Going Goal-Free During Formative Assessment

An approach from a teacher where they are removing the scaffolding from questions to enable pupils to engage with more retrieval.

"I’m making a simple modification to some of my formative assessment this semester. I’m incorporating the goal free effect. The concept behind this effect isn’t very tricky at all. Basically, instead of asking questions this way:

1. List and describe the function(s) of the following parts of the eye:

1. Iris
2. Cornea
3. Retina
4. Lens

I’ll simply ask this in this manner:

2. Tell me everything you can about vision.

"

For those students unable to make a start with this, then a 'cheat-sheet' is given:
My potential solution to this problem: After a few minutes, supply a ‘cheat sheet’ of sorts with terms they should have used. This will provide an opportunity for students to make sure they’re on the right track and allow those who are out of ideas a prompt to get them working again. I plan on encouraging those who are going strong to avoid looking at the cheat sheet…if they don’t need the crutch, they shouldn’t use the crutch. 

This approach takes more time, but may allow for higher quality retrieval and improved learning as a result.

Full blog post: https://theeffortfuleducator.com/2020/01/09/ggf/

January 2020 INSET - 6 Bases of Power - Winning Hearts and Minds

Winning Hearts and Minds - The 6-bases of power (EAM)
Reflecting on how we generate influence with different stakeholders (e.g. pupils, colleagues, parents, etc).


We are all always trying to influence people through our interactions and relationships. The workshop will investigate the strategies and tactics that people often use to try and persuade others.

Link to materials

January 2020 INSET - SOLO Taxonomy

SOLO Taxonomy (VLB)
What is SOLO taxonomy? SOLO stands for "structure of the observed learning outcome". It is an approach designed by educational psychologists John Biggs and Kevin Collis to scaffold higher-order thinking for pupils. It’s all about increasing the levels of complexity in tasks as pupils move through their learning. Think of it as a kind of do-it-yourself differentiation for students. In this session we will explore how to incorporate SOLO in to lessons.

Link to Materials

January 2020 INSET - Higher Order Thinking in STEM

Higher Order Thinking in STEM (JCD & JLi)

Some concrete examples of encouraging higher order thinking skills from mathematics and the sciences. Maybe you are a STEM teacher who wants to hear more from your colleagues or perhaps you want to hear about how STEM approaches this to inform your own teaching in another subject.

Link to Materials

January 2020 INSET - Game for Subject-Specific Vocabulary

A Game for Subject-Specific Vocabulary (ABr)
How to make use of a simple game in order to improve the use of subject-specific vocabulary. The game can be adapted to cover all levels of the thinking skills hierarchy but I will be specifically looking at the HOTS using this game.

Link to Materials

January 2020 INSET - Assessment for Learning

(Re)introducing Assessment for Learning (DO)
Certainly a ‘buzz-phrase’ in the early 2000s, Assessment for Learning is still a powerful approach to teaching and learning that underpins a lot of the good practice that is seen around the Schools. A quick (re)introduction followed by some takeaway ideas for how to incorporate this into your classroom teaching.

Link to Materials

What to do after a mock: into the classroom with whole class feedback

A reflection on how to deal with whole class feedback after a mock or practice test. In summary this blog suggests you should:


Broadly, if the questions in the test reveal that there is an area of content (a domain) your students don’t know, the response isn’t to focus on those questions, but to go back to that area of content (the domain) and reteach it.

My thoughts in that post were very general and theoretical. I didn’t really go into detail about what to actually do beyond saying “go back to the domain.” In this post I want to go through what I actually do and how I marry this bit of assessment theory with the increasingly popular idea of whole class feedback (WCF). In a nutshell, WCF is a way of checking students’ work and giving them feedback but without faffing around with time consuming written comments that don’t help anybody (for more on marking, see here). You take in the students’ work, read it all, and on a sheet of paper you jot down some common problems or things you want to address, bring those up in class and expect students to amend and correct their work. Easy.

