More, Issue 1, Autumn 2022

on Teaching and Learning

Contributors

Meenal Confino

Assistant Headteacher (Data) Powerful Assessment

Simone Ruggiero

Assistant Headteacher (Careers and character)

Joining the Conversation: Scholarship in the Curriculum

Clare Dunne

Deputy Headteacher (Quality of Education) Effective Retrieval

Annabel Daniels

Literacy Coordinator ‘Scaffolding’ how broadening the term narrows learning

Winnie Greer

Senior Leader

(Catholic Life) Catholic Social Teaching through the Curriculum

Welcome back

After a long hiatus, I am delighted that our teaching and learning journal, More, is back, and reimagined with a bolder, brighter magazine format, with more articles, book reviews, and practical ideas and resources for the classroom.

The teaching landscape has been transformed in the last few years.

Cognitive science has become dominant in the British educational discourse, and retrieval, chunking, dual coding, cognitive overload theory, metacognition, elaboration, spacing and interleaving have all entered the common pedagogical lexicon, and are heavily referenced in the reformed ITT and ECT training frameworks.

It is therefore appropriate that we open with a summation of Clare’s fantastic twilight CPD this term on retrieval. Meenal discusses assessment and urges us to think harder about what we are assessing and why, and places it within a triad of curriculum intent, pupil involvement and feedback.

Social media has increasingly become a powerful platform for teachers and my article brings together voices from Edutwitter to outline practical strategies to get students to think harder about challenging academic texts, as a means to increase stretch and challenge, build students’ hinterland knowledge and cultural capital.

Annabel reflects on the difference between scaffolding as a tool and as a genuine thinking strategy, and argues the importance of the latter.

The new Diocese Inspection Framework also provides an opportunity for us to reflect on how we can better link the Catholic Social Teaching within the curriculum, which is the focus of Winnie’s article and builds on work she is leading with the STM Catholic Life Group and previous CPD.

Whatever stage of your career you are at, I hope these pages prompts some discussion within your departments and some personal reflection on our own practice, and perhaps, may inspire you to contribute to our next edition!

Powerful Assessment

The word assessment comes from the Latin root ‘assidere’ meaning to sit beside presumably to draw conclusions about one’s learning ​Although the idea of assessing someone's learning is not a novel one, the approach to assessment has been radicalised.

In 1998, Black and Wiliam published their work on assessment, ‘Inside the Black Box’. They compared a classroom to a black box, where inputs such as pupils, teachers, and resources were fed in, and components such as knowledge and better results were seen as outputs. There was little to no clarity on what happened inside the box. Wiliam stated that if standards in the field of learning were to be raised, it was important to identify which inputs had the greatest impact on pupil learning. They focused on one aspect of teaching; assessment. Black and Wiliam defined assessments as all activities completed by both teachers and pupils in assessing learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998) to inform teaching and learning. They found that when done well, formative assessment could raise the attainment by two grades, especially of the low prior attainers. It is important to note in education that we often speak of assessment either as formative or summative. However, the single most important purpose of assessment is to inform teaching and learning.

Hattie (2003) in his review ‘Teachers make a difference, what is the research evidence?’ found the greatest variance in pupil achievement to be teachers. He found feedback given by teachers to have an effect size of 1.14, showing the greatest influence on a pupil’s achievement. It is therefore crucial to understand the importance and purpose of assessments and how they to raise standards. Carless (2007) suggests assessments should actively involve students. Carless writes students should be made aware of the assessment criteria and be given feedback that is timely and forwardlooking.

So, what does research indicate as a good assessment design? What should a curriculum lead consider when designing an assessment?

The most important factors to consider are validation and reliability. Specifically, Koretz (2008) stated when designing an assessment, the most important criterion is to consider is its validation. What will the assessment show? If the assessment design does not align with the learning aims of the curriculum, an accurate judgement on a student’s learning cannot be drawn. When a pupil answers a question incorrectly, what does this mean? Does this indicate pupil does not understand the content or does this mean they did not understand the question? If the assessment design is too easy, it can provide both pupils and teachers with a false sense of achievement and if it is too difficult, it can demotivate pupils and perhaps lead teachers to believe pupils did not understand the content. Therefore, when designing an assessment, it is important to design it with a view of what inferences can be drawn once the assessment has been completed. The assessment should therefore have a clear assessment of both substantive and disciplinary knowledge. It should assess the full domain of the subject to draw correct inferences.

A good assessment should also be inclusive and equitable. If the assessment has a higher reading age than those of the students’, will the assessment place one group of students at an advantage than the others? As a curriculum lead, once again you should ask yourself, what is the purpose of the assessment? Equally, if the students have recently seen a question, does that place them at an advantage to their peers?

D. Christodoulou, in a recent blog post, emphasises the importance of the reliability of an assessment. She argues for the need to standardise mark schemes and to ensure all markers have the same understanding of the mark scheme. She recommends having comparable judgements on an answer as the solution to ensure reliability.

Agarwal’s recent meta-analysis on retrieval practice revealed its benefits on student learning, making this the penultimate principle of assessment. A good assessment should be cumulative. It should not be limited to assessing what is recently been taught but instead should have a percentage of content taught last month, the last term even the last year. This provides a powerful insight into the content students have forgotten, enabling pupils and teachers to target content that was not well remembered.

Supposing ‘assidere’ means to sit besides, once again we need to consider the purpose of assessment. Arguably, the most important purpose of this is to provide feedback! An assessment should provide feedback to students that helps move their learning forwards. It should be designed to provide pupils a clear, actionable picture of what they know and what they can do to improve. If the assessment design is weak, it will not provide clarity on next step goals. Hattie (2003) writes, "Expert teachers are more adept at monitoring student problems and assessing their level of understanding and progress, and they provide much more relevant, useful feedback." However, there is a caveat with summative assessment feedback; the attachment to a score. Few researchers have reported if students disliked their grade, they were unlikely to read their feedback. Black and Wiliam (1998) stated in the absence of a grade students were more likely to read their feedback. As a consequence, there is an argument to provide feedback first without the marks to ensure students make the most of the feedback.

In conclusion, assessment provides a powerful insight into one’s learning. Ergo, they should be designed with the same level of care and detail as one’s curriculum. They should consider the triad of curriculum intentions, pupil involvement and feedback to improve pupil learning.

References

Black, P. Wiliam, D. (1998) Assessment and Classroom Learning. Assessment in Education, 5 (1).

Carless, D., (2007) Learning orientated assessment: conceptual bases and practical implications Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(1), pp. 5766

Hattie, J. (2003). ACEReSearch Teachers Make a Difference, What is the research evidence?

Koretz D (2008) Measuring Up. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Joining the Conversation

Academic literacy is central, promoting scholarly reading, writing and oracy, not only improves outcomes but also bridges the gap with university for our pupils, especially in the Sixth Form.

Why Academic Reading?

Learning does not take place in isolation but in dialogue with scholarship. Mary Matt (@MaryMyatt) has written extensively on the importance of exposing pupils to interesting, challenging texts. She bemoans the culture of low expectation in which challenging work is the preserve for the higher sets. With the correct scaffolding, we can empower all pupils to read texts that may not be able to access if they tried on their own, broadening their horizons, and allowing them to join the 'great conversations'. We also develop pupils’ background knowledge, that ‘hinterland knowledge’, that contextualises and enriches their understanding of our subjects. Academic texts also have the power to build curiosity, engaging pupils by showing them the relevance of our subjects in the real world.

However, it is not enough for pupils simply to be given challenging texts. As Alex Quigley (@AlexJQuigley) has pointed out, informational texts present a number of challenges for pupils. They require background knowledge, have their own specialist vocabulary, more complex sentence structure and a more complex structure overall.

Teachers therefore do not just need time, that rarest of commodities, to find interesting and challenging texts, but the correct pedagogical tools to make these encounters fruitful for pupils.

Using texts effectively

At King Alfred's School, Alice Visser Furay (@AVisserFuray) has developed a whole school reading strategy, equipping teachers with a range of meta cognitive strategies with the aim to turn the school into a 'reading school’.

One teacher-led strategy that I like is ‘High Five’. Prereading, students begin by making predictions about the text using clues, images and headings, and drawing on their background knowledge through retrieval practice. During reading, pupils ask questions about the text, identify the key ideas for each paragraph, and identify and explore the meaning of specialist vocabulary. After reading, pupils summarise the text.

Dan Warner-Meanwell (@mrwmhistory) has designed another excellent reading activity, ‘Story, Source, Scholarship’, which has gone viral.

Students are first introduced to a textbook extract that provides a clear overview of the topic (a ‘story’) and then create a title and summary for each paragraph. This guided reading activity provides a reference point for later source analysis and scholarship evaluation.

