Marvelous Monday - Maths Mats, Phil Denford and Sean Reeve, 10.11.14

This week all staff will achieve a 'Maths Mat' to attach to their desk. The purpose of the Maths Mat is to go through key ideas, tips and techniques to build in subject specific links to numeracy across the curriculum. The mats also highlight the subject 'Maths Champions' so all staff know who to look to for further ideas.

Review of CPD course; How to assess Spanish Speaking CA tasks (Edexcel) - Natalia Palmero

The focus of this course was linked to understanding and applying the marking criteria. To practise it, we listened to recordings and marked scripts at a range of grade levels, both individually and with other colleagues. We also checked our marks against those awarded by the moderators which was reassuring and showed consistency in our marking.

Moreover, we tried out different methods of marking. All suitable and recognised by Edexcel, to find the one we feel more comfortable with. In my case is using the ‘Assessment Criteria sheets’ in Unit 2, Edexcel GCSE in Spanish.

Finally, we evaluated controlled assessment tasks and focused on the importance of the quality and quantity of its wording (to help students to remember all the relevant information) and to write them in English. In reference to this, we were reminded to use the word ’may’ instead of ‘must’ in the sentence: You ‘may’ want to include the following points(…) to avoid our students being penalised if they do not answer all of them.

There were several other key points that were more general but just as thought provoking which came out of the day. These included;

·         We have to encourage spontaneity in our Speaking CA. Consequently, pauses are natural and they expect to hear them. Also, some utterances expressing doubt like, ‘let see…’ or ‘a moment, please…’ in Spanish are perfectly acceptable.

·         Examiners are very fond of a single sentence containing two or even three tenses.

·         Standardization within the department is crucial.

·         We should share ‘Assessment Criteria sheets’ with the students so they know how they are going to be assessed and act accordingly.

Author Visit - Sam Tearle

Author visit’s this half term.

Our first visitor, Michelle Paver, regaled us with tales of ice wolves and historic journeys of her characters. She shared her experience of writing, and most specifically drafting pieces of work over and over and over again; until she felt it was perfect.

Her most recent chapter is finally perfect after the 37th draft. Paver – most kindly- shared a page with her annotations and editing scrawled all over so that we can share this with our young people. This will be so powerful in proving editing takes place and that great writers are rarely satisfied before they have edited, drafted, and then often edited and drafted once more. What a great message for Mayfield students who maybe think editing is pointless: after all “we’ve finished!”

Our second visitor, the author Jeff Norton, shared his tales of a zombie character- a misfit with OCD – and how creating him was like making a new best friend. He truly cared about this ‘boy’ and wanted to hear how his OCD made being a flesh eating monster interesting. Vegetarian zombies…unlikely, but true!

Jeff Norton shared a powerful message with our young people: he struggled to read at school. As a reluctant reader, he switched off and disengaged in his learning, until one day his librarian shared a ‘Quest Book’ with him. He was instantly hooked- reading until late. Mum: turned off the light, eventually confiscating his torch when he snuck under the covers; never realising that he kept a back-up.

Norton vowed that he wanted to write THAT book. The book that we are so engrossed in; enjoying so much, that we won’t put it down: even when mum says. He shared with our Year 7s that he wanted everybody to keep picking up books- until they found the one that made them want to read. Not just glance at a cover when forced to – but actually read for enjoyment and pleasure. I thank Mr Norton as he has inspired me to ask teachers what was that book for them… hopefully we can use discussion about our favourite book to truly inspire reading via Resilience and AR sessions.

Thank you to both our visitors- they have made such an impact on our young people this half term, and I believe will have a lasting legacy on teaching and learning for the future!

Marvelous Monday 5.11.14 - Sam Tearle

Marvellous Monday: 5.11.14

On Monday 3^rd November, I asked if I could share with the staff body about having conversations with students about their favourite book. This followed a course – run by ACSL – where they shared a rather shocking statistic with me. I discovered that 60% of students do not have conversations with adults in any given week. Initially, I wanted to disagree, but when you strip directed questioning, I am not convinced this is untrue. This was exasperated with Jeff Norton – an author who recently visited us- sharing his journey from reluctant reader to very successful writer only occurred once he discovered ‘that’ book!

