Teaching Learning Magazine January 2019 Edition by Queen Mary's College

Talking Learning January 2019

Volume 2 Issue 1

Contents: 

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‘Assessment: Break it down’ by Matt Turner (p4-5)

‘What on Earth Does That Mean?’ by Rob Cavill (p28)

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‘Feng-School’ by Rob Maddison (p6 -9)

‘A Case for Google Cast’ by Ali Kanji (p29)

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‘Vialogues’ by James FraserMurison (p10-11)

‘Hello Smart!’ by Sarah Pithers (p30-31)

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‘Frantic Assembly’ by Steve Gallagher (p32-33)

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‘Bella’ by Gareth Thomas (p12-15)

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‘The Worry Tree’ by Penny Ley (p16-17)

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‘The Assessment Folder’ by Michael Rogers (p34-35)

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‘More Impact, Less Marking’ by Marcus Rutland (p18-21)

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‘What Makes You Feel Good?’ by Sally Anne Spooner (p36-37)

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‘Ideas for Self-Assessment and Keeping Recall Active’ by Katherine Bejide (p22-23)

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‘Geography’ by Caroline Orange (p38-39)

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‘Examples of Student Voice Feedback’ by Mark Henderson (p40 -41)

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‘Evidence Informed Ideas’ by Tom Sherrington (p42-43)

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‘The S.U.N.’ by Lucy Poynter (p44)

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‘TEDx Talks’ by Tanya Mulfiri (p45)

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‘Venice’ by Tanika Gill and Anna Pink (p46)

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‘Reflections on Teaching and Learning at Costello School’ by Kate Need (p24)

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‘9 Questions’ by Jane Bowron (p25)

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‘How Students Can Access Information Online’ by Simon Green (p26)

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‘My Interview Experience’ by Amy Davies (p27)

Editor’s Notes

“The truest measure of our students’ success is to be found in the value that we add between the point students start and the time when they take their external qualifications. This is where QMC truly shines: the value-added ‘thermometer’ depicted in this section places us in the ‘excellent’ category. We are in the top 15% of all Colleges.” The statement above is an indication of where we stand as a college based on last year’s exam results. The aim is to continually improve on this and by sharing your excellent ideas, this magazine is just one way of helping us to achieve this. I am grateful for every article received and hope that you find something useful in the following pages that you can put to use. Whilst it is important to keep trying new ideas, we must also remember that QMC is built on firm foundations and in this edition of Talking Learning we have a fascinating contribution from an ex-member of staff, showing us life before (and after) the college. Simon Green, Editor.

Assessment: Break it Down By Matt Turner Biology (Edexcel) is a course which involves memorising huge amounts of biological processes and disconnected facts. Edexcel recognises this and makes it its mission to assess a student’s ability to analyse, evaluate, discuss, and apply information to unfamiliar theoretical and experimental contexts. The number of straight forward ‘Describe what happens in this process’ questions is relatively low. This article outlines a culture I am attempting to establish this year – that knowledge is assumed, and that students should – as standard – be ensuring that they can understand and retain every fact provided. This should, theoretically, free up teacher time for deeper application of knowledge which projects students towards A/A*. It has also provided me with a new approach to test marking which I have found more useful, takes less time and has provided students with more specific feedback.

I have used a number of strategies to achieve the culture of ‘students should know the content, or are doing it wrong’: 

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 

A strategy I have also found useful, following on from sample marking, is having students then mark questions which I have allocated as ‘knowledge questions’. Students can then receive a mark for a specific skill (data interpretation) and for their knowledge. My first years’ most recent test providing them with 3 different marks: ‘Analysis of data’, ‘Understanding’, and an overall progress grade. I will then provide them with specific activities to address each issue. Students then see that no one activity can correct the overall grade, because the combination of skills is too broad.

Regular (every 2 lessons minimum) short answer assessments. For example, I provide 30 short answer questions which test straightforward recall in 5-10 minutes. Regular checking of summary material produced by students – flashcards, summary sheets, mind-maps etc. Establishing through teacher talk, from week one, that unlike GCSE, the examiner and teacher will assume that students are resolving any misconceptions and actively working on memorising course content. Starting almost every second year lesson with a similar Year 1 short answer test. A mastery learning approach – A quick distribution of content (which leaves students with a vague, but incomplete understanding), with a subsequent ‘deeper dive’ into content to achieve mastery.

Student feedback has been positive, with most acknowledging that this specific grading style has enabled them to recognise the next step forward. Some have even expressed mild disinterest in the overall grade. Anecdotally, I have found much fewer knowledge deficits while reviewing assessments than in previous years, where students would lack understanding of concepts and therefore be unable to discuss, apply, analyse these ideas as a result. The irony of the approach is that, despite seemingly pushing the responsibility for knowledge onto the students, I have implemented more regular and efficient knowledge assessment and recall practice.

By establishing the view that ‘learned content’ is something that doesn’t equate to exam success, I have been able to focus on higher level skills within my marking. Students are learning that there is no real excuse for losing marks due to not ‘remembering something’, as this is easily prevented by regular content review. When I then mark larger test papers, I can decide on a specific exam skill focus which I share with the class. For example:   

All questions that require the student to interpret data. All questions that require mathematical skill. Larger, discussion/evaluation questions.

“This should, theoretically, free up teacher time for deeper application of knowledge which projects students towards A/A*.” New display in the Spectrum 5

Feng-School:The importance of a harmonious classroom environment By Rob Maddison The classroom is a place of learning, development, personal achievement but is also sometimes the place that causes the most anxiety in our learners and leads to us as teachers to rip our hair out in frustration. They come in many shapes and sizes, with a range of different technological provision that hails from different eras of educational funding! I was lucky enough to be provided with my own classroom last year, something that I have always wanted in the educational era of hot desking and timetabled rooming and for the first time in my career, I was able to think about a fixed space in my day to day work.

 A year and a half on, I have soon come to realise the importance that a learning space has on its learners and how simple changes to a classroom space can positively impact students’ mood, engagement and willingness to engage with learning. I consider myself to be a bit of a neat freak, a fact that my colleagues would concur with, but I have found that having a tidy space and a consistent approach to classroom housekeeping makes for an inviting place for learners. Below are some of the approaches that I have taken to maximise learner comfort, engagement and ownership of our shared learning space: 



The walls are a tapestry of keywords and creativity, consisting of a range of hand me down items from colleagues and student donations in terms of posters. By  allowing learners to contribute unwanted film/video game or music posters to the space it gives them a sense of ownership, makes the space more vibrant and thankfully holds relevance in our semiotic deconstruction and analysis of media products. I like to have low level instrumental music playing during the independent parts of my lesson as this has quite a calming effect on learners and helps them to focus. It also breaks up the silence that can sometimes exist when learners are engaging in workshop activities! (I hate silence!)

Our learners are increasingly digital native, they are practically grafted to their phones. By now my students are familiar with my technique known as the "Phone break" and I am pleased to say that it has had such an impact that it seems to have transferred to other institutions by talking to other professionals! in short, I designate two specific two minute periods on the board every lesson, when it hits that time in the lesson, learners are able to use their phones. I use Google's stopwatch on the board and learners understand that if their phone is seen outside of the phone break, the whole class lose one of the two! Highly effective at minimising phone based disruption and learners have really bought into the idea! I always ensure that learners return chairs from around the room (computer spaces) back to the middle tables and utilise the tables in the middle as an opportunity to brief and debrief classes, doing so means that the class is reset for the following class and gets them into good housekeeping practice

Consistency is king, and routine and regiment win over in my classroom. A classroom space is as important as the content that is being taught. Minimising distractions and making it so that a space is inviting, is a nice place to be and also having a consistent way of functioning can have a powerful impact on a learner’s individual learning experience and social development. I strongly feel that we are here to do more than just teach young people how All of my computers are numbered and to pass a test, I believe we are responsible for since last year every lesson where guiding them in their social and personal computers are required, I have shuffled number cards and provided learners with development. A classroom is a powerful tool, hopefully some of the above can help to construct a a number that they then need to find harmonious classroom! their corresponding computer for the lesson. This has allowed for a fair and just seating method to avoid disruption and has actually benefited the classes’ social cohesion allowing for learners to communicate and work with others in the class. The second year BTEC Media groups are testament to this as both groups are incredibly tight knit contributing to a positive classroom More pictures can be seen on the experience. following pages “A classroom is a powerful tool ” 7

Robâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classroom

“The walls are a tapestry of keywords and creativity ” “Consistency is King, and routine and regiment win over in my classroom”

Rob’s classroom

Since you asked, however, here are a few suggestions:

Vialogues is a really easy and fun way to set flipped learning tasks…

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Keep your students current with news casts, press conferences, and raw news footage.  YouTube has millions of movie clips. Bring "Pride and Prejudice" or "The Great Gatsby" to life in your class!  Record and upload your lectures so students can annotate the lesson with their questions and comments.  Use Vialogues as a way for students to share projects (skits, debates, presentations anything that can be captured on video!) with each other and receive feedback. What makes an ad effective? Create a Vialogue (or a series of Vialogues) and have your students pick apart - second for second - a commercial, viral video, or another type of recorded advertising, in order to promote media literacy in the classroom.