Students then analyse a related source before moving onto contrasting scholarly interpretations. Students finish by drawing on all they have done, to come up with their own answer to the enquiry question.

As Myatt has said, ‘reading is the beating heart of the classroom’ and central to a challenging curriculum.

Simon Beale (@SPBeale) has created a brilliant template, ‘This is my Source’. Pupils are introduced to a textual source, and then read three contrasting provenances and determine which one they think it is using source analysis and contextual knowledge, and have to justify their decision.

I hope we can emulate some of the brilliant work being done across the country, where reading occurs across all subjects, students engage with high quality academic texts, reading volume is high, and reading has returned to its place as 'the beating heart' of the curriculum.

References

Alice Visser Furay, Reading for Pleasure and Progress [ONLINE]

https://readingforpleasureandprogress.com/

Dan Warner-Meanwell, Story, Source, Scholarship. [ONLINE] https://storysourcescholarship.wordpress.com/

Chemistry KS3 Hinterland Reading Resources [ONLINE]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HXWXv OsbjnhHTCbf4aqIDgfY4n2QIw20

Geography Hinterland Reading Resources

[ONLINE]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14iNwxe QsD8i_atvuNS1drLopX6DMHpjQ

Renaissance ‘Readability Calculator’

[ONLINE]

http://www1.renaissance.com/Products/Accele rated-Reader/ATOS/ATOS-Analyzer-forText?_ga=2.239055875.209274006.15958477 67 1009799981.1594390146

‘Scaffolding’

how broadening the term narrows learning

What comes to mind when you think of scaffolding? Writing frames? Sentence starters? Differentiated worksheets?

Often, we think of scaffolding as breaking down the task. However, just because we have broken down a task into steps, does this mean that students know how to complete each step?

There are two common perceptions of scaffolding:

1. Going step by step and building up layers

2. Focusing on the function of scaffolding and continually adapting activities that support the student to achieve the task

So what is the function?

The theory behind scaffolding (Wood et al., 1976; Vygotsky, 1978; Gallimore et al., 1990; Stone, 1993) suggests that key features of the process are that:

• Learning happens in a social context the teacher pushes the student just beyond their current level of ability by engaging in collaborative activity (dialogic interaction).

• The student’s ability continually changes and as it does, the teacher’s collaborative input continually changes. Therefore, the process is dynamic and responsive.

• The teacher and student develop a continually evolving mutual perspective and shared situational definitions about how to complete the task. As a result, the process is unique to each set of teacher/student.

However, as a result of performative culture in the UK, schools have broadened the term ‘scaffolding’ to include any tool that aids teaching. This is inaccurate. We must consider the differences between a scaffolding ‘tool’ and a scaffolding ‘strategy’. Whilst a strategy incorporates the features identified above, a tool is static; it is fixed, passive, and two dimensional (often paper resources).

I’m an English teacher, so let’s take writing frames (PEE/structure strips/sentence starters) for analytical paragraphs as an example. These would be considered a static tool because they:

• Don’t scaffold students’ thinking – without this vital step in the process, students don’t have good ideas to put into the frame.

• Give students instructions, but don’t support them to know how to complete each step effectively. Writing frames only support students to rearrange the knowledge they already have.

• Are passive and fixed they don’t change or develop according to the student’s developing ability (within and across lessons) and don’t provide effective challenge.

• Are designed for isolated tasks – they don’t develop learning strategies that can be applied in other contexts.

• Encourage application of knowledge (e.g identification of a simile), not development of a skill.

• Result in students being preoccupied with ‘de coding’ the text to find the ‘correct’ interpretation.

• Result in ‘empty’ phrases (such as ‘the writer uses words and phrases’) because the student is concerned with identifying a device (as they are instructed to on the frame).

• Encourage fragmented comments students (ironically) often miss out on development of their point because they are concerned with completing the next instruction on the frame.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t hate PEE or structure strips. Indeed, structures can be very useful. Lots of teachers take issue with PEE/other acronyms because they are seen as restrictive. However, the problem is not with the structure, it is with the fact that students don’t know what to put into the structure.

Instead of using tools, we should focus on scaffolding strategies. Some of these include:

• Modelling focus on meaning the teacher should model the process of in depth exploration of meanings and interpretation in the text. However, it is important that students contribute and are active agents in this process developing shared inferences is key.

• Feeding back so that the process is responsive, the students should continuously receive feedback. Remember that the reactive element must be explicitly incorporated (i.e students must actively work on the feedback they have just received, and a continuous feedback loop should ensue). Feedback without the reactive feature just becomes static, isolated information.