Therefore, I have challenged myself to share a bit about my reading with students during Resilience time. I shared my love of Enid Blyton books, and the students joined in. Some have vowed to actually read some. A brilliant success. To launch this further throughout the staff body, I have produced a spreadsheet to share you ‘favourite’ book (ideally from childhood) and I am going to create a literacy display which trials throughout the school.

 (Found at: T:\Teaching And Learning\Literacy)

I am so pleased with the way staff are responding: exciting times for literacy at Mayfield.

Maths CPD Course - Faye Axelson

I have been on a subject knowledge and enhancement course- for teaching maths.

The course was held at the Bognor site for Chichester University. There are lots of candidates from the primary sector and only a handful from the secondary sector, which is fab as we got to have a very in depth session as secondary teachers and to address specific issues, also the course is being tailored to fit our needs.

The course is taught in phases, but we carry out some activities together as a cohort in order to see the progression of a concept and development of teaching ideas.

Today we looked the impact of the curriculum changes and began discussing how to address them.

We spent time looking at how we teach specific topics and how this can be adapted to fit with the new requirements.

I know I was concerned to see how literacy heavy and complex the new style exam will be, especially as this will be in effect for our current year 9.

One of the 1st questions on the foundation paper was …

“The sum of two consecutive integers is 48, what could the integers be ?”

This really made me think about the language I use- as I wouldn’t naturally throw the word consecutive at bottom set pupils, yet this is on the start of a sample foundation paper!

We looked at assigning values to base 10 as a numerical system, and looked at how this can be taught by looking at unrelated systems, and I learned why we have 60 second in a minute, and 60 seconds in an hour ( and that this system has been around for 3500 years)!

Amongst other things , we looked at how to teach multiplication and the new approved “single” methods which are expected as the preferred exam method, and how this will affect the year 7s coming up to us.

I have come back full of ideas, concerned about how best to prep my classes for what is a very different examination system, and with a head so full of stuff it feels about to explode (probably because we had to have a go at some mathematics tasks too!).

Next session we are looking at specific topics and practical applications for use in class and in assessment. I am really looking forwards to it, even the algebra!

Perhaps the best bit of the day  was,  I have learned that ducks can count.. to 4!

Faye

Monday's Marvelous Idea - 20.10.14 - Jo Webb

Pass the Question - differentiation to music.

This is an effective and enjoyable starter that revises key skills.  It is based on the popular childhood game of pass the parcel with students answering questions when the music stops.  By cheating and stopping the music at a targeted student you can then ensure you are getting a student who is pupil premium or SEN etc. to respond.  Thus testing their memory and ensuring that differentiation is being achieved.

 Choose a piece of music that reflects your chosen topic - at the end of the starter you can challenge students to consider why you have chosen that particular piece. For instance naming the bones of the body while showing the Thriller animation video on You Tube which has dancing skeletons! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhflzGDiDIM​

There are then several ways of organizing the game:

• ​have a box with a series of questions in it that is passed around the class or
• have a card with a question mark on it that is passed around. either have the questions appear on board or have a question that there are multiple answers that can be given e.g. name all the capital cities of Europe / what does each letter of AFOREST represent etc.
• you can either seat class in a circle or keep them in their seats for the box or question mark card to be passed around
• alternatively if you have the class sat in smaller group you can have multiple cards / boxes being passed around and select a student randomly from one of the different groups to answer the question

Monday's Marvelous Idea 6.10.14 - Emma Pickering

I have found that sometimes pupils can feel as though an extension is penalising them just because they have finished their work quicker than others!  So when I was creating an extension for a year 8 class I decided to make it into a fun activity.  In an old box I cut a number of questions up relating to the lesson and made it a lucky dip for them to answer and found that the majority of pupils wanted to get on to the extension and answer all questions. 

Monday's Marvelous Idea 13.10.14 - Differentiation by Task - Fi Harrison

Here is an example of little help sheets that pupils could help themselves to in my lesson today.  They were cut up for pupils to take as required. 

This worked amazingly with my year 9 class although some took all three slips of paper!

Also this week I came across this link which may be of use to all staff!
www.outstanding-resources.co.uk​ 

Science Development Day

Team science is currently adapting to two entirely new curriculums both for KS3 and for BTEC. The prime focus of the day was to create schemes of work for both so that we may make the transition to the new curriculums as straight forward as humanly possible. The new curriculum introduces vast arrays of previous KS4 content into KS3 making the way we deliver complex vocabulary, models and concepts to all ability ranges a prime focus.

