problem with this; as you would expect from an English teacher. I think it is of paramount importance to have the highest standards for writing across the curriculum. Unfortunately, it appears that in many schools OFSTED fear has fuelled a misguided obsessed with marking, resulting in draconian whole -school marking policies that are less about learning and more about monitoring teachers. Marking and assessment must be the servant, and not the master, of our pedagogy and our profession. Firstly, I think it is important to understand the OFSTED context, so I can then move beyond it to the more important context: the pedagogy and the learning. In the recent guidance to OFSTED inspectors for judging literacy standards in schools - it relates some specific guidance: “A basic way of reviewing pupils’ work is to select an extended piece of writing from near the beginning of a pupil’s book (or folder of work). This can then be compared with a piece from the middle and one nearer the end. Is there a discernible difference in length, presentation, sophistication (e.g. paragraphing or length of paragraphs), common errors, use of vocabulary and variation in style? Look at the teacher’s marking. Are the same issues highlighted in the later pieces as in the earlier ones? Has the teacher identified any developing strengths or commented on improvement? When looking at books from other subjects, it is important to form a view of what it is reasonable to expect. If pupils are writing in a form that would be taught in English, it is reasonable to expect that they would draw on what they have learnt already. This is often the case in primary schools. In secondary schools, there is considerably more variety. Do teachers identify important errors (such as some of those contained in questions about literacy in lessons above). Key subject terms should be spelt correctly. Basic sentence punctuation should be accurate. If it is
not and is not identified, how will pupils improve?” This extract outlines that OFSTED inspectors are guided towards a scrutiny that is selective and one that recognises “variety“, whilst maintaining high expectations of formative feedback. Ultimately, the goal is to successfully recognise written feedback that combines high expectations of literacy and guides students towards making progressive improvement in their writing (reflecting their knowledge and understanding). It is therefore key that we do not overreact with a marking policy that has teachers poring over every written word by students, but instead we need one that recognises the importance of formative written and spoken feedback with a “view to what is reasonable to expect“. We can still maintain the highest of standards, whilst marking reasonably and not to excess. We will maintain the highest of standards not by doing more and more writing assessments, but by slowing down the whole process and getting students actively engaging in drafting and proof reading their writing. We must avoid the tyranny of content coverage at the expense of in depth, quality learning. A wealth of great research and evidence has lauded the impact of feedback and of assessment for learning strategies for decades. Luminaries such as Dylan Wiliam have guided the way. We must use this valid focus on literacy and high standards of formative assessment as positive leverage to improve our pedagogy and refine our use of assessment for learning strategies. Yes, teachers should give written feedback to a high standard, but we must be reasonable regarding what we can expect is realistic and sustainable for teachers. The answer is a balance of quality, selective formative feedback with well trained peer and self-assessment. If we want great lessons planned and executed consistently then marking must be selective; with a process that builds in reflection time for students – not a roller coaster of internal assessment points, arbitrarily set to give the impression of high standards. This national context has informed,
but not misdirected or narrowed, our redesign of the policy for assessment and marking in our English and Media faculty. We have consciously renamed it our ‘feedback policy’. The relabeling of our policy from ‘marking’ to the broader term ‘feedback’ is more than just window dressing. It is a realignment of priorities currently
skewed by a fear of OFSTED. Marking quite obviously presupposes a ‘mark’ on the page; whereas much of our daily pedagogy consists of oral formative feedback. Oral feedback has the unassailable strength of being instantaneous in comparison to the delay of written feedback. Regardless of what teaching and learning activity are being undertaken, oral feedback is integral to learning and progression. We have therefore foregrounded its importance in our feedback policy – placing it on par with written feedback (personally, I think it actually has greater impact on learning). Indeed, our policy is an attempt to unite the two and to enhance our pedagogy, rather than arbitrarily tighten our accountability measures. We mark students’ summative work using a separate portfolio approach, with five major end assessments, each supported by a formative mini-task:
Crucially, we have adapted our feedback policy to serve our students and to help them improve, not to tick the OFSTED box; however, by creating a system that records oral feedback more systematically in the students’ books we have managed to meet both requirements. Our approach to feedback is precisely selective and measured. We are also aiming to use assessment and feedback as the servant, not master of our pedagogy. We are using ‘Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time’ (the label borrowed from the outstanding Jackie Beere), as a continuous formative process within lesson time to raise standards of literacy through a targeted and smart use of peer and self-assessment, combined with skilled oral feedback:
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A4A Volume 1: Autumn Issue 3 - 2012
Make your ‘Marking Policy’ a ‘Feedback Policy’ cont’d Teachers take the opportunities during lesson to monitor and formatively guide their writing, using our stamp system and getting students to record our comments to identify issues and to set targets. We are not carting home bags of books on a weekly basis, on top of our already thorough and rigorous marking regime, that see students take a little more than cursory glance at, or struggle to find value in even when given time. The oral feedback becomes the written feedback and students are engaged actively in the process. Students also undertake the standard proof reading exercises, of their own writing and of their peers, using highlighters, but in a systematic and highly consistent way. We are building good habits for students, whilst maximising lesson time. When students are writing, or undertaking other activities, teachers can be constantly having dialogues about their work and how they can best improve. Here are some examples of using our stamp system simply and effectively during classwork, whilst the students are completing their writing so they can improve instantaneously (well, we hope they improve!):
we will work slower, but ultimately standards will likely be higher. I would reiterate that OFSTED’s focus upon the evidence of written marking has made us reflect upon the efficacy of our practice and attempt to improve it, but we have not forgotten that assessment and marking – rebranded more holistically as feedback – should be the servant of the classroom teacher, not our master. Its very function is to support students – it should not be used as a stick to beat teachers. My key messages about the current ‘marking’ focus for me are as follows: - We should remember that oral feedback is as valuable as written feedback and we should shape our pedagogy with that in mind – closing the gap between the two. The gap should also be closed between the teacher giving feedback, both orally and in the written form, and students selfassessing their own writing and peers giving effective feedback; We view that dialogue as so important that we now have ‘one -to-one weeks’ in each term when we undertake ‘dedicated improvement and reflection time‘ (we must remember that students often struggle with written feedback alone, therefore finding time to discuss their progress is typically more effective – as well as being more effective in terms of teacher workload). They are once more guided through peer proof reading and self-regulating strategies (with some valuable extended reading time), whilst the teacher has a crucial conversation about their progress. In those often five minute conversations we can identify issues and/or targets, as well as reviewing their preparatory book work and their portfolio of finished work. The most important part of ‘Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time’ (DIRT) is the time given to students. They need time to reflect on feedback; to analyse and grasp their targets and to ask questions to illuminate how they can progress further. By doing less writing in this manner
- We should remember that peer and self-assessment done well takes careful training and scaffolding, but we must not ignore decades of research about the impact of AFL, taking the retrograde step of relying solely on written teacher feedback; - We should undertake written feedback that is selective, targeted and uses precise language; - We should dedicate more than adequate time for students to act upon feedback; - We should devote time to engage in dialogue with students to ensure they understand what they need to do to improve. Useful link: Useful OFSTED case study: http:// www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/goodpractice-resource-making-markingmatter
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
‘The Myth of Progress Within Lessons’ by Keven Bartle .My heckles are risen so I need
Keven Bartle @kevbartle
SLT member and teacher of English. Eternal optimist. Confidently humble & humbly confident. Speaker of my mind & nobody else's. Read his blog:
“There is no such thing as progress within lessons. There is only learning.”
