18 minute read
NOT ALL TREASURE IS SILVER AND GOLD
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A good idea is to colour code highlighting. Whilst studying history, for example, the following information can be categorised and colour coded using highlighters;
• KEY HISTORICAL DATES • KEY EVENTS • KEY INDIVIDUALS • KEY TERMS • CAUSES • EFFECTS
Once that information has been highlighted it can be used to create fl ashcards; with a key term on one side and correct defi nition on the fl ip side. Another idea would be to create a quiz based on the highlighted content for students to self test at a later date.
Unlike highlighting, retrieval practice will explicitly show students what they can and cannot recall from long term memory. This identifi es gaps in knowledge, therefore students know where to focus their next stage of revision. Professor Robert Bjork states, ‘Using your memory, shapes your memory. Using your memory, changes your memory’ . Regular retrieval practice can result in students being able to recall content with greater ease and confi dence in the future.
Highlighters don’t deserve to be ditched but they do need to be understood and used in a way to support e ective study strategies, ensuring learners are revisionready and become successful students.
PEDAGOGY
EAL QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
One area that EAL learners often fi nd challenging is when asked questions during lessons. The reason for this is that it usually happens too fast. Beth Southern o ers some questioning strategies that EAL students fi nd particularly helpful.
By Beth Southern
Working with EAL learners is not about changing everything you do; it’s not about di erentiating everything ‘down’. Working with EAL learners is about fi nding ways to give more time, to provide opportunities to add extra steps into a task and to sca old those learners to reach their best potential through literacy support.
Research shows that the average question is asked and answered in a classroom within 60 seconds. When you consider the process that a child learning English goes through to reach their answer – hear the question in English, convert it to their fi rst language, formulate the answer in their fi rst language and then convert back to English – you can see why 60 seconds is nowhere near enough.
So what do teachers need to do to overcome this particular hurdle? How can we assess children in a way that allows more children chance to answer? We need to start by putting questioning back at the heart of planning – ensuring we know what we are trying to assess and how we are going to do it. As teachers get more experienced, it is easy to slip into the habit of not using questioning as the e ective tool it can be, relying on hands up for answers, focusing on recall only and evaluating answers given. What about if we switch things up and hand it back over to the students more?
This article is going to look at fi ve questioning ideas that you can try in your classroom, they are not just ‘EAL friendly’, they will also benefi t nervous children, children with SEND or literacy needs. The beauty of them is their versatility, their low preparation time and their high engagement rate.
POSE, PAUSE, POUNCE, BOUNCE
This questioning strategy has been around for some time now and is accredited to Pam Fearnley and others. The reason this particular technique works with EAL learners is its versatility. It can be used to assess prior knowledge, to check understand or to consolidate learning. All of these need to happen more regularly for children learning English, as it is easy to wrongly assume EAL learners know little about a topic or for EAL learners to lose understanding part way through a lesson.
So how does it work?
POSE - The teacher would pose a question to the whole class.
PAUSE - The whole class would pause and think (this is important for EAL learners – build in wait time).
POUNCE - The teacher fi guratively ‘pounces’ on a student for a response – the great thing about this is that students all know they could be asked and so are better primed to reply (students need to be trained in these techniques to make them most e ective). A tip when you have EAL learners is to not ask them for the fi rst response, they can then listen to earlier responses and confi rm their ideas in their head.
Often after receiving a reply from a student we, as teachers, evaluate that reply, add more or disagree and then move on. But not with this technique.
BOUNCE - The teacher will then bounce that child’s response to another child for them to discuss, add more, disagree etc. If a child feels unable to o er a response then you can let them know you’ll come back to them after they have heard more ideas, to see if they can then add something – this again builds more processing time.
Talk is so important for EAL learners. This strategy reduces teacher talk time and increases student talk time. It also enables learners to see that they don’t always have to answer fully, they can o er part of a response or a simple idea or word and then have it bounced elsewhere, reducing the cognitive load around questioning and reducing potential anxiety. Reducing cognitive load is a key part of working with EAL learners, it is why we often provide writing frames, partial responses or additional sca olding materials because there is less to then be overwhelmed with and they can focus on the parts that matter most.
Comprehension activities can often cause stress for EAL learners as they are faced with what seems like a huge task – read a piece of text and answer 10 questions silently and in writing. A way round this can be to split the activity between 4-5 children, give each student 2-3 questions and then after they have found those answers they talk as a group to ‘teach’ each other the answers for the additional questions. Rather than being faced with a piece of text and 10 questions, it suddenly seems much more manageable with just 2-3 questions followed by discussion with peers to fi nd out the other answers.