In sum then, when going over a mock or any other piece of assessed work:

1. Think hard about what the students’ responses tell you about their knowledge
2. Split your findings into two piles: “things I care about” and “things I don’t care about”
3. For things you don’t care about, either forget them or change the test for next time
4. For things you do care about, split into two piles: “for reteaching” and “for building in”
5. Reteach and build in!

The full post is much more detailed, take a look if you are able to.

https://achemicalorthodoxy.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/what-to-do-after-a-mock-into-the-classroom-with-whole-class-feedback/

Retrieval Practice and Bloom's Taxonomy

An interesting study into how retrieval practice can be used to bolster performance at tasks requiring higher-order thinking. The conclusions went against the usual premise that lower-order thinking is required before attempting higher-order material.

"One criticism that we have received is that retrieval practice is primarily good for fact learning, but not for higher-order learning. In other words, retrieval practice might serve rote memorization but not the ability to critically think about material or apply it. We addressed this question here and explained that facts must be sufficiently encoded in order to use those facts in a new situation. Because retrieval supports knowledge acquisition, retrieval practice of facts should therefore support application.

However, a recently published study (1) by one of our colleagues, Dr. Pooja Agarwal, examined whether retrieval practice could do more than just support the acquisition of factual information. The study was based on a common prescription for using Bloom’s taxonomy (2): students should first focus on the lower levels of the taxonomy before higher-order thinking can be accomplished. Dr. Agarwal directly compared retrieval practice with the use of lower vs. higher-order thinking to determine if the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy were indeed necessary before moving to more complex thinking. "

Full blog post here:

https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/6/27-1

Behaviour Management: Practical Tips

The link below is to a scan of a page from the current edition of the Impact journal from the Chartered College of Teaching. Lots of good research in this journal but this is a page of immediately practical tips.

Behaviour Management : Practical Tips

Mini TeachMeet 14

Jack and Jill : how to read a literary text through a feminist lens (FG)

FG detailed the difficulties in initially teaching a literary criticism method when pupils have a disparate range of texts and so how teaching the techniques on a text that is well-known by all pupils is a good starting point e.g., nursery rhymes.

FG detailed how this might work in practice with a variety of feminist readings of Jack and Jill followed by a recreation of the 3 Little Pigs from a Marxist perspective.

Other examples of scaffolding that might be applied in other subjects might include:
using a simple design when trying new materials initially
producing a piece of art using a simpler medium first
thinking about staging, lighting etc of a simple scene in the styles of different directors
coding using a new technique but starting with a simple problem

Link to doc: Teaching Literary Criticism

SOLO Taxonomy (VLA)

VLA detailed the SOLO taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) and how she uses this structured higher order thinking in her lessons and signposts to pupils the level of challenge.

She uses the symbols to portray each level of the taxonomy and this is included on worksheets etc as a way of differentiating. Students choose their initial level of understanding and aim to make progress from that starting point during the lesson.

The links below were provided as resources to help embed this in lessons.

https://www.tes.com/news/30-second-briefing-what-solo-taxonomy 
http://pamhook.com/solo-taxonomy/ 

Link to VLA Presentation: SOLO Taxonomy Presentation

Every Day Challenge

Everyday challenge

https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/everyday-challenge/

A great blog peace from Class Teaching on every day challenge. Do read the full piece if you can on the link above, but the key strategies it goes on to discuss are:

1. Prioritise learning over performance

The reason plenaries at the end of lessons to prove to an observer that the students in the class have made progress was always a flawed measure, is that all they prove is surface learning, or performance, rather than deep learning.  Learning is mysterious, liminal and invisible. An individual lesson is the wrong unit of time over which to judge learning.  Therefore a challenging curriculum is key to challenging lessons.  It has to be Curriculum first.

2. Space it out and keep coming back

This principle also fits with one of the strategies for learning to come from cognitive science with the strongest research-evidence behind it, distributed or spaced practice.  This is the idea that if you space out your study of a principle over time you will learn it more effectively than if you learn it intensively in a short space of time.