“The main perpetuators of the myth of ‘progress within lessons’ are leadership teams within schools, not Ofsted.”
to post this and post it quick. Let me nail my colours to the mast here and make a bold, unequivocal statement: There is no such thing as progress within lessons. There is only learning. And let me make a second, equally bold and unequivocal statement to back it up: The main perpetuators of the myth of ‘progress within lessons’ are leadership teams within schools, not Ofsted. Right, now that we all know where we are let me explain further, and let me start with my evidence that it is NOT Ofsted asking for the mythical ‘progress within lessons’ by picking out some key quotes from the Inspection Handbook rewritten as recently as December 2012. In the section on “Quality of Teaching in the School” it starts beautifully: “The most important role of teaching is to promote learning and to raise pupils’ achievement.” Ofsted 2012 Nothing any of us wouldn’t agree with in that and no sign of the phrase ‘progress in lessons’ either. In the second paragraph we do get a hint of the creature when we see the word progress, but it is attached to the words ‘over time’, not ‘in lessons’: “The judgement on the quality of teaching must take account of evidence of pupils’ learning and progress over time. Inspectors must not simply aggregate the grades awarded following lesson observations.” Ofsted 2012 And then there comes the section entitled ‘Observing Learning’. Surely this must have a reference to ‘progress over time’. mustn’t it? After all, given how many people on #SLTchat bang on about it, then if it is going to be anywhere it will be there. It says, and I quote in full: “When inspectors observe teaching, they observe pupils’ learning. Good teaching, which includes high levels of expertise and subject knowledge, with the expectation that pupils will achieve well, enables pupils to acquire knowledge, deepen their understanding, and develop and consolidate skills.” Ofsted 2012 I see “high levels of expertise”. I
see “high levels…of subject knowledge”. I see “expectation that pupils will achieve well”. I see “enables pupils”. But I still don’t see the phrase ‘progress in lessons’. Strange thing that!!!! But here comes the confession. It is there, in the very next section on “Inspectors must consider whether…” which says, amongst other things: - pupils’ responses demonstrate sufficient gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding, including in literacy and mathematics - teachers monitor pupils’ progress in lessons and use the information well to adapt their teaching (Ofsted 2012) So there it is, eh? My whole argument blown out of the water? There is such a thing as ‘progress in lessons’, right? Wrong. Or at least wrong in that the meaning of the phrase, as executed by school leaders and classroom teachers, is very different to the intention within these bullets. Look at the bullet before the offending one. It talks about what I would consider learning to be: “gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding”. They are things that inspectors will be looking to see from the students. Where progress is mentioned, it is not something that inspectors will be looking to see from students, because it is about the effectiveness of monitoring that they will be looking to seefrom the teachers. Am I splitting hairs there? I don’t think so. I would rather suggest that what inspection teams will be looking for will be to see that teachers are looking to see teachers monitoring or student “progress (gains in knowledge, skills and understanding) in lessons”, with the parentheses to blend the two bullets being the most important thing in that sentence. Later, in a section called ‘Observing Learning Over Time’ the Ofsted Handbook 2012 states that scrutiny of pupils’ work, should pay attention to: - how well and frequently marking, assessment and testing are used to help teachers improve pupils’ learning - pupils’ effort and success in completing their work and the progress they make over a period of time. (Ofsted 2012) Again that distinction between
‘learning’ and ‘progress over time’ because, much to our shame, even Ofsted (the big organisation but sadly not always the individual inspectors or inspection teams) realise that ‘progress’ is simply a numerical measurement of the distance between a start point and an end point and therefore CANNOT IN ITSELF BE OBSERVED IN LESSONS other than through assessing how much students have learned. ‘Progress in lessons’ is the very definition of a black box into which we, as teachers and leaders, need to shine a light. The final part of the Ofsted Inspection Handbook from 2012 to look at for the mythical ‘progress in lessons’ is the Grade Descriptors for the quality of teaching. At the outstanding level they say: “Much of the teaching in all key stages and most subjects is outstanding and never less than consistently good. As a result, almost all pupils currently on roll in the school, including disabled pupils, those who have special educational needs and those for whom the pupil premium provides support, are making rapid and sustained progress.” Ofsted 2012 This is the most often used points made by some school leaders, and even teachers themselves, to justify decisions about the judgments of observed lessons and yet the bullet point as a whole is very clearly talking about the aggregated performance of students across a school and over time. If ‘progress in lessons’ is a mythical black-box dweller, then ‘rapid and sustained progress in lessons’ is its Yeti-like cousin. This bullet point should never be made as a judgment about a lesson unless the particular lesson happens to have on its register “all pupils currently on roll in the school”. The remainder of the bullets in the outstanding criteria relate to something non-mythical: All teachers have consistently high expectations of all pupils. They plan and teach lessons that enable pupils to learn exceptionally well across the curriculum. Teachers systematically and effectively check pupils’ understanding throughout lessons, anticipating where they may need to intervene and doing so with notable Cont’d overleaf
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
‘The Myth of Progress Within Lessons’ by Keven Bartle impact on the quality of learning. Teachers and other adults generate high levels of engagement and commitment to learning across the whole school. Teachers use well-judged and often inspirational teaching strategies, including setting appropriate homework that, together with sharply focused and timely support and intervention, match individual needs accurately. Consequently, pupils learn exceptionally well across the curriculum. In order to be helpful to those who may be missing the wood for the trees (or the non-mythical for the mythical) I have underlined the key words in each of these bullet points. So there we have it. Only one reference to ‘progress in lessons’ in the Ofsted Handbook 2012 and that one reference is an instruction to inspectors to take into account how teachers monitor it, not an instruction to make a judgment on it. Instead Ofsted are urging us repeatedly to focus on learning, learning, learning and yet more learning. And yet the mythical creature of ‘progress in lessons’ has come increasingly to dominate the judgments made of the lessons of classroom teachers as if it was something that really existed. At the very best it is a spectre or ghoul, a translucent and barely visible shadow of something else. In these instances what we are actually looking at is the ghost of learning that has somehow died in the lesson, and so we should call it by it’s real name. To re-label this apparition ‘progress in lessons’ is to put a nail in its coffin. If, instead, we talk about it as learning that has died a death we at least allow it to be resurrected in the future lessons of the colleagues we are observing; the very definition of formative feedback. At its worst though this mythical creature of ‘progress in lessons’ has become a folk-tale boogeyman, deployed (unwittingly in the main one would hope, although witlessness is hardly an adequate defence) in order to spread fear among the villagers, moderate unwanted behaviours, keep people from venturing beyond the ‘safety’ of the designated pathways, and generally ensure that rulers of fairytale kingdoms can maintain order. Remember, I used the word unwittingly. And boy how the villagers are