By James FraserMurison Vialogues is a really easy and fun way to set flipped learning tasks, track student contributions and give live feedback in class. Once you’ve signed up through Chrome (won’t work without Chrome!) and posted your video to analyse, you can use Vialogues as a video-based learning tool that promotes meaningful discussions with its asynchronous, time-coded commenting system. A vialogue is a video with a dialogue. To create a vialogue, you can either upload an original video, embed one from YouTube, or use an existing video on Vialogues. After giving your video a title, a description, and adding instructions, you will be ready to open your Vialogue to discussions. You can control who has access to your Vialogue by adjusting the privacy settings. How can I use Vialogues in my classroom? Getting Started: The possibilities are endless! Today's students are tech-savvier than ever, and it's time to take advantage of the endless bounty of educational videos before us. Incorporating edtech tools like Vialogues into everyday lessons and assignments is just one way to keep your students engaged with and challenged by your course content .

Below is a link to how one of my students has used it in class: https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/46974

Please click on the link above 11

Inessential background information - In the 60’s and 70’s Basingstoke doubled its population as the ‘London Overspill Plan’ relocated twenty five thousand Londoners to the new specially built estates. This created some interesting cultural anomalies, such as making Basingstoke the only Hampshire town with a Pearly King and Queen. It also created tensions. The Shrubbery Girls’ School occupied what is now the QMC site, from the late 1940s until 1972. 12

Bella

‘Well visiting my Aunt then.’

‘How are you ever going to have an Aunt on Popley?’

A short story by Gareth Thomas

‘Well a friend then – it doesn’t matter. We’ll just chance to meet in the street and he’ll say, ‘I remember you from the Number 47 bus’ and I’ll say ‘It must be love!’

Shrubbery Girls’ School, Basingstoke - Autumn 1967 Jennie and Connie later insisted they had meant no harm. They were not ‘having a go’ or trying to make trouble. Most girls believed them. Connie often blurted out things that were not well considered. Anyway she talked so much that she was seldom listened to and never taken seriously. Jennie’s defence was to be universally considered a ‘nice girl’, friendly with everyone, good at games and daughter of the Vicar of Canfield. If she wasn’t actually as ‘nice’ as the reputation she had created for herself, she was too clever by half to get into such serious trouble as this.

The girls collapsed in giggles. Jennie leant conspiratorially towards her friend.

They had been sitting in the cloakroom one wet lunch time talking about boys, teachers, holidays, parents and boys. Who was going out with whom and who fancied who. Jennie was currently in love with a hunk from the Boys’ School she had only ever seen on the bus. She had twice managed to sit close enough to hear his voice which, she told her friend, was ‘deep and sexy’. She also discovered his name was ‘Greg’. To Connie’s dismay Greg had left the bus at the edge of the new council estate. Connie had no choice but to watch him walk away as the bus carried her on into the wilds of Canfield. She had closed her eyes and mouthed the name, ‘Greg’.

‘It’s a vision of hell, according to Daddy. ‘Ugly and frightful’, he said.’

‘One problem with your plan Connie.’ ‘What?’

‘’Popley’s a warren. Daddy says so. All the houses and flats are crammed in on top of each other so there’s hardly room between them. AND they all look the same. You’ll never find your way, let alone your true love. ‘It can’t be that bad.’

The cloakroom was where the girls went when it was wet outside. The parallel rows of iron coat stands each had bench seats at the base. On wet days such as this, when every peg was in use the lines of wet gabardines gave the place a sense of snug steamy security – a dangerously false perception as it turned out. The other side of their row of pegs sat Isabella Ambrisini. Isabella liked to be known as Bella but would fight with anyone who dared call her Izzi. Bella had been at the school for a year now having moved from the Isle of Dogs. Her father was responsible for the Italian heritage although he himself had never been closer to Italy than the ice cream shop in Watford. Her grandfather had been an Italian sailor left stranded in the Port of London in the 1930s when his boat’s cargo was impounded and the crew paid off. He began a new life as a London docker. Bella had inherited his sturdy physique; a fiery temperament and a vocabulary of swear words native to old dockland. The two Hampshire girls turned in genuine surprise as

‘And - I know where he lives now – well roughly.’ ‘Which estate?’ asked Jennie. ‘Popley Four’ ‘Four! How many are they going to build?’ ‘I thought I’d go there on Saturday pretending I was shopping.’ ‘Don’t be silly. No one goes to Popley13

she metamorphosed on their side of the gabardine wall. They had no chance to greet, speak or even draw breath before Bella let rip with a passion for revenge that would not have disgraced the Borgias.

Bella had made her point. Those listening had memorised every word. Replays would be eagerly provided for anyone unfortunate to have missed the original performance. Matters should have ended there. But they didn’t.

‘Let me tell you fukin’ pair a thing or two. You sit there so bloody smug in your pretty country cottages without a care in the world apart from how your fukin’ pony will do in the gymkhana. And you snoot down your posh noses at those of us who have to live in such a ‘frightful’ place as Popley, in such a ‘vison of hell’

Connie stood and started to say something. Maybe she was about to apologise but maybe not. Bella told her to shut up. Connie insisted she would not shut up and took a step towards Bella. Events escalated. Connie jabbed a finger at Bella. Bella grabbed Connie by the hair and sought to bang her head against the wall or coat stand or whatever else might be in reach. Connie was no weakling and knew how to use her nails. The two girls bounced from one coat rail to another whilst the cloakroom cleared. Cries of alarm and fear reached high soprano levels which were heard by the patrolling Miss Skidmore (Domestic Science and Mothercraft) even in the dining room.

At this point Connie tried to protest but Jennie restrained her. It was probably better to let Bella exhaust herself before reasoning or apologising. Unfortunately, Bella had a good head of steam. ‘Well, let me tell you, you self-satisfied friggin’ cows how real people live. In Watford I ‘ad to share a room with my sister and the baby. The room, I might add for your interest, was so damp the paper peeled off the walls. One night a lump of the ceiling fell on me ‘ed in bed. Don’t you fukin’ dare laugh or I’ll scratch your fukin’ eyes out of your bleedin’ ed. The toilet always smelled and when the river was high it over flowed into the bathroom. I would come home from school and try and mop it up as best I could and then we would sit in the middle of the smell and try and eat. Get the picture?’

A small girl ran to alert the staff room. Those famously skilled in the art of restoring order in any emergency were Miss Wellbeck (Geography and long walks) and Miss Bellinger (Religious Studies and stories with a moral). They separated the two girls and told all present to take deep breaths and count to twenty very slowly. Gareth Thomas

The hundred or so girls, huddled in corners around their damp gabardines, had all fallen silent. They soaked in every word, enjoying a strangely pleasant mixture of dismay and excitement. Bella had a captive audience.

‘Now I have a bedroom to myself. The toilet works. My mum’s a happy woman. My sister doesn’t cry all night and the paper stays on the fukin’ wall. So the next time you feel like getting’ all hoity toity about Popley just remember that it might not be thatched, it might not have any roses round the door nor there ain’t any ponies in the garden but it’s a fukin’ sight better than that which some of us had to put up with in Watford. You fukin’ cows!‘ 14

Gareth Thomas

I worked at QMC from its opening in 1972 until 2008. I was at various times responsible for the Drama Department, The Central Studio, Creative and Professional Arts, Education in the Community, Adult Education, Research, Schools Liaison, Fundraising, Marketing, Childcare, Resources and several other things which no one else wanted. During this time I wrote many reports of which I was quite proud but which were seldom read. After retirement I returned to my native Glamorgan with a firm resolve to use whatever time and mental capacity remained, to write things that people would want to read. To date I have published two novels. Both are works of carefully researched historical fiction with high political content. Details are given below. Both are available from any Welsh bookshop, the usual on-line bandits or direct from the publisher. A Welsh Dawn Politics,Life and Love in 1950s Wales ‘A book that should be on everyone’s reading list.’ Angharad Tomos, Planet 'This is an epic novel in every sense of the word. In it I rediscovered parts of myself.’ Lyn Ebenezer, GWales 'Highly entertaining, well-written and a story which really grips the reader.’ Dafydd Wigley, Daily Post More details at www.awelshdawn.co.uk

I, Iolo The poet, revolutionary, drug addict and legendary forger tells his story Also published in a Welsh language translation Myfi, Iolo. ‘A fascinating book about a fascinating person.’ Mary-Ann Constantine, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth ‘Its swift-moving narrative vividly evokes the eventfulness of Iolo’s life and the astonishing breadth of his horizons. This is a compelling and brilliantly crafted novel. ‘ Geraint Phillips , GWales ‘Couldn’t put it down. The story inspired me.’ Dr Dai Lloyd Assembly Member SW Wales Both novels are published by Y Lolfa (0)1970 832 304 ylolfa@ylolfa.com Price £9.99

The Worry Tree 16

The Worry Tree I latched onto this immediately and questioned my daughter about it and how it was used? Who did she use it with? and why hadn’t she shown me before? It turns out that there is a poster of it in all the tutor rooms and it is referred to during one to ones or if anyone is close to a meltdown. She then commented on how her maths teacher needs to look at it more in her opinion.

