Great Lessons 1: Probing. Introduction In all the talk of improving teaching and learning, sometimes – no often – there is too much talk about the model OfSTED lesson. Too often this leads teachers into thinking of idealised lessons than can only be turned out in special circumstances or that Outstanding lessons require us to devise an elaborate box of tricks to show off with. However, as I have said elsewhere,it is the 99% of lessons that are never observed that really matter. So, we need to focus on things that we do every day. Two related ideas: 1) It is the spirit of an idea that is important, not the letter. 2) In improving as teachers, we are not collecting tools, we seeking to change our habits… the things we do automatically every day.
I am planning to create a series of short posts called Great Lessons that focus on aspects of routine practice – because lessons can be routinely outstanding. Probe probe probe…. Great Lessons 1: Probing Questions That’s interesting, what makes you say that? Please read them. John Sayers Geography Blog: Questioning. The start of a new term is nearly upon us and I am going in revitalised due to a number of life changes.
One aspect of getting back into the classroom and school environment is to listen to the great array of questions, challenges and responses I'll hear and be involved in. I love questioning and the potential depth to thinking it can generate. However far to often including in my own practice I prevent opportunities for taking the thinking deeper by posing a new challenge, problem to keep that engaging thrust of something new flowing in the room. This is good a trigger but like a gun firing the trigger too often at the same target can lead to the death of something.
In this case deep thinking that challenges students. So how about a strategy. Well my preferred method if you look at the pictures is Socratic questioning. So what are the question Socratic circle questioning poses? It is a 6 step process: This was where I worked on a question matrix I had seen. Questioning powerful or not? Letting Students Lead the Learning. Student-led independent learning is central to my beliefs as a teacher. I think it is vital to develop our young people into well-rounded, educated and future-ready people.
I most certainly do not believe that this is all we need to do for success with our students, it is one element. For me, this element is a strong vein through my teaching and planning. I know that this has massive impact - I have seen it. I have sampled and developed many different student-led independent learning projects, initiatives and routines over the years. A number of years back, I stumbled across Jim Smith's 'The Lazy Teachers Handbook'. Love at First Sight: Reading about the dreamy class that Jim Smith talks of in his book, I wanted some of that! Courting: I attended a conference on how to create a literacy community where I witnessed some amazing students leading learning in their school. The Struggle: Our first lesson was upon us.
Why I think SOLO taxonomy will help my Year 13s | teach.it.better. Now, readers, I am assuming you have heard of SOLO taxonomy. If you haven’t, I recommend you check out this website from Pam Hook, or this blog from David Didau, or this blog from Tait Coles. When you’ve done that come back again. I started to hear about SOLO taxonomy mid way through my second PGCE placement, when a bunch of people I follow on Twitter started talking about it. It wasn’t the time or the place to start trying it out, so I held fire, stewed on it, and kept thinking. I very much like the way that SOLO builds on itself to allow students to evaluate their own learning and points to where they need to get to, so I was looking out for an opportunity to try using the techniques in my own teaching.
That opportunity came about with my A2 biology classes, two quite different classes with five students in one and 10 in the other, with a mixed bag of grades at AS level. SOLO linked to summary questions – students decided which levels of thinking the questions demanded. Like this: “Selling” SOLO Taxonomy to Staff « krystaljem. On my Independence Teaching journey the next academic year is the move from encouraging my students within my own classroom to expanding independence whole school. With six school teacher training sessions based on encouraging our students to be independent and resilient learners; I really want to provide training that is not only interactive but shows the importance of this initiative for our students.
I need to be able to transfer my passion for this topic to teachers: a breed that even by our own admittance can be resistant to change [especially as we are constantly being asked to change from one initiative to another by government, theorists and schools too!] But first I have a training session to run the first week back for ASTs and excellent teachers based on SOLO Taxonomy. I have scoured books, blogs and Twitter for ideas and ways into introducing SOLO in as active and convincing way as possible. Here is my plan for the session – any comments or improvements would be welcomed. - Home. Msagostino | small fish in the big sea of blogging. Towards Co-constructed Learning: How to get it started. Having written about co-construction in our Learning Lessons publication (Vol 2/ Issue 8 and Vol 3/ Issue 3), also profiled in this post I was invited to run some CPD sessions in two schools and then to write a summary of the process.