scared!! The boogeyman stalks through staffrooms, creeps through classrooms and prowls through parents evenings. In order to ward off its mythical propensity to devour teachers (and students) whole a variety of black magic and voodoo (hoodoo) is deployed; a whole suite of charms and potions and curses deployed in lessons to demonstrate ‘progress in lessons’: From ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ to ‘level ladders’ to ‘pit stops’ to ‘exit passes’ to ‘green, amber and red cards’ to any other number of tricks. Let be clear, none of these are bad strategies in themselves, but they are frequently deployed not to help students demonstrate (or even instigate) learning, but to prove that all students have made ‘progress in lesson’. There is a whole world of difference between the two, especially when the techniques are being deployed with such eye-blurring and head-spinning frequency that they actually break up real learning in favour of a progress check. Have a look at this example that is all too typical in this boogeyman dominated educational world we live in: “The lesson was planned in detail. The first phase involved an explanation of the learning objectives and a starter activity where students worked in groups to complete a card-sort activity. In the next phase of the lesson, students used a grid to identify persuasive devices on mini whiteboards. The teacher then took them quickly through the criteria for assessment at Levels 5 –7 and gave students examples of extracts from two essays on capital punishment. Students were asked to choose the more effective piece, linking it to the assessment criteria. They were then asked to produce at least one paragraph of writing on the topic of capital punishment. In the final part of the lesson, students were asked to peer-mark two other students‟ work, then to look at and review their own work and check the comments. One further activity was introduced before students were asked to say what they had learnt in the lesson. The lesson closed with a final activity where students revised persuasive techniques on the board.” Ofsted 2012 It is from the wonderful (yes, you read right) Ofsted report ‘Moving English Forward’ and the analysis of the lesson
cont’d
concluded: “The teacher in this lesson concentrated on the pace of activities rather than the pace of learning. The centre of this lesson should have been the opportunity for students to show what they had learnt about persuasive techniques by producing a piece of their own writing. The desire to complete all elements of the planned lesson meant that the writing task could not be completed and the fast movement from one activity to another limited students‟ development of new learning or their consolidation of existing learning. This pattern is noted regularly by inspectors.” Ofsted 2012 The idea that the teacher was focusing on the “pace of activities rather than pace of learning” is partially correct. Instead I would propose that it is clear that the teacher is focusing on the “pace of proving progress” rather than the pace of learning. This is acknowledged later when the same report concludes that: “In lessons observed, significant periods of time were spent by teachers on getting pupils to articulate their learning, even where this limited their time to complete activities and thereby interrupted their learning! Pupils need time to complete something before they can valuably discuss and evaluate it.” Ofsted 2012 And so, on behalf of children in classrooms across the UK who are being thwarted in their learning because their teachers are so scared of the boogeyman or ghost of ‘progress in lessons’, I implore members of senior leadership teams to ban this mythical phrase from their teaching and learning policies, observation feedback, NQT Induction packs, and one-to-one conversations with teachercolleagues. Every time you use it you are perverting the doctrine of Ofsted, distracting yourself from a focus on learning and alienating yourself from the teachers you need to make your school wonderful and your children effective learners. And if you are a teacher, do not allow yourself to be frightened by the myth of ‘progress in lessons’. Stand up to it, shine light onto it, print off this blog or better still the Ofsted Handbook 2012 and challenge your line manager to find the place in which progress comes before learning. It’s time to slay the boogeyman. He doesn’t exist and we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
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‘Questioning’ By John Sayers
John Sayers @JOHNSAYERS Magpie Geographer and Learning Coach. Mission: Explore; solo; critique; geography news; questioning; iPads and SAMR are my core to creativity. Blog post: sayersjohn.blogspot.com/
So what are the questions that the Socratic circle questioning poses? It is a 6 step process: • clarify • challenge assumption • evidence for argument • viewpoints and perspectives • implications and consequences • question the question
The start of a new term is nearly upon us and I am going in revitalised due to a number of life changes. One aspect of getting back into the classroom and school environment is to listen to the great array of questions, challenges and responses I'll hear and be involved in. I love questioning and the potential depth to thinking it can generate. However far to often including in my own practice I prevent opportunities for taking the thinking deeper by posing a new challenge, problem to keep that engaging thrust of something new flowing in the room. This is good a trigger but like a gun firing the trigger too often at the same target can lead to the death of something. In this case deep thinking that challenges students. So how about a strategy. Well my preferred method if you look at the pictures is Socratic questioning. I made a simple model which shows a possible method to students thinking about a question deeply and as a result using a whole multitude of other questions to come to an answer or perhaps a new aim to test by questioning the question and generating a new core question. I've provided a series of pictures of a set of cards my school has provided that help provide a starting point for each of the stages of Socratic questioning so that the metaphorical ball can start rolling and as in a rolling snowball down a snow filled slope the momentum building and the ball - thinking expanding:) So what are the questions that Socratic circle questioning poses? It is a 6 step process: • clarify • challenge assumption • evidence for argument • viewpoints and perspectives • implications and consequences • question the question By getting students to explore this process they are thinking
about that impulsive answer try give. Have you ever had that moment as a teacher where you ask a student "why did you give that answer?" and you get back a shrug of the shoulders or a "urghh I don't know!" How many of us commit the cardinal sin of not even asking that question? Questioning is crucial it allows me to go through the teaching process of acknowledging what learning and the depth of it and more importantly the opportunity of identifying this with ALL students in class. Therefore a process that takes more than a second is benefit to me as it allows me to lap the room listening to every table and a large majority of students, if not all their use of questioning. I find using Classdojo has helped me identify this as I highlight each student on my iPhone as I lap as I hear them using questioning. If I haven't heard a student I identify this on my mobile device and I will go up to listen to them and ask them a question or two about it so that I a have at least acknowledged everyone in class. This sounds like it takes a long time but give it a go and you'll be amazed at what you can pick up about a student/ your class by lapping. It allows you to stop the class when you hear amazing thinking going on by handing the role of tutor to a student to tell the rest of the class. This can give them confidence, worth and aid others in your class to focus on something specific or think along a different avenue than they would otherwise have done. This opens up another can of learning worms or threads, as Socratic circle questioning in my view works best in pairs or as a table of 4 to allow the process to be deeper by allowing more viewpoints to be explored, implications, reasons, evidence etc. but more importantly I allows students to communicate and use literacy skills. Talking and listening especially with questioning allow students to use specific language and learn the powers
of communication. These skills are very high for employers as let's face it a large majority of jobs involve an interview of talking and listening! So students thinking and interacting to learn from each other and extract information to make acknowledgments to help solve a problem are crucial life skills. So look at the model picture for socratic questioning (next page) and give it a go following the step by step process. Look at the cards and have a go yourself at planning it into a lesson or for next week it is a great strategy for developing progression of thinking. Doing this every single lesson could develop learning boredom and throughout the years I have tried to plan the use of varied questioning into my lessons to keep the students intrigued as to what they'll expect next lesson. But at times it can be difficult to trace these questions. This was where I worked on a question matrix I had seen. The main thought process of this for me was for me to clearly identify question threads I had use with a specific class and student and as a result I could personalise questions for them and then the process would be taken away from me and the student command it by personalising their own questions. Each student has a question matrix in the back of their book and as try use a question thread from it they mark it off. On class learning walks I can sit o a I prefer to do kneel so I'm level with the students and get them to run me through questions they have used in their book and the matrix and the student from it identifies question styles they are effective at answering and those that they may not be. Continued overleaf....