By Penny Ley “My name is Penny and I teach CTEC Health and Social Care”, sometimes admitting I teach CTEC and just CTEC is a little like admitting I have a problem with something and to be perfectly honest, I often do. Having a timetable which is 100% CTEC involves a lot and I mean A LOT of marking and assessment and what can sometimes feel like a disproportionate amount of students who have star comments. I have worked out a number of strategies for dealing with the marking but I will leave you with that teaser for another article I am planning, but I needed a strategy to help me and my students cope with their work /home life balance and with some them with their star issues (especially the anxious students). Whilst signing off my daughter’s homework diary (yes I am one of ‘those’ mothers) I noticed that in the diary along with weights and measures conversions, uniform rules and IT requirements was this diagram.

So I thought I would give it a go on myself first rather than my students. I started with my pile of marking – which wasn’t really keeping me up at night but was ignoring me. “Was it a current problem?” – Yes Action plan – so I looked at my timetable and my schemes of work and worked out when I could squeeze my marking in. I had scheduled it in. I stopped worrying about it. I have now tried it with my students. We draw up lists (I do love a list), we look at diaries, we put work in order it is due in and they seem to be all the happier for it. I have tried it with their ‘other’ concerns “Penny what if the universities don’t want me?” – “Have you applied?” “Have they all turned you down?” – yes and no are often the answers. When it is out of your control now so LET IT GO. If they get turned down by all their universities then we can do something about it.

“...it is referred to during one-to-ones or if anyone is close to a meltdown.”

It has taken me a long time to let things be and I still struggle at times not to let things I have no control over not impacting me (Trump / Brexit – Deforestation – although I am working on that one) but I do feel better for it. I think that admitting that something is worrying you in the first place is a huge relief and positive step, then taking control of it and doing something about it really does help. I admit that the worry might not go away completely but at least you will have tried. The Worry Tree is pictured opposite

More Impact, Less Marking: Aiming to Improve Assessment and Feedback By Marcus Rutland

Time for a re-think A bit of reflection suggested I was typically setting assignments and tests that had lots of questions covering lots of course content, motivated by a desire to… 

push the students to do plenty of useful work

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improve their understanding and recall of the course content

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increase their experience of answering exam style questions

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give them feedback about areas of strength and weakness

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measure their current level of performance

Setting the Scene Inspirational fact: meta-analysis of educational research consistently shows that effective feedback can have a top-flight impact on learning without requiring expensive resources. Difficult reality: Like all teachers, I have limited time – and marking with ticks & crosses, scores/ grades etc. can already take hours each week. Adding lots of personalised formative feedback on top of this would be unrealistic – and experience tells me that students mostly ignore comments, preferring to scan for what they got right rather than engaging with what didn’t go so well.

All of these things have merit, but trying to achieve them all simultaneously creates tasks that take a lot of time to mark and return a mass of information about what did and didn’t go well. This can mean a significant delay in returning the marked work, and also ‘feedback’ that is largely restricted to ticks and crosses and a few brief comments. I had a belief that there was real value in the students finding out all the things they could and couldn’t do for some topic, but in reality it was overwhelming and didn’t do a good job of revealing how to get better. A bit like trying to improve at football by repeatedly playing whole football matches and receiving a rating for every choice and action – you’d get a sense of how good you currently are, a depressing list of failings, an awareness of a need to get better, but not much sense of how to improve.

Lots of work gets marked, with lots of time and energy consumed, but it often does little more than let me know the same picture over and over. The high performers get repeatedly given things to smile about, the low performers get repeatedly informed that they need to do a lot better, and nothing seems to change.

If giving students useful feedback in response to the kind of tasks I traditionally set them seems to be impractical or ineffective, then the best hope would probably be to design different tasks – ones that make feedback efficient to give and useful to receive. A Few Enlightening Thoughts 1. Some reading and thinking produced ideas that pointed usefully at a different way of thinking about things.

Purpose Accountability: making sure useful ‘learning’ work is being done

Type of Task

Marking Strategy

Low-stakes tasks that help the student to engage with the course content – understanding the ideas deeply, memorising the facts, etc.

A quick flick to verify that a suitable quantity of relevant work has been done.

Formative Feedback: information on how to improve

Low-stakes tasks that require subject content to be recalled, used, communicated etc

Measurement: keeping track of progress

Less frequent, high-stakes tasks which are carefully designed to give a realistic insight into current

Where feasible the student, or their peers, marks the work using provided answers – and the teacher verifies the work has been done. Specific complex elements requiring specialist assessment skills can be ‘marked’ by the teacher with practical advice given about how to improve. Marked by the teacher to produce an accurate score/grade, but without much other feedback (maybe one or two standout issues to work on)

2. A lot of apparent weaknesses are just symptoms of more general issues: The feedback should point at the cause rather than the symptom. These general issues will vary somewhat by subject, but some obvious ones include: 

A lack of time spent on effective strategies for developing a fluent and accurate understanding of the ideas covered.

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A lack of time spent on effective strategies for memorising the facts that need to be easily and accurately retrievable from memory.

 

  

will be true for other facts and theories. Assessing everything as a specific knowledge issue can easily waste a lot of teacher time, and end up masking the underlying issue that actually needs fixing. This would suggest a need to identify which elements of a subject are most fundamental, or problematic in some way, and focus assessment time on those things. Feedback can be linked to the general issues, except where it is clear that a specific problem exists for a student.

3. Useful practice often looks very different to the intended final performance: I find it tempting to Not seeking help with areas of major difficulty think that the best form of practice is exam-style – e.g. attending lunchtime workshops. questions because that’s what the students will be Weakness in a core underlying skill needed assessed on in the long-run. But performance relies for the subject – e.g. number handling, essay on all kinds of component skills and knowledge etc, writing etc. and these things often need to be developed individually to a reasonable level before there is any Not decoding exactly what questions are benefit to practice that incorporates them into a demanding bigger picture. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise Not giving sufficient depth/detail in response to me, having spent countless weekend hours to questions watching my kids playing strange games that look nothing like the sport that they are training for, but Including unhelpful amounts of unnecessary which hone something essential for competence. information This suggests a deep re-think of the tasks I use for ‘assessment’, with the potential for big benefits to both the impact of assessment & feedback and its time -cost. Exam-style questions, whole essays, full mock coursework tasks etc. obviously have a part to play, especially as the final assessment draws near, but the majority of ‘assessed’ tasks along the way can be designed to focus on a small but essential component of

It’s easy to get the feeling as a teacher that every detail of the specification needs assessing in some way in order to give the student the feedback that they need, but in reality there is often nothing particularly unique about elements of course content. If a student has memorised one set of facts, or understood one relatively straightforward theory, it is likely that the same 19

the intended expertise. This makes it much more likely that… 

the task can be peer/self-assessed rather than requiring teacher time



the feedback is clear and not over-whelming

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the experience actually leads to the student taking action to improve

What sort of tasks might be set, and what would the marking and feedback look like? The following are some possibilities. It would be great if people shared other strategies and these were compiled into a shared resource for all to use.

TASK: Review a recent ‘chunk’ of learning to make sense of it, and produce some kind of summary that usefully organises the ideas – e.g. mind map, flowchart, poster, bullet-points MARKING: Work is brought to class and the teacher checks quickly that it is sufficient FEEDBACK: Teacher feedback is limited to whether the necessary effort is being invested, but carrying out the task should be very informative about strengths/weaknesses for the student

TASK: Identify from a recent chunk of learning the basic facts that need to be memorised, and work on memorising them with retrieval practice. The same thing could be done with vocab for a topic etc. MARKING: Do a quick ‘recall’ quiz as a starter or plenary and then peer-mark. Teacher can collect in scores as evidence of effort. FEEDBACK: Limited to whether the necessary effort is being invested / the right strategies are being used.