It is a fabulously enriching way to approach teaching and learning; here is my quick guide. The aims of co-construction are as follows: A summary of the co-construction process: A topic or unit of work is discussed with a class using strategies that elicit a detailed analysis of their prior knowledge – including areas of doubt and misconceptions.The class is then asked to volunteer ideas for key questions, areas of further study or enquiry.Guided by the teacher, the class discusses a logical sequence through these questions to generate an outline for a possible ‘scheme of work’.Student volunteers are then given ownership of different sections.
This can be done by planning out the whole unit in advance or, more organically, a few lessons at a time. Like this: "Miss....atoms are made of protons, croutons, and electrons right?" Sharing SOLO with students. One of the questions that I have been asked a lot lately from either colleagues or Tweachers is 'How do you actually introduce SOLO taxonomy to students? ' Many of the people I chat to obviously have caught the bug and want to take it further in their lessons but had the same cautious questions that I did to begin with. Once you get your own head around SOLO, the terminology, symbols, resources and activities all make perfect sense. But it's getting your head around it that's the worry, and even more so for students. Or so I thought as you will find out! So I thought I'd share with you how I introduced it to students. This is just one way, not the way. As usual, I needed inspiration myself.
My second bit of inspiration came from David Didau (@learningspy) and the way he introduced SOLO taxonomy at Teachmeet Clevedon. My third bit of inspiration comes directly from Pam Hook and her amazing website (click here). So what did I do? I then started the introduction of SOLO taxonomy. Sharing Pedagogical Purposes. Teaching, Learning, Education: SOLO, Bloom's - Time to Think! I have been awash with Twitter enthusiasm for #SOLO; lot's of teachers are keen to describe the benefits of helping pupils improve their metacognitive self-awareness. There is a great blog entry by James Theobald, describing his own work with this taxonomy.
He describes a lesson in which Y7 pupils need to show their understanding of poetry. I immediately liked the start of his lesson, in which pupils were able to offer suggested definitions of poetry and to evaluate their position on the taxonomy - that, at this stage, they were beyond 'pre-structural', because they had read poems, knew some features etc.
What they were unable to do was demonstrate the 'relational' or 'extended abstract' positions on the taxonomy. As the lesson moved forward the pupils were given a number of poems and began to link ingredients together to develop an overarching 'relational' definition. Pupils may have demonstrated prior knowledge by identifying a number of features of poems. Looking beyond a lesson in SOLO. Now I have been using SOLO in my GCSE PE classes since April 2012. I have to say that for me, as a non classroom specialist, it was an excellent way to ensure I had structure in my lesson. It was much simpler than my previous 'Blooms and Accelerated Learning Cycle' mash up I was using and actually did the same things more effectively and efficiently. It helped me plan a journey that consistently took my students from shallow to deep learning.
Now I am more versed in it and have 'seemed' to got a very good grip on it, I started to wonder if I needed to be so rigid in my use of it. Do I simply have to use SOLO taxonomy as a way to structure a lesson and develop levels of learning? Did it have to be the format for just my lesson planning or could I go beyond this and use it in a more powerful way? So over the last term I have been looking at how I could develop my use of SOLO taxonomy and use its ideals as a means for things that have a bit more impact.
Learner Evolution ~ Chris Harte: #feedforward. The more I think about assessment, the more fascinating and intricate I find it. Superficially, it used to seem really straight forward; teacher tells you what to do and how to succeed, you do it and the teacher tells you how you have done. Simples. Or maybe it is having that just in time learning conversation which not only helps learners see where they are, but also where they can get to.
The horizon is vast. Or maybe it is all of theses things? I don't think a single blog post will suffice to make my thinking clear, even to myself, so in this post, I would like to focus on feedforward. I remember coining this term a couple of years ago (I am not claiming originality here by the way, simply that I had never heard the term - in fact a quick Google finds this from 2002) in an in house workshop on assessment with none other than my great friend Darren Mead. Here is a copy of the presentation I gave at Teachmeet Melbourne on this very topic on Saturday. Flipping Learning: Some useful tools. In my last effort to enthral the blogosphere with my own low-level version of "expertise"(and from your kind comments back I seem to have succeeded in managing everyone's expectations downwards remarkably well!)
, I talked about my journey into the idea of "flipping the classroom". It was all very abstract and you missed nothing much, although in fairness you should really read it again before this post, if only to give my stats a boost: Zero is a lonely little readership figure. Today I thought I'd get concrete on your asses, and give you some idea of the sorts of things I do in class to flip the learning.
These could be regarded as fairly subject-specific, but I think the principles are applicable in a range of areas, or so I'm informed by reliable colleagues. More reliable than me at any rate. A few examples: Software: In my subject, I have to teach students how to use a great many pieces of software for design, editing, and now with the growing use of iPads in my lessons, apps. Letter to a Friend « Reflective Teacher and Learner. Is there a right way to teach? It’s become a trite and hackneyed truism that if they’re not learning you’re just talking. We’re all clear that teaching only happens when the little tinkers manage to make some sort of progress – preferably that of the rapid and sustained variety.
But this simple truth, like so many others, seems to have been systematically and catastrophically misunderstood by many school leaders and inspectors. Until recently it was universally accepted that the key to a good lesson observation was showing that pupils are making progress in the 25 minutes available to us, and that the only way we could demonstrate this progress was by shutting the hell up and letting the kids do some work. If a teacher was observed speaking to the whole class they’d be exposed as being a bit rubbish and fast tracked on to the capability process. But is this right? Surely sometimes we need to stand at the front and indulge our passion for a spot of whole class teaching? I get that things move on. Related posts. By Josie and Emily.
Punk Learning – I want to be free, free to learn to be me. “Well I hate to go to school and listen to the stupid rules. Just to keep me out of the way. So they can have an easy day. I want to be free, free to learn to be me” I Hate School – Suburban Studs The research by George Land, undertaken way back into the late sixties is a staggering study. Rather than righteously banging on about the lack of creativity in student’s work, or complaining about the SoW (that we religiously follow) not allowing our students to be creative or blaming external variables for the lack of imaginative lessons that we have to deliver.
“Something’s happening and it’s happening right now. As an example, if you had to teach your class about George Orwell’s Animal Farm, why on earth would you just teach them (or tell them, which is probably more accurate) about the book? If you’re still reading this and thinking, “yes, fair point but we haven’t got the time, we’ve got a lot of content to get through” then answer this question. “And they put pressure on my brain. Making Feedback Count: “Close the Gap” Recently I have been looking again at the issue of marking. It is a hugely important source of feedback provided that we keep the volume of marking in proportion to the level of impact it can have in improving learning outcomes. I’ve discussed this in a much-read earlier post: Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective.
At a whole school level at KEGS and in my own department, a key objective for the year is to devise approaches to marking that deliver maximum impact for all to see – that ‘progress over time’ issue. What does marking look like when it is clearly securing improvement and progress in learning? Marking time again. But will they close the gap?
To help with our search I was fortunate to be able to arrange a visit to the wonderful Saffron Walden County High School, a thriving, dynamic school in NW Essex that recently received an astonishing OfSTED report: Outstanding in every detail. The cycle of learning and feedback – with a gap! Like this: Post-it hexagons | LogoVisual. Jig-sawing new information « The challenge I have set myself, as I mentioned in the last post is overcoming a didactic culture of learning and getting students to embrace group and independent study. Whenever I have observed really good lessons in other subjects they often have one thing in common: a kind of symmetry in terms of activity, simplicity and results.
The most well-rounded of group work techniques is jigsaws. Today I tried this with factors affecting hydrographs. Experts had a photocopy from the textbook and had to make notes on mini-whiteboards to take back to their home groups. The twist was that they were not allowed to write down any words, it had to be in pictures. I did the same activity with my year 8s on factors affecting climate and it worked a treat. Like this: Like Loading... Mishmashlearning goes blogging | Ideas in a mixed up world of tradition and tech. No longer Bullet Proof « stilllearing. - Home. Resources - @Ideas_Factory The blog of Julian S. Wood. Purple Elf's Learning Adventures. Outstanding teaching using the new #Ofsted framework « @ TeacherToolkit.
AHOTT6 July 2012. Cultural ties… #blogsync - an Initiative in UK Teacher Blog Synchronisation - EDUTRONIC. Teaching Science: 5Es. What are you marking that for? Teaching Science: What is the lesson about? Meridianvale. The Myth of Progress Within Lessons « kevenbartle's Blog.