A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
‘Questioning’ By John Sayers
They then plan the next sequence of questions that they'll work on. The role for me is to monitor students question use and effectiveness and also to help make sure throughout the year they are using all threads and have made progress in the use of each question type. I have found it the most brilliant form of simple personalised planning for ALL students. The matrix has another clear process. It allows students to plan progressively deeper thinking questions into a lesson or a project. So their learning follows a path. A self developed strategy to move down the matrix and further to the right. This isn't to say that the questions at the top left aren't important. In fact far from it but these are what I refer to as closed or hinge point questions. They have a set answer. This could be a date or a landform name, a type of plate boundary that is important to get right as if not they could get the whole process wrongly linked to a specific location and so the effects, solutions may not be valid. These questions are often ones I effectively use in lessons and can become a ping pong question between a teacher and one single student. What is the plate margin type that splits Iceland? Students put hand up, teacher asks one student, they answer constructive. “Yes right“ and move on! What about the others in the class? What do they think? These questions could go around a table via the PPPB method. Pose the question, Pause for thinking time - I always think about what I will cook for
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cont’d
dinner, let students discuss. I get the Pounce bit by saying ones on the table give your answer to the table am Bounce it to number 3 I think it is x what do you think? So a quick Kagan strategy helps each table discuss and listen to thinking. So I have mentioned a few strategies so far that I use in class: socratic, matrix and PPPB, and there are many more. One type that I love to implement involves TV quiz shows. Programmes like 'Pointless', ‘Going For Gold’, ‘Blockbusters’ etc these have a slick style to them that keeps me and many others entertained when I get in on a night. But they work really well in class and can allow students to create and think deeply about answers that they have researched. Take Pointless it involves trying to find answers that few others will have known. This is a great concept to use in the classroom or as a research task. Find some information that is of use to a question posed as an Objective and allow students to question whether other people will have researched the same fact etc. it has led to some very interesting and extremely wide ranging points made in circle time discussions. It has engaged the students to think deep! Each student can then add their point to the question wall via a post it note or write it on the windows and allow time for other students to see if they can connect the point made to a specific aspect if they can it isn't pointless and the student(s) who found it get rewarded but if no one in the class can that student or group have a Pointless answer and so get rewarded. Also it is opportunity for me to look at the puzzled question wall where if a student or group have any issues the post it there and I can help or ask the class if anyone knows the answer or how to help and give them the responsibility of becoming tutor. Later into a lesson or a project a. Student or group may finish the process. I don't say well done have a break far from it they take over role of tutor and become question monitors. Each will have a different focus on what they are managers of and try will go round
with an iPad or my iPhone with Classdojo and give students points based on the discussions they have as they monitor the class. They can help solve issues as they have developed an effective strategy in the lesson (I check what thy have done first asking evaluative questions where the student traces their learning path and reflects on what they discovered etc) they then go and pass that strategy on as well hoeing their work off. I briefly above linked the TV show question style with Objective questions. These are incredibly powerful and when constructed using solo taxonomy or blooms taxonomy allow students to clearly identify the skill the question involves and the ultimate learning purpose to the lesson to keep them focussed on the specific learning you are wanting to assess them on. The students will see the question and then have to question themselves or their group on how they will answer the question. What intelligence will they use? Musical in a song a music video, linguistically via a radio news report etc. students have a blooms wheel in their books that they spin or point to if they glued it in. This is the strategy they will use to solve this objective question. But why that method over another? Always questioning the question and questioning the learning method. I prefer for students to use their strengths at the start of the year so I can identify G&T students but also so I can identify possible strategies for stretch and challenge for ALL students and how we'll go about personalising those in our mini one on ones as I lap the room. Then throughout the year students underline what they have used so we have another audit system to check how thy are learning and going about solving problems and identifying strategies they haven't used and so could employ in the coming lessons. Why haven't you used that method? Have you seen or heard someone who has? You have! Have you asked them how they use it? No. Cont’d over..
“..Objective questions: These are incredibly powerful and, when constructed using solo taxonomy or blooms taxonomy, allow students to clearly identify the skill the question involves, and the ultimate learning purpose to the lesson, to keep them focussed on the specific learning you are wanting to assess....”
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
Ask them, I'm positive they'll do a great job in explaining it to you, for you to attempt it as well. This extends the learning experience in my classroom where students are taking control and becoming self managers, reflectors, and more importantly, planners for the future so they are planning their learning development and can identify what they have done, what they know to have gone well, what they need work on etc. Great for telling parents when they get home, and me:) I have started to lose track in my mind of what I have identified as questioning methods in my classroom. Actually, I roughly know but that isn't really good enough! I need a rock solid plan so I KNOW! This reduces the risk of what has happened to me on many occasions where a class leave the lesson and a minute later I curse myself thinking “ahhh we didn't get to that” or “I should have asked that” etc... I saw on twitter the great 5 minute lesson plan create by Ross McGill. I love using it as it is quick! But it got me thinking. Why not create a 5 minute questioning plan that quite easily can be used over a week or a project! So I did. As you can see in the picture it uses all of the questioning methods I have identified. The Columbo style is simply for the end of lessons or projects as summary questions to check are we at the end of the questioning process where we have the answer. This plan has really helped my focus to topics and lessons and means I am thorough. Students get a copy on their table or I print one off and put it on the door or the whiteboard for all to see. I have even started putting blanks on tables where students add their own and I use these for reflection of the lesson and as an evaluation for how I could adopt the main questions got another class or for next year. A very effective planning tool and once again it is handing over responsibility and command of the learning to the students where they feel empowered and wanted in that lesson 50 minutes:) Give it a go and I'm sure it will strengthen questioning in your lesson and allow your students to stretch and challenge their thinking. Questioning powerful or not? Let me know what you find out. @JOHNSAYERS
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THE LEARNING ARC: It takes the time it takes By Tom Sherrington
Tom Sherrington @headguruteacher
Headteacher: Teacher/Blogger. It's all about 'Zest for Learning' & 'Rainforest thinking'. Chair SSAT Vision
The pace of learning is one of the many variables we need to consider in planning lessons and in understanding the context of a lesson observation. As with many other aspects of learning and teaching, there is no formula. In thinking about pace, I often refer to learning processes as forming an arc: first, teeing up, then processing before eventually landing:
critical: struggling is a precursor to understanding. The landing phase is where the ideas and skills take root and learners can apply and present them coherently; this is when progress is finally evident and the extent of the learning can be assessed.
The teeing-up phase throws out the key elements of what needs to be learned. In a successful learning arc, this is usually laced with intrinsic incentives to sustain learners through the journey ahead.
What about feedback? Ideally we should also view the arc with a series of micro-feedback loops spinning off it, checking for understanding at each part of the process. As Dylan Wiliam says, “students should not get feedback any more than ……….once a minute!”
The processing phase is where learners battle through the struggle as their brains make all the necessary connections. At this stage, it is quite natural or even necessary for a fair degree of confusion and uncertainty to dominate proceedings. The learning that is happening might not be evident…but this phase is
However, the purpose of thinking of a learning arc is to provide a framework for considering one key variable: the time-frame. Obviously this depends on the learners involved and the level of depth and complexity in the learning. Some concepts and skills are quick to grasp within minutes; it might be possible
to run through several short arcs within a lesson. I can certainly think of any number of lessons that deliver one neat learning arc from start to finish: tee-ed up at the start and safely landed before the bell goes with that feel-good glow where everyone nailed it. But, actually, many deep concepts and challenging skills are not like this. Some learning arcs take weeks. There are lots of examples: lesson sequences focusing on writing structured essays that capture multiple perspectives; activities involving assimilating information from a range of sources in a sophisticated synoptic manner; practical evaluations requiring connections to be made between theory and experiment; creative tasks that evolve continually and only crystallise fully over time. None of these are neat and tidy. Cont’d over..