With differentiation we have looked at ways of creating an online ‘file-share’ using the new dynamic learning resource we have started to compile each other “best bits” so to speak. This will hopefully mean that learners can have access to the optimal resources and also make the way we plan as a department smarter.

Furthermore, the planning day has given us a fraction of time to evaluate what had worked well with last academic year’s curriculum and delivery to enable us to carry forward or develop our successful management from last year with the intention of making an even more ‘streamlined’ delivery scheme.

With new, more stringent, protocols in place for the BTEC curriculums we have had to create a very rigid framework in order to meet deadlines and maximise pass-rates. Again, a new scheme of work has had to be created that will give all learners access to Pass, Merit and Distinction content. We hope that with the times spent planning the first units; the new BTECs continue to provide learners with an enjoyable and project based means of learning.

Exciting times, challenges and opportunities lay ahead for all over at Science HQ. Special mention to the construction workers on the day. Their fantastic use of hydraulic machinery really resonated with us!​

Damien, Terry and Karen

22.9.14 Marvelous Monday

Marvelous Monday - Tom Cranfield

Jenga Learning 

The idea is simple.  As a flipped learning homework you ask students to come up with four questions on the unit of work that you are studying.  The first 2 can be comprehension or recall questions such as Where do the Birling family live in An Inspector Calls?  1 question should be a SMSC based question which has wider implications e.g. What does An Inspector Calls teach us about life and morals?  Finally you ask for an exam style question e.g. Explore how Priestley uses the character of the Inspector within the play to present his views. 

The students are being challenged to think about a range of questions which involve different thinking skills and their incentive is that when they come in next lesson their starter is to put them on different sides of a jenga block and peer assess them with their neighbour.    

At the end of the unit or as a revision activity they can then play a game of Jenga which involves answering differentiated questions before placing their block on top of the stack.  I did this as one activity in a carousel of KS4 independent revision tasks and it went down well!   

Maths Department Planning Day

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT PLANNING DAY

The department had it first planning day on the 23/9/14. The focus was to look at the four rules of number and plan out a progression of skills which the department would all teach to. This would allow us to have a consistent approach int terms of order of skills taught as well as a consistent approach to methods allowing for pupils to have a consistent experience across the five years.

It was an amazing opportunity to be given an entire day of lessons covered to talk as a maths team about our teaching and how children learn. We discussed opportunities to review and develop methods within the department to improve the understanding of our students. To ensure that methods of application and understanding are embedded in all of our students. The most exciting development was our new approach to teaching directed number across the school to all pupils. We believe that with this approach we will minimalise the misconceptions and difficulties in this topic.

We were also lucky enough to have a maths specialist from our local Junior School. Mrs Longhurst was very helpful in helping us develop strategies for our low attainers.
As a department this was an exciting and useful day, sharing ideas and collaborating as a team. Looking at how we can improve and develop within the department, developing ideas and executing these into our classes.

Not forgetting to thank our wonderful Master Baker, Mrs Williams, for the wonderful cakes - a different cake extravaganza for each lesson of the day.

Marvelous Monday 29.9.14

Marvelous Monday

Today Mr Woodham shared a compilation of strategies and ideas regarding differentiation within lesson. This is available in the shared area in the Teaching and learning folder.

Marvelous Monday 15.9.14

Marvelous Monday 15.9.14 - Wanda Barnes.

This afternoon we will hear about the importance of lesson maps for mapping progress across the lesson, but also for managing levels of engagement. Please see the example below; 

 

Whole School Booklook! - Mrs Tearle

Whole School Booklook

On the first day back this year, the whole staff spent time looking across a range of books. As a teaching member of staff I found this session very enlightening. It became clear to me that students are actively choosing to perform in certain subjects – often due to passions and interests, but equally because they feel they can get away with it.

The impact this has had on my classroom practice is to encourage me to raise the bar. To expect more.

The feedback from staff has been fascinating. I have attached the anecdotal ‘post-it’ note comments, and as you can see: we all want the same things. We want to see staff actively challenging and expecting more from presentation; we want to see supportive measures put into place to support spelling across the curriculum and we want to continue to develop a more collaborative approach to teaching and learning to make our students achieve better, whilst making our professional lives less challenging.

