thunks « @ TeacherToolkit Fancy a TeacherToolkit Thunk? ‘Thunks’ originate from the award-winning author, Ian Gilbert of Independent Thinking. Thunks are simply another way of looking at a simple question, whether that be the way it is phrased, or the literary vocabulary of its content. Ian’s ‘Little Book of Thunks‘ can be purchased here. Using my teaching experience, I have adapted the ‘Thunks’ concept into school-related scenarios and have posted a series of topics that myself and a selected number of Guest Thunkers have answered. Here are my @TeacherToolkit Top 100 Thunks. Have your own political views changed as a teacher, during your time as a teacher? How would we teach without whiteboards and projectors? Consider writing one of the remaining Thunks? Propose a new topic to me here… Ignore the #DfE: Teachers are doing it for themselves! Like this: Like Loading... .. Archives
Explanations: Top Ten Teaching Tips “There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.” Michel de Montaigne quotes (French Philosopher and Writer. 1533-1592) Very recently I responded to a question about great teaching by Joe Kirby (read this excellent blog post) with the answer that explanations, questioning and feedback were the holy trinity of teaching. I have written about questioning and feedback at length, but I have never written about teacher explanations. Too often we can be distracted in our planning by the tools of learning without giving the required time to the integral act of communicating our subject. These are my top tips try to address different aspects of effective explanations – the what and the how of explanations – the content and the delivery. Top Ten Tips: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. My core message: clear and effective explanations matter!
dandesignthink: Need to improve student... Peer marking and how to make it work in your classroom - TES English - Blog - TES English English and media teacher Ms Findlater explains the process of introducing peer marking to her pupils. Effective marking is essential. So, too, are time-saving strategies. How can we juggle the two? We want it done well but we can't, and shouldn’t, undertake detailed marking on every piece of work a student produces. As a new teacher, I remember ‘doing’ peer marking with a year 9 class a few times. This would, indeed, have been the case at that time. Don't dumb it down Prior to the peer marking task being completed by the students, a copy of the success criteria/mark scheme is shared with them, the same one that I’m expected to use. Show me the skills Students highlight three key words at every level that helps them remember what they’re being asked to assess. Moving on up The students underline the word that describes the level of difficulty within each grade description. Follow my lead I then ask students to look over past marking in their books from me. Over to them Take it all in
‘Post It Note Pedagogy’ – Top Ten Tips for Teaching & Learning The Ultimate Low Cost, High Impact Teaching Tool? The humble post it note – sometimes you don’t need to invest in a fleet of iPads, interactive whiteboards or Visualisers to make the learning visible and to have a positive impact upon learning. Some of the best things in life are simple…and yes, cheap! The post it note is so flexible, easy to use and multi-purpose that it most surely must qualify for the ultimate low cost, high impact teaching tool. Not only are they cheap and flexible learning tools, the very nature and size of them (varied as they now can be) encourages, even demands, a precise and concise use of language. Rather than pages of notes, students have to be selective, synthesise and exercise higher order thinking to use post it notes successfully – it can be very much a case of less is more. The humble post it actually began as a failed invention. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. <br
Why teaching skills without knowledge doesn’t work In this second of three blogposts this week, I want to explain why unzipping knowledge and skills is so counterproductive. When we detach knowledge from skills, achievement suffers. In England, 17% of kids leave school at 16 functionally illiterate: unable to read a daily newspaper, according to research over sixty years by the University of Sheffield. Back in the classroom, one of the reasons for all this was dimly becoming clear to me. The counterproductive strategy of reducing literary and grammatical content and lionising real-world activities is propagated, inspected and enforced by Ofsted. An example of this approach failing is where entire units are given over to skills-based projects. Literature on a leash Even schemes of work on great literature are under-teaching and under-assessing knowledge. Another area where without knowledge, complex skills disintegrate is in teaching great novels. Opportunity Cost Like this: Like Loading...
Official Mind Mapping software by Tony Buzan Back to the Whiteboard | Evidence-based teaching practice Trial and error in the laboratory Taking the ‘temperature of learning’ in lessons: a few tried and tested strategies | @mrocallaghan_edu ‘Progress’ appears to be the buzz word in schools at the moment, especially during lesson observations. The new Ofsted framework specifically looks at how teachers enable students to make progress in lessons and over a series of lessons. I believe progress is only as good as the learning objective you measure it against, so making sure your learning objectives are clear and differentiated is vital. This should not be a hoop you jump through for observations but a means to take the ‘temperature of learning’ in a lesson. Below is a range of strategies I have used in lessons to try and get students to take a more active role in their learning and take some ownership of the progress they are making. 1. This is very easy to set up and use in lessons. 2. This works by displaying a scale on the board under a learning objective with a happy face at one end and a sad face at the other. 3. 4. Check out Dan’s website here for more information about the Learning Place Mat. 5. 6. Summary Like this: