Mini TeachMeet 6

1Interleaved Learning (JLi)

·         Teaching can become quite episodic whereby each topic is taught in turn and then not revisited until revision. With interleaved learning, the attempt is to try to build on learning rather than have blocked learning - ABC ABC ABC rather than AAA BBB CCC

·         New syllabus more likely to require students to mix skills together than have blocked learning

·         Evidence suggests students achieve better as a result

·         Use starters as a way to recap from several weeks ago - Corbettmaths

·         Video - Robert Winston synapses. Learning something is difficult at first but as the signals pass again and again a more solid pathway is produced.

·         DO shared some thoughts from Professor Coe on this regarding recall. If one wants students to remember things from some time ago, one has to require them to do so in order to set this expectation. If we teach in an episodic/modular way then that’s how they will learn.

3 Challenge Strategies(JCD)

·         Jason shared 3 strategies that he has used with his classes to promote challenge

1.       Worksheets where the challenges built in to tasks immediately - each question has a challenge rather than an extension at the end of the sheet. More students engage with these challenges as they happen at the time.

2.       CO2 cycle - rather than a cycle to learn by rote, JCD reads out text and pupils record what happens in their own way without using words, then has to explain their diagram etc to pupil B

3.       Gut glucose transport - rather than exposition, gave students a blank diagram and some facts as a challenge to try and describe it the self - scaffold present where necessary.

Dealing with Day-to-day Differentiation

A good read from HeadGuruTeacher on differentiation here.

He acknowledges that meeting everyone's needs is hard :

The fact is that we all find it hard  – and that’s because it is; sometimes it can feel as if you’re never quite getting it right because someone or other isn’t flourishing.  As with many things in teaching, we need to aim high but we also need to be realistic, pragmatic and tolerant of imperfection in order to flourish ourselves.

But he also talks of two non-negotiables

We all have ups and downs; we can all mess things up.  We all have lessons that seem too complicated to factor in yet another level of support or challenge; we have all had lessons where behaviour issues dominate or you do more didactic input and the differentiation is less evident. However, there are always two things that I’d say are non-negotiable:

1. Neglecting the basic access entitlement of students with particular learning needs. If you have a student that can’t read the text-book or follow the standard instructions because of learning difficulties or physical impairment, you have to sort them out every time.  You need to plan for their needs every lesson and go to them immediately to make sure they know what to do.

2. Setting work that is too easy for the top end. There is nothing worse than having students waiting for others to finish with nothing to do or simply having time for a good chat because they’ve completed a basic task.  Here the solution is to set in-built extension tasks as a matter of routine. “If you finish Task A, then go straight on to Tasks B, C and D”.   Of course, there is the issue that ‘more work’ doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘more challenge’. It’s better if each task is increasingly difficult  and you can always consider allowing students to skip Task A and B if they feel confident to tackle other tasks straight away.   At the very least, there should always always be a ‘what next’ if the initial task is quite easy.

Check out the full post by following the link below:
https://headguruteacher.com/2014/02/01/dealing-with-day-to-day-differentiation/

Strategies to promote challenge

With a focus on differentiation, it seemed apt to find a blog post on Challenge. I like #15 here - 'Don't Round Up'. When students answer questions in class do we too often focus on the parts that are right and move on? I often tell them in what ways they are right but then ask them to improve their answer, or challenge others in the room to improve their answers.

Anyway, the post follows (source: https://pjlovingthelearning.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/strategies-to-promote-challenge/ )

The word challenge is much used in education. There can be no doubt that sufficient challenge is important and the stakes are high. Too challenging and students give up and find learning uninspiring. Too little and work becomes too easy and monotonous and little learning happens.

Here are 16 strategies that may help you to challenge students.

Much of these strategies are self explanatory or maybe even plain obvious. However, I think these three ideas in particular are all really important.

Firstly, as Willingham rightly says
‘Memory is the residue of thought’. So, strategies that make students think are essential, in my view, for challenging learning. Otherwise, we run the risk of our students being on ‘autopilot’ and therefore not learning.

Secondly, encouraging students to take risks in their learning and not worrying about failure. This is easier said than done. However, a climate of excellence, positive classroom relationships and using the ideas of Dweck’s Growth Mindsets should support this.

Thirdly, I had increasingly come to believe that questioning is one of the most essential tools in the pedagogical toolbox. Doug Lemov’s ideas in his work ‘Teach like a Champion’ really struck a chord with me. Not rounding up student answers and using probing questioning to challenge misconceptions and promote deeper thinking can be adeptly utilised by the teacher to support challenge, thinking and understanding. Crucial is not just the questions we ask but how we respond to their responses. Through increasing our own wait time by a few seconds we can ask more probing questions and foster better class discussions.

Clearly, this is not an exhaustive list. Ultimately, it’s about us, as teachers, taking that risk and really believing our students can do it. So, what if the students say ‘I can’t do it’. Great! They are being challenged. ‘You can’t do it yet’ must be our reply.

So, think about how we learnt to ride a bike when we were younger. When it happens and clicks it really is one of those ‘eureka’ moments. Yet it happens through challenge. Taking the stabilisers off, experiencing the failure and frustration of falling off and taking the risk to really really go for it. That’s what makes lessons challenging too!

What are your ideas on how to best challenge students?

The Art of teacher exposition

Sometimes in the midst of planning, assessing, collating resources, re-working schemes of work I certainly take for granted the basics of teaching - how we explain things. This blog post that I've come across looks at just that. Why not take an opportunity to reflect on your own exposition and think about how you explain concepts to students. What if they don't understand?

Link to blog post 'The Art of teacher exposition'