For me, the most interesting feedback from the session was differentiation. Firstly, we all identified a need to differentiate more actively for the less able. However, we also acknowledge that there seemed to be an over scaffolding for our able students. We decided to challenge ourselves with this in the coming term. Combining this session with the differentiation cards we received in the subsequent session, I feel that this is going to have a good impact on the experience of students in my class this term. 

I would like to thank staff for your contributions – I will keep you updated on how we move forward in the coming weeks! Good luck; keep raising the standards and our young people will come with us!

Mondays Marvelous idea

Mondays Marvelous idea  8.9.14

Why is reading important? Show students that reading is a lifelong hobby by sharing with them what you read!

1) Click onto this link

http://whatimreading.org/

2)Enter your name e.g. 'Mrs Tearle' and what you are reading e.g. 'The Hobbit'. Some example book covers will appear. Click on the one that looks best.

3) A poster will appear. Click on 'Get poster' and save it to the shared area. 

4)These will be printed and ready for you to display in your classroom or resilience room next week!

A must-watch for the start of term!

Whilst scrolling through ice bucket challenges on Facebook last week I came across this video that a teacher friend had shared. A powerful reminder that whilst we should always be aiming for the highest standards in our planning, preparation and assessment we should never forget the difference that making pupils believe in themselves can make.

Ryan Gibson

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTAcZl088m0

Student Book look!

INSET 2/9/14. - Session One

Sharing our experiences of student progress by comparing student work across curriculum areas. Main findings to be published soon!

AfL - Charlotte Humm

AFL work

Over the last year I have been working on several ways to further embed AFL into my lessons.  I have been predominantly focusing on year 7, but I have found that these techniques do work with other year groups too. Many of these techniques have been taken from ‘Perfect Assessment for Learning’ by Claire Gadsby.

The first technique I have used is called ‘Red Herring’. This is where I have added extra success criteria onto the list of success criteria, this then results in the students having to discuss which one has not been covered. I found that this helped the students track their learning and become more reflective of what they needed to concentrate on next. Furthermore, this can be used as a mini plenary and students can discuss what they need to do meet the extra success criteria.

Another technique that I used was called ‘Random Success Criteria’. This is where the success criteria are jumbled and students have to decide upon the levels/grades for each success criteria. I found that this helped the students as they were able to reflect upon the language used in the success criteria (e.g. describe, evaluate) and decide upon a level/grade. I also found this technique good for differentiation as students could use their current and target grades to help them highlight the correct level/grade onto the success criteria. I also ensured that the students were encouraged to explain why they have chosen the particular level/grade.

I use the role of ‘experts’ in my lessons on a regular basis especially with KS3. This is where one or two students are in charge of explaining certain parts of the lesson to other students. This allows the students to have ownership of their learning and enable them to discuss the learning with other pupils. One class has evaluated the use of experts and many have said that being an expert in the lesson has helped them to improve their own learning.

Finally, I have used ‘Question Cue Cards’. This is where students have to write one or two questions about the topic that they must bring up during the lesson. I have found that this has helped students to become more reflective in their learning.

Charlotte Humm

Marvellous Monday 30.6.14

I attended a conference on Teaching and Learning on Friday 27th June which looked at changes to curriculum and assessment. The middle session of the day however was simply about fun and engaging teaching techniques which help youngsters 'get it' and become 'hooked'! Some of these were familiar and it was good to be reminded of them and some were brand new. It was brilliant to share these and I hope they can be of use in your subject area;

1) Freeze frame. Get students into groups and give them five minutes to form a freeze frame showing either a part of a story, a stage in an experiment etc. To assess their progress pick on each individual and get them to explain what they are feeling/what they are doing and more importantly - why!
2) Verbal Boxing - Ban all normal hands up/hands down rules and select the two most opinionated students to have a discussion at the start of the lesson. Hopefully they will inspire the rest of the class.
3) Hot seat. Prepare an information sheet on a key character or two. At the start of lesson (or as HW) give a student (or two) these role sheets to read. Meanwhile have a planned starter for the rest of the class. Invite the students back into the lesson and get the class to question them. Hats and props really help. The teacher can take on the character role if that is more appropriate.
4) Use PPT or your interactive whiteboard to set up a picture reveal. Expose parts of the picture at staged times asking students what they think it is and why?
5) Mystery object. This can be an object in a sealed box with just a hole to put a hand in or even an object under a piece of material. Can the youngsters guess what it is and how it links to the lesson?
6) Picture on the wall. Have a picture on the wall outside the classroom. In teams students must re-create it. However only one student is allowed out of the room at a time to look. They must develop team work and observation skills. Great if analysing images is important in your exam.
7) PE idea! Give every student a green sash. As they become more confident in the skills they are learning they should go to the side and swap it for an amber and then a red to show they are 'hot' at this topic/skill. They can then become the student leaders. Great for showing progress.
8) Music at the start of a lesson. Can students link it to the topic being studied?
9) Props!! For example placing glitter in a water bottle and swishing it is a great way to demonstrate a tornado or use lego to show population pyramids.
10) Mini whiteboards - all students then reflect on the learning.