3. Set single challenging objectives

If we are to exemplify high expectations, any objective we share with our students should set the expectation for all.  We certainly shouldn’t limit some in our class to only being about able to cope with certain aspects of the subject matter. 

4. Get them thinking hard

As Professor Coe’s first question suggests, we should plan to challenge our students as much through thought as through action.  We should plan for what we expect students to be thinking about throughout the lesson as much as what we want them to do.  As Daniel Willingham put it in his book Why Don’t Students Like School? memory is the residue of thought, therefore we need to get them thinking about the topic we are trying to communicate.  

5. Know thy subject

If we are to truly challenge our students then we need to have absolute confidence in our own base of knowledge.  Research demonstrates that a deficit in teacher subject knowledge can be a barrier to students’ achievement

6. Challenging vocabulary

A central tenet of teaching should be that we use the rich language of the subjects we teach.  We should avoid at all costs the temptation to dumb down our language for fear that using the proper terms will terrify our students.  However, if we are to successfully create a classroom rich in historical language, we need to explicitly teach this words.  

7. Set the benchmark early

Use those first few lessons with a class to set the bar of expectation high and handsome.  Show them what you believe students in your class are capable of and get them to produce something similar.  This is useful in a number of ways.  It is something you can return to throughout the year (perhaps the dark days of early January) to demonstrate what they can do when they really put their minds to it.  It also establishes where the bar is in your classroom nice and early.  We know students tend to meet the expectations we have of them so start as you mean to go on.   

8. Share excellence

Once excellence has been achieved and created, make sure it kept and shared.  It is important students understand the level you expect and that the level is achievable within the context of your classroom or department.  The aim should be to immerse them in this excellence through displays and teaching strategies. 

Reflective Questions 

• Do you plan for students to regularly get stuck and struggle in your classroom? 
• Do you have high expectations of all the students you teach?
• Is your subject knowledge strong enough to stretch your students with confidence?
• How do you ensure students retain what you teach in their long-term memories and retrieve this regularly?

Posted by Chris Runeckles

Extra reading

John Sweller, Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design, Learning and Instruction Volume 4, Issue 4, 1994

Soderstrom and Bjork, Learning Versus Performance, An Integrative Review, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2015, Vol 10, P176-199

John Dunlosky, Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning, American Educator 2013

Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School

Coe et al., What Makes Great Teaching?

Bringing Words to Life, Beck, McKeown and Kucan

Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck

Mini TeachMeet 13

1. a. Key word chop (VT)

• To help pupils learn keywords and spelling
• 10-15 keywords broken down into 2 or 3 pieces and you then have to piece them together
• Opportunity to then discuss definitions etc

b. Confidence-based marking

• Pupils answer a multiple choice quiz but also give their confidence in the particular answers on a scale 1-3. If they are right then they get that many marks but they lose this many if they get it wrong
• Helps students to stop guessing during multiple choice and really think about all the answers
• Promotes competition

2. One Pen, one Dice (MHP)

• MHP shared this game where pupils take turns to work on an activity/worksheet
• One pupil uses the pen to complete the activity while the other rolls the die until they get a 6, at which point they swap
• Again this promotes competition and means there is much more effort going into the completion of an activity then if the pupils had just been asked to work through it on their own.

Mini TeachMeet 12

1. Critical thinking (VW)

• VW talked through the material that is being covered on the Y7 critical thinking days
• All departments should have an overview of what is happening so they know what they can expect of the pupils and be able to draw on the experiences learned
• Topics include
• Memory recall
• Time management
• Revision techniques

2. The Teenage Brain (JLi)

• JLi provided useful resources and links regarding the teenage brain. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1myoHOwju2g6n6njp8GvH4kqb1xR7OuDMgV6F2YVoXqc/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AgH65UGLa2F0KNijInVpH5_deBFOcHv8d7nLZaJDZOY/edit

Memory Clock and Revision

A simple way of structuring revision that is appropriate to years 10-13. It involves how pupils structure their time in revision lessons and study periods. The session will include evidence on spacing revision sessions and retrieval practice (exercises that can be built into lessons to aid memory).