“In thinking about pace, I often refer to learning processes as forming an arc: first, teeing up, then processing before eventually landing..”
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THE LEARNING ARC: It takes the time it takes cont’d
‘Pace’ isn’t about getting to the end quickly or learning in a frenetic busy manner. ‘Pace’ can be fast or slow… and it is still water that runs deep!
Within one of these sequences whole lessons may need to be devoted to the teeing up phase or the processing phase. Teachers (and observers) need to hold their nerve, knowing that persistence and resilience will pay off, conveying that confidence to the students. At KEGS we talk about “acceleration through depth, not speed”. ‘Pace’ isn’t about getting to the end quickly or learning in a frenetic busy manner. ‘Pace’ can be fast or slow… and it is still water that runs deep! At KEGS we encourage students to embrace struggle…to grapple with complexity…before expecting things to land into clarity, order and understanding. This means that we tolerate a fair degree of confusion; we don’t spoon-feed solutions too early and we expect students to work things out for themselves. We are often dealing in with long arcs. The difficulty (and possible risk) with long learning arcs is that feedback is more complex. It takes longer to find out whether a student has understood fully – or has made the progress you were expecting. For example it is hard to give full feedback on an essay until it has been fully drafted..(an issue Chris Waugh is seeking to address via Edutronic_Net ) – as it is
only in the final work that a student’s full thought process is revealed. The History department at my school discusses this at length. There is a dilemma: shorter exercises allow for tighter loops of feedback – but then they don’t equate to the full process of a writing a whole essay – which is not just a series of chunks. However, it is important to have faith. My feeling is that in various contexts, at times, there is a tendency for teachers and students to panic during the messy processing phase. This results in teachers chunking things up into shorter arcs prematurely, to create more landing points. That might be absolutely necessary with lower attaining students but, it is the antithesis of what is needed to develop deeper learning and to challenge more able students. It is a key teacher role to differentiate learning so that any student capable of following a long, deep arc is allowed to… even if others need it broken down. In my selective context, I’m often quite happy for my students to leave the room rather confused…. because I see that as necessary. I often say ‘you probably won’t get this straight away, but in a couple of weeks, it will start to make sense’. By the next lesson, fewer are confused and, eventually, they all make a safe landing as ideas knit together
and students make the connections, learn the drills and construct the mental models they need. What does this suggest for lesson observations? It means that, in some lessons, which are more likely to be high-challenge lessons- you may not see a landing point. You might not be there for that snappy ‘ker-ching’ plenary. Instead, the observer needs to focus on the learning strategies rather than the outcomes and ask the question: what is the time-frame for this piece of learning? It is helpful, therefore, if students are encouraged to develop a language of learning – a vocabulary for the meta-learning that they are engaged in along the arc. I’ve noticed that my son sometimes makes miraculous progress with a piano piece when he hasn’t practiced for days or weeks! (He’s doing Grade 3) Why is that? The daily grind sometimes gets him in a rut, but a bit of cogitation time seems to allow him to make sense of the whole ‘stave to finger-tip’ processing in a way that can’t be hurried. The teeing up is all in place, but that landing….. well sometimes it just takes the time it takes. Tom Sherrington
Learning Arcs: They take the time they take
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Must reads for teachers! Compiled by Dave Fawcett @davidfawcett27 I'VE BEEN INSPIRED!!
13. 'Visible Learning for Teachers' -
I've been compiling a list of recommended
John Hattie
books for fellow colleagues and our staff
14. 'High Performers' - Alistair Smith 15. 'Creating Tomorrow's Schools
library. I asked the Twitter community to post or tweet their own suggestions. Below is a pretty comprehensive list, all recommended by actual teachers for teachers. Many have been suggested a number of times so it's safe to say that many
Today' by Richard Gerver
16. 'Inspirational Teachers Inspirational Learners' by Will Ryan
17. 'Building Learning Power' by Guy
of these books should be inspirational for
Claxton
you as well.
18. 'What the best college teachers
So here is the list (in no particular order):
do' by Ken Bain
19. 'Making learning whole' by David 1. 'Why Do I Need A Teacher When I've Got Google'. Ian Gilbert
1. 'Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potentia'l: Carol S. Dweck
2. 'Learning to Learn in Practice'. Alistair Smith, Mark Lovatt and John Turner
3. 'Evidence Based Teaching'. Geoff Petty
4. 'Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development (Essays in Social Psychology)'. Carol S. Dweck
5. 'An ethic of excellence' by Ron Berger 6. 'The Teacher's Toolkit: Raise classroom achievement with strategies for every learner'. Paul Ginnis
7. 'The Little Book of Big Stuff About The Brain': Andrew Curran
8. 'The Lazy Teacher's Handbook'. Jim Smith
9. 'Full On Learning: Involve Me and I'll Understand'. Zoe Elder
10. 'Teaching Today: A Practical Guide'. Geoff Petty
11. 'SOLO Taxonomy' by Pam Hook 12. 'The Perfect English Ofsted Lesson'. David Didau
Perkins
20. 'Understanding by Design' Mctighe and Wiggins
21. 'Embedded Formative Assessment' - Dylan Wiliam
22. 'Why students don't like school' by Daniel Willingham
23. 'The Big Book of Independent Thinking' by Ian Gilbert
24. 'The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids' by Tom Hodgkinson
25. 'Hidden Lives of Learners' by Graham Nuthall
26. 'How to Teach' by Phil Beadle 27. 'Closing the Learning Gap' by Mike Hughes
28. 'Tweak to Transform' by Mike Hughes
29. 'Leading the Learning School' by Colin Weatherley 31. Dancing About Architecture: A Little Book of Creativity by Phil Beadle 32. ‘OOps! Helping Childern Learn Accidentally'. Hywel Roberts
A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
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TEEP and the 7 Steps to a Perfect Ofsted Lesson By Eric Wareham
"...explain with passion what success in achieving the learning objectives will look and feel like."