I shall be trying 6 and 10 in my lesson this week. I hope some of these are of use to you too!

Marvellous Monday - 23.6.13

I am going to be completing Class Charters with each of my classes at the beginning of this academic year.  The Class Charter consists of the rules, that the pupils have come up with themselves, about behaviour and conduct in the lesson.  They have real ownership of these rules.   I begin the lesson with the pupils, in the back of their books, writing in rough some ideas for class rules in silence.  Then they get into small groups to discuss their ideas.  Following on from this, they create a list of 2 or 3 rules that their group has decided are the most important.  Finally, we come back together as a class and join all the ideas together and write a class charter of their rules.  The pupils write these in the first page of their new books and sign it.

Any questions please ask - Miss Manning.

Inspiring and promoting Able and Talented students.

Inspiring and promoting Able and Talented students. - by Wanda Barnes

Play writing; developing independent learning skills through critical thinking and creative project work.

In this unit the year 8s were given the task of researching, planning and writing a whole play based on the themes identified in Dickens’ Oliver Twist: child labour, child abuses within society.

Aims: to develop group skills, independent learning, creative writing, project management, working to deadlines, evaluation.

The structure of unit:

·         Mind-mapping class ideas

·         Skills audit-pupil strengths

·         Research-child labour and prostitution (Victorian and current)

·         Character profiles

·         Group work-script writing

·         Precision-script layout and punctuation-student led teaching

·         Group work-staging, costume, script writing, project management

·         Re-drafting

·         Completion

·         Evaluation

Although set up for project work took careful planning and direction initially, once students were clear on their responsibilities and independent focus within the group, my role became facilitator.

Not only were students leading their sessions but they also deferred to peers for clarification and direction where needed.  Several students showed initiative and took on assisting peers, re-drafting, re-directing support when needed. The ‘project managers’ (2 students nominated) were responsible for updating the folder and monitoring progress throughout, reporting to me where a problem existed.

The process was very rewarding and I enjoyed the creativity and energy displayed. The enthusiasm of the whole group led to achieving a great deal in a short time. I also learnt more about setting up successful project work.

Students designed their own feedback forms and this included feedback for me!

The final product is a play about child enslavement set in a nail bar in Portsmouth called,

Polished to Perfection.

Some of the reflective comments from students included:

“I have learnt to work in a team, take responsibility to get things done. I have also learnt about different types of staging and techniques and how to accurately plan the staging of a scene.”

Joe

“I have developed my English skills because I am now better at proofreading, improving work, script-writng…I know how to use different pieces of punctuation and my vocabulary has expanded.

Izzie

“I have worked on my team working skills as I am usually very bad at collaborating with others.”

Cameron

“I have learnt that making a play is harder than I thought! If people don’t fulfil their roles others can’t carry on their work. Also all the parts and scenes had to be completed by a certain time so we had to work extra hard to get it completed on time.”

India

“I have ambitions to be a teacher, so when I teach others it will be as useful to them as it was to me.”

Hannah

If anyone has any questions about this or would like to see the original resources please contact Wanda Barnes via her school email.

Some example slides used in the lesson

Monday's Marvelous Idea - Maths Trail

The Maths Trail is a way of developing numeracy across curriculum areas. It also can be amended to form a recap or revision activity which is kinaesthetic, engaging and more subject specific.

The teacher creates a range of resources/posters which are placed around the room (see example below). On each poster is a question and also an answer to a question posed on another sheet. Students can work individually or in groups and start with a poster of their choice. They record the answer and then have to find the poster with that answer on and complete that question set and so on. This can develop numeracy in any subject where statistics or data is used. It can also be used to create subject specific questions and answers and makes a great revision activity.