TASK: Short/structured questions that require skills and knowledge from a recent chunk of learning to be used and communicated in a relatively straightforward way. MARKING: Answers are marked in class using a provided mark scheme in collaboration with peers and teacher. Teacher can do a quick check that sufficient work has been done FEEDBACK: Students get to compare their answers to the ideal, plus individualised help from peers and teacher where relevant.

TASK: Producing a skeleton answer for a ‘big’ question, giving an outline of what would be included in the full answer and how it would be organised. MARKING: Students assess their work collaboratively with peers, using a provided mark scheme or model answer. FEEDBACK: Students could capture areas of weakness using a grid which lists the key elements that make for a successful response to that kind of question.

TASK: A ‘gnarly’ question that focuses on a smallish area of skill/knowledge, answered under test conditions. (Note: Avoid creating a monster that then takes ages to mark!) MARKING: The teacher marks the work (possibly for a representative sample from the class) FEEDBACK: General issues can be highlighted – e.g. using some kind of simple code or a tick-sheet – with a written comment when it is clear there is a specific area of misunderstanding or skill deficit etc. Students make corrections from a model answer provided afterwards.

Putting it into practice For my A’ level Chemistry teaching I decided to implement a rolling weekly pattern of ‘low-stakes’ assessment and feedback, with occasional high-stakes assessments to measure progress. 20

Each weekly cycle focuses on a particular chunk of recent learning and has the following components: Lesson

TASK

ASSESSMENT/FEEDBACK

Homework before the lesson to produce summaries that organise the ideas into a useful form

The ‘products’ are briefly checked by me at a convenient point during the lesson while the students are engaged in a task

Homework before the lesson to memorise the facts that will need to be recalled from memory in exams etc.

A quick quiz in the lesson, with the questions made up on the spot by me and given verbally. Marked immediately by swapping with neighbours. I keep a running total of the scores as evidence of effort.

Homework before the lesson to complete a set of relatively straightforward questions that make use of the knowledge and skills

As a lesson starter, the students mark the work done using a provided mark scheme in collaboration with peers. I check completion and assist with applying the mark scheme etc. as needed.

Homework before the lesson to revise for a somewhat gnarly question on the relevant chunk of learning, answered under test conditions in the lesson.

I read the responses and add a written comment where there is obviously a specific issue. A set of acronyms (known to the students) is used to point out general issues. The students then make corrections from a provided model answer.

All four parts of the cycle can be done during one calendar week, or part 4 – the test question – can overlapped into the following week to produce some additional spacing. A few times a year there will be graded progress assessments that focus on a much bigger chunk and are marked like an exam with ticks, crosses and a overall percentage/grade that lets students know their current performance level. They will get to see model answers to the questions afterwards, but I’m still deciding how much other feedback to give for these tests. My inclination is to keep it to a minimum, on the basis that they’re getting a good flow of other feedback, and would be easily overwhelmed. Experiences and Outcomes: 

Keeping on top of these different elements each week was initially stressful, but this was solved by creating a fixed timetable – i.e. the revision summaries are due in every Monday, and so on.



There is some additional time demand this year getting relevant resources and Firefly tasks set up, but I’m spending a lot less time marking – especially the endless ticking/crossing/scoring that seemed to have little in the way of real impact.



I’ve been able to give focused advice to individual students to a far greater extent than I have in the past, which has been really helpful for the students and satisfying for me as well.



Most of the students are doing a lot more work outside of lessons than my students have done in the past, and are showing greater competence and confidence when ideas are met again.



Students report that the volume of work feels OK as they can see that it is directly contributing to their success, and the weekly structure helps them to stay organised.



It’s abundantly clear that the students who aren’t engaging thoroughly with the weekly work are underperforming as a result, so things like ‘Progress Points’ and ‘PIPs’ have been a piece of cake.

Next Steps: I’m looking into ways of helping the students to capture and use all the feedback more systematically. This could be a folder where the weekly teacher-marked ‘test’ questions would be stored. The folder would have a grid of the overarching skills/strategies etc to log issues on, another grid to record topic specific issues, and then space for relevant actions to be set and monitored (inspired by the good work of the QMC History and Politics teachers) 21

Ideas for self assessment and keeping recall active By Katherine Bejide The Psychology department have found that the more responsibility we place on the students to keep reflecting and critiquing their own levels of knowledge and exam ability, the greater their sense of responsibility and desire to improve. Plus it lessens work load for staff too! I have included some ideas below that adapt to both first and second years, however I have focused this article on second years. Overlap Starters Any starter activity that you have created for first years, also do with your second years. This enables them to keep first year content active, and directed questioning to topics that they have learnt in the second year makes it relevant. For example, how does the topic of memory link to the issues and debates that you are currently discussing in second year? Can you discuss the issue of conformity in the context of gender bias or cultural relativism? Create a star chart and end of term winners get a prize. (Junk food during lesson is always a winner!) Working Walls The walls in the classroom have topic ladders on them. Students are encouraged to use the classroom at lunchtime and pick out topics and test themselves on their general knowledge. They can grab a command verb from the Exam Practice ladder and start to link command verbs to topics. Can they evaluate the topic, or are they simply able to describe it? Are they happy that they know what different command verbs mean? They also use this if they finish work before others so they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just twiddling their thumbs! Retrieval Underground The objective of the task is to try and keep recall active and meaningful for topics that have been learnt a while back but also dig as deep as they can. It was based off the fact that year two students struggle to recall the level of detail needed for top marks. The lines represent topics and students must dig as deep as they can in to a topic. Can they name the overall key topics, the studies, theories and key evaluation points.

Sample Marking and Assessment of Work We have a weekly skills lesson that takes an hour and students spend time analysing, and reflecting on their own work. They have a standard mark scheme that they can measure themselves against, but also if their work is sampled they will get a green, red or blue mark rather than a grade and know where the teacher is placing them as well. We have found the colour mark scheme effective as students don’t fixate on a mark but can link their colour to effort levels and academic ability, 99% of the time the criteria accurately reflects where they are! The teacher can put colours in mark book or planner and it is a key indicator of whose work should appear more when sample marking. There is very little point frequently taking in a student is consistently coming up green. Advice on How to Sample Mark Choose five to take home once you have done feedback and assessment in class time. As the year progresses you will know who needs to be in that sample more frequently than others. Those who are consistently getting green, monitoring of their summative assessments is enough. Allow them the freedom to stretch and challenge themselves and work on key areas The students who are hitting MTG but need a push to get to higher level, take in twice a month. Have one to ones when they give you a piece of homework to highlight where they need to improve. This can be during lesson and takes two minutes. Signpost their objectives and then just monitor progress. These students should form a regular part of your sample.

Regular one to ones and monitor closely

“We have found the colour mark scheme effective as students don’t fixate on a mark but can link their colour to effort levels and academic ability”

Reflections on Observing Teaching and Learning at The Costello School By Kate Need As a member of the Basingstoke Teaching and Learning Development Group, alongside the Deputy Head Teachers from our local secondary schools, I have been fortunate enough to take part in a recent learning walk to observe and feedback on the teaching and learning strategies being implemented by our secondary colleagues. Our first visit was to The Costello School where, much like us, they have been focusing on spacing, interleaving and retrieval techniques to assist learning on the new linear GCSEs. Their Science department in particular is using low stakes retrieval practice tasks at the start of every lesson to overcome the ‘forgetting curve.’ The key learning points I took away from the experience were: 

The importance of involving students in the learning process and sharing learning theory with them e.g. explaining the limitations of ‘short term memory’ using the ‘forgetting curve’ and using terminology such as ‘retrieval practice’ rather than ‘test’ or ‘quiz.’



How essential it is to create an environment where it’s ok to make mistakes and learn why. In a focus group with year 10 students after the learning walk, a student was able to talk confidently about the benefits of regular retrieval practice for her own learning and stated “It’s not that I don’t know it, I just can’t remember it yet!”



The benefits of low stakes, live assessment in class. Students were answering questions and making corrections as they went. The teacher demonstrated workings using the visualiser. Students were recording their retrieval practice results every lesson so they could monitor progress and identify where they needed to focus their revision.



AfL – thermostatic teaching. The teacher used questioning to assess every student and adjust their teaching (e.g. address misconceptions) before moving on.



The need to give time in class to practice assessment e.g. timed tasks. Modelling how to do things and what a positive outcome looks like.