I have returned to reading Jackie Beere's 'The Perfect Ofsted Lesson Plan' and with my TEEP (SSAT's Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme) trainer's hat on, I have noticed the striking way in which the 6 Stages of the TEEP Learning Cycle, the 5 Underpinning Elements and Effective Teacher/Learner Behaviours compare to Jackie's own '7 Steps to an Outstanding Ofsted Lesson'. If you haven't already, I do encourage you to own a copy of Jackie's (or even David Didau’s version based on English) excellent book and use it when planning. I also think, that I need to acknowldege the work of Alistair Smith, Mark Lovatt & (the late great and inspirational) Derek Wise together with Cramlington Learning Village (CLV) in Accelerated Learning the work is central to the success of TEEP and so many excellent and outstanding lessons. STEP 1. 'Know what they are looking for': sharing the criteria for success - be aware of the 2012 criteria for Ofsted. The TEEP Underlying Principles are Effective of ICT, Collaborative Problem Solving, Assessment for Learning, Thinking for Learning, and Accelerated Learning. These form the basis of the so-called 'magic' ingredients. These principles enable us to engage and motivate, they develop independent and resilient learners. As Jackie writes, if a school is to show 'typicality' then AFL, collaborative learning, peer review, use of technology, etc need to be used continuously, effectively, so that we are all practiced in them and that pupils see their use across the curriculum and not isolated to just a few. Developing these and sharing good practice is essential: this is where I have found TEEP to be truly inspiring. Whether old or new ideas - share them, talk
about them, practice them, embed them and this will mean that practices will not be seen as a one-off waste of time. Pupils will see familiar methods shared and applicable in different contexts. It's also important to share the 'Big Picture': explain how the lesson fits into the whole module or unit. This could be a: • Module map • Desk protector • Student made desk protectors • Flip chart with key words • Create and add to a big picture page or glossary of key words in work folders. STEP 2. 'Be present and in control right from the start' - TEEP Learning Cycle 'Prepare for Learning' Jackie writes "Set up the learning environment: get students in the habit of selfstarting as soon as they arrive; use music and when it stops it signifies the start of the lesson proper, create the exceptional climate for learning by meeting, greeting, circulating." This is exactly what the first stage of the TEEP Learning Cycle encourages - but even more important than just playing music, is the active learning as soon as they arrive in the lesson. One of my colleagues uses this really effectively in two ways: either an activity on the interactive whiteboard on entry, OR reviewing the comments made after marking their work and responding by correcting or improving. A great reference mentioned by Jackie is Nina Jackson's 'The Little Book of Music for the Classroom' - full of practical ideas in the use of music for improving children's learning, motivation and engagement. STEP 3. 'The starter that primes them for learning' TEEP Learning Cycle 'Prepare for Learning' Getting the start right for the lesson is so important - the hook. But it does depend on 3 important aspects when preparing the environment for effective learning: the physical
environment (e.g. classroom layout), the social/emotional environment (e.g. use of routines, ways of working, group dynamics) and the intellectual environment (e.g. hooking, real world context, high expectations). Jackie mentions using 'Starter's but I like the term 'Entry work/ activity', and it can be an unrelated time to think or a 'Thunk' (ref: Ian Gilbert 'Little Book of Thunks'), a curiosity, a challenge The kind of Entry Work you could do: Video clip, Drag and drop, Anagrams, True / False, Knowledge dump, Odd one out, Question or analogy, A to Z SMSC: develop skills and attitudes; as well as still using the PLTS - these are still valuable and worthy of encouraging. STEP 4. 'Set objectives or learning outcomes that engage them in the learning' - TEEP Learning Cycle 'Agree Learning Outcomes' Jackie encourages teachers to describe simply and exactly want they want the students to do, what they want to teach them and how they will know if they have, learning is a journey: "explain with passion what success in achieving the learning objectives will look and feel like." In TEEP, we point out that objectives should include curriculum content AND the learning process - make the latter explicit. Why are we learning it like this? Involve them in the pedagogy behind the teaching and their learning. Within 5 min of the start of the session tell the students what they will have learnt by the end of the session: - At the heart of effective lesson planning are clear and unambiguous learning outcomes. - These should relate to what is learnt in the lesson and not the activity - There should be an attempt to let the students know why they are learning this. STEP 5. 'The main lesson
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TEEP and the 7 Steps to a Perfect Ofsted Lesson
cont’d
By Eric Wareham activity/activities' - TEEP Learning Cycle 'Present New Information/Construct Meaning/Apply to Demonstrate' Jackie writes that teachers should demonstrate a Challenging level of subject knowledge - and should teach with passion, an ability to communicate and enthuse; Active, Collaborative Learning - gives chance for student to talk more than the teacher, allows teacher to be a better facilitator of learning; Choice of challenging activities or approaches - engages the learner & makes them feel committed to the task: choice engages the emotional brain and enhances motivation for students Both Jackie and TEEP encourage use lots of Higher Order questions (Bloom's Taxonomy) , visual aids and practical activities. The presenting of new information is the real hook to the lesson – your opportunity to engage the learner. To stimulate curiosity and to reach them emotionally – get them to care about what they are learning. This should be as multi sensory as possible at the very least use pictures or images. Case studies or real examples are highly effective, conceptualised music can also be used. The next part of the TEEP lesson, Construct Meaning, must deliver the learning outcomes. It should be designed to encourage high level thinking that triggers student questions. Where possible it should allow for different learning preferences. This could be accommodated through a choice of activities or a carousel. It can simply be achieved by allowing students their preferred method of recording e.g. mind map, list. Students should be given the time and opportunity to develop understanding of the new information and to practice using their developing skills. Students need to Apply to Demonstrate to show they have understood. It should be an activity designed to give the students the opportunity to show that they really do understand what they have been learning by applying it It should allow them to apply what they have learnt AND not simply repeat it.
Examples of activities are: Mind Map, Movie Maker, Dominoes / Hot Potatoes, Making a game, Demonstration of a skill, Display, Simulation, Dummies Guide, Tarsia, Concept Map, etc. STEP 6. Assessment as Learning TEEP Learning Cycle 'Apply to Demonstrate'/'Review' As Jackie states, we need to include and remind students about the process of learning as a journey - "What have you learned? How have you learned it? How far have you travelled towards the learning outcome?" Regular checkpoints along the lesson, build in time to read and respond to formative feedback. High quality self-assessment and peerassessment gives learners the ability to discuss and develop their own progress. In TEEP we believe in developing metagognitive awareness and that it is a powerful tool for improving learning. Skilfull and deep questioning by the teacher - move your teaching from good to outstanding using Ross McGill's 'Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce!' STEP 7. Final Plenary/Review TEEP Learning Cycle 'Review' A plenary activity can sum up the outcomes and help reflection, finding out where students are and informing ther next steps - and this may mean they haven't made the progress you wanted them to, but now you can decide the direction of the next lesson. There are many useful plenary techniques that Jackie and TEEP promote, such as: Sticky notes to record 3 things they have learned or two facts, something interesting and a question (often referred to as 'Exit Cards').. In both Jackie's book and TEEP, Reviewing and Reflecting, is an opportunity for students to revisit what they have learnt and consider how they have learnt. It can also be a moment when pupils work on their own or in a group to improve their work. Success criteria help pupils to better gauge their progress, but also need to focus on the quality of the work. APP student worksheets enable students to self- or peer-assess the work they produce. A time to redraft, improve, and amend against success criteria and acting on feedback - a vital part of the learning journey. It may include strategies for helping
students to remember their learning. It could be: Post cards, Taboo, Mnemonics/write a song, Learning logs, Speed dating, Traffic lights Reviews do not only happen at the end of a session they should also be on going throughout the session. AND IT IS OFTEN SAID: - Learning without reviewing is like filling the bath without putting the plug in!! The plenary and review can demonstrate the learning, and will lead to the next learning experience. It is at this point that assessment outcomes should inform future planning. And Finally: I have been involved in TEEP for two years now, and it has certainly opened my eyes to the amount of educational research there is, the great pedagogical practice going on across the educational world and ultimately to discover twitter, and my Personal Learning Network. With TEEP training these underlying principles and the learning cycle are explored in more detail, and more importantly they are modelled together with your colleagues.
TEEP will not appeal to everyone. But I do believe in the current climate that it is a great way of really delving into our practice: review what we do, why we do it, how we can improve it, and most importantly how we can share it.
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ICEBERGS, TAKING RISKS & BEING OUTSTANDING BY DAVID DIDAU
David Didau: During the day he is an associate member of SLT and the Director for English and Literacy at Clevedon School in North Somerset. He is an associate of Independent
Thinking Ltd.