For more information or an electronic copy of the below please email Simon Ralph

Making HW work!

Making HW valuable!

I recently read a book called 'Unhomework' by Mark Creasy which really has changed the way I set HW and increased the number of high quality completions I receive in lesson.

The book suggests that longer length, more creative HW inspires students and gets them to engage more in the learning at home process. The ultimate theory is that if students take ownership of the HW process then they want to complete it. Tired of setting short, meaningless tasks which he then had to chase up and set sanctions for, the author has instead re-evaluated the purpose of HW and how to make it valuable. The book suggests some radical ideas which I must admit I have not tried yet but hope in the new school year to train up students to develop this. These include getting the students to set their own HW projects each term. However some of the more simple and easy ideas I have used include;

-          

      Giving students an option from a range of HWs. I love this HW chart which I have stolen from a great teacher online at teachertoolkit (http://iteach101.wordpress.com/)

-           

-          Making HW a big deal! If you set a HW over a number of weeks then you can keep referring to it and building up your excitement of the approaching deadline. HW policy is non-negotiable and students have to do it or receive a sanction but if it is simply collected in by a teacher without a glance, smile or thank you then why would the student bother next time? If however the teacher makes a big song and dance, seems excited by the HW set and is enthusiastic to receive it then the student feels valued and will be keen to impress in future.

-          Giving students a mark scheme. This could be created in lesson by the students once you set the task. However to start with it might be useful to create them in advance. The mark scheme means you can ask students to peer assess themselves or bring in HW for AfL and then extend the final deadline by a week to amend and make any improvements.

-         

-          Display the HW. If possible reward the student by hanging up work on the wall, decorating a table or even taking a picture of all the class’s HW printing off and getting students to stick in their book as a celebration (this is especially useful for 3D and larger projects which cannot be stuck in books).

-          and finally - Reward!

Some of these ideas are very simple but by taking the time to re-evaluate the HW process and also my teaching I have noticed an improvement in the quality of HW received. Here are a couple of examples to share with you;

The Hunger Games: A Cross-Curricular Project

Since being involved in resilience I hear many varied excerpts of books aimed at our pupils. One of the things that surprised me about this was just how few of these popular books I had read. Last Easter I decided to read The Hunger Games, as I had seen a trailer for the first film and my interest was piqued. Throughout the novel I kept making references to real world situations and couldn't escape some of the geographical themes that were explored in the book.

I decided to investigate the possibility of a cross-curricular project and was pleased when colleagues in the English Department shared my enthusiasm. Following several planning meetings with Amy Dare, we had roughed out areas that each subject could cover and identified themes that complimented both the Geography and English curriculums.

The dystopian style of the novel was a particular point of interest as so much of the geography that pupils pick up from current affairs is focussed on natural disaster and conflict. During the lessons pupils were able to draw on references to Syria, the Ukraine and Hurricane Katrina. It was pleasing to see that both the boys and girls were keen to read more about the story behind our scheme of work, a number of the Year Eight pupils even showed me their copies of the book they had selected for reading in resilience sessions.

The assessment element of this scheme of work was significant in proving, learning linked to popular fiction is an excellent way to make the geography relevant to pupils. In the lead up to the assessment we had studied natural and built environments that felt "dystopian" as places had been abandoned or ravaged by natural disasters. Pupils understood that dystopian novels combined difficult elements such as political problems and a lack or resources. To make the assessment as accessible as possible I decided to give pupils the choice between writing their assessment or debating it. Year Eight pupils have experience of using "talk" as a vehicle for assessment as the Geography department uses this in Year Seven and Year Eight topics the pupils had already studied. Many pupils chose to talk, whilst a smaller proportion were seated at the edge of the classroom at tables with paper. I am always impressed at the mature approach pupils adopt when debating. Very few behaviour sanctions were needed as pupils were engaged in listening to one another and looking for their opportunity to add to the debate.

For colleagues interested in trialling a talk assessment, I would recommend creating a tick column criteria sheet as this helps with recording how well the pupils perform and is essential to provide individual written feedback. I have generated a few short hand codes, that used along with some key words helps me to assess and level the pupils. Finally, if you are considering this type of activity but are uncertain of how pupils will respond, I would say that so long as pupils are given preparation time to script their ideas, on the whole each of my classes thoroughly enjoyed this change of activity.