Stressing assessments are a learning process and it’s all about improvement. Allowing time in class to read comments, reflect and fix e.g. closing the loop in the next assessment.

The next school visit is to Cranbourne where they have been focussing on ‘live’ assessment and feedback in class. We will be visiting other Basingstoke schools in 2019 so please let me know if you are interested in joining me. 24

Provided By Jane Bowron

“It really helped with my lesson planning.” 25

How Students Can Access Information Online By Simon Green For research activities, pre-work and consolidation activities I encourage students to access the following websites. How to access newspapers on ProQuest ProQuest is a really useful way of accessing a range of newspaper articles. I send the following steps to students so that they can log in. On Firefly follow this sequence to access from outside of college: 

Resources



Support Departments



Library Services



Online databases



Scroll down to ProQuest



Enter your normal network username (e.g. i12345) and the password you use to login in to the computers at College.



Or follow the direct link: https://qmc.fireflycloud.net/library-services/online-databases-1

How to access television and radio programmes on Learning on Screen

BoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education. The system allows staff and students at to record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels, and search the extensive archive for relevant programmes. You can create playlists and clips of relevant material.

Students can access this resource by visiting the website https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand and following these steps: 

Select Queen Mary's College and press ‘Go’



Enter your normal network username (e.g. i12345) and password you use to login into the computers at College.

My Interview Experience at Ravensbourne University By Amy Davies (Student) When I applied to Ravensbourne I did not expect to be even considered for an interview as they are a specialist university offering places to only 20% of students that apply. A few weeks after applying, I received an email from their film production department, inviting me for an interview on the 27th of November at 11:20. I was shocked and overjoyed, but also terrified, realising that interviews weren’t just a casual chat between friends. To prepare for my interview I created a variety of different work for my portfolio, including a shwreel and a print portfolio. I took these with me on the day, along with my laptop and unit 10 filmmaking folder containing my pre-production work. I stepped onto the Jubilee line tube in London, full of nerves and sick with anticipation. It was a 6 stop journey to North Greenwich where Ravensbourne is, meaning I had time to worry and panic all the way there. As I walked out of the tube station and towards the university, I felt the reality of the situation setting in. I walked through the doors to Ravensbourne and was greeted by an admin official at the reception desk to sign in, luckily 20 minutes early. I signed in and received a lanyard that gave me access to the entire building. Independently, I crossed through the barriers and took the lift up to the 4th floor like I was told to and from there I walked to another sign in desk specifically for the Digital Film Production degree course. The nice lady identified me and assigned me to a first year student to chat to while I waited for the interview to start.

I sat and chatted to a student similar to my age who had just begun his first year at Ravensbourne University. He talked to me about how he loved the course, university and surrounding areas of London; and answered any questions I may have had about the interview process while I waited. This really helped to settle my nerves and realise it wasn’t going to be as scary as I thought. After about 10-15 minutes, the director of the film department came over to greet me. He took me over to an isolated booth and to begin my interview. He began by asking me a few question on my personal statement, of which I felt quite comfortably answering because I knew my statement quite well. Then, he asked me some harder questions. Firstly, he asked me why I would like to study at Ravensbourne and what drew me to London. I said that I wanted to join the lively film scene that London provided, and also was very impressed by Ravensbourne’s facilities and campus. Also he asked if he gave me £1 million what would I create. To this I answered that I would want to make something to spread awareness of a message but also be entertaining, so that it would make audiences think. Once I had answered all of his questions he said that he was happy to offer me the position at Ravensbourne as my application showed that I was a very suitable candidate, and he hadn’t even seen my portfolio! Obviously he wanted to look after he had given me the offer, out of curiosity. He watched my show reel and was happy with the standard of creativity and variety it expressed; so happy in fact that he lowered my conditional grades so that I would be ensured a place on the course. After this I shook his hand and said goodbye, feeling incredibly positive and ready to fulfil my ambitions; I left the building feeling determined and complete, ready for September 2019.

What on earth does that mean? By Rob Cavill

I’ve found the six steps below to be an effective approach teaching terminology which I use for some of the more challenging terms students come across. Step one

There’s a well known story about John Lennon asking George Martin if his guitar could sound a little more orange in the mix. Whilst we can make a good guess at what we think he meant i.e. changing the frequencies present in the tone of his guitar sound, we don’t really know what he was actually wanting (and possibly he didn’t know either!). Music is littered with everyday terminology in an attempt to describe the intangible, just look at these music genres - Heavy Metal, Soft Rock, Blues, Space Rock, Grime, Bouncy Techno.

Step two

Step three

Students restate or explain the new word in their own words (verbally and/or in writing).

Ask students to create a non-linguistic representation of the word (a picture, or symbolic representation).

four

Students engage in activities to deepen their knowledge of the new word (compare words, classify terms, write their own analogies and metaphors).

Step

Students discuss the new word (pair-share,

five

elbow partners).

Step

Students periodically play games to review new vocabulary (Pyramid, Jeopardy, Telephone).

Step

It can be interesting to hear how other people try and describe the sound that they hear, or want to hear, and can be particularly problematic with people who work producing Film and TV. They often talk to music composers using synonyms and antonyms at the same time - “I want the music to be aggressive in this scene whilst at the same time showing a peaceful side of the character”. Aggressive - check!, Peaceful check! Aggressively peaceful music - hmmm...it’s difficulties like this which make the work of the composer doubly difficult and becomes more about trying to understand what another person means, when they can’t really put it into words.

The teacher explains a new word, going beyond reciting its definition (tap into prior knowledge of students, use imagery).

six

Whilst not particularly groundbreaking, it allows the students time for the key term to become familiar to them and I’ve found step three to be the most enlightening into how different students process new terms. I have even taken some of their pictures and used them for next year’s teaching materials. If I’m describing a muddy mix, a bright guitar, a boxy snare drum or a flabby bass (yes this is a commonly used term!) the students need to make their own sense out of it first, but being able to effectively communicate sound with other creative people is vital for their success.

Teaching appropriate terminology and how to convey something that others ‘get’, is a challenge for every subject teacher. Strategies such as making flash cards, hangman games, word searches, rhythmic repetition, online sources and modelling will all help students learn the new words.

I’m off to make my Vocal recording more mauve to fit in with my tinkly Piano and clanky Sax!

A Case for Google Cast for Education By Ali Kanji Google cast is a free Chrome app/ extension that allows students and teachers to share their screen wirelessly from anywhere in the classroom without the need for any new hardware. Since we already are subscribed to Google Education Suite i.e. make use of products offered by Google such as student email Google Classroom, Chrome etc., this tutorial endeavours to make a case for a fantastic feature that makes providing live feedback extremely easy. Here are some of the uses of Google Cast for Chrome we can take advantage of here at QMC.

Google Cast can allow teachers to access work of students who are located at those hard to reach areas of the classroom without actually physically visiting them.

Google Cast will soon be made available to everyone in college. James Godfrey is currently looking into this as we speak. I am also requesting other apps and extensions to be made available which should further help to reduce the workload.

Please have a go at Google Cast once it is made available and let me know what your thoughts are by clicking on the following link. I look forward to hearing about your experiences of using this feature. ď&#x201A;ˇ

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ ResponsePage.aspx? id=qPSEeXqAS0iNpbLoGO0SYZkDQqO4CtEk3z4WzPeYSFUMlJVRTNJNTMzQ lNMRzlRSFVVRTRSR0xIRS4u

Anything that a student has on their screen can easily be displayed on the main classroom screen with the permission of the If you would like to find out more please visit the teacher as long as the teacher is using following link, https://support.google.com/edu/ Google Chrome. castforedu/?hl=en

This could be useful during some collective research task allocated to students either on their own devices, mobile phones, laptops or college computers. Situations where the teacher has to provide feedback to students based on their individual or collective work. Students or groups can send whatever is on their screen to teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s machine just with the click of a button. This could lead to students adding in their thoughts to the answer and improve the answer based on live feedback provided by the teacher. Google Cast could be very useful during class debates and discussions where students have more than one way of contributing to the debate.