Similar to this method is another one that I particularly like for EAL learners - Pose a question
for a group to discuss. Listen in and paraphrase back to the
class on their behalf. This again reduces the cognitive load by having many brains working on questions rather than one. It allows EAL learners to listen in, hear good role models of English and add when they can. As mentioned above, talk is important for EAL learners who use it to help formulate answers in their head, before they begin to write. This method could then be supplemented with a writing frame for them to write the answers that they have discussed. Add in visual support to assist with abstract concepts and you have fully supported the needs of the EAL learners to achieve the best they can.
Think-Pair-Share - Most teachers know and use ‘thinkpair-share’, but with EAL learners it is important to ensure that it is being used e ectively to help them develop language and understanding. The fi rst part of this technique requires the student to THINK about a question that has been posed, similarly, to the part where we PAUSE in the strategy above, it’s important to ensure that students are actually thinking about the question or using the time to formulate their answers. I like the idea of getting children to have mini whiteboards and adding something to that during the thinking phase – whether it is just key words, a drawing/ diagram, or a full answer isn’t important. What matters is that they are focused on the question, and you are able to assess without the need to speak. You can see if they have not understood the question or appear to have little comprehension of the topic and you can then intervene during the next stage to ensure they are well-supported.
The second stage is the PAIR stage when they will then compare/combine their answer with a peer – this assists EAL students with getting the correct terminology or language and taking their answer a step further. It also pushes more time in to their answer which is the key for those learning English.
SHARE is the part that allows for crystalising that answer into long term memory, the act of saying it aloud and actually sharing completes the question cycle and gives the EAL learner the best possible chance of remembering the concept.
PEDAGOGY
What you cannot do.
What you can do with help.
What you can do without help.
Question Matrix - A question
matrix is a tool designed with the purpose of introducing us to a hierarchy of questioning, designed similarly to Bloom’s taxonomy or Higher Order Thinking (HOT) questions. As teachers we need to ensure that we are stretching pupils e ectively, particularly more advanced bilinguals and we also need to be able to analyse the complexity of the tasks we expect our learners to do. Whilst it is not a bad thing to o er a complex task to an EAL learner, the more complex it is, the more sca olding is required. So we need to be prepared. Questioning matrices allow us to o er a variety of questions, moving away from the most common RECALL questions and towards those that require a higher level of thinking, opinion or free choice. Building the confi dence of EAL learners is the key and we can do this by ensuring we o er them a range of questions that develop their confi dence. Constantly asking questions that are too easy can leave them disengaged and switched o , similarly asking questions that require high levels of comprehension and understanding can leave them feeling inadequate and lacking in confi dence. As Vygotsky talked about the Zone of Proximal Development for general learning, it applies directly to questioning techniques also. We need to ensure that we pose the right level of question with the right amount of support to put our students in the best position to make progress. The support can come in a range of ways from peer support, additional thinking time, talking before writing or group work. The diagram below demonstrates how questions increase in di culty and how we need to try and build up to those that require high order thinking skills and comprehension. The key in all of this is planning – we need to ensure that we include questioning within our lesson plan so that it becomes a fundamental part of the lesson rather than a quick show of hands.
If you aim to put questioning back at the heart of your lesson, it forces you to consider the strategy you might adopt and why. It also helps you analyse the complexity of the task at hand and whether you need to provide additional sca olding steps. Regular use of a range of techniques will allow learners to gain confi dence with them and understand that it is a normal part of the lesson, it will also enable you to know which work best for di erent outcomes.
Ultimately it is not the number of questions that you ask but the techniques that you implement and your reasons for choosing them. It’s your willingness as a teacher to broaden your questioning horizons and better understand the complexity of whatever task you have set, that will get the best results.
THE IMPORTANCE OF NAILING THOSE ROUTINES
Schools are complex environments, where transitions from one activity to another can be chaotic if not managed carefully. Shannen Doherty explains the importance of having clear and consistent routines for these transition points, to make the most of the time available with your students.
By Shannen Doherty
Not too long ago, someone tweeted that the di erence between primary and secondary is that we can’t get through a fi ve-hour day on systems and routines because relationships are everything in primary education. This just isn’t the case! The two ideas go hand in hand: they’re not mutually exclusive. You cannot have routines without relationships, and I’d argue you struggle to develop good relationships with all pupils in a classroom without systems, routines, and structure.
