#13
Curriculum Design – T&L progress this term.
“Every UCAS application and job reference I have filled out during my x years at Oakham focusses on Communication, Social Skills, Self-Management, Research Skills and the ability to Think” (Anon – Teacher at Oakham)
Consider:
- Why your subject area requires a focus on said skills
- How to build strategies into schemes of work that strengthen such skills
- Habits that can lead to quick and big learning wins – modelling, low-stakes testing practice, student talk, story-telling, starters, questioning, collaboration, etc
- How you can combine the knowledge you’re teaching with greater focus on skills and values
- Mapping skills back from Form 7 all the way to Form 1, with a view to helping our students become more independent learners
For a possible foundation for curriculum design over the coming months, have a look here.
For the recording of the final T&L session on Motivating Revision click here
#12
Don’t be bound by Rosenshine
“Focus on the why and not the what” (Enser 2019)
Consider:
- Rosenshine as providing a common sense framework for quality instruction, NOT a checklist
- Adapting Rosenshine’s principles in your own subject context - what does ‘x principle’ look like in my department?
- Reflecting on which strategies helped you deliver lessons and which need refining
- Being skeptical of fads and Twitter trends – put the why first before implementing strategies
Rosenshine’s Principles can be found in accessible form here.
#11
Pause rather than plough on.
“It's less about the speed and more about investing the right amount of time and attention in the problem so you solve it” (Carl Honoré)
Consider:
- Concentrating more time on areas where misconceptions are rife
- Not racing to finish the course early – the best way to ‘leave time for revision’ is to build it into your current schemes of work
- Delving deeply into the big questions and learning materials; the more challenging the better
- Using collaboration (think-pair-share etc) to discuss ideas, allowing the teacher to listen live and correct mistakes, whilst prompting students to elaborate on one another’s answers
- Treating mistakes as springboards to new learning
The full blog post inspiring this week’s ideas can be found here.
#10
Must we really ‘gradually remove the scaffold’?
“Of course, as students develop more expertise, the scaffolds should be removed…as over-scaffolding can disrupt the learning process (Cohen. 1994)… expert learners may find the structured steps detrimental because processing redundant information can cause unnecessary working memory overload and distract them from the concepts that still need to be learned (Renkl and Atkinson. 2007). However, as Rosenshine (2012) states, scaffolds should only begin to be taken away when students are achieving a high degree of success - around 80%.” (Hughes. Mentoring in Schools. 2021).
Whilst scaffolds have to be removed for meaningful testing, development and retrieval practice, where is the evidence that scaffolds must disappear during the learning of knowledge itself?
Consider:
- What does 80% success look like? 80% of students? 80% of correct answers in a test? 80% of the course covered?
- Why, and in what ways, does scaffolding disrupt learning and “overload working memory”?
- How many of us genuinely live without scaffolds of any form after leaving school? Are they not part of our everyday learning?
- How, and in what circumstances, do you effectively remove the scaffold?
#9
Get students to work as soon as you can
“Well begun is half done” (Greek proverb, cited by Aristotle…and Mary Poppins)
Consider:
- Asking a ‘Wonder’ question to pique student interest at the very beginning – you could use images or other sources as a prompt
- Setting a low-stakes ‘test’ and sharing immediate feedback on it
- Providing the ‘Why?’ behind the lesson – what is the rationale for students?
- Delaying LOs until slightly later in the lesson, perhaps steering students towards generating the LOs themselves
- Getting students into an independent task that requires high levels of concentration straight away – excellent for behaviour as well as learning
Some light reading on this subject can be found here.
#8
When mutually observing a colleague, feed back as though you are their cheerleader.
“When we give feedback, we notice the receiver isn’t very good at receiving it. When we receive feedback, we notice the giver isn’t very good at giving it”! (Stone & Heen, Thanks for the Feedback)
Consider:
- Being specific about what you are observing; one small thing is preferable
- Providing plenty of notice for the observation
- Ideally, planning the strategy to be used in the lesson together
- Allowing 24 hours of reflection time before feeding back
- Student impacts rather than a descriptive account of the lesson.