Hello Smart! By Sarah Pithers A few of my friends who teach in other colleges had recommended that I give the smart tech software a go! This has been a great tool to encourage student engagement and whole class participation in class. I have experimented with a few activities, but my favourite so far is ‘Shout it out’. Once you have created an account you are given a personalised class pin. This is what the students need to enter when they go to hellosmart.com and it will also ask for their name. This allows them to join the class and take part in the activities you have created. ‘Shout it out’ enables the students to type ideas they have from a verbal question from the teacher and submit them. The submitted ideas then appear on your smartboard and computer screen with the students’ names attached to their individual answers. Students can put their responses into categories too. It’s an easy way for them to share their ideas and also see each other’s. As their names are attached to each response they give, it is easy to carry out directed questioning to encourage the students to further develop their answers. Click the green + button to create an activity

Click ‘start with an activity’

Explore the activities to create for your class

Shout it Out: the students can submit answers and select categories for them to go in, these will then appear on the board and your computer screen For this Shout it Out I asked the students to type words associated with divorce in these two time periods:

How to get started: Go to: https://classlab.com/connection/check.html to check if your PC is compatible and passes all of the tests. Secondly, you will need to create an account from this page. Set up your account by clicking Microsoft account and using your QMC email address and password. Go to: https://suite.smarttech.com/login The website above is the link you need to log into your account every time you want to use the programme to create resources or use the resources you have created with your students A big thank you to Lewis Gregory for helping me to set this up, I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have known where to start without his help and guidance :-) 31

Frantic Assembly

The workshops were led by two of the company Simon Pittman and David Gilbert. Students developed skills such as:

By Steve Gallagher



As Teachers and Performing Arts practitioners, we are always working on developing students’ metacognitive skills. Through studying a Performing Arts subject, students often explore a process of learning and learn more about a subject in its own right (music/drama/dance/music tech). The ability of the Performing Arts to enable students to inspire, create and explore is infinite. Learning is a journey and a student’s path is less predictable that we might like at times. It’s important to make time to listen. Students learn from working in collaboration with other students, enabling them to find a voice and express their creativity and ideas. They learn from exploration, failure, success, more failure and hopefully more success! They are encouraged to fail interestingly and succeed interestingly. They learn how to improve themselves from observing, watching and listening. They learn from the world around them, from each other and from their teachers.

     

listening concentration team working negotiating communication determination creativity

It was refreshing to hear the workshop leaders skilfully engage with the students and avoid negative or discouraging language. As we know, students often respond with a high level of engagement when they work with outside companies in Performing Arts, absorbing everything they say like sponges. This was no exception and all the students fully participated and threw themselves in to some strenuous and demanding work. They had a real life experience of what it was like to be an actor in a rehearsal room (albeit for one day). They spent the workshops exploring how to create meaning through movement and developing the qualities movements has. The leaders instantly commanded respect through the way they spoke to the students, encouraging them to realise that both the leaders and the students were on a learning journey together. It reinforced our views of the importance of language and questioning in the learning process. Instead of asking questions such as, ‘Has anyone got any questions?’ They used encouraging language, such as, ‘Who has some questions?’ rather a subtle difference but one that promotes and encourages contributions.

We stop and discuss our process of learning and the journey we are on with students at regular intervals, always focusing on how we can get better. Through challenging and demanding work we encourage students to take risks, to experiment and to get in a mess. Through experiencing being in a mess, they have to find a way out and develop skills and strategies to improve and solve problems. During Deep Dive week, Drama and Performing Arts students had the opportunity to participate in workshops with the renowned Theatre Company, Frantic Assembly, (their recent work includes The Unreturning, Things I know to be True and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time).

The students explored their creativity by considering:    

How much their experience is central to their learning How to make sense of their own identity and dialogue with others How to listen to each other and respond to counter narratives How to stimulate debate and change

They were prompted to stop and reflect: 

   

Your natural reaction is to X and that’s alright, but what can we do to make it better? What did you notice? What did you do? Who found it easy/harder? What were you concentrating on?

With the leaders providing useful nudges/ developmental ideas at just the right time 

While you do X I might just come round and suggest Y to you

The students used maths to choreograph and sequences of numbers to match movements, and they explored their use of rhythm and tempo. They also explored their assumptions and presumptions about the work they were creating and the conclusions they were reaching. The leaders encouraged the students to explore things from different perspectives. The students- in the middle of a mess- frequently tweaked their work and discovered how to create new meanings through their movements. But most of all they had fun learning!

The Assessment Folder or ‘How to get Better’ Booklet



Targets log 

By Michael Rogers 

The purpose of this folder is to help student organise together all of the important items relating to the various types of assessment with a particular focus on assessment for learning. It contains: 



The basic details of each question  Where it appears in the exam, timings, marks, choices and potential formats



Your technique advice and class feedback notes 



Step-by-step guidance on how to plan the write each type of question

A place for the notes they take from the all-class feedback and tips given after an assessment

Collection of their essays and the feedback from them 

If a student makes the same mistake more than twice than it goes in here in block capitals (or their own blood, sweat and/or tears I say in jest)

Sample practice questions 

The ‘how to’ technique advice 

‘Burn book’ of things NOT to do (common mistakes) 



Students are told, in class, to write up the strengths and targets from their assessment; putting my feedback into their own words. For future assignments they consult their previous targets before they start it.

Saves them having to go to the boards’ website; increases the likelihood of getting some practice essays from them in my experience.

Things I intend to do to improve this resource is add a ‘translated’ mark scheme (accessible to students) perhaps some model answers and, next year, I will to keep them in the classroom for most occasions because the slightly more hapless students forget to bring them despite reminders.

They slide each essay into the appropriate section. This tries to If you would like a digital copy, feel free to avoid the trend of students email me michael.rogers@qmc.ac.uk glancing at the grade/mark then discarding the essay to a random location never to be seen again

What makes you feel good? By Sally-Anne Spooner Mental wellbeing has been a popular topic of conversation in recent years and I was asked to put an article together for this edition of Talking Learning. I reflected on this particular time of year, which for many conjures up many memories and nostalgia of celebrations past and for some sad memories of loved ones lost and missed at this busy run up to Christmas. So with that in mind (excuse the pun) I thought it was a good opportunity to explore self-care. The term Self-Care kept popping up on Facebook and years ago I wrongly assumed it meant eating sensibly and exercising. It occurred to me more recently that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an exceptionally important term and one which needs more discussion and application both at work and at home. Everyone is different and because of that we will all respond differently to external stressors which present at any given time. How a person responds is individual to them, how they feel at the time, their personal frame of reference (upbringing), own values and life experiences. One thing is for sure: after an event or experience presents itself, you will soon know when you are not feeling like your usual self. Now I am certainly no expert on exercise (my endorphins are generally released from consuming chocolate), but I am aware of the various tools that people deploy to help them with the stresses and strains of everyday life. Over the years when speaking with colleagues, friends and family, they have identified different tools to help them after experiencing difficult situations, whether they are sustained times of pressure or one off difficult occurrences. Talking Therapy Counselling is one example of a talking therapy. Here at College we use Basingstoke Counselling Service which is available to all staff. This is an opportunity to help you explore what is going

on and where your emotions may be coming from. Often people report that they have appreciated being listened to in a non-judgemental way and that they can talk through strategies to help them manage their feelings. Holistic Remedies There is range of treatments from Reflexology to Hopi Ear Candling. These are worth considering as often strong emotions bring out physiological symptoms, such as tight shoulders, feeling run down, general aches and pains etc. Treatments such as massage, undertaken regularly can help with relaxation. Reflexology has been known to put the body back into balance and users have reported an increased feeling of wellbeing afterwards. Hopi Ear Candling has helped clear sinuses and relieve pressure in in the ears nose and throat. Medicines Aside from a whole host of pills that the doctor can prescribe there are long-standing natural remedies available too. Some of you will heard of Rescue Remedy and St Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wort but on further investigation, there are well trained individuals in places such as Holland and Barratt who can help on hearing about different symptoms with which natural remedies can assist. Exercise I wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say too much on this as we have a whole host of resident experts! What I will say is that whilst some people enjoy running and using the gym others have enjoyed lower impact exercises such as Yoga and swimming. We have lots options of available onsite, including a newly refurbished swimming pool; please speak to the Sports Centre about how you make the most of your free membership. The Great Outdoors Many people have noted the value of spending time outdoors, whether it is partaking in gardening, walking or sight-seeing. There are many studies on the restorative and rehabilitation success of gardening for post-operative patients and I am aware of many inner city campaigns for more green and open spaces. 36

Volunteering There is something about being part a community group or interest; those of you that play in bands, volunteer for the local church etc. will know only too well the rewards involved. Why not have a chat with someone you know who volunteers and see what their experience has been, why they volunteered and what benefits they have felt. Mindfulness This concept is very trendy and it’s very topical at present. In fact the practice has been around since the dawn of time and practised by many. It’s simply forming the habit of being in the present, in the now so to speak; it comes from practising meditation and finding space in your mind to clear your thoughts. There are Mindfulness workshops currently running on Saturdays in Oakley. Hobbies

Along with gardening and playing a musical instrument many individuals report satisfaction in finding peace in their hobbies. We have a wonderful collection of hobbies amongst our colleagues, so perhaps see if you can join in an activity with a friend. Entertainment Attending the theatre, cinema or concerts provide an opportunity to have a break away from the everyday and lose yourself in the magic of the performance. At QMC we are very blessed to have our own in-house productions from Performing Arts and Music. (In addition Val organises group bookings and discounts, for theatre). I also understand that Vue cinema in town has discounted tickets on a Monday. Ali has often spoken about Action for Happiness and they have lots of resources on their website, in fact they have a rather inspiring advent calendar too, http://www.actionforhappiness.org/kindnesscalendar They are running their own eight week course based on the principles of happiness they have collectively identified. Please see the ten keys for happier living opposite. I appreciate some of you took the time to read this and perhaps thought ‘I already know all this;’ my purpose is simply to remind you all to take some time for yourselves during this busy festive period.