Teachers and students thrive together when there is structure and routines are in place. We don’t like the unknown. We must create a safe space for our pupils. Routines are a huge part of this! So many children don’t have routines or rules at home; they crave this at school. Of course, some pupils will test this and push the boundaries but that is exactly why it’s important to have those boundaries fi rmly in place.
In Running the Room (2020), Tom Bennett says we can answer the question ‘Why is behaviour so important?’ with the question ‘What do you think the aim of education is?’ Ultimately, if we don’t nail behaviour then less learning will happen. It’s that simple. If the culture and behaviour isn’t good enough then the environment isn’t right for every child to learn.
Nailing behaviour means teaching behaviour. How often have you heard someone in school say, ‘You need to behave!’? But do the children know what that means? Do they have the same expectations at home? Did their teacher last year have the same expectations? Has anyone ever bothered to explain and model what good behaviour is and why it’s important? We need to teach behaviour. We need to model it. We need to practise it.
I’m writing this when we’re half a term into the academic year. If you didn’t take the time to teach behaviour and create routines, then it is not too late! It takes time and energy and it’ll be draining but it’s worth the work.
PEDAGOGY
In education, every moment is precious. This is even more true after our students missed months of education during two periods of lockdown. We can’t waste time with loose transitions and a lack of routines. Think of recurring events in your class such as handing out books, lining up for assembly or coming into school each morning. Iron out the kinks in these times by setting routines. Doug Lemov has said that routines and strong procedures are perhaps the single most powerful way to bring e ciency, focus and rigour to a classroom. How much time is wasted with woolly transitions? If I think back to my NQT self, I know we spent far too much time on the ‘in between’ moments. That time could have been spent on learning or getting to know my class better!
So now I have set routines for how I want things done. Sometimes these change from class to class, for example when I had a class of 17 Year 2 children last year! However, generally the premise is the same.
When the children come into school each day, their journey to their table is mapped out. They know exactly where they’re expected to go, where to put their water bottle, which way to walk around to put their packed lunch on the trolley (there’s not much space so a one-way system around the edge of the classroom works wonders here!) and then to go straight to their chair. Their early work is on the board. They know to start this and set the tone for the room for other children arriving later.
When it’s time to line up for assembly, each row goes one at a time from the back to the front. They follow their row leader and don’t jump ahead. They walk a specifi c route to the line so that they don’t have to squeeze past “The minutes we spend each day on recurring events or tasks add up to hours and hours over the course of the year.”
anyone else. This one took a lot of practising but now it’s smooth and easy! It means we don’t have to stop fi ve whole minutes before the assembly starts. There’s no more fa ng about.
To hand out the books, I have three rows so those books are always put away in three piles. I put the three piles at the end of each row and they pass them down quickly and quietly… but not so fast and frantic that they make a load of noise!
These simple routines mean that I’m not spending minutes and minutes each day giving instructions or organising them into order. They already know what the expectation is and because we practised it again and again… and again we aren’t wasting time. The minutes we spend each day on recurring events or tasks add up to hours and hours over the course of the year. What a waste of precious time.
Going back to the tweet that inspired this piece, we need routines and rules to get us through a fi ve-hour teaching day with the same children. That’s what gets us through. Routines need not be seen as a secondary thing. I can’t imagine teaching full time without routines and systems in place. How on earth do I get through the day without these quick and easy practices? Creating habits for our children is so important to enable them to focus on the learning.
We have a duty to create a safe place that the children can trust in. Routines, clear expectations and consequences are all part of this. We cannot expect our students to fl ourish and learn in an environment where they don’t know what’s expected.
So if you think your class would benefi t from more routine and structure, consider the points in the day that are repetitive. What do you do each lesson or each day that could be formalised? What signal can you give to begin the routine? How can you save yourself from repeating the same instructions every single day? Get planning those routines and then get your class practising them!
EXPAND YOUR MIND ONE SUBJECT AT A TIME
40. Shakespeare For All
Laying the groundwork for all students to succeed in their study of Shakespeare’s works
44. Let’s Tork Abawt Spelling
Why spelling in English is so complex
48. How I Would Teach… Iterative Design
Tips on how to teach the process of iterative design, with limited curriculum time