#7
Respond and adapt to student needs during the lesson
“Individualised instruction aims to improve outcomes through providing targeted support to learners through assessing gaps, matching activities to what the student needs, providing tailored feedback”. (EEF 2021)
Consider:
- Responsive teaching (or ‘Adaptive’, or ‘Individualised’) rather than ‘differentiation’
- Pre-lesson planning is important for in-lesson adapting
- Breaking new skills and knowledge down into smaller chunks and include worked examples
- High expectations for all
- Creating whole-class questions and low-stakes assessments to identify misconceptions
#6
Make it Stick
“The more difficult and less productive the retrieval feels, the longer lasting the learning.”
Consider:
- Quizzing students instead of delivering the same information again in a different format
- Having students create elaborative open questions for themselves while reading notes
- Starting every lesson with a no-notes low-stakes test of prior knowledge - record marks for these
- Why students keep going back to video games and sports skills to learn from their mistakes - they provide “desirable difficulties”
- Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution - errors help
- Blank recall - big sheet: 10 minutes to write everything you can remember - where are the gaps?
As a treat for your half-term, a reading recommendation too - Make it Stick by Brown, McDaniel and Roediger, nicely summarised here.
#5
Share your vulnerabilities
When talking with colleagues, open up an honest dialogue about what you’re struggling with and what you want to improve; then you can help each other.
Consider:
- Asking questions and listening for the answers
- Seeing things from the perspective of others – what might they have on their plate at the moment?
- How we can work together to solve problems
- Most importantly – looking after each other!
For the reasoning behind the importance of teacher collegiality, see pp.160-162 of this OECD link. For more ideas on how to look after colleagues, take a look here.
#4
Do not assume engagement = learning
Teachers can be labouring under the delusion where ‘“I have taught it” becomes a proxy for “they have learned it” (Coe, 2013).
Consider:
- What are the desired outcomes of your lesson(s)
- Do your planned activities help students achieve them?
- How are you checking that students understand the key concepts and take-home points of the lesson?
- Are students simply recalling prior knowledge, or are they making progress during the lesson?
To find out more visit the Impact Magazine article here.
#3
Return for revision
Use a new(ish) Teams update to open up a feedback dialogue with students
As many of you will be aware, the July 2021 update to Microsoft Teams (found here) contains some subtle adjustments to Assignments.
Consider:
- Clicking on the “Return for revision” tab instead of simply returning
- Providing a very specific single tip that each student should act upon to improve their work
- Encouraging multiple re-drafts of submitted work – this need not be time-consuming; after the first draft, an acknowledgement of improved work and a quick chat in class can be enough to consolidate the habit
- Publicly praising students who engage in re-drafting and improving work
#2
“Thank you” (and Please”)
Prompt the action and model manners
Consider how saying Please and Thank You could get students back on task;
- Empathise – “I know it is something you’re not keen on doing, but it would really help x, y, z…Thank you”
- Emphasize that challenge is good – if embarking upon a tricky academic task, revel in the complexity of it – “Thank you for helping me tackle this challenging task”
- Explain why it has to happen – safety, speed, success are all reasons for following teacher instructions – “Please all step away from your Bunsen burners immediately”
- Nudge students into action by praising the correct approach of those around them – “Thank you Tom for getting started on the independent task”
If you would like to find out more, visit https://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/on-please-and-thank-you/
#1
No Opt Out
Simply do not allow “I don’t know”.
Consider, what you could do to help the student unstick themselves;
- Rephrase the question (or ask another student to)
- Offer clues of where information and hints might be found – “consider how you might link what we did last lesson to…”
- Include at least 3 seconds of ‘Wait Time’ (be prepared for awkwardness!)
- Pre-emptively allow some time for Think-Pair-Share before classroom questioning and discussion, so students can air ideas
- Start building a culture of praising those who offer answers
If you would like to find out more, visit https://teachlikeachampion.com/wp-content/uploads/Field-Guide-sample-chapter.pdf