If you find that you have a feeling of impending doom (aside from Ofsted) or ongoing negative thoughts, or that you find you can’t shake an ordinarily low mood, please remember you can talk to us about it. You can see your GP or contact a range of experts in mental health. As a child of the eighties I remember the lovely Bob Hoskins telling me it was ‘good to talk,’ well it certainly is. Please find me if you want to chat. Merry Christmas, Sally-Anne Spooner, HR Director. 37

Geography Twitter Feed By Caroline Orange I would love all my students to spend an hour a day reading the newspapers, as Geography is out there, happening right now and many interesting bits from the A level syllabus are reported in the news…Palu Earthquake 2018, High street stores closing down, US trade tariffs with China, the Arctic being used as a shipping route to name a few. But my students don’t! So, to make it super easy for them, I have set up a Twitter feed with the aim of it being exclusive to QMC students where I have selected the key stories each day and linked it directly to their course topic for them to browse and read. This breadth of knowledge is essential for the A grade students plus it gives them knowledge for interviews, career ideas and opportunities, plus chat around the dinner table. Feel free to have a look at @QMCGeog or on Firefly Geography home page. But still only 1 or 2 students read this (apparently Twitter is too old fashioned) and I only have 23 followers out of a cohort of 100. So each half term or so I compile the news stories into a ‘Geography In The News’ quiz booklet for them to answer questions – some are set as compulsory for homework, the others are optional…a few do this. But, my challenge is for ALL students to do this and to engage with the world outside, linking their subject knowledge to real life situations so it is still work in progress. Perhaps someone can help me please…? Advise me to use a social media tool that will entice my students more or a way to simplify the process above. Your ideas would be very welcomed – thank you.

Geography Fieldtrips This term our first years have been out and about with geography. Their first fieldtrip was to the coast – to Barton-on-Sea and Highcliffe to study the impact of sea defences on the coastline. Below are some photos of the trip:

Another opportunity arose during Deep Dive week so we sent the students out into the centre of Basingstoke to ask questionnaires, visit the Willis Museum, complete land use maps, and complete environmental assessments look at the identity of Basingstoke and to see whether it has changed over time and how it varies across different areas of town to support out topic of Changing Places.

More fieldtrips are planned next year to Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays and the City Centre, a river in the New Forest, Hartley Wintney village and to Studland Bay. Some students will also visit Southampton Docks linked with the topic of the Global Governance of the Oceans. An international trip to Iceland is also in the pipeline for July 2019. Thank you to the support staff who accompany us. We enjoy taking the students outside and feel that they do benefit from investigating topics themselves, having to self-manage and to work in teams (often in horrible climatic conditions!). In their second year they undertake their own Independent Investigation worth 20% of their A level, requiring them to collect their own Primary Data, so we are providing them with the necessary fieldwork skills ready for that. 39

Examples of Student Voice Feedback By Mark Henderson

How would you describe QMC to a friend? It’s a good place to grow if you use your time wisely & effectively. It prepares you for real life, through the diverse people all aiming for different things in life.

Lovely environment. Very supportive.

Very good but stricter than I was led to believe e.g. texts home – but very supportive. Really friendly with a great atmosphere. The careers support across my subjects has been really good. I feel I can be myself.

It’s a place that consider your future and is very friendly..

A working environment that makes you feel comfortable, but you are expected to work hard.

A diverse and friendly College for all abilities. It cares for wellbeing as well as grades.

What aspects of your lessons help you learn most? When we pick ideas apart or expand a Whatcomplex aspects of concept your lessons help you learn most? in more detail.

When we pick ideas apart or expand a complex concept in more detail.

Receiving productive feedback on my essays that help me learn from my mistakes.

Regularly recapping past topics. Receiving productive feedback on my essays Mind Maps! Using feedback notes thattohelp me learn from my mistakes. improve exam Regularly recapping pastanswers. topics. Mind Maps! Using feedback notes to improve exam answers.

Enthusiastic teachers that are good at pointing out mistakes and how to avoid Enthusiastic teachers that are good at pointing how to avoid them.. Questioning that helps you get to out mistakes and them. the solution Questioning that helps you get to the solution

During lessons lessons do toto make mistakes, or show you you don’tdon’t knowknow something – can you giveyou an During do you youfeel feelititisisokay okay make mistakes, or show something – can example? give an example? I do. Mistakes allow teachers to carve out the right solutions . This helps it stick in our brains. It’s a win/win scenario.

Some lessons are okay, however, others make me feel bad and knocks my confidence. I come away feeling stupid.

Yes. Mistakes make it easier to remember the correct answer. Like in English, if you suggest something and it’s wrong – you’re put on the right path.

Generally okay; however, in one subject I sometimes feel pressure when making mistakes as my teacher can make it feel like a negative thing rather than a way to grow.

When performing I’m constantly getting things wrong. This is when I learn the most!

For example, glossary quizzes in History, you’re encouraged to speak out. If you get it wrong, you’re not dragged down, just informed of what’s right.

Evidence-Informed Ideas Every Teacher Should Know About By Tom Sherrington I love the idea of ‘evidence-informed wisdom’. I honestly can’t remember where I first encountered this but, essentially, it’s the idea that, as teachers we are faced with making hundreds of decisions a day – largely about how to question, how to motivate and how to adjust explanations, feedback, and the pace and depth of learning sequences. To do this well, our best hope is that our decisions are well-informed by wisdom – the wisdom gained over years of experience combined with ideas from our training and from our engagement with the body of knowledge that is out there about learning theories, our subjects and the general principles of good teaching practice. The better-informed we are, the more wisdom we accrue and the better our decisions are likely to be. There is a LOT to absorb but I’m finding that there are a few key ideas that resonate particularly strongly with me on my travels. This is not an exhaustive list by any means – before you all tell me the things I’ve missed off – but it is a list that might help cut to the chase, especially if you are just getting started with research engagement and the world of cognitive science. Rather than attribute each idea, I’ll admit that the true original sources are sometimes quite difficult to pin down to specific documents as people cite other citations and so on. I’ve only done this when it is obvious to me and I’ll happily add further links if people point me in the right direction. However, you will find nearly all of this referenced in the documents in my collection on my website. From the papers in that collection, I might just highlight three key resources for anyone wanting to get stuck in:   

Rosenshine paper ‘Principles of Instruction’ Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel T Willingham Psychology by David Didau and Nick Rose.

So, here are some key evidence-informed ideas:

Learning is about knowledge in long-term memory, not immediate performance Implication: Teach for the long-term; make it your explicit intention that whatever knowledge, skills and understanding (aka ‘knowledge’) you are teaching, students should be able to demonstrate that they’ve learned it at some point in the future – not just immediately. This means you’ll need to check back later – with all of them. It means you also need to teach them how to remember things and practise things without leaving it to chance Memory is strengthened by retrieval practice. Implication: Learning does not miraculously ‘sink in’. It’s essential to use and to teach retrieval methods routinely: low stakes quizzing, key practice routines, mental rehearsal methods, well designed assessment regimes that support the accumulation of knowledge over time – and strategies for revision that replace weak ideas like ‘going over your notes’ with self-quizzing and elaboration. Learning builds in schemas; knowledge allows you to accrue more knowledge; you can’t build a house without foundations. Implications: Firstly – you can’t have too much knowledge; it all helps; it’s all good. Secondly, you need to invest heavily in building secure foundations, checking students’ prior knowledge and activating it before giving them more. Weak schemas usually explain common misconceptions – so anticipate them and tackle them head on rather than waiting to see if they form. Finally, you need to go back to the basics if that is where your students are at. Direct instruction is most important with novice learners, especially those with weak prior knowledge and low confidence. Implication: Take care to plan instructional sequences so that key ideas are explored very directly, deliberately and carefully, avoiding overload or under-guided learning that allows misconceptions or fixed mindsets to take root through repeated confusion. Use lots of modelling and checking for understanding before moving to a guided practice phase; scaffold the support taking account of students’ emerging confidence with the material. Deep-end problems need care – students are unlikely to work out complex ideas for themselves unless they have secure prior knowledge at the right level. 42

We remember what we think about – memory Learning is most effective when cognitive load is is the residue of thought. (Willingham) optimised. Implication: Plan lessons so that students will spend maximum time thinking about the specific learning at hand – not extraneous material, distracting productmaking activities or excessive additional references or additional layers of complexity. E.g. if you want students to gain fluency with a word, they should use it, practice saying it, writing it, organising it amongst others – not, say, paint a picture that might be related to the word. They will remember what they do and think about. You don’t want them to remember how to paint if confidence in using a word is what you’re after. Science theory and practical work each have an important role – but don’t do one if you want students to learn the other; they will learn the one they think about the most at any given time.