• Engaging in lengthy, whole class discussions – encourage a reciprocal, collaborative, cumulative exchange (not question and answer). Allow what seems like miscellaneous talk (such as when a student digresses into a personal anecdote) because students need to build on their personal experiences to make meanings.

Primarily, we should understand that substantial amounts of dialogue is fundamental. In English, we are aiming for perceptive analysis. To do this, students have to make their own meanings; when they do, analysis becomes broader and richer. The role of the teacher is key by working from meanings as the starting point, the teacher can then guide the student towards precise language analysis, and should explicitly do that.

• Drip feeding context when students respond emotionally, they start with meanings. Their analysis of language then becomes more perceptive because they justify and evaluate their opinions. Never start analysing a text by annotating for techniques. When students do this, they are applying knowledge (e.g knowledge of what a simile is), but they don’t have anything to say about it, meaning that their analysis is superficial.

Please do share your thoughts and experiences with me! I’m only one person and my research scale was limited. I’d love to collaborate with you and build on these reflections.

Effective Retrieval

Summary

What we ask students to recall; whether that be facts, vocabulary, ideas, concepts, or experiences is known in cognitive psychology as the target memory. By using cues from the encoding stage, we can improve the effectiveness and success rate of retrieval practice.

“We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Aristotle

Different Types of Recall

Cued recall: A cue or prompt is provided for students to assist their recall

Free recall: This is the hardest type of retrieval practice as no support, cues or prompts are provided.

Multiple choice questions: the easiest form of retrieval practice as the correct answer is provided for the student to recognise/identify.

Verbal/written: Retrieval practice can and should be both verbal and written.

Spaced Retrieval Activities

Students are given questions to recall from last lesson, last week and last month, or some variation.

Think and Link

Students are prompted to recall two topics or concepts and then are asked to explain the connection, to further strengthen memory.

Cops and Robbers

Students must recall their knowledge of a topic, and then have the opportunity to ‘steal’ what they have forgotten from their partner

Word Walls

Students use words as prompts for recall

Multiple Choice Questions

Students are given multiple choice questions to encourage retrieval, and in the example above, this is combined with the opportunity for elaboration to further strengthen recall.

Challenge Grids

A ‘gamified’ version of some of the activities presented here, with students rewarded points for each retrieval question they get right, with questions further back being worth more points.

Catholic Social Teaching through the Curriculum

Teaching in a Catholic school has been a privilege and a blessing to me. Over twenty five years of teaching experience which includes roles as a Senior teacher, Deputy Head teacher with responsibility for the Catholic Life of the school and in the last five years, my experience as a Catholic Schools Inspector, has provided me with a clear understanding of what an Outstanding Catholic school looks like.

The category of “Outstanding” is a broad band and with the three individual areas of

1) Catholic Life and Mission

2) Religious Education and 3) Collective Worship

In the New National Catholic Schools Inspectorate Framework( 2022) there is always room for continual development and growth. One of the areas which I feel can always be developed is the ability of teachers in a Catholic school to promote Catholic Social Teaching through their own subject specialism. To facilitate this development it is essential that teachers have a clear understanding of the purpose of Catholic schools and that they have a personal understanding of catholic ethos and gospel values within the context of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). In this article I wish to briefly address these points.

Jesus Christ is “the way the truth and the life”

What is the Purpose of Catholic schools?

The Catholic Church provides Catholic schools for a variety of purposes. Reverend Marcus Stock in his very popular document “Christ at the Centre” (Stock 2005) identifies the following purposes:

• Assist in the Church’s mission of making Christ known to all people

• Assist parents, who are primary educators of their children, in the education and religious formation of their children

• Be at the service of the local Church- the diocese, the parish and the home

• Be a service to society

In assisting in the Church’s mission, Catholics schools should be “Putting Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church at the centre of the educational enterprise as their key purpose….. by integrating gospel values and the teachings of the Catholic Church into every aspect of learning, teaching and the totality of school life” (Stock 2005)

What are Gospel Values?

What is Catholic Social Teaching?

The origin of the gospel values is from the Beatitudes, the proclamation of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and it “depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity.”(Catholic Church 1717). As Catholics we strive to be like Jesus in our thoughts and actions and therefore these values should permeate all that we do, like the writing in through the centre of a stick of rock.