Find the presentations from the session here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p-exTfLewe1yPc8gNGpZJrHnUX74Sm4v1ExaCs2Iu9I/edit#slide=id.g13cfef6f2f_0_5
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sQgaqMyuhpC_z_xJCxiG6SVAI0HbodsRjCHu7-qb1wc/edit?usp=sharing

Mini TeachMeet 11

1. Synopticity (JE)

• JE explained how synopticity is a key part of the geography curriculum. This is the quality of connecting apparently separate threads of the subject and showing an awareness of how they relate, link and connect with each other to give a comprehensive understanding of the whole.
• JE detailed how students can find this difficult and how he tries to make this more natural by using resources and artefacts in his teaching from his own hobbies and interests to model how these relate to geographical ideas/themes.
• JE shared poems, videos, images, music videos which showed how this can be achieved in lessons.

2. Memory Clock (DNL)

• DNL explained the Memory Clock for the benefit of those who had not been able to attend his session on the April training day. A 1 hour revision session should be broken down into 15 mins ‘Review’, 30 mins ‘Practice’ and 15 mins ‘Check’. 
• This is to be rolled out to all staff in September and so a discussion was held as to the best way to go about this. The consensus was for an introduction by DNL and DO followed by time around department grouped tables discussing and planning subject specific examples.

April 2018 INSET - Mark. Plan. Teach.

In this session, DO attempted to summarise some of the strategies described in Ross Morrison McGill’s book. There are three things that every teacher must do: mark work, plan lessons and teach students well. This book is packed with practical ideas that will help teachers refine these key elements of their profession.

Access the resources from this session here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U01ryPZL1qsi60Cjs1NZ9E5ViFJeLvm4

April 2018 INSET - Cognitive Load Theory

We’ve all been there. Carefully thought through a brilliant activity designed to push pupils, only to observe the resulting car crash in despair. Either pupils lack the resilience to engage with independent thought without constant teacher intervention or what little they actually end up learning requires you to spend the next lesson (time you don’t have!) re-teaching the material. In this session I’ll run through some of the most widely accepted theories of “cognitive overload” and how, if certain practices are incorporated into your teaching repertoire and SOWs at KS3 a really challenging curriculum can help pupils learn, increase pupil motivation, and also be a real joy to teach. There will also be some time to discuss ideas with colleagues and think through what it might all mean in your own subject.

Access the session resources here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11AmimsedSvuVnqXOZt-W-qYCE267-8Cj

April 2018 INSET - Interleaved Learning

As we all progress through our ever expanding syllabuses, both in terms of content and complexity, it is an increasing challenge to help the students remember it all. Interleaved Learning is a simple strategy that can be used throughout the year to help the students transfer information from the short to the long term memory in the hope that they can retrieve it at the vital moment.  It is all about mixing it up!

Here is a link to the resources from the session: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SfFSMS-uz5c2H4r-Zh_4fkx4o2T5dlrD

April 2018 INSET - Motivating Intellectual Curiosity Effectively

There are many reasons why pupils switch off...but there are also many different ways to get them to switch on and engage with their learning. In this session we will look at some of the theory behind motivation, the impact of mental health and lots of practical and applicable ways of increasing student motivation.

View the session presentation here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n7nyp9aE7qruz7-Xnyid9WmbJuU9CWAJ5wwLiTtF6ng/edit?usp=sharing

April 2018 INSET - Revision Clock and Spaced Learning

A simple way of structuring revision that is appropriate to years 10-13. It involves how pupils structure their time in revision lessons and study periods. The session will include evidence on spacing revision sessions and retrieval practice (exercises that can be built into lessons to aid memory).

Find the presentation from the session here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sQgaqMyuhpC_z_xJCxiG6SVAI0HbodsRjCHu7-qb1wc/edit?usp=sharing