How do we recognise a great teacher, a great lesson or great teaching and learning? How do we know what we’re seeing is outstanding? The sad truth is that often observers don’t (or can’t) see the wood for the trees. They see your planning, they see your interactions with a group of students and, hopefully, they see the evidence of impact in your students’ books. But most of what goes into making your lessons finely crafted things of beauty are invisible. Observers only ever get to see the tip of the iceberg.
David is also author of
‘The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson’ Follow his twitter @learningspy And his blog: The Learning Spy
“How do we recognise a great teacher, a great lesson or great teaching and learning?”
The Iceberg: “If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” Ernest Hemingway Can Hemingway’s wise words on writing prose can be applied to teaching? Instead of flopping about trying to make students do too much in a given lesson we should have the confidence to ‘omit’ all the fantastic stuff we know we do day in day out because its presence is what will make the edifice float with such stately elegance. The bit beneath the surface is our knowledge of our students and the relationships we’ve lovingly established over months or years. It’s the routines we’ve set up and the massively high expectations we’ve communicated. Only we know how hard we’ve worked on these things and unless we take the time to tell our observer, how will they know? If
we hope that they can extrapolate all this from the 20 minutes they spend in our lesson and intuit all the hard work from a brief conversation about targets and a flick through a few books then we could well leave ourselves open to disappointment. Instead we need to expect that an observer will know all these thing because we will take the opportunity of point them out. So, what can we do? This post is a distillation of all my thinking over the past six months on how we can demonstrate to an observer that we are outstanding teachers and that the lessons that are being observed showcase outstanding teaching and learning. Often, one of the biggest tensions for teachers is the fact that what we believe is best for our students is not what Ofsted (or our SLT) want to see. Over the past few years this has lead to teachers performing the Monkey Dance in front of observers and then getting on with the day job; that of getting recalcitrant kids to learn stuff. Now, fortunately for all of us Sir Michael Wilshaw has recently said this: “OFSTED should be wary of trying to prescribe a particular style of teaching, whether it be a three part lesson; an insistence that there should be a balance between teacher led activities and independent learning, or that the lesson should start with aims and objectives with a plenary at the end.” This is excellent news. Here’s a list of the stuff that, according to Ofsted, represents outstanding T&L: • Sustained & rapid progress (NB – this does not take place in individual lessons but over time) • Consistently high expectations • Excellent subject knowledge • Systematic, accurate assessment • Well judged, imaginative teaching strategies • Sharply focused & timely support • Enthusiasm, participation & commitment • Resilience, confidence &
independence • Frequent & consistently high quality feedback • Engagement, courtesy, collaboration & cooperation Taking risks The clear and splendid implication I take from Wilshaw’s remarks is that we shouldn’t have to worry about how we’re doing these things as long as we’re doing them. Obviously, we cannot reasonably expect to do all this in 20 minutes, but maybe we can find a way to show it. This gives us more freedom to take risks, embrace failure and, of course, try hard. Here are some handy pointers from the great and the good: You must learn to fail intelligently. “Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. One fails forward towards success.” Thomas Edison The idea of ‘failing intelligently’ is a fascinating one. As Zoë Elder points out here, “making mistakes may or may not be the result of risk-taking. A mistake may simply be indicative of carelessness, lack of time or stress, rather than an overt effort to take a risk”. The more effort we put into careful preparation, the more likely our mistakes are to have been worth making, and more likely we are to ‘fail forward’. “Show me a teacher who doesn’t fail every day and I’ll show you a teacher with low expectations for his or her students.” Dylan Wiliam This is as clear an indictment of playing it safe as I’ve ever encountered. It is ridiculously to meet low expectations but there is little reward for doing so. As teachers we owe it to our students to risk failures, identify where we went astray and feed all this invaluable information into our next experiment. And if you’re still not convinced, here’s why: ‘A teacher’s job is not to make work easy. It is to make it difficult. If you are not challenged, you do not make mistakes. if you do not make mistakes, feedback is useless.’ John Hattie
A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
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ICEBERGS, TAKING RISKS & BEING OUTSTANDING BY DAVID DIDAU huge difference by making relatively minor, but deliberate improvements. I start by spending less time planning. Yes, you heard me. I’ve written before about my approach to lesson planning but I’ve recently boiled it down to the following essentials: • Time is precious (the 2 minute lesson plan) • Marking is planning • Lessons should focus on learning not activities
The word according to @reflectivemaths: If we don’t challenge students to meet our outrageously high expectations, they won’t make mistakes. This results in a desultory lack of progress. This is one of the biggest potential pitfalls we encounter when teaching able students: they can do a lot of what we think is hard so we end end up lavishing them with praise for their efforts without raising the bar. This is well known. Vygotsky told us that success should always be just beyond where we currently are so that we have to strive and reach for it. This applies to teachers as much as it does to our students. The vast gap in the feedback given to teachers judged as ‘good with outstanding features’ is an appalling travesty. It is simply not acceptable to fob off these teachers with meaningless guff about gut feelings, lack of a certain je ne c’est pas, or the observation that student x was briefly off task despite producing a fantastic outcome. If, as an observer, you cannot give kind, helpful and specific feedback on how to get to outstanding you really shouldn’t be allowed to make judgments on others’ teaching! So, once we’ve acknowledged the iceberg and committed ourselves to taking risks, what next? BEING OUTSTANDING Outstanding has to be a way of thinking rather than a way of doing. The truth is that for most of us the idea of working harder is impossible: we’re already flat out. This is the beauty of an approach like the aggregation of marginal learning gains. Sometimes, we can make a
I
I’ve written before about my medium and long term planning model, the Learning Loop – the basic premise is that lessons should build on each other in a coherent way. In English I’ve identified 2 distinct loops: creativity and analysis which I deliberately thread through all schemes of learning and every lesson. This is a little simplistic, but it’s a useful place to start and I would urge you to identify the main loops within the curriculum area you teach. With this in mind, it really doesn’t take much time to plan what it is that students need to learn. During the lesson With the planning taken care of, we need to consider what to do during a lesson to ensure it’s judged as outstanding. 1. Explain why to the observer – make sure any observer understands how well judged and imaginative you teaching strategies are. If you’re confident enough, seek them out and explain it to them. Even better, get the students to explain it. Failing that, staple the research findings for your approach to your lesson plan. If an inspector is any cop, they’ll appreciate this; if they’re not, they’ll be intimidated by your professional knowledge and leave you the hell
cont’d
alone. I make it absolutely clear to any observer that they are witnessing outstanding teaching and learning and make sure they see the parts of the iceberg which lie beneath the surface of the lesson. I point out why each individual is making ‘rapid and sustained progress over time’ and direct them to particular students and their books.
2. Observe the learning – it’s important to leave yourself free to observe what’s going on. I always have a block of post-its on which I scribble comments. If students are working in groups I’ll leave these on their table to discuss; if they’re working individually I’ll pop it on their work and stand back. This is a great way to show how your interventions are ‘sharply focussed and timely’ and is clear evidence of ‘frequent and high quality feedback’ to add to all the wonderful examples of ‘systematic and accurate assessment’ in their books. If a particular student doesn’t appear to be as engaged as you’d like, point them out to your observer and tell their story. Show them how much progress they’ve made over time and contextualise their particular issues. Obviously, this will depend on your students’ ‘resilience, confidence & independence’ and this too needs is worth pointing out.