Reverend Stock ( Stock 2005) has summarised the core values as follows:-

• Dignity and Compassion

• Humility and Gentleness

• Truth and Justice

• Forgiveness and Mercy

• Purity and Holiness

• Tolerance and Peace

• Service and Sacrifice

In a Catholic school, the unpacking of these gospel values for both staff and students is not an add on activity but a process which is integral to the continual quest for high academic standards and vocational excellence.

CAFOD states that Catholic Social teaching is rooted in Scripture, formed by the wisdom of Church leaders, and influenced by grassroot movements. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world. They also state that modern Catholic social teaching is said to have originated in1891 with the encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum. Since then, a wealth of teaching continues to give new life to the scriptures and shape the Church’s response to our modern world. From these Catholic social teaching documents and encyclicals the following core principles were derived:-

• Life and dignity of the human person

• Call to family, community and Participation

• Rights and responsibilities

• Preferential option for the poor

• The dignity of the worker and rights for workers

• Solidarity

• Care for God’s creation

The tradition of catholic social teaching encourages a process of :

• Looking at the social justice issues as they affect society – SEE

• Understanding what is happening and why it is happening JUDGE

• Discerning the actions needed to respondACT

Here is a brief description of each key principle of catholic Social teaching https://ccsww.org/about us/catholic social teaching/

Key principle Description

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

Call to family, community and participation

The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. Every person is precious and people are more important than things.

The person is not only scared but social. How we organise our society in economics and politics, in law and policy directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. People have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable people.

Rights and responsibilities

Human dignity ca be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.

In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our catholic tradition instructs us to put the needs of poor and vulnerable people first. The Dignity of the Worker and the rights of workers

Prefential Option for the Poor

The economy must serve the people, not the other way round. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected – the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organisation and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.

Solidarity

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic and ideological difference. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbour has global dimensions in a shrinking world. The pursuit of justice and peace is at the core of solidarity. The gospel calls us to be peacemakers

Care for God’s Creation

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is a requirement of the Catholic faith. We are all called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation.

A possible approach to designing a Catholic School Curriculum?

“Catholic school curriculum design involves designing a learning experience in light of the Gospel that invites discovery that challenges assumptions of learners and motivates actions as it applies to the revelation of God’s creation” (Catholic values.parra.catholic.edu.au, 2018)

In a practical way this means that it is important that key learning areas of the curriculum are developed to make Gospel values relevant to each programme of study. I particularly like the USA‘s Office of Catholic Education’s description of the purpose of a Catholic School curriculum which states “……to educate diverse student bodies…[by]…..providing high quality teaching through traditional and innovative educational programs infused with Catholic social teachings; involving students to serve and support parish life and the local civic communities; graduate students who are critical thinkers and productive moral citizens…”

When planning any lesson, the usual “Outstanding” teaching and learning pedagogy applies i.e. clear relevant lesson objectives and a well scaffolded lesson which actively engaged the students with varied opportunities to assess students’ learning and progress. When considering this approach within a Catholic school context, the following reflection questions for meaningful learning provided by the National Catholic Education Authority (Catholic Identity Curriculum Integration 2018) are helpful:

• What opportunities are there for students to demonstrate their ability to think critically and solve problems within a Catholic context?

• What connections to other subjects are possible and will students see connections between Religion classes and other subject areas?

• How does this task involve inquiry and knowledge building through the use of integrated questioning, research, scripture references and Catholic social teaching?

• Are students being given a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and learning of the embedded Catholicity so as to ensure optimal student success?

• Is technology being embedded to enhance the students’ understanding of the issue and, if so, do all students have equitable access?

When searching for some more subject specific questions to help stimulate curriculum task design

I found the document “How to promote Catholic identity through Religious Education across the curriculum” (2018) very useful as a starting point. This approach to Catholic Curriculum Design involves considering the following three themes WORD, WORKS and WORSHIP as a stimulus for designing activities to help students to explore ideas

“Word” type questions have to do with beliefs e.g. Who is God? What is the meaning and purpose of life? “Works” type questions have to do with how someone in society acts or lives e.g. Is an action right or wrong? What value does this action hold? How does the curriculum lend itself to the Gospel’s call to justice? How will an action benefit or hurt others or other parts of God’s creation? “Worship” type questions are to do with prayers, rituals and liturgical celebrations e.g. What are we asking of God? How do we remember and celebrate those experiences that shape our world? How do we show gratitude to God for all creation?