Basketball talk: The easiest way to have a ‘true’ whole class discussion

Recently, our school tutor time programme has been focusing on using ‘talk’ effectively in the classroom and, so far, I have introduced my tutees to the ‘Basketball’ technique of classroom discussion. This is where a central idea is ‘bounced’ around the classroom from pupil to pupil, resulting in an evaluation of the best responses given, as opposed to the, fairly limiting, technique of a teacher posing questions back and forth to individual pupils.

Our school follows a vertical tutoring structure, whereby in one tutor group you will have a mix of all ages, from 11-16. Two of my older boys asked if they could deliver a session on ‘Basketball talk’ and generate a class discussion using this method – a request which, of course, I was more than happy to oblige!

They began the session by re-capping exactly how to use ‘Basketball talk’ and then posed the question, which was based around the idea that, here in Portsmouth we actually have a lot of activities to participate in (particularly for a relatively small island), but we don’t seem to have enough advertising for these activities.  The pupils were asked to think about whether there was enough for them to do in Portsmouth AND whether it was advertised well enough.

The boys allowed the rest of the tutor group one minute ‘thinking time’ in silence to allow them to collect their thoughts about what they were going to say. Once this time had elapsed, they asked one child to begin with his ideas. Then the conversation really started to flow as the pupils took charge and led the conversation themselves, without input from me, or indeed their older peers.

What was nice about the session was the input from those pupils who may be deemed ‘quiet’ or ‘shy’. Where it was their fellow pupils encouraging them to talk and ‘’passing’’ the idea onto them (like a basketball!), suddenly these quiet pupils were answering questions, giving opinions and, in once case even contesting with a fellow pupil. Brilliant! Having a peer talk to you and ask for your opinion can be a lot less intimidating than a big scary teacher stood at the front of the class!

After the conversation had come to a natural halt, we considered who had given the most balanced argument and why. Evaluating the responses after the discussion can be just as an important process as being involved in the discussion itself. It allows pupils to reconsider what others may have said 2,3, 5 minutes ago and think about the points they were making, rather than just ‘switching off’ after ‘their turn’.

Two points to note that came out of this sessions, from the pupil’s perspective were:

1.       Ensure ‘thinking time’ is used effectively. Two of our pupils were slightly distracted and therefore had fairly limited responses. Although interestingly, once they began to hear the responses from others, they wanted another opportunity for input.

2.       Beware of distractions during ‘thinking time’ and the discussions itself. Put everything out the way, so that everyone can focus on each other and their opinions.

The pupils felt that there were many benefits to this method, mainly, as noted above the way that it allowed everyone to get involved in a safe and supportive way. When questioned about the subjects that may best to utilise this method, the – perhaps obvious – answers of English, History and PSHE were given. But then one pupil piped up saying “actually every subject could use this as we talk in all subjects!”

So there you have it! Basketball talk – give it a go! You may be surprised where it can take you and your class…

Rebecca Davis

A Learning Walk At Wildern School -Charlotte Humm

A Learning Walk At Wildern School

-Charlotte Humm

A few weeks I had a day visit to another school to go on a learning walk. As part of the NQT+1 programme I am trying to embed ideas that I have picked up from other colleagues and implement them into my teaching.

My first focus for the learning walk was looking at ways to support A+T students in the classroom.  One way that this school supported these students was to have a focus on the display boards during the lesson. On the boards in each classroom there were several pieces of work at different grades. During the lessons the students were encouraged to go the display board and read the work suitable to their target grade. They could then reflect on why this work is the grade it is and also what needs to be done to improve this piece of work. They can then reflect upon their own work and see what needs improving. By having the work up on display the students were able to use it as a resource when they needed to.

I also wanted to focus on how to encourage students to be more independent in lessons. One way that I observed was to use a Zone of Relevance. This was where the students had a question related to the topic of work where they had several statements in which they had to write down if they were relevant to answering the question or not. This activity seemed very useful for revision or as a starter activity.

A second activity that encouraged independence was a paper chain. The students had to link key words and facts together in a paper chain. The students then had to link the key words and facts to a case study. They were then able to answer a question on the topic using the information on the paper chain or they could write their own question.

Overall I found the learning walk very interesting and I have learnt many ways of supporting A+T students and encouraging students to be more independent in their learning. 

The Power of Hands

The power of hands!