3. Questioning – this is an essential part of teaching and wonderful opportunity for developing students’ oracy. I don’t care who you are or what subject you teach, you must take the opportunity to ask good questions. It can be hugely impressive to include a hinge question mid way through your lesson but you should ensure that your questioning seeks to clarify, probe or get students to recommend. Even better, you can get the students them selves to do this while you sit back and point out the ‘engagement, courtesy, collaboration & cooperation’ to your observer. Cont’d overleaf
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
ICEBERGS, TAKING RISKS & BEING OUTSTANDING BY DAVID DIDAU 4. Take the temperature – the best lessons just seem to ‘flow’ with students experiencing an appropriate level of challenge and stress. However, this is hard to judge and we may need to ‘take the temperature’ of our lessons to ensure we’ve pitched it right. Get students to explain where they are on this chart:
“The purpose of all of this is to make sure you don’t leave the reading of your professional practice to chance. Don’t hope you’ll be outstanding; expect it.”
You can then make micro adjustments to the levels of stress or challenge to make certain that students are displaying appropriate levels of ‘enthusiasm, participation & commitment’. 5. Take risks – through your observation of the students’ learning and your temperature taking you are in a position to take some exciting and fairly safe risks. Explain to the observer that because you’ve noticed x you’re going to do y. You might adjust time limits to increase or decrease stress or shift the emphasis of questioning to raise or lower challenge. You might move students around or throw particular students some curves. The point is that while these things might not work, the observer will be interested and engaged in your experimentation as you’ll have explored the reasoning first.
cont’d
Finally: The purpose of all of this is to make sure you don’t leave the reading of your professional practice to chance. Don’t hope you’ll be outstanding; expect it. How you think is as important as what you do, and if you think of your teaching as art, then you can enjoy the process of being creative and of taking risks. Not everything you do will work, but if your thinking is outstanding and clearly articulated then it’s almost impossible for an observer to disagree with you. At any rate, the onus will be on them to explain clearly and precisely exactly why you’re not outstanding: if they fail to do this, challenge them politely but assertively by laying out the evidence that your have both understood and met the criteria. One last piece of advice: “Be brilliant and they’ll forgive you anything.” Phil Beadle David Didau Coda: You might argue that being judged outstanding in an observation doesn’t make you an outstanding teacher. And you’d be right. But, labels have power. Once you become known as outstanding you will start to become it.
Scott Adams – The Dilbert Principle
A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
One iPad in the Classroom? – Top 10 Apps
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By Daniel Edwards
From a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programme to a 1:1 iPad initiative there are a number of options available to schools when embracing new technology in the classroom. Consequently it is becoming common for school leaders to purchase a device to trial in the classroom before making any real financial commitment. As the iPad is currently the ‘class leader’ in education, there are many educators who have found themselves with an iPad to ‘see what it can do?’ The challenge is to demonstrate enhanced learning, so here are ten suggestions that may help: MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS – Use the camera/video to display student work to the rest of the class. A simple convertor cable will allow the iPad to be displayed on an existing VGA projector. AIR DISPLAY – Use the Airserver application to mirror your iPad to a Mac for projection. This allows the educator to move around the class and change the display when offering guidance. This has useful behaviour management implications. (If using a Windows PC, try the Reflections app.) SKITCH – Annotate any image/diagram before the lesson or in real time to illustrate a concept. Students can also be asked to complete annotations on the iPad. DROPBOX - A shared classroom account is a workflow solution. This can run alongside the ability to upload to Dropbox from the iPad and display on existing computer/projector via web based Dropbox. VOICETHREAD – A class account will allow students to collaborate online prior to the lesson and then view work via the iPad when they come together. The literacy implications of Voicethread make it an interesting initial collaboration tool. ITHOUGHTSHD – A mind mapping tool with a host of functions. Allow students to contribute to the discussion and link ideas to web addresses or photos.Works very well as the mind map can then be shared with the class. EXPLAIN EVERYTHING – Allow a student(s) to complete an interactive whiteboard slide that can be displayed as a plenary tool for the class. This has the added benefit of extensive sharing options for future reference to enhance learning. SOCRATIVE – If students have access to any internet enabled device (laptops/ICT suite) then this assessment for learning tool fits neatly into classroom practice. The instant-on nature of the iPad aids Socrative use whenever the educator wants to assess the level of learning. The ability to hide results is beneficial as it empowers students to answer without feeling too much pressure. SKYPE – Encourage collaboration across the school/country/world with other students and experts in the field of study. The mobility of the iPad allows individuals to enter the conversation or join together to contribute to discussion. EVERNOTE – Allows the educator to have resources readily available. Embed resources in schemes of learning and access them for display with one touch. The instant-on functionality of the iPad means lesson pace can be easily changed with resources to hand when required. Evernote can also be used as a shared folder utility with cross platform integrations making student access at home a simple process. Of course there are any number of apps that will enhance learning as well as those above. From presentation (Keynote) to creation (Garageband), the beauty of the iPad is that applications are constantly being developed and with educators in mind. The ten listed above have proved successful but they are only a suggested starting point. The developing pedagogy is under constant scrutiny and the iPad should only be seen as an additional tool for the educator. That said, it is a fantastic addition to the toolbox and if you have the means I urge you to experiment. If you have any thoughts on using the iPad in the classroom I would be very interested to hear them. Please comment below or contact me on twitter @syded06
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A4A Volume 2: Spring Issue 1 - 2013
AND FINALLY... IPAD - ANOTHER TOP 10 APPS FOR EDUCATION Pages: The basic word processing package that is really essential for any and all types of writing. Easily transportable by email to Dropbox etc. with the capacity to convert to Microsoft Word if required.
If you wish to contribute, please email: ericwareham @btinternet.com
OR Tweet: @developingTandL
Safari: The essential internet browser for the iPad for all required research essential to presentations etc. Dropbox: The best Cloud app to save work and create an accessible area to share work, ideas etc. Lots of free storage and a secure password system make Dropbox an ideal support for any department to share with students and fellow teachers. iBooks: The essential e-reader and book library for the iPad. Save a range of classics for free and store other purchased class texts. With added annotation/ highlighting capacity, Apple is constantly updating the app to allow students and teachers to actively engage with texts. With iBooksAuthor you can even create real texts and upload them into iBooks – the ultimate ‘real writing’ experience. ExplainEverything: A brilliant app for individual or group presentations. Students can upload images, video and text to the app template, whilst recording a voice-over to create fantastic presentations that harness a complex range of skills in an active way – allowing students to explain everything! iFPoems: A fantastic anthology of poems is available on the app. The best features are great poetry readings, from the likes of Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter. It also allows for the saving of favourites and the capacity for students to record their own readings of the poems. iMovie: A smooth and easy app that allows students to create films instantly, with an array of editing facilities. Reliable and effective, it is very simple but it can produce films of a very good standard. Penultimate: One of the many handwriting apps on the iPad. This app is easy to use and excellent for writing notes, mapping ideas etc. Any notes can be easily emailed and saved to a Dropbox account. iTunes U: This app provides an exhaustive library of free resources: from audiobooks to top quality lectures and instruction on a vast range of topics. Resources such as famous speeches to summaries of Shakespeare plays are free to use iDoceo: a new powerful and easy to use mark book for the iPad. Its spreadsheet engine will calculate averages in real time as you put information in. No internet connection is required to use it. You can insert any kind information for each class, student and term visually, no more boring spreadsheets. Scroll , expand, filter, export, import and view your information at any time. With thanks to @huntingeglish for his suggestions