Implication: Plan learning sequences carefully so that concepts flow well, building steadily and cumulatively, allowing students to secure confidence through modelling and practice of each step rather than a whole sequence -eg with multi-stage problems in maths. Also notice when students are beginning to develop some fluency so that you do not then overload them with extraneous support – let them use the expertise they’ve developed. Guide practice, but not too much. Also, strip out unnecessary layers of distraction – visual noise, actual noise, filler material. Learning Styles are bunkum Implication: Don’t ever teach in a way that might help ‘visual learners’ or any such equivalent for kinaesthetic or auditory learners. This is a false premise. Teach everyone according to the needs of the material at hand, not the expressed preferences of learners, if they have them. It’s a dead duck, false, wrong, misguided. Call it out wherever you find it.

Bloom’s Taxonomy was never a triangle with ‘regurgitating facts’ at the bottom and ‘creativity’ at the Responsive teaching – a two-way interactive top.

process – is essential: more effective teachers ask more questions to more students, in more depth, checking for understanding, involving all learners. (Wiliam, Nuthall, Rosenshine) Implication: As you can’t see learning, you need to be constantly seeking feedback to you from your students about the extent of their understanding. This means asking lots of questions to multiple students, with probing exchanges to establish what they’ve learned and how well you’ve been teaching them. One student’s response is never going to be enough – at least, that’s a huge and risky assumption. Avoid the classic pitfall of rhetorical questions like ‘is everyone ok with that?’

The optimal success rate for learning is high but not 100%: successful learning stems from early success; growth mindsets are reinforced by success through effort, not constant failure – and not a constant false confidence through under-challenge. Implication: Aim for 80% success rate. You need to adjust your teaching to build confidence if a student’s success rate is too low or increase the challenge if they are getting everything right. If a student is struggling, getting bogged down, go back to getting them to practise things they can already do and then try to move on building on confidence, not simply battering away with things they can’t do.

Implication: Never teach in a way that relegates knowing things to the bottom of the pile, placing creativity and ‘synthesis’ at the top, or get overly bogged down in ideas about ‘higher order thinking skills’ as if they are separate from knowing things. They aren’t. Re-think your sense of Bloom’s taxonomy to view knowledge that is the foundation of all else – and knowing things for the sake of it is good. Because there is always a sake and knowing things never stifles creativity; one fuels the other.

Cooperative learning or group work can be extremely effective – but most often it is not because of how it is done. (Slavin) Implication: Don’t do group work for the sake of it or lazily without taking account of the conditions in which it is effective; group work is not inherently a good idea or a bad idea; it depends on what you want students to learn and how well you organise the groups. In general, students only achieve well in groups if their collective success requires each individual to be successful (so they have to help and challenge each other) and they all have a clear role. Without those stipulations, you are likely to get outcomes worse than if they worked individually. Also stick to smaller groups (pairs and 3s) because it is increasingly hard to deliver on the group accountability and roles the more students are in the group.

More articles can be found on Tom Sherrington’s website: https://teacherhead.com/

The S.U.N. By Lucy Poynter QMC has a diverse student population from a wide range of geographical areas, cultures and ethnicities and, as such, attitudes to higher education can differ hugely. The Office for Students (OFS) have identified cohorts of young people who statistically are far less likely to continue in education or training when they leave school and college. This can is due to a variety of reasons such as financial commitments, inherited attitudes towards HE, family commitments and sometimes just the assumption that HE is ‘not for them’. The Southern Universities Network is leading a project aimed at raising the aspirations of these young people and offering a more equal access to HE by overcoming these barriers. The National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) is undertaking outreach activity in geographical areas (target wards) where the HE participation of young people is both low overall, and much lower than expected based on GCSE-level attainment. The programme aims to support the Government’s goals to: 

 

As a college we have been tasked with developing opportunities for these target wards with a budget toward such activities. We have recently funded a trip to TEDx talks at Southampton University, two residential trips in the summer to experience university life and we are soon to host a motivational speaker in Central Studio. Activities and resources have also been extended to some local secondary schools and we are currently working with year 11 students to help them to understand the options available to them and encourage widening participation in post 16 education or training. We have some subject specific projects in the pipeline but I would be interested to hear from departments about any other events that may benefit their learners within the NCOP cohort. I can help to arrange university open day visits, subject specific workshops and offer funding to cover the NCOP learners for such activities. Equally, if you are running events/trips that may not be financially viable for some NCOP learners, please do get in touch to see if it is something I could help with. The year 12 and 13 NCOP learners are available as a list on Vista under Tools>Manage Groups.

double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE by 2020 increase by 20% the number of students in HE from ethnic minority groups address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE

The measures of overall success will be young people progressing to any course of prescribed HE, whatever the mode of study (HND, HNC, foundation degree, undergraduate degree).

TEDx talks By Tanya Mulfiri The theme of the TED talk was explore- inspiring youth to ‘climb your mountain.’ There were a variety of different speakers from different areas, backgrounds and age ranges talking to us about their experience and how we can push our own limits. A few of the speakers were:

gender roles of society enforce a specific role and stereotype upon women and men. Her main idea was that no matter what our gender, we should like what we want aspire to any career and be equal. Marcellus Baz:

Marcellus is a motivational speaker who’s main point was about the people we allow into our lives to influence us. As a young boy, Marcellus was involved in gang related activity with other dangerous teens and bad influences that led him to drop out of school with no qualifications. However when hiding from the Alex Blower: police in a gym he stumbled upon the boxing room which changed his life. In the ring, he was inspired to Alex is a PhD researcher of education and change his life for the better and become a pro boxer inequality. His talk was about his view of as he was surrounded by people who supported him. exploration not just being the stereotypical big After leaving the gang and becoming more career adventure; how it can be done at home . As a focused, he was stabbed by some ex rivals, the young child he was very introverted and was damages meant that he couldn’t continue to be a diagnosed with separation anxiety after a family boxer but it made him realise who his true friends member of his attempted suicide. This anxiety caused him to miss a significant amount of time in are and how important you circle is. His new circle of school, which led to him misbehaving in order to friends motivated him to pursue a career and education. With no GCSEs it was hard but he got in make friends. Despite all of this, in a chemistry lesson when arguing with a teacher, Alex realised to college and finished with one of the highest grades in his class. Marcellus went on to be internationally his passion for communication, arguing and why the world is unfair. Alex went on to get a degree recognised and get many awards. His ending point was to look at our circle and surround ourselves in drama, work in a homeless youth hostel as a support worker, become an outreach officer in a with positive people that empower, guide and motivate you. university and getting his PhD. He ended with saying that we all have gifts, despite whether they are ‘legitimate’ or not and that we should all use Overall the experience was very positive, enlightening and motivating. It was also an our individual gifts. opportunity to make friends with people that you Anna Hester Skelton: wouldn’t usually interact with at college. The TED Anna is a musician. Her talk was about creativity talk taught that we should all Climb our mountain and strive for our best. and broadening our ideas. She spoke about her personal journey of creativity and how we should all try to be creative. Initially, Anna wanted to be a fashion designer however as she realised how difficult it is to work a sewing machine, her passions changed. She discussed how we should collaborate and socialise with each other to share our creativity and how even if we think that creativity ‘isn’t for us’ we should try it as she did with exercise and it grew to be one of her passions alongside music. To end, Anna sang one of her songs Yael-Louise Deckel: Yael is a 13 year old girl who spoke about gender equality and Feminism. She spoke about how 45

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We spent five unforgettable days taking in the beautiful sights of Venice. We saw art galleries, museums, cathedrals and architecture that gave us inspiration for our future art projects. We also had time to develop our creativity by exploring the city independently and wholeheartedly thank the staff who organised it.â&#x20AC;? Tanika Gill and Anna Pink (Students) Venice 2018 46

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