I recently inherited a year 11 maths class who have an amazing ability to recall information linked to hand movements.   Their previous maths teacher used lots of hands, song and rhymes to help them to learn information and remarkably it has worked.  Most people think of jazzy hands as something associated with a dance lesson but for these students it meant to  half something.   

I found myself smiling when I read the following article on the BBC news.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26643823

Their previous teacher is not only animated teacher, she is actually an  inspiring teacher.

Mrs Tracey Williams

TLAB14

The Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference Hosted by Berkhamsted School.

In March 2013 Berkhamsted School hosted the first TLAB Conference, whilst I was unable to attend, I was able to see the ripple effect as many educators tweeted links to useful ideas they had been introduced to. When tickets were launched for this year’s conference I was determined to be there!

 The theme for the conference was multipliers, with a keynote speech from Elise Foster, co-author of the book “The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools”. The concept of multipliers vs diminishers was easy to apply to life in school, in terms of our actions in the classroom and with colleagues. The most significant point in the keynote speech was the research conducted on how leaders can tap into the intelligence of their teams; those deemed as diminishers were only able to access an average of 41% of the capabilities within staff. These leaders diminished the potential in their colleagues in a range of ways such as doing too much of the thinking or communicating poorly, the result was a lower output, as colleagues found they were restrained or maybe unable to share all of their ideas and expertise. As one of the middle leaders in school I am aware that I have the potential to be a diminisher, and recognise some of those traits in the way I have acted or communicated in the past.

Those leaders deemed as multipliers accessed 86% of the intelligence of their teams. It is easy to relate this to both my position as a subject leader and in my lessons when interacting with pupils. In my more creative lessons, I often end them surprised by just how good the ideas and output of the pupils had been. I often feel this way when marking homework too. There is certainly some value in re-assessing the way we present tasks to pupils in order to offer them the chance to use their brains to the fullest and to possibly produce better quality work as a result.

 

Following the keynote speech I went to a variety of sessions that both affirmed the good practice I have already developed and challenged my understanding of the youngsters we work with. The session that was most insightful for me was run by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. Sarah-Jayne’s session was about the adolescent brain. The session synopsis summarises (below) this session more adeptly than I can!

The brain has evolved to understand and interact with other people. This workshop focuses on how the social brain, that is the network of brain regions involved in understanding others, develops during adolescence. Adolescence is a time characterised by change - hormonally, physically, psychologically and socially. In the past 15 years, neuroscience research has shown that the human brain develops both structurally and functionally during adolescence. This research might have implications for secondary school education.

Sarah-Jayne pointed out that some research was still ongoing and so the hypotheses currently being tested are as yet unproven. But research that was shared was fascinating. The most interesting part was about adolescents and their propensity to take risks. Once amongst peers this potential for risky behaviour increased. This lead to an interesting discussion about teenage perception of risk. As adolescents are still developing their personalities, an important part of socialising is to be accepted, I guess this feeling of acceptance may go some way to explain the appeal of social media as a platform to gauge others’ opinions and gain approval through “likes”, “retweets” and people sharing your comments. Teenagers are likely to perceive any behaviour that isn’t socially acceptable as more risky than other behaviours. For example, if answering a question in class might be seen as “too keen” they may prefer to say they don’t know than risk showing their knowledge and being ostracised by their social group. This linked really well with the research that was shared in the final talk I attended by Daniel Muijs.

Professor Muijs shared research about teacher effectiveness and factors that can affect the impact a teacher has on a group of youngsters. Interestingly, the teenager is most concerned about themselves and elements of their school life closest to them. This suggests that actions the teacher takes and the way they interact with pupils has the greatest impact on the progress made by pupils. How pupils felt about their lessons and teachers was more instrumental in affecting results than class size, environment or even the school they attended. According to the research if a pupil is taught by the most effective teacher the results can be 25% better than pupils taught by the least effective teacher. The effect of multiple years with effective teachers can have a significant impact over a number of years as pupils move to different classes. These factors are most important for the pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

To conclude, TLAB14 has opened my eyes to the value of educational research that is out there. In recent years I have possibly focussed on finding new teaching techniques and understanding how to use technology differently to engage learners. I now have a refreshed interest in reading research and considering the pupil in a broader sense than just how they perform in each of my lessons.

The TLAB website has lots of information and in the coming weeks I imagine many of the resources used will be shared and made available. I would recommend taking a look and considering attending the event next year.