I strongly believe that ensuring Catholic Social Teaching infuses the curriculum in a Catholic school with students of diverse religious beliefs (and none in some cases), does not mean that we are indoctrinating students but we are providing an opportunity for catholic students and students of others faiths to explore their own spiritual faith journey, within the context of understanding clearly the Catholic Churches viewpoint through studying a broad and balanced curriculum.

References John 14:6

I am sure that having researched this information, there are many activities that are currently in the curriculum which facilitate students exploring the above questions but maybe they are not signposted in that context to the students in the same way that we would identify literacy or numeracy strands. Whatever approach you decide to employ, at the end of the day, we want to provide a wide variety of opportunities for our students go deeper into the content of their curriculum, despite (at times) the examination pressure constraints.

Catholic Values Across the Curriculum. 2018. Catholic Values Across the Curriculum. [ONLINE] Available at: http://catholicvalues.parra.catholic.edu.au/home

Catholic Identity Curriculum Integration. 2018. Catholic Identity Curriculum Integration . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ncea.org/NCEA/Learn/Catholic_Ident ity_Curriculum_Integration/NCEA/Learn/Catholic _Identity_Curriculum_Integration.aspx?hkey=4ae 51c43-a5bd-4589-9627-b51f34198508

Catholic Religious Education Across Curriculum. 2018. Catholic Religious Education Across Curriculum | How to Promote Catholic Identity Through Religious Education Across the Curriculum. [ONLINE] Available at: https://religiousedacrosscurriculum.wordpress.co m/

Catholic Church. (1997). Catechism of the Catholic Church. https://ccsww.org/about-us/catholic-socialteaching/

Stock, M., 2005. Christ at the Centre. 1st ed. uk: Diocese of Birmingham.

Book Reviews

Dual Coding with Teachers by Oliver Caviglioli

Oliver Caviglioli's Dual Coding for Teachers is appropriately pleasing to the eye. He is uniquely positioned to write the book, the son of an architect, former headteacher and now information designer, he brings that wealth of experience to go beyond simply discussing dual coding as a teaching strategy, but explains how the principles of graphic design can be implemented in all aspects of our teaching, from designing documents, PowerPoint slides, displays and walkthroughs. This generally involves cutting rather than adding, for those concerned about workload, and can be summed up with these four strategies:

Cut: Avoid minimal margins, insufficient spacing between lines, an overly decorative typeface.

Chunk: Clearly label how the information is organised with paragraph titles and column numbers.

Align: Avoid random placement and instead ensure text is aligned.

Restrain: Avoid a range of typefaces, stick to one, and make their use consistent. Avoid blocks of colour with text on top, leave it black and white with a small graphic element to colour code it.

Caviglioli goes through a number of different diagrams but they can be grouped into four categories:

Chunking for example tree diagrams clearly map out relationship between information.

Compare for example Venn diagrams a great activity to help pupils organise information and identify similarities and differences, and good assessment tool to identify misconceptions.

Sequence - for example flow charts - good to visualise a sequence of ideas or argument

Cause and effect - for example fishbone diagram

The second half of the book helps to ground the book in the classroom and includes contributors from teachers working across different sectors and departments, about their experience using visuals in their teaching, as well as input from teacher developers, psychologists and information designers.

Why bother thinking more deeply about visuals? Well one reason, is that it helps pupils to build schemas by organising what can be an overwhelming amount of information: theories, technical vocabulary, scholarly views, concepts. The more organised information is when encoded, the easier it is to retrieve and use it in working memory.

That should interest everyone.

Book Reviews

Boakye:

‘Teaching is about relationships. Not just with people…but with cultures, histories, narratives, and essentially core values.’

His book is at once personal, playful and powerful. Boakye unpacks racism within the education system, discusses the importance of representation in the classroom and identifies gaps in England’s safeguarding systems.

This is a book of enormous empathy. He argues everyone is on the margins and encourages teachers to find what makes a student feel marginalised, and celebrate it.

A must read for everyone.

Jeffrey

I heard what you said: A black teacher, a white system, a revolution in education

Resources on the Web Evidence Based Teaching – A Model for Great Teaching Videos

Evidence Based Teaching is a teaching and educational leadership thinktank, providing policy advice to the Department for Education.

This useful resource contains 17 short videos grouped under four headings: activating hard thinking, maximising opportunities to learn, creating a supporting environment, and understanding content.

A useful resource for both new and experienced teachers.

Available here: https://evidencebased.educati on/element-videos